Controversy erupted at Columbia University recently when students protesting the return of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps., banned since the Vietnam era, booed an Iraq war hero and freshman named Anthony Maschek. Before he was called a “racist” by some members of the audience, here’s what Maschek (right), 28, told the assembly:
First of all, if you want to villainize the military, you’re looking at it in the face right now. My name is Anthony Maschek, I served in the Army for nine years, deployed three times, I’ve been in a lot of bad places, sniper-trained, I was shot nine times in Iraq, I spent two years in Walter Reed — none of which I regret, because it all lead me right here to this microphone.
Many of these arguments that you have have merit in some instances, but they do not have merit in terms of ROTC. What my speech is going to be about is personal responsibility.
If you invite ROTC onto this campus right now, are you going to hate transgender people, are you going to discriminate against them? If you do, that’s your problem, not ROTC. I don’t believe that anyone who joins ROTC is going to discriminate against transgender people just because they’re in ROTC. If you think that the military preys on the poor and the weak, then you have to think that you’re the one excluding them from Columbia University.
I think we can all agree this is a very expensive place to go. When you exclude ROTC from this area, you’re forcing them into those poor areas. It’s not just the military’s fault; it’s your fault as well.
It doesn’t matter how you feel about war, it doesn’t matter how you feel about fighting. Other parts of the world are plotting to kill you right now when you go to bed. It’s not a joke. There are a lot of tough men out there willing to do bad things to bad people to keep you safe. These people seriously are trying to kill you. They hate America, they hate you.
It’s true. I’m not lying about it because I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I know these people. So when you think that war is evil, it’s true — I believe you and I agree, war is evil. But it’s not a choice that you have and it’s not a choice that I have.
I guess the choice is don’t fight and die or you can stand up for yourself and not. That’s true. When you decide that you want to exclude ROTC from Columbia, you are yourself discriminating against people who want to do great things for their country.