The gleefully venomous and vitriolic posts about Matt flooding the blogosphere piss me off. Mission first, Soldiers always - Matt is one of ours.
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:22:50 -0500
From: Eric ****
To: writemalkin@gmail.com
Subject: Thank you for standing by Matt.
Hi Michelle,
As a member of the military community at Columbia University, I
would like to express my appreciation for your support of Matt
while he deals with the astoundingly vicious and gleeful hate that
is being directed at him.
I was Vice-President of the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia
University (www.columbia.edu/cu/usmilvetscu), or MilVets, when the
attack by the International Socialist Organization took place at
our university-wide club fair on the first week of the fall 2005
semester. Matt wasn't the only target. With him were an Army
captain attending Columbia to earn her masters degree and an
undergraduate Marine officer candidate who is now at the Basic
School in Quantico, Virginia. Matt just happened to stop by the
booth to chat with friends when the ISO launched their surprise
attack. They were full of venomous anger, and racist and
anti-military hate. Their goal clearly was to intimidate Columbia
military students from representing our interests at Columbia.
Following that incident, it would have been easy to appease the ISO
enforcers by blaming ourselves and accepting the role of the victim
enabler. Unfortunately, in a time when shrinking the civil-military
gap in our society is critical, too many student-veterans, ROTC
cadets and officer candidates choose to avoid representing our
interests in the academic community out of fear of the kind of
backlash unleashed by the ISO.
Matt just happened to be there when the incident occurred. He didn't
set out to invite scrutiny, but neither was he willing to accept the
role of victim enabler. Afterwards, he merely sought fair treatment
from the university administration to address a wrong committed by
Columbia students against Columbia students at a university-wide
event meant to showcase the diversity of student activities at
Columbia. If the university had just done the right thing at the
outset, Matt wouldn't be famous today.
As a leader of the Columbia military community, I was thankful for
Matt's willingness to stand up not only for himself, but also for
our members who were attacked alongside him. Later, when MilVets
officially petitioned Columbia to reform the university
discrimination policy
(http://milvetslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/02/press-release-anti-military.html),
we were following Matt's initiative.
Now, Matt isn't the only Columbia military student working to close
the civil-military gap at our beloved university, but Matt stands
out for his sheer will to challenge an unacceptable status quo,
despite the risks to himself. Perhaps, his life experiences help
explain why he steps forward when others retreat. In closing,
Michelle, I want to affirm that we in the Columbia military
community know Matt for who he is, and we continue to stand with
him as one of our own. Thank you again for your support.
Sincerely,
Eric ****
GS '07
US Army '97-'01
--
"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole
history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions
yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle.
The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for
the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do
this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no
progress."
- Frederick Douglass
Here's a slightly different version I e-mailed to "Joe" at Joe.My.God., who seems to get the bulk of the credit for breaking the story.
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:31:59 -0500
From: Eric ****
To: JoeMyGod@gmail.com
Subject: Matt Sanchez
Hi Joe,
As a member of the military community at Columbia University who has
known Matt for about 2 years now, I would like to shed some light on
key events that started us to where we are today.
I was Vice-President of the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia
University (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/usmilvetscu), or MilVets,
when the attack by the International Socialist Organization took
place at the university-wide club fair on the first week of the
fall 2005 semester. Matt wasn't the only target. With him were an
Army captain attending Columbia to earn her masters degree and an
undergraduate Marine officer candidate who is now at the Basic
School in Quantico, Virginia. Matt wasn't even manning the booth. He
just happened to stop by the booth to chat with friends when the ISO
launched their surprise attack. The ISOers were full of venomous
anger, not unlike what I've been reading on the blogs, and racist
and anti-military hate. Their goal clearly was to intimidate
Columbia military students from representing our interests at
Columbia.
Following that incident, it would have been easy to appease the ISO
enforcers by blaming ourselves and accepting the role of the victim
enabler. Unfortunately, in a time when shrinking the civil-military
gap in our society is critical, too many student-veterans, ROTC
cadets and officer candidates choose to avoid representing our
interests in the academic community out of fear of the kind of
backlash unleashed by the ISO.
Again, Matt just happened to be there when the incident occurred. He
didn't set out to invite scrutiny, but neither was he willing to
accept the role of victim enabler. Afterwards, he merely sought
fair treatment from the university administration to address a
wrong committed by Columbia students against Columbia students at a
university-wide event meant to showcase the diversity of student
activities at Columbia. The fact is, if the university had simply
done the right thing at the outset, Matt wouldn't be famous today.
As a leader of the Columbia military community, I was thankful for
Matt's willingness to stand up not only for himself, but also for
our members who were attacked alongside him. Later, when MilVets
successfully petitioned Columbia to amend the university
discrimination policy to include "military status"
(http://milvetslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/02/press-release-anti-military.html),
we were following Matt's initiative.
Now, he isn't the only Columbia military student working to close
the civil-military gap at our beloved university, but Matt stands
out for his sheer will to change an unacceptable status quo. The
recent negative exposure only casts his efforts in a more admirable
light given the uncommon personal risk. Perhaps, his life
experiences help explain why he steps forward when others retreat.
In closing, Joe, I want to affirm that we in the Columbia military
community know Matt for who he is, and we continue to stand with
him as one of our own.
If it helps, I am neither a conservative nor a Republican.
Sincerely,
Eric ****
--
"Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole
history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions
yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle.
The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for
the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do
this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no
progress."
- Frederick Douglass
Eric
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