Anti-Torture Protests at Cal Graduation

We drove by some of these folks at mid-day today on our way to grandma's: Protestors at Boalt Hall Graduation - from SF Gate: Multimedia (image).

Boalt Hall is the law school of the University of California at Berkeley, one of the best in the nation. Many of us in the community (and it seems, at Berkeley itself) are horrified that John Yoo, author of the torture memo that enabled Bush & company to flout American values, is still teaching at Cal. I'm glad to see somebody making a public stink about it.

The picture I linked to shows Dean Christopher Edley - read his response to John Yoo here. Essentially Edley says that what Yoo did isn't very ethical but he can't really do anything about it.

Professor Brad DeLong hosts a running discussion about John Yoo and the torture memo, including many learned critiques of Dean Edley's memo.

To me it seems the University's leaders are behaving like frightened apparatchiks. They don't want to ruffle feathers so they will let John Yoo carry on. Update. That's one way of looking at it. Or, if I read Dean Edley's memo as if he really means it (which I can assume he does), perhaps he believes that until Yoo is convicted of a crime, he can do nothing. He does not want to set off a witch hunt. Others in the Delong torture memo blog (linked above) have argued that there is a question of "standing" here. Who has the right to prosecute this matter? The US Senate should be prosecuting Bush and all his minions for war crimes, says one writer. Mere professors do not and should not have the standing to prosecute such crimes.

I think these arguments have merit, and I don't want to let my condemnation stand. The people arguing about this are doing so because they care about the rule of law. They don't want to turn into a mob with pitchforks. I commend them. End update.

Fascism overtakes countries not only through tanks and soldiers, but through social intimidation and the acquiescence of "nice" people who just don't want to rock the boat.

Comments

[Sue]

I think there is an additional layer of concern here. As an academic, I can see many weaknesses in the tenure process and freedom of speech/marketplace of ideas ideal in the University, but I believe that when we start threatening to fire people due to their ideas - no matter how much I might disagree with those ideas - it frightens me. I remember the concern post 9/11 about those faculty-members who were voicing concern against war possibilities. Although Yoo is on the other side of the political fence, threats to his job due to his political opinions and statements open a can of worms that can come back to bite others later. I think the standard of demanding a crime be committed is a safety measure I can appreciate.