Almost 40 years ago, I attended The Ohio State University. I was so proud that when I was presented with different options for my graduate studies, I chose OSU and prayed to be admitted. My prayers were answered. Ever since, Columbus has been my home. My children are Buckeyes. That was a no-brainer in our family. So proud that while working overseas, myself and other Buckeyes formed an OSU Alumni Club with many activities. We even created social media groups for those of us who attended OSU. In other words, I am a Buckeye to the bone as well as my entire family. At one point, my daughter Jana, while my wife was at work, asked that we remodel her room with an OSU theme. Sure enough, we went to Sears, bought scarlet and gray paint and painted her room and furniture with OSU colors. The Lantern has articles with our names, mine and my children, being cited on so many issues, domestic and international. OSU St John Arena was selected for the “Town Meeting” planned by President Clinton where he sent his national security team —National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Defense Secretary William Cohen and Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when he planned to bomb Iraq. My wife and I were there as hundreds of other OSU and community activists, as described by the Washington Post, “shouted down, booed and cross-examined” this team and the government's intentions in the Persian Gulf.
The past 40 years, for our family, with all the ups and downs, were times we cherished, enjoyed and bragged about to everyone we knew, whether they asked us or not. That was until yesterday, Thursday night, where dozens of people were detained and arrested, merely for exercising their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble to protest. This Ohio State Police, Columbus Police, Buckeye Police and the Sheriff’s brutality reminded us with Banana Republics behavior against their own people. We thought we are better.
OSU students gathered peacefully to protest the United States complicity in the Gaza Genocide happening in realtime in front of the world’s eyes. These young souls were protesting the continuous funding of the Israeli killing machine, with the latest $17 billion passed few days ago and signed by the President of the free world. They were peacefully protesting our government’s policy of allowing genocide to continue with shameful vetoes for UN Security Council resolutions calling for ceasefire. As an aside, these vetoes made me think that maybe it is not because the US really cares about Jewish people, rather, because Israel represents the western imperialist values in the Middle East. To have a militarized foothold in the Middle East. They were protesting the killing of Palestinians by the US arms, bullets and 2000 pound bombs.
These youngsters were protesting the continued parroting of Israeli propaganda at all levels of US government, starting from President Biden, his National Security advisor Sullivan, his Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defence Austin, all the way to the two chambers of the US Congress. The good news is that the good people of the United States are totally against this complicity. Gaza support protests are sweeping almost all US Colleges and cities.
OSU student gathered to demand their school divest from entities supporting Israeli apartheid. They criticized the university’s removal of OSU Divest’s initiative from the Undergraduate Student Government ballot, the utmost utter disregard to democracy.
I wonder whether those people on the Hill, you guessed it, members of Congress, who sadly lead bizarre lives are blackmailed. And if that is the case, they could be compelled to vote in whatever direction the very powerful oligarchs in the United States, those who represent the Zionist state, just as easily buy policy outcomes as an oligarch in Russia or Ukraine. That’s our biggest problem, as Retired US Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor stated in one of his interviews.
One of my proud moments was when I learned about Lincoln and how he freed the slaves. Unfortunately, it appears he has not freed all of them. What we see right now, on many university campuses around the country shows that slavery, in a different form rather, is well and alive. These politicians and elite universities presidents need to learn how to be free from foreign influences. Your first and foremost loyalty is to our country, the United States of America, and its Constitution and not to Israel. From Minouche Shafik of Columbia calling the police on her students, to University of Southern California canceling the Valedictorian’s 5 minute speech, to The Ohio State University President and his administrators calling the different law enforcement agencies to crush the peaceful protestors, Shame on you. You do not deserve to lead these great institutions. What a Disgrace!
