To the Editor:
To say that I was shocked when I read the recent editorial “Don’t Arrest Your Academics” (The Hoya, Sept. 26, 2006, A2) is an understatement. That the editorial board would presume to know what motivated Donte Smith’s actions in protesting at the School of the Americas vigil strikes me as a little silly. That they would condemn him for responsibly accepting the consequences of those actions strikes me as nothing short of preposterous.
Of Smith, the board writes, “one can only hope that regardless of his fate, the integrity of this institution is upheld,” implying that readmitting Smith and upholding Georgetown’s integrity would be mutually exclusive. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Through my own (admittedly limited) interaction with Smith, I came to know him as a kind, highly principled individual who never would – and never did – take his Georgetown education for granted.
While the editorial board members state that “taking part in social and political activities is rightly encouraged by this university in the heart of the nation’s capital” and that “no student should be penalized for becoming involved,” it is obvious that in the case of Donte Smith they have neglected to listen to its own advice.
Regardless of their true opinion of political protest – be it in Red Square, on the Mall or outside Fort Bennington, Ga. – the board members have no right to judge the way in which protesters choose to become involved. If these protesters break the law, as Smith did, they can and should be punished, as Smith was, by the appropriate authorities. Anything further is none of the board’s – or Georgetown’s – business.
Smith has done nothing, on campus or off, to compromise who we are as an institution. To say otherwise, or to imply that Georgetown should not readmit him or that it would have been better served had it accepted a different applicant to the Class of 2009 in his stead, is completely ridiculous. In closing, I can only hope that The Hoya’s editorials will be a little more carefully reasoned and a lot less presumptuous in the future.
Greer Murphy (SFS ’06)
Sept. 26, 2006