Well, it appears the battle has been joined regarding Geoff Cutler’s article and my supportive letter concerning the wounded vet (he lost a leg) who spoke out in favor of ROTC at Columbia.

To review, this man is now a student at the school, and while supporting the return of ROTC and noting there are bad guys out there who want to kill us, he was laughed at and called a racist (the left’s favorite go-to attack word).

In a recent letter to The Pilot, Bob Katrin says he was not taken aback by such events and admonishes us that we shouldn’t be surprised. I was neither taken aback nor surprised; I was appalled. Katrin blithely dismisses their disruptions as if to say, “Oh, well. It’s just liberals being liberals exercising their right to free speech.”

Maybe the folks at Columbia need to read Aldous Huxley and his comment about sleeping well at night because rough men are out there doing violence against those who would harm us. As to the civility of my discourse, calling the protesters “arrogant asses” was the kindest, gentlest term that came to mind. Perhaps Katrin would rather I call them “heroes.”

Finally, I had noted the Ivy League and other schools came up with myriad flimsy excuses to ban ROTC. Yes, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was one of them. Still, DADT, enacted during the Clinton administration, was a huge step from the historic outright ban on gays in the military. Way back in the 1960s when I was on active duty, claiming you were gay led to an automatic discharge. More than a few straights said they were gay just to get an “early out.” This was, after all, during Vietnam. Maybe some of these patriots are now professors at Columbia.

Jack Jakucyk

Whispering Pines