Your passion and concern for the suffering in Israel and Palestine is laudable.
There is tremendous suffering that you can help alleviate by volunteering for aid organizations, or if politics is your focus, by directly engaging with a national government of your choosing (and there are MANY to choose from) that could make a real impact on the conflict if they changed their policy. All of the intellectual, emotional, and creative energy you are investing could make such a positive impact on the world.
I think you have correctly recognized that it would belie your intent to suggest that your arrest is in any way equivalent to the suffering of the people of Palestine and Israel. It would distract from your real purpose to suggest that rage towards Emerson College, or focused on the person of Jay Bernhardt, should become a de facto animating force. You rightly mention in your article that you don’t want the means of your struggle to become the ends of your purpose. The journey from being outraged and aggrieved would be better suited as a constructive movement towards the goal you have clearly stated that you wish to serve: peace.
The familiar sermon from Dr. Martin Luther King, in the spirit of Easter, seems apt: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Or, in the spirit of Ramadan, to use Safi Kafka’s translation of Qur’an 41:34 “Good and evil are never equal. Repel evil with good, and your enemy will become like an intimate friend.”
As a student of Emerson College, imagine how you might lift up the institution and your fellow students—not out of rage and opposition—but instead to find partners and call people in, and seek out opportunities to make practical changes that will directly impact the suffering. Instead of Emerson becoming the target of enmity, it can become a pool you can draw from, as you have already achieved with the FSJP. Using that platform of Emerson voices to then go out into the world can make a difference. Inspire others at Emerson to join your efforts because of the impact you have on those in the conflict.
May I suggest, dear editor, that you also read King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
(This comment has been removed because it does not follow The Berkeley Beacon comment section policies.)
I find it so fascinating how quickly a response to Cal’s letter was published in the Beacon. Not even 24 hours and there’s already a letter from an “anonymous staff member” policing him and the other students and telling them the “appropriate” response to his arrest. You ask Cal to “Lift up the institution and your fellow students” and suggest he move from being “outraged to aggrieved”. You frame your letter as an advocation for joy instead of peace, love instead of hate. Let me be clear, Students for Justice in Palestine is full of love and support. We lift each other up every day just like we waited hours in the freezing cold for our friends to be released. When Cal stood outside the Culter Majestic and was in turn arrested for his exercising of free speech he did so because he believes in a better, more joyful world where Palestinians are free from their oppressors. But how dare you suggest that he should “lift up the institution” that arrested 12 of its own students. How dare you hide behind an anonymous article and criticize how a 19-year-old reacts to a traumatic event such as this. You write off Cal’s anger as if there is no justification or use for anger. And since you find it so useful to include quotes, here’s one of my own. Malcolm X said “Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” Over 30,000 civilians have died in less than 6 months in Gaza, how are you not outraged? How are you not angry?
You also suggest instead of focusing on punishing Emerson, Cal should take his advocacy and point it towards a state government, which speaks in ignorance to the many many events SJP had organized to do just this. Just last week on “Land Day” SJP marched all over the streets of Boston with Presidential Candidate Claudia De La Cruz calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza. Our anger towards President Berhardt and the institution of Emerson College is because, unlike the Governments of the United States, Israel, and the UK, this is a place where we have a voice and one that can be loud. For the 80,000 dollars a year, it seems fair that the college listens to the voices of it’s students especially one that includes “appreciation for diverse ideas” as one of its core values. Not to mention it wasn’t any government that called for the arrests of Cal and the 12 other students, it was the Emerson College Police Department.
You claim Cal has clearly stated his goal as “peace”, which never once does he say or write. The goal of Students for Justice In Palestine (as clearly identified in the name) has always and will always be justice. We want a free Palestine, not a return to the status quo. Anger and joy can coexist and they will continue to do so, but I challenge you to ask yourself why instead of “volunteering for aid organizations” yourself, you chose to write this passive-aggressive response statement, one that you didn’t even feel confident enough to sign.