A study in contrast

When I found out about the death last month of longtime Madison civil rights and peace activist Bob Veith, I was reminded of an incident on April 14, 2005, in which he was assaulted by a leader of the College Republicans at the University of Wisconsin. A campus newspaper report of the protest where the attack occurred can be read here.

Bob Veith was a veteran of the Korean war, serving in the Navy. I wasn't aware of his courageous work during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but it's a pretty amazing story. A synopsis of his life is available here.

The contrast between his life and that of the College Republican who was pushing him is stark. He was 74 at the time, the student presumably about 19 or 20 years old. As a budding Republican, she was violently supportive of the criminal activities of the Bush regime. The apple does not fall far from the tree.

This incident is symbolic of the slow decline in public civility that has been an integral part of the "Republican revolution." Now that the "revolution" is in its downfall phase, we can take a step back and look at what it hath wrought. We can ask ourselves if this is the kind of society we want to have, or whether we would like to have a society of mutuality, of social contract, and of distributive justice. Thankfully, the criminality of the Bush regime is now laid bare. As can be easily seen from the picture, the example set at the top easily filters to the bottom. The Republican party is now a criminal organization, and we need to be relentless in bringing to justice all of its wrongdoers (Read more here). Then will we be able to advance as a civilization.

Bob Veith made many contributions to American society. May his legacy live on in the picture of him being attacked. A true peacemaker, he didn't push back.