Joseph Sesin: The Solomon bandwagon

Un-American. That's what the amicus brief just issued by the University arguing against the Solomon Amendment is.

The Solomon Amendment is basically a piece of legislature that prohibits the parceling of federal funds to institutions that bar military recruiters on campus. What it boils down to is this: If a school feels so strongly against the idea of military sign-ups on it's grounds, then it reserves the right to not allow them to recruit on premises. But if it does so, then the federal government reserves the right to deny that institution funding. Seems like a fair trade off, right? You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours -- but I don't have to if you don't want to.

But the University refuses to acknowledge the basis of a fair agreement, and is peeling through law books trying to find some way out of adhering to a simple bargain. Now, that would all be fine if the bargain constituted something absolutely insane -- we have all made deals we wish we could have wiggled our way out of. But this is no such case.

In more than one way, the University of Pennsylvania and the other six schools that have submitted briefs owe their ability to operate as exploratory and innovative centers of thought to the U.S. government, and more specifically the U.S. military. Now there are certainly things that the U.S. military does not agree with the University of Pennsylvania about, namely its support and promotion of anti-military groups and rallies, and I can imagine that there would be a few more ideological differences between the two, but I'll save those for another day.

The point is, regardless of whether or not the military agrees with the University or not, it still has to defend Penn's right to hold that view. That is the beauty of America, we can think whatever we want without fear of being persecuted or left out to dry by the government, but that is also our greatest weakness. As Americans, we forget that the institutions that protect our rights are entitled to their opinions as well, whether or not we agree with them or not. We become so afraid that our values will be infringed that we look to alienate the very aspects of society that were designed first and foremost to protect us. Everyone is entitled to opinion, even the U.S. military.

If only it was that simple. Of course, the way things are today, it is almost a must that the University hop on the high-profile bandwagon and take a stand against the unfair oppression of ideas. This whole issue isn't about principle, it's about image. And in the world we live in, image is all that matters.

If Penn really wanted to take a moral and ideological stand, it would kick those recruiters off campus today, no questions asked, and take the financial hit it would bring upon itself. But we all know that this will never happen. The days of courageous stands in support of ardently held ideas are long gone. All we have now are players in a political game trying to create that impression, and doing a shameful job while at it.

It's un-American that Penn is trying to kick off military recruiters from campus on the basis that they discriminate against gays. But Penn stoops to even lower levels when it camouflages its plight to make headlines behind a phony ideological stand.

Joseph Sesin is a freshman in the College.

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