After reading through many statements that were posted next to the 700 plus signatures under the petition for Celebrate Brandeis, it seems that the WBC has already helped unite not only Brandeis, but an even larger community. The signatures range from students in Massachusetts to students in Virginia, to staff, to parents, and to friends. They have posted quotes from inspirational individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, and the Beatles. This petition has already shown me, as well as to many others, the strength of our internal community at Brandies, the larger community Brandeis has been able to reach out to, and it’s ability to react sensibly and take an act of hate and use it for a reason to celebrate tolerance and acceptance.
Reacting to a group of protestors which angers at least 700 of us with nonviolence and adversarialism, and not just acting with nonviolence but reacting in such a way to promote a positive message for our community rather then a negative message against theirs, makes me excited for the good the individuals in this community will do in the future, outside of Brandeis.
There were a couple of quotes written next to signatures under the petition that I thought I would share.
Victoria Roomet: “Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” Spoken by a true Baptist minister- Martin Luther King Jr.
Michal Dichter: “Let’s pwn these n00bs!”
Muriel Fine: “My parents were Holocaust survivors. What a triumph over hatred it was for me to have even been born, and lived to send a child to Brandeis. How immeasurably sad that, generations later, my child has to witness the continuation of such ignorance”
Laurel Adams: “ok, think about this. What if the WBC is actually the most altruistic institution in existence? What if they exist as a hate group for the sole purpose of bringing people together, who wouldn’t ordinarily come together, to unite against hate and bigotry? What if they are sacrificing themselves to be the most disliked group in America just so we can see the good in others? I like to think of it that way”.
Jacob Agi: “I am President of the Brandeis Orthodox Organization (BOO). I feel that my group is being personally attacked. On behalf of B.O.O.,I would like to say that I am proud of this campus for rallying around each other, combating the hate of the WBC, and allowing for the hate of the WBC to in-fact bring us closer together as a campus”.
Rozi Levi (My CA!) “I love this community!!!”
If you have yet to do it, please take a minute to read over the petition.