On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Wiesenfeld took a phone call about the events at the board meeting, and said he was surprised to get enough support from other trustees to block the Kushner degree. He had thought, he said, that he was going to register his dissent for the record and move on. I tried to ask a question about the damage done by a short, one-sided discussion of vigorously debated aspects of Middle East politics, like the survival of Israel and the rights of the Palestinians, and which side was more callous toward human life, and who was most protective of it. But Mr. Wiesenfeld interrupted and said the question was offensive because “the comparison sets up a moral equivalence.” Equivalence between what and what? “Between the Palestinians and Israelis,” he said. “People who worship death for their children are not human.” Did he mean the Palestinians were not human? “They have developed a culture which is unprecedented in human history,” he said. In view of these remarks, we should be demanding not just that Tony Kushner be given his degree (if he will still take it), but that Jeffrey Wiesenfeld be removed from the CUNY Board of Trustees.
----- Original Message ---- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Thu, May 5, 2011 3:20:42 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] write the CUNY board
Hi everyone.
Please send an email to the Board of Trustees. We'll give you sample language below, but in our experience, your own words are more powerful than a standardized protest note. Remember: be polite, be civil, be firm. We're asking the trustees to rescind their decision to table John Jay's motion to award Kushner an honorary degree. In simpler language, the trustees should award Kushner the degree. While Kushner has said he will not accept the degree, we think the trustees should still award it. This was not just an offense to Kushner; it was an offense to the John Jay faculty who voted to award him the degree and to the John Jay students and their friends/families who will be attending the commencement. You can contact the trustees in one of two ways: write them as a group or write them individually. Below we provide you with both formats. We would like to post some of these emails to the page, so please cc us on your email or forward it to us at kushnercuny at gmail.com.
Thanks!
Sample Language
Dear Board of Trustees:
I am writing to protest your vote to overturn John Jay College's decision to award an honorary degree to Tony Kushner. Mr. Kushner is America's Playwright and our Arthur Miller. He has received a Pulitzer Prize; is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; has been awarded honorary degrees from Juilliard, Columbia, and Brandeis University. Awarding him this degree is less an honor for him than it is for CUNY. I ask you to rescind immediately your decision and to grant him this degree. Anything short of that will dishonor CUNY and yourselves.
Sincerely,
Write the trustees as a group
charlie.shorter at davisbrodyaedas.com; croman at cityhall.nyc.gov; dimartino at att.net; DRHMORALES at msn.com; ffostertolbert at gmail.com; joe at lhota.net; judah.gribetz at bingham.com; kathleen.pesile at mail.cuny.edu; kaympesile at aol.com; peter.pantaleo at dlapiper.com; philip at philipberryassociates.com; provost.cory at gmail.com; sam.sutton at aeny.com; Sandi.Cooper at csi.cuny.edu; vlancaster at mrbeal.com; wellingtonchen at yahoo.com; wellingtonzchen at gmail.com; wiesenfeldjs at bernstein.com; Jay.Hershenson at mail.cuny.edu
Write the trustees individually
Charles Shorter: charlie.shorter at davisbrodyaedas.com Carol Robles-Román: croman at cityhall.nyc.gov Rita DiMartino: dimartino at att.net Dr. Hugo Morales: DRHMORALES at msn.com Freida Foster: ffostertolbert at gmail.com Joseph Lhota: joe at lhota.net Judah Gribetz: judah.gribetz at bingham.com Kathleen Pesile: kathleen.pesile at mail.cuny.edu; kaympesile at aol.com Peter Pantaleo: peter.pantaleo at dlapiper.com Philip Berry: philip at philipberryassociates.com Cory Provost: provost.cory at gmail.com Sam Sutton: sam.sutton at aeny.com Sandi Cooper: Sandi.Cooper at csi.cuny.edu Valerie Lancaster Beal: vlancaster at mrbeal.com Wellington Chen: wellingtonchen at yahoo.com; wellingtonzchen at gmail.com Jeffrey Wiesenfeld: wiesenfeldjs at bernstein.com ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk