When a lot of us hear the word activist, we conjure up some crazy pictures in our heads.Maybe you envision long-haired, pot-smoking hippies burning the flag and saying something like killing people, especially for political and financial motives. That’s wrong. Or perhaps you think of animal rights nuts who are unstable enough to voice the opinion that a fur coat and veal dinner is extravagant or even cruel. And then there’s my personal favorite, the eco-terrorist, smashing the tools of an evil, polluting corporation like a forgotten but vengeful god.I enjoy hearing about people like that. It does what passes for my soul good to know that at least some folks are willing to buck the system and fight for what is right. But I’m a realist, and I realize a lot of people don’t share my opinion. Some might even consider activists of any stripe to be crackpots or dangerous subversives.When I saw the flyers about “criminal CIA activity on campus” I had my doubts about the legitimacy of the group making such a statement. They did leave a number to call for more information, so I did.I had a few preconceived notions about what I was going to hear, as I’m sure a lot of you might also have had. For the most part, I thought of magic bullets and grassy knolls, and if I was lucky, crazy talk bordering on paranoid schizophrenia, all coming from the mouth of someone I could safely write off as a kook.So I was fairly surprised when I found out that the person I was talking to was actually an Ohio State graduate student, affiliated with a legitimate community group. I was curious to see what someone that mainstream society (and myself) calls respectable would have to say about such a bizarre topic.Aside from recently reported acts, like selling drugs to finance weapons smuggling to politically convenient foreign allies, the CIA has a record of discriminatory hiring practices against white females and minorities of both sexes.They also want to come to OSU to recruit. In the past, they’ve been barred for the hiring practices I’ve just described. OSU didn’t want an organization that discriminates to have the opportunity to recruit at our school. With OSU having a new administration, the CIA views the present as the perfect time to get back on to one of the nation’s largest campuses.Their argument is pretty ridiculous. OSU cites the goal of the promotion of diversity as the reason not to allow a discriminating group to the various career seminars. That makes sense, and I find that stand to be pretty admirable.The CIA’s counter-argument borders on the absurd. It feels that, in the very same spirit of diversity, that more students need to be exposed to an elitist mostly male, mostly white organization. The fact is that there are groups like that out there, so they are a part of the diversity that OSU claims to support. It feels that exposing students to this warped, if all to frequently encountered, world view can only benefit the students as a whole.Whether or not this twisted logic will fly with President Kirwan and company, I don’t know. I do know that in this sick, sad, world we live in, it is more than possible. So anyone who isn’t an apathetic, brain-washed future wage-slave has a couple of options: If the CIA comes to campus, you can ignore or confront them. If you don’t want them to come to campus, you might want to let our administrators know how you feel about the issue.
John Roszkowski is a freshman sociology major from Stow, Ohio who consumed so much alcohol in a drinking contest the other week he sent his opponent to the hospital.
