141 Presidential Scholars were being honored recently at the White House. After the president told them that it was important in their future careers to treat others as they would like to be treated and to make choices they would be able to live with, they handed him a letter signed by close to 50 of the students that read…
“As members of the Presidential Scholars class of 2007, we have been told that we represent the best and brightest of our nation. Therefore, we believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions. We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.”
The mother of one of the students was also a Scholar, and she has forever regretted not speaking up to President Johnson regarding the war in Vietnam, when she had her chance. (Column by Amy Goodman)
Link submitted by Christophe Bedeaux
Apparently what happened has made a lot of noise… an editorial was published in NYT:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0F14F7345B0C748EDDAF0894DF404482
You can see a video (from wkyc/3 TV news) about what happened…
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?ref=RSS&storyid=70535
You can also read the blog from Mari Michener Oye who lauched the idea:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mari-michener-oye/a-note-is-not-
enough_b_55409.html
She said what she feelt now about it… so that could be inspiring…
Bush alters rules for interrogations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_terrorism;_ylt=AmPaDPT0tiDGryees7WOMcWs0NUE