By Mickie Lynn

From Timesunion.com | Original Article

John Bolton publicity photo for his May 5, 2015 lecture at Union College, Photo Gage Skidmore

On Tuesday, May 5th, John Bolton, came to Union College to deliver a lecture in the Frederic E. Miller Lecture Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat.

His talk, “Iran and the Contemporary Middle East,” was the best that money could buy in a couple of ways.  First it was sponsored by a wealthy Union alumnus who supports Israeli causes  and has given large contributions to Union College.  Second, it earned John Bolton a hefty fee of between $15,000 and $25,000. 

At first read you might ask “Why this should matter?“  There are several reasons – including money influencing academia and prompting the  invitation to the Union College community of an ideologue who has advocated and supported violent and unjust wars throughout his career.  For more details about this you can read a May 7th opinion piece published in the Union College newspaper, The Concordy.

Free Speech at Union is a Limited Privilege

…While the College is advertising Bolton as a respectable politician and lawyer, it should be known that his authority on the Middle East is questionable due to his habitual lies and falsified evidence.  His book, “Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad,” provides clear evidence that Bolton is not to be trusted.[…]

For the purposes of our description about what happened on the Union Campus – and in the local community – after the invitation was issued – here are some relevant facts about why it might not be a good idea to take John Bolton’s advice  about dealing with Iran’s nuclear program or any other foreign policy matters.

John Bolton served as former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (2001 to 2005) during which time he was integral in the creation of the fictional  “Iraqi purchase of yellow cake Uranium from Niger” misinformation campaign.  He also worked to support the whole myth of Weapons of Mass Destruction as a pretext and justification for the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation and destruction of Iraq.

From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as (interim) U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations where he advocated for unilateral US military actions in the Middle East.  During that time he was also an outspoken advocate for  withholding US payments to the United Nations, and spoke out in opposition to the legitimacy of  the International Criminal Court.  In true militaristic and isolationist fashion he opposed life-saving international treaties restricting the use of land mines, biological weapons, nuclear weapons testing, small arms trade, and missile defense systems.

But the most current and egregious public expression of his ill will towards international peace negotiations with Iran, and indeed towards all of the innocent  people of Iran who would be killed – with survivors left in the rubble of their beautiful and culturally rich country  if his advice were followed was a recent Op-Ed piece published in the New York Times on March 26, 2015.  The title says it all! To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.

What to do, What to do? The peace supporting faculty and students at Union College were appalled that this man would represent himself as a legitimate speaker in a series dedicated to Anwar Sadat, an eventual actor for peace between Egypt and Israel** and that his ideas might be taken as representative of the college as a whole and given gravitas that they did not deserve.

Being dedicated to academic freedom they did not want to oppose his chance to speak.  Instead they decided to counter his words with an informational picket that would give his listeners some historical context for how they evaluated his words and ideas.   That’s just what happened.  A fact sheet and set of questions for listeners to ask while he was speaking and during the Q&A that followed was crafted and distributed near the door as people entered.

A large and visible informational picket, with signs and information was organized by Union College’s Peace Action chapter and concerned faculty.  The Iran Project of Women Against War added our own brand of public demonstration with our colorful banners, photos of Iranian people and other messages.  This was all coordinated by the energetic Marcia Hopple as we reached out to members of other local peace groups who joined the picket.

More students with signs and photos on a beautiful evening, photo by Mabel Leon

Students and community members behind the barrier, photo by Mabel Leon

The rest of this article will be photos of the vibrant, visual, student and community, informational picket that took place opposite the Memorial Chapel for the hour [6 to 7 PM) before John Bolton spoke.

Three part Iran Next? banner, created by Kim, Mabel and Mickie, photo by Mabel Leon

Picket line towards the chapel, photo by Mabel Leon

View of the picket line with community members, photo by Mabel Leon

Behind the barriers with signs and Women Against War sandwich board, photo by Mabel Leon

Union students with their signs and Iran Project “I am an Iranian: photos. Photo by Mabel Leon

Three Iran banners before the barriers went up, photo by Mabel Leon

Union students and faculty at informational picket, photo by Mabel Leon

Members of the Palestinian Rights Committee with Iranian photos, photo by Mabel Leon

J Street member, and Schenectady Neighbors for Peace member with “support Iran negotiations” sign, photo by Mabel Leon

Literal peace flag at Union College, photo by Mabel Leon

Students behind barrier, with their signs and our photos, photo by Mabel Leon

• Here’s a brief note about the peacemaking aspects of Anwar Sadat’s life before he was assassinated by radical military personnel in 1981:

• …After the failure of the Yom Kippur war, Anwar al-Sadat became convinced that the only way ahead was via diplomatic and peaceful means. He believed that Egypt would greatly benefit from a “peace dividend”. In 1977, Sadat announced to the Egyptian Parliament, that he was prepared to go anywhere to negotiate a peace settlement with the Israelis even to Israel itself – this was the so-called “Sadat Initiative” . Anwar al-Sadat went to Jerusalem and started a process that was to culminate with the talks at Camp David hosted by America’s President Jimmy Carter. For this work, Sadat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. […]

And here are a couple of descriptions about the spirit and physical aspects of the planning and actual demonstration from our photographer, Mabel Leon and our organizer of the community part of the picket, Marcia Hopple:

Mabel:

An action called by students at Union College to protest the speaker, John Bolton, was supported by the members of many peace groups. We were there not to protest his right to speak, but to speak out against his militarist, dangerous rantings. And especially to support diplomacy with Iran.

Marcia:

When former ambassador John Bolton made a paid speech at Union College, part of an annual lecture series, students and faculty organized an informational protest on campus with signs reading “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”,  “You have blood on your hands”, and other messages.  They wrote and passed out a fact sheet about Bolton’s notorious role in the Iraq war, his disrespect for the United Nations, and his recent call to bomb Iran.  They provided questions to the audience, who appeared to be mainly students, to ask Bolton after his talk.  The Iran project of WAW was invited to join the campus community with our enormous banner that reads “Iran Next?  No War!  No Way!”  We were part of about 30 demonstrators who quietly but visibly reminded the arriving audience of the truth about Bolton’s world view and terrible trail of violent US policies.  We passed out enlarged photos of Iranians, which many held up to say bombing a country is bombing people, people who deserve to live, just as we do.

One ironic note and photograph from the Concordy. Although there was an opinion piece (linked above) about John Bolton’s lecture there was no news coverage of the demonstration in the campus newspaper.  However a photo did sneak its way in, wrongly cataloged and connected with a much more positive appearance by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on campus speaking about campus sexual assault.  So the power of information will find a way!

And this just in in the opinion columns of the Union newspaper!

Union’s hypocritical political discourse