Dear Pacifica Forum protesters,
“Protesting hate” is a noble idea that surely all of us can side with. Your protesting tactics, which have gone from traditional to bizarre since you started your efforts in December, seem to be working on some level.
The University decided in March to move the Forum off the main campus to the downtown Baker Center, the University’s center for continuing education, where it has met four times since March. Even though the Baker Center isn’t on campus, it is still a University facility, and you seemed fine with the decision until a few scheduling mishaps allowed the Forum back on campus, first in Agate Hall, then in Esslinger Hall and now back to Agate Hall.
That must have been annoying.
Surely it really put a crimp in your day when five of you were cited by the Department of Public Safety for launching those stink bombs at the May 7 meeting. And you certainly succeeded in making the Forum uncomfortable when you sat in the audience and made out with each other at the May 14 meeting. We’ll give you some points for creativity.
But after six months of protesting, it’s time to face the facts — the Forum isn’t leaving the University or disbanding anytime soon. The Forum has the right to meet on University property because its founder, Orval Etter, is a professor emeritus. The Forum’s right to free speech is protected by the First Amendment, even though the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the Forum a hate group.
Although you say you are protesting hate, it seems as if you’re really protesting the Forum’s proximity to campus, seeing as you faded away when the Forum was moved to the Baker Center.
Protesters, why not channel your efforts to a different outlet? Perhaps you could protest the University and its weekly “scheduling conflicts” that continue to allow the Forum to meet on campus. It’s no surprise the Forum meets every Friday, so asking the University to allot a space for the group in advance doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request. Both the University Senate and the ASUO Senate have denounced the Forum, and after all the publicity and overwhelming support for removing the group from campus, the University should be able to follow through with its words.
Better yet, try finding a new cause to protest. The Forum is a small, isolated group that isn’t growing a following and isn’t going to change its ways. Protesting the Forum is starting to seem like a lost cause, for a while at least, and there are thousands of other causes begging for awareness. Try directing your efforts to larger-scale projects that will reach a larger audience and engage more of the University community.
If you’re absolutely set on fighting the Pacifica Forum, be more productive and fight its existence as a whole, not just its proximity to campus.
Best of luck,
Emerald Editorial Board
[email protected]