Townsend Made Right Move

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Let me say straight off that the hanging of a Confederate flag from the window of a Harvard College house--or anywhere else at Harvard--is a vicious affront to Black people here and at large.

I want to concur with Jacinda Townsend in her two courageous and thoughtful actions: 1) her hanging of the swastika flag as a bold way of forcing immediate attention to the murderous symbolism of a Confederate flag hanging from a Harvard College house; and 2) her withdrawal of the swastika flag and her explanation of that withdrawal--namely, that she meant no injury whatever to our Jewish peers at Harvard or to Jews elsewhere by hanging this murderous symbol of the Holocaust, and that she sought forgiveness for her action from our Jewish peers.

And our Jewish peers did, in fact, announce their understanding, and went further to announce that all of Harvard should join with Ms. Townsend and other Blacks and whites in protesting the hanging of Confederate flags at this institution. I want to join this protest.

Let me also comment briefly on Bridget Kerrigan's explanation of her vicious Confederate flag-hanging act which appeared in Thursday's Boston Globe. It strikes me as a sad commentary on our intellectual capacity at Harvard to elevate the level of our students' particularistic identities (e.g. ethnic, racial, national, religious, regional, gender, etc.) from a primitive and one-dimensional level to the cosmopolitan and humanistically sensitive. Here is how a bright senior at Harvard, Bridget Kerrigan, justifies her vicious act:

It's a beautiful flag, and the regional pride that gave the South the inspiration to trust its heritage and rebuild--that's not a heritage of racism. It's a heritage of character, dignity and courage.

May I inform Ms. Kerrigan that the Nazi flag also symbolizes--for fascists and Nazis--"a heritage of character, dignity and courage." But in our epoch and in our place (here at Harvard College), both the Nazi flag and Confederate flag symbolize two instances of the modern world's cruelest institutions and events. This latter symbolism should, I submit, take precedent over Ms. Kerrigan's school-boyish, immature and romantic identification with Southern feudalistic and racist traditions. Martin L. Kilson   Professor of Government