Some students felt extremist, anti-leftist and anti-Obama agendas were being promoted through Freedom Week, which was meant for UT students and community members to honor veterans.
Freedom Week, Nov. 9-13, included the knocking down of the mock Berlin Wall and dedication of the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza.
President of the UT College Democrats Brad Davy, a senior majoring in political science, filed complaints about a display case for the week in the Student Union Building, which contained anti-Obama messages.
One of the posters in the display case said “Let us beware the destructive influences and blind arrogance of the left” and “Leftist Ideas: ‘Progress’ that always leads to death.”
The bill that declared last week as Freedom Week was passed by the Student Senate, sponsored by the UT College Republicans, and was meant to “honor our veterans and those who have sacrificed for freedom around the world.”
“We understand [the College Republicans] have a right to say what they will and speak freely about how they feel about the president,” Davy said. “The major problem is the fact the bill was written about Freedom Week. It was non-political and gained so much support because of that and every American can get behind that.”
Davy said it is unethical to advertise an event as being meant to honor veterans and to use political agendas and statements to advertise the event.
“It’s dirty politics. I think it was deceitful,” he said.
The UT Army ROTC asked to have a poster listing them as a sponsor removed from the display case after seeing the politically affiliated material.
Jonathan Beasley, chair of the military science department, said the Army ROTC was never officially a sponsor, but they were asked to do a color guard for events surrounding Freedom Week.
“We were invited to do a color guard. We’ve never been called a sponsor because we’ve done a color guard,” Beasley said.
“It was brought to my attention that a sign with our name was in a display case with some extremist material and I had a cadet remove the material with our name on it,” he said. “The material with Army ROTC wasn’t inappropriate; it was placed next to things that were inappropriate.”
Beasley said he was contacted by Davy who told him about inappropriate material being displayed with Army ROTC affiliation.
“It just had Freedom Week and there was a picture with the commander in chief that was just derogatory. It was behind a glass case, which puts our affiliation next to those items. When I was told about the extremist material I said, ‘we have to remove the sign with our name on it,’” Beasley said.
The Army ROTC is apolitical and Beasley said he was against participating in the event when he heard it was sponsored by the College Republicans.
“When [the cadets] said it was sponsored by the College Republicans, I said no. But when they came back and said no, it was sponsored by the Student Government, I told them they could go ahead and do a color guard,” Beasley said. “The first thing I was told was it was a College Republican event and if there are no College Democrats involved in the event as well, we can’t do it.”
Beasley said cadets are allowed to have their personal political affiliations, but they cannot show favor to any political party while they are in uniform.
“What’s so frustrating is that we’re continually portrayed as non-patriotic. To have an event called Freedom Week and then to stamp an anti-Obama swing on the event says that the army is not supportive of the commander in chief. Think of what that does to people,” Davy said. “To put other organizations names in connection to an event that was a Student Government sanctioned event then draw support from the ROTC who is legally bound to not be political and sending out the name Freedom Week and say it is to dissolve the myth of socialism is not OK.”
President of the UT College Republicans Matt Rubin, a junior majoring in political science and public administration, said the upset over Freedom Week by the College Democrats is a personal attack on him.
Rubin said he was not the one who put the display case together.
“It’s obviously coming from the College Democrats and it’s unfortunate that it had to be blown out of proportion,” he said. “I really hope in the future they don’t take whatever our organization does personal. To think that I’m doing it to beat up on them is wrong. We organized a pretty successful event with our rallies. It was a great event and it’s sad that it had to come down to personal attacks.”
Rubin said the material in the display case only spoke out against socialist practices and controlling government systems.
“On a couple of flyers, the words leftist and liberal were thrown around and I could see why there may have been some small isolated problems.”
Rubin said he did not receive complaints from any of the organizations involved that were not solved immediately.
“I had a conversation with Major Beasley and there was really no problem that couldn’t be handled by us speaking in person. If there were any type of disturbances, we took care of it right away,” he said. “[The Army ROTC] had a problem with one of the signs so we moved it immediately. We weren’t trying to offend anyone.”
Though Rubin said he responded to concerns about the Freedom Week display case immediately, Davy said his actions were inexcusable.
Davy said Rubin should step down from his position as Vice Chair for the Student Senate because he is using his position to push his political agenda.
“I think that in this instance, [Rubin] has made a mistake and he should own up to his mistake and step down,” he said. “It’s the most logical solution. Some responsibility should be taken.”
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