Dear Professor Zwelling,
Your open letter to Members of the Wesleyan Community (Argus, Oct. 20) invited one and all to attend a reading of “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” followed by a discussion of wartime censorship. Said discussion, you promised, would be launched by “three distinguished panelists.”
Distinguished Panelist Number One: vice president of the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Would that be the Guild that distinguished itself as pro-Soviet back in the good old days of the Evil Empire? Never say die, it is still distinguished—as Castro’s legal counsel. Indeed, the Guild has a peerless list of clients; it reads like a barrel of cherry-picked rotten apples.
As for the staff, no bad-ass would kick it out of bed. Lynn Stewart, recently convicted of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists, is a Guild attorney. Her client, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, was the spiritual leader of a cell that carried out the first World Trade Center bombing. When apprehended, the cell was mapping a plan to blow up the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. But why acquaint you with facts and figures I spec you already know?
Distinguished Panelist Number Two: an officer of the American Association of University Professors. The membership, whose mantra is Diversity, is, with little exaggeration, 99.44 percent PC. Professor, I trust you cherish your membership in that herd of independent minds.
Distinguished Panelist Number Three: the author, in these trying times, of every true blue American’s call to the colors: “The Case for Impeachment.”
Well, Professor, what else is new? Stacking the deck with a panel of like-minded partisans dully grinding their axes is par for the course at PCU, where none dare call it censorship.
Professor Zwelling, your capacity for self-parody is endearing.
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