Friday, March 29, 2024

SEJ investigation causes concerns

You have to feel sorry for the people of Peru if they are relying on President M. Peter McPherson to make sure they have a functioning democracy.

McPherson’s paranoiac behaviors regarding Students For Economic Justice is far more damaging to this university than binge drinking and sports-related riots ever could be. SEJ’s case for having MSU change alliances with workers’ rights monitoring groups from one that is ineffective to one that gets the job done and has support from the workers involved makes sense, but unfortunately isn’t what McPherson’s puppet masters at the World Bank want.

That and that alone is the explanation for his treating the Bill of Rights like so much toilet paper. An apology and quick resignation or forced removal from office are in order - with no “golden parachute.”

McPherson’s actions and likely slanderous statements have shown him to be completely unreliable and untrustworthy. Because he cannot be believed, he must go. Even Richard Nixon knew that much.

The same goes for police Chief Bruce Benson, who has sullied the uniform and disgraced the badge. How insulting he is to the community to declare that he doesn’t have the investigation records of a year ago. How sad that he expects us to believe such detritus. His statement leaves us with two possibilities: either Benson is an outright liar, in which case he should be removed from the force, or he is an incompetent bumbler and should be removed from the force.

As for the officer - or rather officers - who violated the rights of the community by their actions, they should be suspended indefinitely without pay and forced to study a little history in the hopes that they will learn that “I was only following orders” is not a justified excuse.

Many in the administration are counting on all of this to just fade away in the last days of the semester and then dying out during summer break. Many, but not all.

And let’s follow the good advice of the SEJ and ally this institution with an organization that cares about eliminating sweatshop conditions and doesn’t want MSU aligned with monitoring groups and corporations that don’t care, or claim to but take no action.

That might hurt McPherson’s chances for getting a position with the World Bank, meaning he may stay here a little longer. Regrettable, yes, but a sacrifice we will just have to make for the greater good.

Ben Urish
American Thought
and Language professor

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