I will say with absolutely zero fear of impunity that Van Horn is a liar. Let me guess what his answers to any real questioning about the "confrontation" would be.
There were no witnesses to corroborate the threat.
He didn't happen to see the nametag or he can't remember the name.
He forgot what time it was and what day.
He doesn't remember what the ROTC Nazi looks like.
...This is a typical liberal who simply throws out lies and never has to actually back the story up with any proof. I especially like the little extra jab about the military police. If you don't have to back up your lies, why not just say the FBI was going to arrest you or the CIA? Or how about Bigfoot coming down out of the forest to steal your cupcake? After all, you don't have to provide any witnesses, documentation, names or any other kind of proof.
...And what do you mean "by marching around in a very vocal and visual way"? Do you mean uniforms and shouting commands? Apparently you have never seen the football team practice, or the basketball team, or the volleyball team or the cheerleaders. Yeah, a uniform and yelling can only mean the Hitler youth is on the prowl...
And what is meant by militarization on campus? I feel quite certain that Van Horn does not really know what that word means. First of all, the ROTC cadets are students at ASU and have every right to use the campus grounds just as any other student. Did they seize the field and not let anyone else tread upon the sacred ROTC grass?
I am familiar with the green about which Van Horn writes and I don't recall seeing any bunkers or fortifications. To militarize something like a piece of land means it is converted for the sole use of the military. I walked through that area just the other day and did not get shot at even once.
I like the fact that Van Horn uses other people's quotes to make himself sound smart. I guess that is what you do when you don't have a Greenpeace pamphlet in front of you to plagiarize from. Well, here is one that I did a copy/paste on also:
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."--John Stuart Mill.
--Kevin Trammell,
veteran
I found the comments of Patrick Van Horn in your Sept. 17 issue to be quite troubling. He starts by noting how with all the "cammies" around, the campus looks more like a military encampment. I'm on campus only on Tuesday and Thursday all day and rarely see ROTC cadets and officers, both Army and Air Force combined. I've never seen a "military encampment" where civilians outnumber soldiers 1,000 to one.
Mr. Van Horn also gives a vague explanation of what lead up to a member of the Army ROTC threatening him. I know many people in the ROTC programs -- both cadets and cadre -- and for the most part they are some of the most respectable and nicest people on campus. I wonder how Mr. Van Horn would react if he was allowed to hold a peace rally on Hayden Lawn and a member of the ROTC voiced their "dissent" about his school-sanctioned activity. I've seen a lot of peace rallies that sure looked pretty unpeaceful.
ROTC programs have been on campuses since before the Civil War. Why should those students who choose to join the armed forces be denied the right to prepare in U.S. universities? Mr. Van Horn's argument seems to be that it annoys him to see people in BDUs and therefore they shouldn't be on campus. So who is encroaching on whose rights and liberties?
-Josh Boyle,
history senior
If seeing BDUs on campus are your biggest concern, Mr. Horn, your life must be rather dull. In case you hadn't noticed, people are allowed to wear whatever they want on campus. I feel like I'm at the beach every day when I see the tiny skirts and tops that chicks wear, but I'm not protesting the weather!
Whether or not you support our military, it was impolite to "disturb their little military maneuver" or any program that is going on. Do you walk into churches you don't like and disturb their services? Or what about a class you don't like?
You seem to have forgotten that everyone deserves respect, even if you don't agree with them. Maybe you should ask the university to offer a class in manners for you and other people who never learned them.
--Steph Jarczyk,
ASU student
I would like to reply to the Sept. 17 column, "What are Battle Dress Uniforms doing on campus?" I feel that as a person majoring in justice studies, it might have occurred to Van Horn to present an equitable argument regarding ASU's ROTC program. There are several ways that he could have answered his own question without either writing an entirely confusing article about the subject (which was either about ROTC, the Patriot Act, or President Bush, I'm not sure) or approaching the Army ROTC on Hayden Lawn in a manner that could only be described as heckling.
...It would also behoove him to not attack his peers, who are as much victims of the Bush administration and the Patriot Act as he and I are. These are students who are demonstrating patriotism in a manner different from him; they are also attempting to pay for an education, much like him and me. These are the men and women who are willing to go to war for the sake of protecting his civil liberties, along with his right to criticize their dress. They in no way deserve to be compared to the Nazi regime of WorldWar II.
I urge you to reconsider your position, Mr. Van Horn, because if Orwell is correct in stating that "ignorance is strength," you just may become the world's strongest man.
--Kellisa Aston Stanley,
journalism student
