I Vomited, But The Room Remained Immaculate

To the editors:

I am the individual who sat three rows behind Elise M. Stefanik (“Political Vomit,” op-ed, Apr. 13) at yesterday’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Depatment of Homeland Security (DHS) recruitment event and “physically made himself vomit.”

I vomited into a double plastic bag. Not a molecule of stomach content ended up anywhere else. When I was done, I carried the bag to the restroom, tied it, and placed it in the trash receptacle. One of my accomplices spilled a bag of jelly beans. She meticulously picked up each one. As was the plan, Harvard workers did not have to clean up vomit, jelly beans, or any other nonexistent “remnant” of our protest.

More importantly, our protest did not “demonstrate disdain for diversity of opinion.” The event was a recruitment meeting, not a debate. The CIA and DHS representatives were not there to offer “opinions” or “ideas,” but rather to lure talented Harvard students into exciting careers with agencies for which torture, mass deportations, assassinations, and other violations of human rights are standard practices. I was there to inform others of these practices (with a fact sheet we handed to everyone in attendance), express my disgust for these practices, and interfere with the recruitment process that makes them possible.

MATTHEW R. SKOMAROVSKY ’03

Cambridge, Mass.

April 13, 2005