Early Wednesday morning, the ROTC building at Reynolds Coliseum was covered with red paint and anti-war messages like “training murderers.” Acts of vandalism were also committed at the ROTC building at UNC. The person or group responsible for these actions have not yet been identified, although the person or group sent out an e-mail to 27 media outlets in regards to the vandalism.
The e-mail informed the media outlets that if they had interview questions, they should e-mail them back before noon on Thursday. Although the person or group refused to comment on many questions, their message was clear: the war is wrong. The e-mail was signed “Sylvia.”
“There is a war going on every day; a war of bombs and bullets, war of police harassment and profiling, a war of patriotic repression, a war on our creativity and our ability to think for ourselves, a war of subtle exclusion,” the email read.
Jason Yellick, a senior in mathematics and computer science, did not agree.
“A war on our creativity and our ability to think for ourselves?” Yellick said. “Not that they’re being overdramatic — don’t you hate it when ROTC walks into your classroom and prevents you from reading Emerson at gunpoint?”
Some cadets in the ROTC program said they felt the act was an act of cowardice. The person or group responsible did not think that way.
“These actions are intended to inspire, to demonstrate that it is possible to do something — symbolically or directly — to address the large and small problems around us,” the e-mail said.
Another act was committed against the Naval Armory at UNC in recent weeks, according to the Daily Tarheel. “Sylvia” refused to comment on whether these acts were related.
“It takes courage not to sit in complicity to a country that wages physical and economic wars on millions across the world,” the e-mail continued.
Yellick said he does not feel that is the way to go about it.
“Anonymously painting over government property isn’t a statement, it’s juvenile vandalism,” Yellick said. “If they want to make a difference, why don’t they write a book, run for office or do something constructive instead of pretending that their pathetic excuse for a statement will change anything.”
Opinions like that do not faze the person or persons responsible. They believe actions like these are what make the government more apt to respond.
“We do not value property over human life,” the email said. “It is not enough to speak out against the atrocities of this government here or abroad. This government does not listen to people’s voices. It responds to money and action. To stop an unjust government, you cannot protest it on their terms.”
In regards to why this person or persons targeted the Army ROTC despite the fact that many who oppose the war still respect the military, the e-mail said, “ROTC represents an early induction into military indoctrination. They are a violation to a healthy environment.”
Campus Police is investigating the case further in hopes of finding more leads on who this person is or what group is responsible for the vandalism.
