Listen to Hopkins student protesters | READER COMMENTARY

I am writing as a longtime protester of the Johns Hopkins University’s weapons contracts. I have been arrested on the Homewood campus and at the Applied Physics Laboratory. And one of the protests resulted in a 30-day incarceration at the Howard County Detention Center. So I found a recent comment by the Hopkins administrators interesting, as I might be considered as an “outside agitator (“Johns Hopkins administrators begin negotiations with pro-Palestinian student protesters Tuesday,” May 7). Here is the phrase: “encampments attract individuals from outside the campus community who are not within the protesters’ control and who may seek conflict and escalation.”

I find that very insulting to the students as they have been able to organize a nonviolent and non-threatening encampment. I send the utmost praise to the students for the courage of their convictions and for their demands. Basically, they are stating to the Hopkins hierarchy please do not invest in corporations profiting from genocide. These conscientious students say, “not in my name.”

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, in its 2019 report listed Hopkins as the top “School of Mass Destruction” because of its nuclear weapons research. The JHU administration should be embarrassed by this notoriety and recognize it is time instead to engage in humanitarian research that benefits society rather than to do research on mass murder weaponry.

I will continue to support the student encampment and urge the administration to listen to the students. I have seen this ridiculous question asked: Why are the students concerned?  The students and all people of conscience are watching genocide on a daily basis. This is the first televised genocide. A better question is why are so many people quiet as U.S. bombs fall on a noncombatant population?

One of my arrests on the Homewood campus took place when the administration decided to remove a shanty erected as a protest to South African apartheid. I joined one other community member and around 10 students in this action. The Baltimore Anti-Apartheid Coalition was able to help pass Baltimore City Council legislation to force divestment of the pension funds from companies profiting from apartheid.

However, we were never able to get Hopkins to divest from apartheid. I hope today’s students are more successful.

— Max Obuszewski, Baltimore

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