Tell
the truth
The greatest challenge for high school seniors is
to select the college that will most effectively meet their academic
and social needs. It is important for educators to facilitate this
process.
Fanatical opponents of the Biosafety Lab in the South End believe
otherwise. Members of Operation: Over have embarked upon a strategy
of disrupting Boston University campus tours for prospective students.
Their objective is for high school students and their families to
reject admission to the university.
Operation: Over literature asserts, “It’s time to stop
being polite and hit BU where it hurts: their funding.” The
reasons they give for the student boycott are based on falsehoods
and half-truths.
While it is true that the Level 4 Bio-lab will provide for research
on anthrax, Ebola and other dangerous pathogens, there is no evidence
that the Bio-lab places the surrounding communities in jeopardy.
Other Level 4 laboratories have been operating for years without
incident.
It is not true that the facility will be located in a neighborhood
that is exclusively low-income. First of all, the Bio-lab will be
part of an extensive medical research center replete with high salaried
medical researchers and technicians. Although some affordable housing
is in the area, so are some of the city’s priciest townhouses
and condos. So it is grossly inaccurate to assert that the Biosafety
Lab will be located in a “residential, low-income neighborhood.”
Construction of the facility has been partially financed by a grant
from the National Institutes of Health, not the Department of Homeland
Security, as the student boycott literature claims. The objective
of the laboratory is to find remedies against the deadly pathogens
if they should be used by terrorists against American citizens.
It is not to develop weapons for biological warfare.
Operation: Over describes itself as “a nonviolent direct action
campaign against militarism in Boston.” However, Operation:
Over does not seem reluctant to hold hostage the aspirations and
college decision making process of the nation’s high school
seniors.
Prospective Boston University students who insist on the truth will
not be fooled.
History
matters
Black History Month is a great tradition to introduce
to both blacks and whites alike some of the achievements of African
Americans who lived in the past. But it has not been substantially
effective in changing racial concepts.
One reason is that historically significant occurrences are often
presented as anecdotal incidents, almost disembodied events. Since
American youth of today have little intellectual curiosity and live
in a circumscribed world devoid of imagination, they cannot easily
relate to the world of their ancestors. Historical accounts fail
the “make it real” test, just as the “Cosby Show”
was too much of a fable for many.
Rather than attempting to overwhelm readers with a large number
of heroic sketches, the Banner chose to provide a more amplified
account of events concerning fewer ancestors. The Banner wrote about
William Monroe Trotter, Alex Manly, Malcolm X, and the family of
Jay Butler. Although Black History Month is over, the Banner plans
to continue to publish from time to time, significant black history
accounts.
This generation will not feel compelled to prepare the way for future
generations unless there is a profound awareness of the individual’s
place in the flow of history.
|
Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher
Bay State Banner |
