Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!riddle From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.college Subject: Re: Grenada rescue & weakness Message-ID: <149@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Fri, 2-Nov-84 00:47:41 EST Article-I.D.: ut-sally.149 Posted: Fri Nov 2 00:47:41 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 3-Nov-84 08:06:12 EST References: <29200162@uiucdcs.UUCP> Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills Lines: 55 Xref: godot net.politics:2604 net.college:195 One of the medical students who was "rescued" in Grenada a year ago was on our campus last week, too. I heard him speak and wasn't much impressed. If you ask me, the Republicans have put on much more exciting rallies. The student who came to our campus to talk gave a decidedly unconvincing account of the danger he was supposedly in, a danger that apparently intensified only after the start of the invasion that was supposed to "liberate" him. He seemed to have a few canned details ready to tell us, the same details mentioned by other students from the "Liberation Day" tour in news interviews the day before, but he wasn't very good at answering questions or showing that he had much understanding of the events in Grenada beyond what he'd been coached to say. One of my friends went up to him after his speech to find out his opinion of the illegality of the invasion under the OAS charter; he'd never heard of such a thing and didn't know what my friend was talking about! Here's what one of his fellow students had to say [reprinted from our campus newspaper, "The Daily Texan," 10/26/84]: As one of the medical students in Grenada at this time last year, I am deeply concerned about the so-called "Student Liberation Days" being organized on college campuses by right-wing groups, purportedly to celebrate the United States invasion of Grenada. Whether my life and those of my fellow medical students were endangered by the coup that overthrew Maurice Bishop is very much open to question. It is clear, however, that our "liberation" by the Reagan administration came at a terrible cost: dozens of young American, Cuban and Grenadian lives. That is a fact that the people organizing the "Student Liberation Day" may not want you to know. Nor may they want you to know the course they'd like to see our nation follow in other parts of Latin America, namely such places as Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.... Instead of celebrating the liberation of students, their actions only encourage the decimation of students. The publicity from their rallies, if not countered immediately, encourages the worst tendencies of our government to believe it will be politically acceptable to send us off to war... Morty Weissfelner St. George's University The fact is, these Grenadian invasion celebrations were nothing but another campaign effort by our friends of the far right. Though supposedly non- partisan, they were funded by various conservative foundations with decidedly partisan ties (the principal backer shares its offices with the Heritage Foundation) and the local hosts on campus were student Republican groups. Fortunately the rally at UT, at least, backfired -- three fourths of the crowd that turned out were there to condemn the invasion, not celebrate it. When the Young Republicans started handing out flags, they were enthusiastically hoisted into the air atop signs saying "No More Grenadas" and "U.S. Out of Central America." --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle