AALARM Wants to Debate AFARM

"Nazism" was the term employed by AFARM co-founder Joshua Oppenheimer in the Crimson on December 15 of last year to describe the actions of myself and my colleagues in the Alliance against Learning in the Absence of Religion and Morality. While campus conservatives have become somewhat inured to the rhetorical abuses of liberal extremists over the years, we felt that an organization which was to be recognized by the University and funded by the Undergraduate Council and the Office of the Arts should be prepared to step into the public eye and substantiate these claims.

Therefore we immediately challenged these young firebrands to a public debate, sponsored by the IOP and HPU. Now, four months later, we still find AFARM to be wary of any communication outside the realm of Harvard's kiosks and bulletin boards.

In a recent meeting with representatives of AFARM, we again offered our challenge for a structure debate, one which would be open to the Harvard community and allow us to voice our differences in a more coherent manner than the 36-point slogan. However, we were turned down again. The reason? According to AFARM, they seem to taken a kinder an gentler attitude towards campus politics. Objecting to the adversarial relationship one would assume, one representative decried the "drawing of lines" between us. Another observed that due to the upcoming ceremonies surrounding the annulment of marriage between Joshua Oppenheimer '96 and Catherine Corman '96, it would be too difficult for them to schedule an event of this magnitude.

If AFARM intends to fulfill the goals stated in a letter to our presidential council by its president, Alice Shapley, and "renounce irrationality for the discourse of the academy, the discourse of rational and deliberative discussion," it might do well to begin with the long established tradition of debate. Otherwise, we can only assume that they intend for the campus at large to follow the advice Oppenheimer himself gave last December, that "AFARM itself maybe should be perceived as a silly reaction." We agree. Brandford P. Campbell '95   Member   AALARM Presidential Council