You have to be crazy to talk about peace

A University of Montana linguistics professor Dennis Holt before spring break decided to share with his students his thoughts on the war.

He told students that he once was a member of the free speech movement in Berkeley, Calif., in the early 1960s, who protested the Vietnam War by holding sit-ins and other peace protests; that he was a former Peace Corps volunteer; and that he once produced a revolutionary newsletter calling for the removal of government.

He expressed to the class that he was deeply disturbed that the war in Iraq had begun, and he drew on poetry, languages, metaphor and mythology to express his angst.

Holt said he explained that he felt the United States had been stolen by people who have their hands at the controls of government and who have gotten into power illegally. He told the class he feels something has gone seriously wrong with this country since 2000 and not enough people are talking about it. What this country needs, he said, is a peaceful takeover of the government.

Because many young people don't have much knowledge about civil disobedience in the United States and don't have experience living in a politically divided country at war, it's no surprise that some students were unsettled by his lecture, Holt said.

"I'm sure some of it seemed kind of crazy," he said.

After class, some students went immediately to the Dean and said he was talking crazy. The Dean sent observors to his other classes that day and they saw nothing out of the ordinary. The Dean suspended him after spring break from the four classes he taught.

According to Holt, Storch said students informed him that during the March 21 class they were afraid of Holt's behavior, which they described as erratic, bizarre and crazylike, and prompted someone to alert campus security.

Storch also informed Holt that over spring break, students and parents of students in the class called to complain about his behavior. To alleviate and amend the situation, Storch told Holt the best solution was to suspend him.

"The suspension has nothing to do with what he may have said about the war. This is not a freedom of speech issue."

Of course not, if you talk about peace you must be crazy.