University of Virginia Library

This letter is addressed to those
liberal academicians everywhere,
who have wrung their hands over
Berkeley, strongly deplored the
destruction of Columbia and Cornell,
and are even now eyeing their
own students with suspicion. This is
to tell you that the cause of the
maelstrom which has descended
upon the nation's campuses is you.

You wonder why students are
not content with following reason
and the democratic process, when
the world you describe is mad.
Wasn't it you who told them war
was irrational and unthinkable? But
they see billions being spent on
defense, the bomb, and Viet Nam.
Wasn't it you who taught them that
only the vicious and depraved could
oppose eliminating poverty through
massive governmental efforts? Yet,
they see opposition coming from
many sources. Didn't you content
that integration was the only
reasonable solution to racial problems,
and that only bigots and fools
could fail to see that? But then our
recent history of escalating racial
conflict shows America is a nation
of bigots and fools. Wasn't it you
who condoned civil disobedience as
a tactic to destroy the injustice of
segregation in the South? Doesn't it
bother you now, when you turn
around and condemn students for
seizing your buildings and disrupting
your meetings in the name of
preventing campus injustices?
Didn't you convince them that our
government was controlled by big
business, big unions, etc., and the
people were only so much fodder,
kept in line by TV and press
propaganda? How can you wonder
why they reject the democratic
process and peaceful change; why
they compare our country's leaders
today with George III? And finally,
wasn't it you who taught them that
America's history was one of
exploitation - of Negroes, of
Indians, of foreigners under the
guise of $ diplomacy? Does it then
make sense - with this going on
again in Vietnam - for them to
approve of your taking out anti-war
ads in the New York Times or
raising money for George McGovern?
No wonder students complain
of the rhetoric and demand
action when confronted with
your response to the barbarisms
you've described. Did you really
believe you could disseminate such
intellectually fissionable material
and not set off a blast?

In fact, the intellectual Luddites
who burn banks in Santa Barbara
and boo Hubert Humphrey from
your campus auditorium accept
everything you and he ever taught
them. They accuse you of hypocrisy,
because you don't accept the
obvious solution that derives from
your premises. Either everything
you've ever taught them is mad, or
America is mad. They accept the
latter, and one doesn't reason with
the deranged; one doesn't listen to
the insane; its irrelevant which of
the crazy candidates wins the
election. So up to the wall you
mother f....rs! One thing you can
say about Mao, in killing millions to
implement his ideas, he has proven
himself no hypocrite.