In response to grad student Michael T. Adams’ letter concerning the John Lennon Society: regardless of what the JLS members use as philosophical base for their political activities (using John Lennon as their ican) their appearance (dressing ‘60s style) or the methods they use to express their discontent (questioning authority with acts of radical defiance), your objections about the JLS reflect your political learnings. Allow me to quote your letter and comment.

When the JLS defends the homeless, which you choose to refer to as “vagrants,” it is exercising free speech. We judge other societies on how they treat their least fortunate, so we should judge our own for the same reason. The revenue from “taxpaying” businesses is not going to the poor people in question. If it was, like before the Reagan budget cuts, there’d still be mental hospitals or halfway houses open to shelter them. This protest does not stem from “igonorance.” Rather, it is you who have not done your homework.

You make fun of them by saying they go by creed “Subjectivity Is Truth.” So what? Much of politics is subjective. Opinions are subjective. Values are subjective. I don’t see them asking themselves about “the real cause” of their “misdirected impulses.” It’s obvious. Their reasons are political. You don’t tink their impulses should be directed this way. What direction would you have them go? Downplaying their actions as “maladjustment” and “behavioral disfunctions” is absurd. The personal vices of the JLS members you list – “self-importance,” “self-deluding fantasies” and “social ignorance” (what do you mean by that – bad table meanner?) – are irrelevent and should be regarded as such when judging their actions.

A word about John Lennon. we was not the leader of a social movement as were Gandhi and Martin Luther King, whom you cite, but he was part of one, the anti-war protests of the ’60s. And he was non-violent, lik they were, as communicated by his songs and anti-war activities. The JLS seemingly has little organization because of its very nature as a grassroots vehicle for political protest. Picking John Lennon as their namesake does not show “philosophical confusion.” Your objection to the JLS making “a big stink” sounds to me a lot like – “stop complaining.” Political protest is a good deal more than complaining. Political protest consists of people demanding fairness and equal treatment.

Granted, the JLS does come up with some “half-baked ideas,” but these usually fizzle out when met with little attention or support.

You attacked the members of the JLS more than the issues they fight over in your letter, much in the way a politician attacks his opponent rather than debating the issues.

That’s not fair.

ick Cibelli

Sophomore

Political Science