Speaking Truth to Power Is A Great Way to Learn

Truth Is Costly When It Contradicts the Lies of the Powerful

BILL ASTORE

Though the sentiment has been wrongly attributed to George Orwell, it makes sense to say that in an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Two graduating college students recently decided to tell the truth about Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The first student, Logan Rozos, said he’d searched his heart, a search which led him to condemn mass murder in Palestine.

New York University responded by denouncing his statement and withholding his diploma.

At George Washington University, another student-speaker, Cecilia Culver, used her speech to denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza and U.S. complicity in the same. I haven’t heard as yet how she will be punished.

It’s truly hard to be a “prestigious university” when you have no moral spine.

It’s nice to think that speaking truth to power works, except that the powerful already know the truth, indeed they work hard to define what is “truth” and what isn’t, and they will indeed punish those who pose a threat to manufactured notions of truth.

I commend these students for speaking boldly and honestly, as democracy withers when it’s defined and dominated by lies. They truly earned their diplomas, even if the powerful conspire to take them away.

These students have learned a valuable lesson that really can’t be taught in classrooms: that doing the right thing, when it’s contrary to the dictates and interests of powerful entities, is risky and will often lead to severe repercussions. Just ask truth-tellers like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Daniel Hale.

One thought on “Speaking Truth to Power Is A Great Way to Learn”

  1. Many thanks for this insight into what’s going on at least some colleges and universities, that young graduates are showing far more sensibility and courage than their quisling elders. I wasn’t aware of any coverage of either graduate on the mainstream broadcast news (no surprise there), but I found out there was an article in the NYT on May 15th https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/nyregion/nyu-commencement-speaker-pro-palestinian-diploma.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IU8.5ELj.BivB1V7Xrytx&smid=url-share which is worth the read as it included responses from a lackey spokesman for NYU and of course the obligatory check with the ADL, with its standard outrage and umbrage.

    I didn’t watch the entire video with Logan Rozos, but enough to catch to rousing cheers he got from his classmates, and others in the audience, and what I think were catcalls for sporadic Zionists at quieter moments.

    Did a search for the GWU graduate-speaker Cecilia Culver but came up with nothing (same results I got in searching the Boston Globe).

    The Culver video being shorter, I watched the entire thing, which also had boisterous cheers from the audience. The denouement was juicy too, when at the conclusion of her speech, a dean(?) or president(?) of the school took to the podium and said, “Thank you, Cecilia. Here in Colombian College we represent a variety of views and we thank you for sharing your words and your views.”

    In other words, a rote playing of the CYAA (Cover Your Administrator’s Ass) card. In yet other words, “I’ve got some excuse when the Zionist donors, members of the board of trustees, AIPAC and the ADL start coming after me.” In yet other other words, the genocide is just another matter of subjective interpretation (hence, why bother with education?).

    The clutch that the Zionists and Israel-supporting Jews (is there a difference?) have on higher education in this country is as frightening as it is pervasive. It’s a long story, going back to the founders of Zionism (Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion, Sokolov & Co. in the early 20th century, with the latest machinations revealed here https://consortiumnews.com/2025/05/15/militant-zionists-spurred-us-arrest-of-pro-palestine-student-judge-rules/. “A U.S. federal court in Massachusetts has ruled that the detention of a former student who expressed pro-Palestine views was unconstitutional and that it was a punitive measure triggered almost solely by a complaint from the Zionist militant group Betar.”

    Undoubtedly Logan Rozos and Cecilia Culver are now in the Mossad database. May they be well protected in their homes, on their job searches, in their lives.

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