October 6, 2014
Mr. Robert Kenny
Interim President
Goddard College
123 Pitkin Road
Plainfield, VT 05667
Dear Mr. Kenny:
On
behalf of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA)
which represents 26,000 Special Agents and Officers from 65 Federal Law
Enforcement Agencies, I can't express enough disgust and disbelief at
your choice to have your commencement address delivered by Mumia
Abu-Jamal, a heinous and unapologetic cop killer serving a life sentence
for murdering twenty-five year-old Philadelphia police officer Danny
Faulkner.
Your attempt to justify your selection by stating that
it "shows how this newest group of Goddard graduates expresses their
freedom to engage and think radically and critically in a world that
often sets up barriers to do just that" is hardly a justification for
your actions and that of your misguided students.
To label a
menace to society as some sort of radical person that should be speaking
to our young men and women as some sort of teaching tool is
unconscionable - it is an affront to the morals and values of our
citizenry.
Radical people are those who stand up for they believe
is right regardless of the cost to them and/or their freedom. This
doesn't correlate with a person one who ambushed a police officer, shot
that officer in the back, and while that officer lay wounded and
defenseless on the ground, lowered a gun to the officer's face and took
his life. Abu-Jamal has never apologized or expressed any regret for
his heinous crime. To the contrary, after the murder, Abu-Jamal boasted,
"I killed the [police officer], and I hope the [police officer] dies."
This
is not a racial, religious or political issue. The issue is of simple
humanity and not glorifying a murderer. Regardless of the fact
that the victim was a law enforcement officer or a person just walking
down the street, someone who executes an innocent human being is not
someone to be looked up to.
By your line of reasoning, your next
commencement speaker should be the ISIS terrorists who are beheading
innocent civilians. Wouldn't that give your students a chance to hear
from "radical" individuals and think critically?
Finally, you and
the students who made this choice should be ashamed of yourselves. You
either have all lived a life of privilege with no idea of how real
people live or how violence touches peoples' lives or you are incredibly
callous and self-important. You can only pray that you never have to be
in the situation where the murderer of someone you love is made into
some subversive hero and "radical."
Sincerely,
Frank Terreri
National Vice President for Legislative Affairs
FAMs Agency President