Donahue, Ratner Discuss War and Terrorism at Goodman Symposium

[struggle4progress]

By Michael Nevradakis
Editor-in-Chief

Amidst a packed audience in the Student Activities Center auditorium Thursday, well-renowned former talk show host Phil Donahue and the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner spoke on issues of terrorism, war, free speech and civil liberties in today's age, as part of the seventh annual George Goodman symposium. The event was part of the university's Provost's Lecture Series, and was in honor of the memory of George Goodman, a former professor of Opthomology at the Stony Brook University medical school, and father of well-known journalist and host of the Democracy Now! radio and televison public affairs program Amy Goodman, who was also in attendance. <snip>

"Guantanamo and Abu Gharib are iconic symbols of what this administration is doing," said Ratner. "...We are now living in an outlaw state."

Ratner attributed the success of many of the ongoing policies of the Bush administration to the lack of a progressive movement to oppose those policies, closing off his speech by saying: "This is not a time to sit on our hands. It is not a time to be summer soldiers, it's a time to be winter soldiers, and to really get out there and end torture at Guantanamo and really bring this administration down."
<snip>

"The American public is largely standing mute while the Bill of Rights is being shredded," said Donahue. "More and more young men and women are giving their lives to an immoral, unnecessary, unconstitutional, unwinnable war, and the American populace is standing largely mute." <snip>

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