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Chris Hedges, Education, ethics, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Israel, mass murder, News, Princeton
Former journalist Chris Hedges gave a powerful message today to the righteous student protesters at Princeton University:
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/sermon-for-gaza
Hedges told the students that the good is found where peace-loving people stand up to power, and he noted that such defiance comes with a cost. But, he said that only by speaking the truth can justice prevail.
“To resist radical evil, as you are doing, is to endure a life that by the standards of the wider society is a failure,” he told the students. “It is to defy injustice at the cost of your career, your reputation, your financial solvency and at times your life. It is to be a lifelong heretic.”
But despite this harm that is inflicted upon student protesters, Hedges said, “we must come to a place where it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.” In other words, it is better to suffer punishment than to deliver it. Thus, the students who are harmed by their university’s administrators and police are morally in the right while their oppressors are on the wrong side of history. And it is through this sacrifice by the students that the oppressors are exposed as fearful of the truth being expressed.
The student protests are the embodiment of the purpose of universities: the discovery and expression of the truth. The university administrators are afraid of the protesters because they are afraid of the truth.
None of the administrators who bullied and censored the students should retain their positions after the semester ends. But the students will have the lifelong satisfaction of knowing that at this extremely important moment in history they upheld what they were taught by their professors: to always speak the truth and to stand up for what is right.
Update: UC Riverside will publicly reveal all of its investments and work toward unloading companies that produce military weapons:
The agreement was reached with students who demanded changes in response to Israel’s brutal genocidal attacks in Gaza. It also requires that a task force with student representation will provide investment oversight.
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