Assemblyman takes issue with heckling
New York Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli wrote a letter criticizing the treatment of a Columbia University student/Iraq veteran who was heckled during a recent ROTC forum. Photo courtesy www.assembly.state.ny.us

Assemblyman takes issue with heckling

When Columbia student and former Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Maschek was heckled during a school forum discussing ROTC on campus, it struck a nerve with New York Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli. Castelli, a veteran himself, was angry that a young man who was shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008 was shown a lack of respect by his fellow students.

A college professor and Vietnam War veteran, Castelli wrote a letter to Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger and CC’d, among others, American Legion Department of New York Commander V. James Troiola. The letter was shared with National Commander Jimmie L. Foster, who praised Castelli.

“The American Legion praises Assemblyman Castelli for standing up for former Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Maschek and all veterans currently enrolled in colleges throughout the country,” Foster said. “His letter hit on every pertinent point. Our veterans deserve to be treated, at the very least, with the same respect as any of their fellow students.”

The following is Castelli’s letter:

Dear President Bollinger:

I read with dismay in the New York Post, in the article dated February 20th, 2011, of the treatment received by an Iraqi War veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

As a champion of diversity, I would expect that you could convey to your students the fact that they do not need to honor the war to respect and honor our warriors. The treatment of this young veteran who was wounded eleven times in the service of his country is abhorrent, to say the least.

Having been a College Professor for the past thirteen years in several colleges, and the Chair of one department, I fully recognize the desire to allow our students to be heard and their right to legitimate dissent in a free society.

However, as a Vietnam Veteran who also suffered the abuse of an insensitive, but thankfully small segment of our society upon my return from war in 1969, I am acutely aware of this abuse and the need for it to cease and desist immediately.

To think that students in an Ivy League school who purport to be intelligent, insightful, and open-minded, would treat a wounded veteran with such disdain, is nothing short of disgraceful. As the Ranking Member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee in the New York State Assembly, I believe you should devote some of your sensitivity training to the treatment of our nation’s veterans.

Whether Columbia chooses to allow an ROTC program on its campus or not, is not the point. What is the point, is that members of our military who served their country and risked their lives on all our behalf, should be treated with the same dignity and respect that your institution demands for any diverse member of our population.

I respectfully request that you open up a dialogue with your students and convey to them that sensitivity about diversity should be extended to all Americans, most especially those heroic enough to risk their lives in the service of this great nation.

Respectfully Submitted,

ROBERT J. CASTELLI

Member of the Assembly

89th District