THEY'D BE ASHAMED

By Dennis Melby

• Esther Gelman, Democrat of the Montgomery County Council
• William McGill, President of Columbia University
• Carl Sagan, Author and Astronomer of Cornell University

All folks I’ve known, all folks I’ve worked with.  I’m glad they’re not here to see what’s going on today. 

Esther was a hard charging Montgomery County Council woman, Jewish, Democrat and a great county patriot. We had our political differences but liked and respected each other. The greater Gelman family did so much for George Washington University, but it’s recently become the site of so much anti-Semitic activity and loud, threatening activity towards Jewish people. She’d be ashamed.

Bill McGill was President of Columbia University. I worked for him at the White House when he chaired a Presidential Commission. He used to tell me about, while he was college president, having to cower in his house with his family during the student demonstrations that rocked his campus. He would not have believed the violent demonstrations today on campus that are making the Jewish students cower in their dorms. And the half hearted response from the current administration. He would be ashamed.

Carl Sagan was an Astronomer, writer, professor, teacher and futurist. Again, I worked with him on the same presidential commission. He was a populist and his writings and his stories resounded with the public. He was remarkable in his ability to communicate what the future would hold. He taught at Cornell University, popular with the students but not popular with the faculty because of their jealousy at the success of his Cosmos series. Today Cornell is a hotbed of anti-Semitic activity, with folks pushing the administration to do the right thing. He would be embarrassed.

Truly, did you ever think you’d see the day when antisemitism was taking over the streets of America, if not the world? I always thought the LEFT was better than that, but so many of them are turning on the very folks that supported them and their radical ideas over the years. 

Normalcy, freedom of thought and expression, calm discussions on campus have been replaced with wokeism and Group Think. And it’s getting worse.

No, I never thought I’d see this day. I thought we had learned the lessons of the past and would not repeat them. It saddens me and I'm glad so many didn't live to see this happen again.

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Dennis Melby is the Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Montgomery County, Maryland and can be reached at [email protected]