Economic injustice all around

Dear Editor:

So it finally happened. May 4 was denied funding. It's not a big surprise, really. They've been trying to suppress this thing ever since it happened. But rather than use my letter to place blame on a biased Senate, I would like to write about economic injustice. My organization, CHANGE, has voiced support for the May 4 appeal. Why would a group concerned primarily with labor rights care about what happened on May 4? Well, I'll tell you.

CHANGE is fighting for economic justice, not as an end in itself, but as a means of achieving a greater goal of creating a fair, free, peaceful and cooperative society. Why did the events of May 4, 1970 happen? Gov. Rhodes was trying win an election, and he needed the support of wealthy and middle-class conservatives who saw the anti-war movement as a threat to the established social order. The activists were protesting a war the United States would never have entered if it weren't for the country's need to demonize communism and to direct attention away from the great class divide and economic injustice in this country.

And what about the Viet Cong? Problems with communism notwithstanding, this group was made up of desperately poor people, victims of centuries of western economic imperialism, fighting for their piece of the pie. Neither the Vietnam War nor the events of May 4th, 1970, could have happened in a classless society. If we lived in a classless society, Kent State would have four more successful graduates and four less stone slabs in a parking lot.

But we do not live in a classless society. The United States has a greater gap between rich and poor than any other developed country in the world. People die on the street every day, not because they're lazy or worthless but because we refuse to see them. Our clothes are made with the blood of Third World children who toil away to pad the pockets of American billionaires. The men and women who clean the toilets in our dorms are living below the poverty level while $60,000 of our tuition money is going to pay Barbara Bush, who could live in perfect comfort from the value of her jewelry collection.

The brave men and women who died at Kent State, Jackson State and elsewhere as a result of their political beliefs were killed for many reasons: political tension, clash of ideologies and tragic circumstance. But ultimately their deaths were a result of a system of class division, privilege and oppression that encourages violence and hinders social justice. If the May 4 Task Force's appeal fails, those responsible will claim they were only following procedure. And they will be telling the truth. It's time to transcend the system. It's time for social justice. And it's time for the members of the Allocations Committee to step out of their bureaucratic boxes and look at the bigger picture.

Mike Pesa

Freshman, history major