Letter: Protest demonstrated concern for international law

The law was broken last Thursday by antiwar protesters that blocked traffic on Campus Drive. How "disgusting," "disturbing," "cowardly" that the police didn't arrest or remove the demonstrators, declares The Chronicle's editorial amidst a hail of repetitions of "law," "illegal," and the like. All this admirable passion for the law is echoed by some student letters heaping righteous indignation on a few dozen fellow students that dared to pause traffic on campus for 30 minutes on a cold and rainy day.

Paradoxically, however, I believe that one of the purposes of these "communist radicals" (as one letter author called them), might have been precisely to demonstrate their concern for the law. I saw the quaint illegality of their action as a pointer toward the tragic illegality of the presumably preemptive war itself. This conflict has broken international law according to many experts and has lead to the deaths of thousands and the disruption of a country. If, in the past weeks, the war had elicited from The Chronicle's editorial staff the same vibrant fervor for legality that they show for the preservation of unimpeded vehicular traffic on Campus Drive, those communist radicals might not have felt the need to engage in such terrorism.

Daniele Armaleo

Assistant Prof of the Practice, Department of Biology