TO THE EDITOR:
Friday’s letter from several College Republicans in which they defended the recent appearance at UNC by the somewhat controversial conservative spokesperson David Horowitz was notable, not for their insistence that the more liberal-minded students at UNC should attend other similar events that tend to challenge their traditional beliefs, but for the insertion into their letter of a complete misrepresentation of exactly who political activist Angela Davis was, and still is.
In their letter, they were quick to point out that Davis was once (in the very early ‘70s) labeled a “dangerous terrorist” and “was put on the FBI Most Wanted List for her involvement in the deadly takeover of a courthouse in Marin County, California,” but they quite conveniently managed to leave out the simple fact that she was also acquitted of all charges related to that incident only a few years later.
I would like to strongly suggest to those College Republicans that, as long as the actual facts of history are somehow considered more-or-less irrelevant to any future, simple-minded attempts on your part to garner sympathy for your conservative causes — on any liberal college campus in this country — your efforts will be in vain.
I can’t help but wonder if those College Republicans even know that David Horowitz once considered himself a serious Marxist — as recently as 1966. And, of course, you know what they say: “Once a Communist, always a Communist.”
Marshall S. Wade
Chapel Hill
