Sunday, November 5, 2006
Andover High School sure has made a splash in the news, as have Ron Francis and Tom Meyers...and not in a good way. Now in the Eagle-Tribune:
Our view:Andover made right choice on Wheels of Justice
Schools are supposed to be places where children receive their educations. They are not indoctrination camps.
But a small group of teachers tried to turn Andover High into one with their attempt to bring a radical pro-Palestinian group in to lecture students. School leaders, primarily high school Principal Peter Anderson, were right to stop it.
Six teachers, among them physics teacher Ron Francis and social studies teacher Tom Meyers, who is also the president of the teachers union, invited members of the "Wheels of Justice" group to speak to students at the high school. The Wisconsin-based group travels the country in a bus offering, according to its Web site, "nonviolent education and action against war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine for justice and universal human rights."
Rabbi Robert S. Goldstein of Andover's Temple Emanuel objected to the group's appearance at the school saying Wheels of Justice is an "extremist" group whose messages "border on propaganda."
From our own experience, the rabbi's views are accurate. In a 2004 meeting with the paper's editorial board, members of Wheels of Justice were uninterested in discussion or dialogue. They were here to deliver a stern lecture on the evils of the United States and Israel.
Goldstein doesn't have a problem with the group speaking at the high school - as long as it is part of a balanced forum that allows students to hear opposing views. Goldstein participated in such a forum in 2004 when Wheels of Justice spoke at North Andover High.
But there would have been no such balance at the Andover High event. Meyers told our reporter a presentation of the Israeli side of the Middle East conflict was planned for some unspecified date later in the year.
Now Meyers has flat out rejected the school administration's offer to set up a balanced forum on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is howling about his "First Amendment rights" and threatening a lawsuit unless the seminar is recreated as originally planned.
There is no First Amendment issue here. Courts have never held that outside political groups have a right to come into school buildings during school hours, take over classroom time, and lecture students.
Allowing outside groups of any ideological stripe to come in and proselytize students detracts from the educational function of schools. Teachers who claim they merely seek to provide a range of world perspectives but refuse to permit opposing views are not interested in education. They're seeking indoctrination of students.
The First Amendment guarantees Wheels of Justice the right to hold its views and speak them plainly. It gives it the right to stand on a street corner or other public space and shout its message to the heavens. It does not grant it the right to come into a school building and take over classroom time to lecture a captive audience of children.
Andover school leaders made the right decision. They should stand by it.
My name is Vladislav Davidzon. I was born to a a Jewish family that ran/immigrated from the Soviet Union because of blatant racism we faced. I was only ten years old when we moved, but I remember quite clearly the fear of my parents against pogroms. I have relatives who live in Israel near Tel Aviv. I am the founder and CEO of well known socially responsible internet company, and I was also one of the speakers on the Wheels Of Justice (and attended, although did not speak, during a previous talk by WOJ at Andover).
From a very young age, I was taught principles of justice, democracy and to give voice to those without one. I was taught that silence is the voice of complicity. I was taught all the social justice values of the Jewish culture. And I was taught the lessons of the Holocaust -- although unlike other Jewish kids, for me Never Again meant Never Again for anyone, not just Jews. And I certainly learned what racism truly meant.
And so after a young student from Olympia, WA was brutally murdered, in my name, by an armored bulldozer driven by a soldier of the Israeli Occupational Forces as she stood in front of a a house of a Palestinian doctor, I realized that to continue to be silent would be to be complicit. I bought a ticket to Tel Aviv and spent the next two months working with the International Solidarity Movement and the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions.
Like many I believe in justice. I believe in democracy. I believe in freedom. And I believe in working for those values, in speaking for those who lack a voice, even when doing so may imperil my own life. I've been shot at with live bullets, beaten, interrogated, and called every swearword under the sun. But I keep speaking because I believe that the day I cease speaking about things that truly matter, is the day I will begin to die.
I have personally witnessed numerous war crimes committed by the Israeli Army, and would willingly testify under oath in front of any competent court as to those crimes. From use of human shields, to collective punishment, to use of lethal force against unarmed civilians, the crimes I have witnessed were numerous. We hear daily of all the suffering of the Israeli citizens, but yet I was witness to the side whose voice is simply absent from the media. And it is a story that deserves to be heard.
Upon my return to the United States, I spent some time on the Wheels of Justice Bus, helping arrange the schedule and also giving talks. Quite simply, Wheels of Justice gives a voice to those without a voice. I spoke for those who cannot speak for themselves. For the farmer who one morning told us in broken English about how the Israeli Occupational soldiers threw tear gas grenades through the windows of their home, and how his three year old grand daughter suffocated, and how he buried her little body. For the parents whose children are shot daily for the crime of throwing rocks at armored tanks. For all the countless others, people just like you and I who are simply trying to live their lives.
The Wheels of Justice Bus is a group of speakers who have witnessed first-hand the situation on the ground in Iraq and Palestine. If we are biased, the bias is simply that of what he have witnessed first hand. However don't you dare throw baseless accusations of racism against us, especially not when so many of us come from Jewish families. All we are trying to do is give voice to those without a voice, to show a side that is entirely absent from the mainstream media.
Why are people so afraid of what we have to say? Why is it okay for Israel to spend billions of dollars to tell their side of the story in the United States, but when people like myself try to speak out, we're consistently silenced. What do you have to hide that you have to work so hard to silence us? What are you so afraid of? Why is there more diversity of opinion allowed in Israel about the Occupation than in the United States? Why does the truth scare you?
Silence is the voice of complicity and I will not be silent. These crimes will not be committed in my name.
PS Mike -- don't you ever let anyone tell you that you are not smart enough to figure out the truth for yourself. Do question those who filter the information you receive, and demand to know why they are so afraid for you to figure out the truth for yourself.
Vlad,
You are lucky your family got out of Russia with your heads on your shoulders.
Luckily you weren't in Muslim Pakistan like Daniel Pearl.
Luckily you weren't on any of the four commercial airliners and weren't in any of the Twin Towers or the Pentagon on 9/11.
Luckily you didn't write a book of fiction on the Koran like Salman Rushdie.
Luckily you weren't in a wheelchair on a cruise ship like Leon Klinghoffer.
Luckily you were weren't on a bus or a subway in London on 7/7.
Luckily you weren't on a train in Madrid on 3/11.
Luckily you weren't on PanAm flight 103.
I think you get the picture Vlad.
Let me ask you a simple question. Where is there an organization like a "Salaam Now"?
Where is an Arab/Muslim grassroots organization that interferes with Fatah, Hamas, PFLP, Hezbullah to prevent them from sending bomb laden young men to murder people on busses in Israel?
Where are Muslims for Peace and Justice that denounces the murder of Jews by Muslims?
Where are Muslims who acknowledge that Jews lived in Israel for thousands of years?
Where are Muslims who denounce the statement of the president of the Islamofascist Republic of iran who has stated his desire to wipe Israel of the map?