On Wednesday, Sept. 16, dozens of activists, students, and alumni assembled inside and outside of Kraushaar Hall at Goucher College in Baltimore, Md., to protest a highly publicized event featuring Karl Rove.
 Students and community activists denounce Karl Rove at Goucher College, Baltimore, Md., Sept. 16, 2009 |
Rove, the former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to George W. Bush, was the honorary guest speaker of the President’s Forum. Moderated by Goucher President Sanford Ungar, the President’s Forum purports to promote intellectual and cultural enrichment for the public and Goucher students alike.
However, Ungar and the Goucher administration effectively demonstrated their indifference to Rove’s criminal role in the Bush administration and allowed their auditorium to echo with cold, hard lies. Ungar and Rove enjoyed dinner together prior to the event.
The criminal actions of Rove and other key players in the Bush administration are responsible for mass human suffering and death in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, racial and religious profiling, the suppression of civil liberties and more. Ungar was once the Director of Voice of America, a government-funded media mouthpiece for U.S. imperialism notorious for its destabilizing role in countries targeted by the United States.
A war criminal like Rove should have never been allowed to set foot on campus, much less been received with pomp and circumstance. It is an outrage that Rove was treated like royalty by the Goucher administration and the Democrat and Republican student organizations. Rove recently received $40,000 to speak at the University of Iowa, where activists attempted to carry out a citizen’s arrest.
Despite the highly concentrated presence of security and police inside Kraushaar Hall, conscious people refused to be silent in the company of a man directly involved in the killing of our sisters and brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the recruitment of some of the most oppressed people in the United States to be used as cannon fodder in these wars of aggression.
Before the forum began, community members and activists assembled outside for a demonstration. The police had set up a “free speech zone,” a small area surrounded by police tape meant to prevent any exercise of free speech near the auditorium. This did nothing to quell the energy of demonstrators, who chanted, “Karl Rove, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” and “Rove says get back, we say fight back!”
Once inside the auditorium, as Rove walked on stage, members of the ANSWER coalition, March Forward! and Goucher Alumni for People’s Solidarity proudly unveiled two banners, which read “Rove gets rich, GI’s die” and “Rove lies, Iraqis die.” Others held signs and took turns vehemently criticizing Rove’s murderous actions, inciting applause with each denunciation.
The police scrambled to hastily escort out of the auditorium anyone who spoke out. A visibly upset Ungar futilely yelled at protesters, unable to silence them.
Two PSL members, including this writer, were arrested on bogus charges of “disorderly conduct” and “trespassing” for their peaceful demonstration. A third audience member was also arrested and charged despite not being involved in the action.
When war criminals like Karl Rove are institutionally recognized as honorary speakers at our liberal arts colleges, it is the immediate duty of progressive people to stand up and fight for a mass movement that will voice the majority opinion in the United States: End the occupations now!
