Decision ‘08

Loyola University Lecturer Calls Troops Mercenaries, War Criminals

It doesn’t get much more incendiary (or idiotic) than this. Dr. June Tersptra is a lecturer in ‘Social Justice’ (read: Marxist politicial thought) at Loyola University, and she makes William Arkin look like a piker:

A room full of students listened as a US Marine told of the invasion of Baghdad and Falluja and how he killed innocent Iraqis at a check point. He called them “collateral damage” and said he had followed the “rules.”

A Muslim-American student in front of him said “I could slap you but then you would kill me.” A young female Muslim student gasped “I am a freshman; I never thought to hear of this in a class. I feel sick, like I will pass out.”

I knew in that moment that this was what the future of teaching about justice would include: teaching war criminals who sit glaring at me with hatred for daring to speak the truth of their atrocities and who, if paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me. I wondered that night how long I really have in this so called “free” country to teach my students and to be with my children and grandchildren.

The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred. Sacrificing for the “bling and booty” in Iraq or Afghanistan, Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of killing the Indians and stealing their land.

Many of the classes that I teach now include students who “served” in the US military and security corporations. There are also many students who intend to join the US military upon completion of a degree because with the degree they get a bigger “sign on” bonus of ten to fifty thousand dollars. Their position is supported by many of the student body, who, vegetating according to the American Plan, believe they should “support their troops.”

The excuses that they give for joining or intending to join the US military terrorist training camps are first and foremost motivated by a desire for money.

Apparently not content to dig the hole, “Dr.” Terpstra (hey, if she can use that many double quotation marks inappropriately, so can I) begins to fill the dirt in on top of her head:

What appears to trouble the soldier student is that the rhetoric of fighting for freedom and democracy is a lie that cannot blanket the horror and guilt of their terrorism. They do not want to hear that participation in invasion and occupation, murder and pillaging, is logically inconsistent with any legitimate concept of freedom or liberation. They know the greed and programmed lust for violence that motivates them. They expect that if they can make it out alive, they get some money, a comfortable lifestyle and an education.

Their plan is to secure the oil, the diamonds, the gold, the water, the guns, the drugs, and the bling for their masters, who they hope will cut them in on the swag. They say that someone has to be on top and they want to be on the side of the strong, not the weak. Robbing Hoods, not Robin Hoods.

And now, here they sit in my course on social justice, terrorist war criminals, wanting high paying “criminal justice” jobs in a university Justice Studies program. They want approval, appreciation and honors for terrorism, torture, and murder. They want a university degree so they can get an even higher salary terrorizing more people around the world with security companies such as Blackwater or Halliburton. They want that appropriately named “sheepskin” so they can join the CIA, FBI, and other police and track down and terrorize US residents here.

These military and mercenary terrorist-students are trained in terrorist training camps all under the USA, funded by American taxpayers. In fact, people under the USA are “sacrificing” their health care and their children’s educations while donating their tax dollars to these terrorist training camps. These terrorist camps train money hungry working class stiffs to murder, steal and plunder for the power hungry US corporate war lords.

There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”. My response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell, whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are about to be.[sic]

If I were a Loyola alum, or current or prospective student, I might just wonder what the hell my money was going towards. I might even go one step further and tell the powers that be to get that idiot the hell off of the payroll…

I’m bringing back the Weekly Jackass just long enough to award it to the “esteemed” Dr. Terpstra…

UPDATE 02/22/07 7:02 p.m.: As noted in the comments below, Dr. Terpstra is no longer associated with Loyola, and stated that the classroom conversation referred to took place at another university entirely. At the time I posted this, she was listed as a part-time lecturer at Loyola, but the page has since been updated, so I assume the information was out of date at the time…

5 Responses to “Loyola University Lecturer Calls Troops Mercenaries, War Criminals”

1 Wake up America> Says:
February 15th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
If You Do Not Like It Here…..LEAVE

This and other sniveling worms should not be allowed to teach in our schools….schools are meant to teach our children facts, not drivel such as this.
2 If You Do Not Like It Here…..LEAVE at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source. Says:
February 15th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
[…] Others discussing this:UrbanGrounds, Decision ‘08, Dean’s World, Right Wing News, QandO and The Jawa Report […]
3 crawlinkingsnake Says:
February 15th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Ive heard this one before….What she means to say is Bush is stupid.
4 Anthony Bahr Says:
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Dr. Terpstra is no longer affiliated with Loyola University Chicago and was not associated with the university at the time the column was written. Included is her reply to an email I sent her directly.

It would be greatly appreciated if a correction was made.

Thank you,
Anthony Bahr, 2LT, USAF
Loyola University Chicago, BA ‘06

I want to make it very clear to supporters and detractors alike that the facts of the classroom discussion that took place over a week ago are as follows. The discussion did not take place at Loyola University Chicago as some Internet sources are saying. I am presently not teaching at Loyola but I did receive my PhD from Loyola University Chicago, and I was a community research fellow there in the 1990s. Currently I am on the faculty at Northeastern Illinois University.

In Solidarity for the Liberation of the Oppressed, June Scorza Terpstra
5 Mark Says:
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
At the time I posted this, she was listed as a part-time lecturer at Loyola’s website. It appears they have updated the page, and she is no longer listed there. I’ll make the correction…