I believe that authors must take care of their reader. So I want to share a content warning that this issue addresses the recent student protests for Palestinian freedom. If you want to skip it, please do—you know what’s best for you. And if you want to know more plainly my position on Palestinian freedom and Jewish safety, scroll to the bottom of the newsletter for a note on it. Much love!
In three cars, they drove a thousand miles from Grinnell, IA to Washington, DC. It was 1961, and the fourteen Grinnell students had shaved their beards and cut their long hair for the trip.
When they arrived in Washington, they began a three-day fast in front of the White House. They hoped to convince Americans and their government never to test atomic bombs in the atmosphere.
Their signs read, “Iowa Students Fasting for Peace” and “We’re behind Kennedy’s peace race.”
Participants Peter Coyote and Terry Bisson later said the students had agreed on what they’d wear, so that they would be taken seriously:
Control of our message was important. We did not want it co-opted or dismissed by a derisive press. The group agreed on a dress code: coats and ties for the guys, sensible skirts and stockings for the women. Clean-cut would be the order of the day. We would represent a voice of sanity—respectful, but firm.
And they did get respect. The students reported back to campus that “Veteran White House guards said this was the first picket group they could remember being asked into the White House.” At President Kennedy’s request, they were invited inside to explain their purpose to presidential aide McGeorge Bundy.
Now, you might be thinking, “See, this is how it should be done. Polite, considerate students explaining their concerns in a civilized way.” Or you might be thinking, “Oh sheesh, now she’s going to complain about the current student encampments for a free Palestine.”
Nope, that’s not where I’m going.
Instead, I wonder if you’ve noticed the pattern in reactions to the pro-Palestine encampments that I have. Folks either say, “The students are always on the right side of history!” or they say, “I just don't approve of what they’re doing.”
Here’s what’s really interesting. You know those “respectful, but firm” students protesting atomic bombs in 1961? Here are two contemporary responses to the Grinnell students’ action.
During the 1950s much was written about a supposed political and philosophical apathy among college students. They were said to have been bored with any cause beyond $10,000 a year and a good pension program. We are glad to see that the students of Grinnell College, at least, are thinking now about other concerns and speaking out.
—The Des Moines Register
It would have been far less spectacular, but the Grinnell students might have gained more wisdom if they had stayed in Grinnell and studied their history lessons.
—The Omaha World-Herald
Some people applauded the students, and some condemned their action, even implying the ignorance of the group. It sounds familiar, right?
Our reactions to the student protestors of today and those of 60 years ago are spread across the same spectrum.
When we see our fellow citizens of the United States and the world voice their concerns, it can be tempting to get distracted by our reactions to their methods. I believe that it doesn’t matter, however, that one set of protestors was calm and reasoned and that the other is loud and demanding.
When we find ourselves responding to how a political message is conveyed, we might consider these words from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail:”
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate… who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.’”
A person’s message is the important part. Sure, a calm message can be easier to hear than an angry message. Witnessing anger often leads to an observer’s discomfort or even stronger emotions.
Our discomfort, however, doesn't make loud messages any less important to hear.
Mentioned in this issue: The Grinnell 14, as described in Grinnell Magazine and Pioneering: 1846-1996, A Photographic and Documentary History of Grinnell College by Alan Jones; and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Corrections: A previous version of this essay mistakenly described the fast as “week-long” instead of three-day, and that the students asked the U.S. government to stop testing atomic bombs in the atmosphere, rather than to never test them in the atmosphere.
A note: I believe, as Fannie Lou Hamer said, None of us is free until all of us are free. All people includes both Palestinians and the Jewish people. The genocide that Netanyahu and his government are committing is deplorable and a war crime. It must stop. And, anti-Jewish hate must stop. Indeed, I believe that we can and must achieve freedom for all of us in the world—without dehumanizing any of us and definitely without genocide in anyone’s name.