March 29, 2003 - Columbia University Professor Nicholas De Genova makes me sick. He personifies the ideal of the extremist. But that in itself isn’t what makes me ill. Although I disagree with him on his stance regarding the military action in Iraq I still would fight for his right to espouse his poisonous thoughts, which as it would seem, is a hell of a lot more than he would do for me. No, the reason this man makes me nauseous is because he is calling for the slaughter of those in our armed forces. If this isn’t teetering on the borderline of treason I really don’t know what is.

Columbia University, long on an outlet for liberal-styled pontifications and assertions, is harboring a man who expressed his desire for the American troops in Iraq to experience "a million Mogadishus", a reference to the slaughter of American troops in Somalia during the 1990's. If that doesn’t make you mad then you should know that he teaches our young students and doesn’t shy away from expressing and inserting his opinions while employing his instructional presence.

Professor De Genova, an anthropology professor at Columbia, made the statement at a "Teach-In" sponsored by the university. He continued to say that the only heroes that would come from this action in Iraq were ones that would help to defeat the soldiers of the coalition forces.

University President Lee Bollinger has come out publicly in his condemnation of Professor De Genova’s statement. This is noteworthy in that Columbia University usually doesn’t make statements of this sort opting rather to defend the right of free speech. The move by Mr. Bollinger is indeed appropriate but in this instance it only goes so far and additional action must be taken.

It is one thing to defend the right of free speech but it is quite another to foster an atmosphere where extremists, like Professor De Genova, have access to students of our educational system. The educational process should be one of cultivation. Students should be gathering the tools to make their own decisions. Where there are multiple viewpoints on a subject, like Iraq and the military action there, each and every viewpoint should be addressed in an objective and non-partisan manner thus giving the students the freedom to investigate the matter and make up their own minds based on the processing of all sides of an issue. Because Professor De Genova is such an extremist on the issue of the United State's involvement in Iraq he is only doing a disservice to the students, the educational institution and, in my opinion, the country.

His statement that he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" is one of the sickest things I have ever heard. It literally turns my stomach. Although I defend his right to say what he feels without fear of persecution, it is quite a different story to allow him to instruct impressionable minds with the type of venom he has in his soul. Therefore I have no choice but to demand, and encourage others to demand as well, that he either be suspended indefinitely until he issues a full, sincere and complete apology or that he is terminated without chance of re-employment. He should have to pay a price, not for his utilization of his free speech right but for his failure to defend his students’ right of access to all the educational tools available in order to receive a fair and balanced education which includes giving them every opportunity to make up their own minds on any given matter, including the action in Iraq. Professor De Genova fails his students miserably in this area and therefore is unfit to teach.

This type of extreme opinion is a very serious matter that needs to be addressed within our educational institutions. In a piece I wrote that ran in The Washington Dispatch (Keeping Partisan Politics Out Of The Classroom – March 13th, 2003) I expressed my concern with the established liberalism that exists in the classrooms of our country. A parent was denied access to his children as a school endorsed peace rally took place. The parent wasn’t even given information on what was said during the rally. Now we have "Teach-In’s” happening at one of our most revered educational institutions where anti-Americanism is preached at the most extreme level, a level that calls for our military personnel to be murdered. This is so far from being acceptable that action simply must be taken, not only to terminate Professor De Genova, because I can hardly believe that any apology forthcoming from the professor would be sincere and heartfelt but for the purpose of self-preservation at the university, but also to rectify this harboring of one-sided political thinking within the halls of our educational institutions.

So, as our brave young men are performing their duties with professionalism, bravery and skill while liberating the oppressed people of Iraq and making the world a safer place by ridding it of an egotistical tyrant whose threat to the world’s very existence is well defined, Professor De Genova sits in his comfortable abode waxing murderous thoughts about the very people that afford him to freedom to think his backward and extremely evil thoughts. I bet our troops would have rather received a simple thank you.