The Source of the Controversy

Email from [the UNC-Wilmington undergraduate student]*

At 04:29 PM on 9/15/01, [the UNC-Wilmington
undergraduate student] wrote:

To: the students and faculty of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

From: [the UNC-Wilmington undergraduate student]

Subject: In Dedication to An Undivided Humanity

The summary murder of thousands of people
on the morning September 11th was a tragedy for the entire human
species. It was an irrational act that can only serve the cause of
irrationality. As we are members of a university, all irrationality
deserves from us unequivocal condemnation. This is the place where,
above all else, rationality must be kept alive. We must keep discussion
alive. We must untiringly examine causes and effects, and not allow any
feelings of anger or depression to permanently cloud our vision. In
light of this, we must not for a moment forget the following: (1) the
US government has been engaged in a combination of occupation and
imperialist warfare in the Middle East, aimed at domination of its oil
resources, for nearly two decades; (2) the US government gives its
unequivocal support to Israel's assassination of Palestinians who are
'suspected' of being terrorists, falsely claiming that any opposition
to murder committed in the name of the Israeli government amounts to
Nazism; (3) as the World Socialist Website put it "far from America
being 'the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world,'
the US is seen by tens of millions as the main enemy of their human and
democratic rights, and the main source of their oppression. The
American ruling elite, in its insolence and cynicism, acts as if it can
carry out its violent enterprises around the world without creating the
political conditions for violent acts of retribution" and; (4) "both
bin Laden and the Taliban mullahs, whom the US accuses of harboring
him, were financed and armed by the Reagan-Bush administration to fight
pro-Soviet regimes in Afghanistan in the 1980s. If they are involved in
Tuesday's operations, then the American CIA and political establishment
are guilty of having nurtured the very forces that carried out the
bloodiest attack on American civilians in US history"; (5) innocent
Arab and Muslim Americans, including children, are being attacked and
threatened in the chauvinist, racist fervor stirred by the
war-mongering US media; (6) whatever their true feelings, the Bush
administration stands, in several respects, to benefit from the results
of the 'attack on America': (i) the current situation serves as a
distraction from the fact that President Bush was illegally appointed
to office by the reactionary majority of the US Supreme Court, through
suppression of votes, in stark violation of the US constitution, and
(ii) the current crisis serves as justification, to the American
people, for the continuation and intensification of US imperialist
repression already in progress throughout the world.

The future is not about revenge, but about
life. A humanity worth fighting for is a humanity undivided by petty
nationalistic, imperialist, bourgeois squabbling. When this squabbling
takes the form of all out war and the deaths of untold thousands of
'Americans' and 'foreigners,' the struggle for rationality is
transformed into the struggle between life and death. The time for
silence is ended; the time for rational discussion is now.

If you support open, unbiased, democratic
discussion of all the facts, please forward this e-mail to friends and
acquaintances both on an off campus. For more detailed information, see
www.wsws.org.

Email from Mike Adams

At 09:45 AM on 9/17/01 Mike Adams wrote:

From: Mike Adams
Subject: Re: In Dedication to An Undivided Humanity

I will certainly forward this to others and I hope they will respond. My response
will be brief as your "statement" is undeserving of serious consideration. Your
claimed interest in promoting rational discussion is dishonest. It is an intentionally
divisive diatribe. The Constitution protects your speech just as it has protected
bigoted, unintelligent, and immature speech for many years. But, remember, when
you exercise your rights you open yourself up to criticism that is protected
by the same principles. I sincerely hope that your bad speech serves as a catalyst
for better speech by others.

Mike Adams

* FIRE has granted the request of the undergraduate's father that her name
be deleted in the interests of sparing her from further public controversy.