American Victory

In November of last year, student organizers at Drake University in Des Moines, IA, in conjunction with a local affiliate of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the Catholic Peace Ministry, held an antiwar conference and a non-violent protest at the local HQ of the National Guard.

Earlier this month, according to The Progressive, four activists were served with subpoenas from a local federal agent, a member of the Joint FBI Terrorism Task Force. The university was also subpoenaed, ordered to turn over documents of those students who had attended the conference, along with the names of those involved in the NLG. As part of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Drake was under a federal gag order and thus could not discuss the subpoena under penalty of law.

There is some confusion over why the peace activists and the university had been subpoenaed. The U.S. Attorney who issued the subpoenas, Stephen Patrick O'Meara, said there had been "a savage attack" on a police officer at a nearby protest, at Camp Dodge, which occured around the same time as the National Guard protest. According to Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa ACLU, the only protester who was charged with assault was a local librarian who had "gone limp" when arrested. The Des Moines Register reports she was charged with assault for allegedly kicking a sheriff's deputy during her arrest. Either way, it seemed to be a weak case for demanding the records of student attendees at a conference. (The librarian was not employed by Drake University.)

As Bob Patton, an old liberal cartoonist friend of mine, once told me, never try to rile a group of politically active Iowans. This has indeed been the case; after much protest by said Iowans, including the university's president, and from civil liberties organizations across the country, the U.S. Attorney's office withdrew both the subpoenas and the gag order against Drake University on 10 February, the same day the Des Moines Register article came out.

There are many breeds of soldiers, who serve their country in a variety of ways. There are soldiers who defend our country from military attack. There are soldiers who battle physical and social ailments that weaken our nation: disease, poverty, ignorance. There are soldiers who defend our democracy, with pens, signs, and voices. When the government strives to weaken one soldier, it weakens all soldiers. The Vietnam War and its aftermath is a bleak reminder of the danger in implementing such a policy. A victory for a few protesters and a modestly-sized Midwestern university is a victory for all.