Rally.

Tomorrow, at 11.30am, the students of Columbia University will rally and show their dissatisfaction with visiting President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will speak at an international conference here.

The school has been swamped over with posters all over campus and beyond for a week now with the man's (mis)deeds, showing his sense of what justice is. TV reporters have been camping outside the school gates, security has been tightened- and though all still largely remains peaceful- just today, the tension is palpable as my friends and I carry out our daily business of schoolwork. Our minds churning with the usual stresses of crazy deadlines, while trying to make sense of what is happening here in our hearts.

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updated*



To be noted, here are some unforgettable points in the opening note, by Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University:

“Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,... you are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated... I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”

(article)