Word: argumentative
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...called into question in July of this past summer, when a group of East Boston teenagers firebombed the home of a Guatemalan family at mid-day. On July 23, the family had been picnicking on the grounds of the East Boston project, where its apartment was located, when an argument began between one of the grandmothers and a white woman of comparable age who also lived in the area...
...When the argument abated, the family members, few of whom speak English, packed their belongings and went home. Within a few hours an estimated 200 white teenagers surrounded the project and demanded that the family come out. Bricks and rocks were thrown at the apartment, one hitting the youngest baby. When the police were finally called, the family was taken to a nearby police station with the understanding that their property would be protected. In their absence, their apartment was firebombed with molotov cocktails that completely destroyed all of their possessions...
...open letter, President Bok's argument is presented as if it were a deductively logical discourse accurately representing the reality of the Harvard community's South Africa dilemma. Let us look first to the argument's, underlying assumptions, second, to its logic, and finally, to the choice it represents...
...agenda control and by separating "the reasoned expression of ideas and arguments" from a collective decision on the basis of these arguments, Bok has rendered reason impotent. Of course divestiture supporters have had to appeal to extra-systemic means of expressing their point of view! Bok attempts to dominate this point of view by labelling it emotional." I wonder at the horror this word arouses. Yes, confronting the reality of the human condition does involve emotion (some even go so far to claim that this is what humanizes us, offers us a vision of what's truly meaningful and purposeful...
Throughout his contorted argument, Bok assumes a trade-off between academic freedom and moral freedom. He creates the "real administrative burdens" by his resistance to change and all his apologetic propoganda. Finally he is left with the one remaining issue that rings of truth: real financial losses. And despite his disclaimer, university corporations are individuals under the law. His financial ethic is one of private greed, not public responsibility...