RE: SUMMER 2020 ONLINE-ONLY EDITION

Home too Soon

Great story! I don’t think any of us 7,300 volunteers wanted to leave our host countries, but we were given no choice. All of our hearts are broken.

—Jason Michael Walker (@skywalker1640) via Twitter

A Voice for the Voiceless

Thank you for sharing [Sarah Ripoli’s] story. She’s truly an inspiration.

—Marguerite Stocker via Facebook

Woodrow Wilson Flunks out of Monmouth

I was never proud of my alma mater’s association with the name of Woodrow Wilson. A disaster capitalist and white supremacist, Wilson was known by many in his day as a “liberal fascist”; a great friend of the KKK; and a power-seeking, ego-driven war criminal.

Wilson abandoned neutrality and got Congress to insert this country into World War I for no definitive or convincing reason. As a result, at least 115,000 Americans died horrible and unnecessary deaths. Through his Justice Department, Wilson was also responsible for arresting tens of thousands of citizens, including a five-time presidential candidate, who were lawfully protesting and resisting that unwarranted military disaster.

In 1918, the H1N1 flu became a worldwide pandemic. It should be called the “American Flu” because it was likely to have originated in American training bases and was then exported to Europe on crowded troop ships. Wilson never spoke about it publicly, nor did anything to stop it, because he and his advisors wanted our troops in battle, whatever the cost, and he didn’t want to lower the morale of the troops and the people back home. So 45,000 troops, at least 600,000 American civilians, and 50 million people worldwide died from that virus.

It took George Floyd’s public lynching to raise the consciousness and the outrage, which have become the catalysts of social, cultural, and political revolution in America and around the world. Congratulations to Monmouth’s Board of Trustees for unanimously voting to remove Wilson’s name from the University’s marquee building. I urge them to also remove any traces of that man that may exist anywhere else on the Monmouth University campus.

—Fred Dente ’65

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