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The FSM’s footprints Martin Snapp’s article, “It changed my life” (November), failed to mention that, despite FSM’s success, Berkeley’s national reputation remains tarnished 40 years later. A recent Texas Monthly magazine story told of an attempt by the president of Texas A&M University to improve his school’s reputation by comparing it to Berkeley, but the most frequent comment he heard from the Aggie student body was, “Why do we want to be like a school that has a bunch of hippies and protesters?” Gerald A. Shepherd ’60 San Diego I was struck by the intellectual dishonesty of your FSM retrospective. Yes, 800 demonstrators spent a day or two in Santa Rita, but more than 2,500 ROTC students remained in their programs, obligated to eight years of imminent danger. The vast majority of Cal students observed, and passed by, the FSM/SDS demonstrations. Their actions derived not from apathy, but considered rejection. Jim Ritchie ’68 Truckee As a student at Cal during that era, I believe that the Free Speech Movement directly contributed to the healthy skepticism of government’s so-called truths in this country. Whatever one’s political beliefs, the FSM helped expose the tendency of government agencies to cover up uncomfortable facts. The UC administration did it, LBJ the Democrat did it, Nixon the Republican did it. We learned many things in that era, and one of the constant truths we learned is, Never take a politician’s statement at face value. This generation of students needs to learn the lessons of that generation. Jerome Fishkin ’65 San Francisco Your articles on the so-called Free Speech Movement reminded me afresh of what so many California alums would much prefer to forget: the immense self-admiration, self-congratulation, and self-righteousness of the participants. The chief message of the movement echoes again: “How marvelously virtuous and smart and courageous and committed we all were.” Still narcissistic after all these years. Perhaps someday UC Berkeley will again commit to an ethos of reason, truth, ethical foundations, moral clarity, and intellectual honesty. I regret that it doesn’t seem likely within my lifetime. Gary Hardaway ’62 Lynden, Washington As a 1984 Cal graduate, I have memories of people referring to the Free Speech Movement as a large and important part of the history of the campus, but my personal experiences throughout the four years I spent in Berkeley suggested no such freedom. Only liberal views were tolerated, and any departure from that political correctness was shouted down and often dealt with physically and violently. Speech was free as long as it was their speech. I cannot speak for Cal today, but I would hope that the legacy of the FSM is not the virtue of rebellion for rebellion’s sake, but rather the necessity for a free exchange of ideas and an honest and reasoned debate. Dan Pisenti ’84 Mill Valley I was struck by the juxtaposition in the November issue of the FSM retrospective and the letters to the editor about Peter Dale Scott’s analysis of the shortcomings of the 9/11 Commission Report. I have no idea whether Professor Scott is right or wrong; what I do know is that the notion that the Free Speech Movement left an indelible mark on an entire generation of Cal students, and perhaps a generation of students worldwide, seems now to be more of a quaint myth than a reality. If we were at Cal today, seizing a police car wouldn’t begin to express our outrage at what is going on in this country and the institutions that belong to its people. Robert Millsap ’68 Woodland One of the best courses I took at Cal was “photo intepretation,” taught by Professor Robert Caldwell. It now aids me in debunking a myth about the FSM, as presented by Martin Snapp, who writes: “One by one, students climbed onto the car’s roof, taking care to remove their shoes so as not to damage the vehicle….” How sensitive of them. But the photographic evidence in Snapp’s own article shows people on top of the car with their shoes on. Bob Cornelius ’69 Montrose, Colorado |
 December 2004
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