Room 36-423

May 7, 1970

Ext. 4707

To the Editor
The Boston Globe
135 William T. Morrissay Boulevard
Boston, Massachusetts 02127

Dear sir:

The newspapers and other media frequently report statements by
politicians and private citizens decrying the violence "of students'
and black people's protests."  When one looks into the serious
violence one often finds that the actual violent acts are carried
out by those people who, by reason 6f their mission in society,
should be responsible for preventing violence not only in others
but in themselves.

Thus, NatSional; Guardsmen shoot into an unarmed crowd of students
at Kent State `University.

Thus, Cambridge policemen on May 5 savagely beat up two MIT doctoral
students inside a police station.

While deploring these acts of brutal violence on the part of
individual guardsmen and policemen, we must look for the responsibility
and where it truly belongs.

When elected officers such as Richadd Nixon and Spiro Agnew use violent
words and scurrilous epithets in referring to our concerned youth --
and the President of the United States finds nothing else to say after
the Kent State murders except blaming the murders on the murdered
people -- it is surprising that these seeds of anger and hatred 40
not cause more wounds and more deaths.

Let those in power beware lest their irresponsible words and actions
destroy all sense of responsibility in this nltion.

Sincerely yours,

ssl/na

S. E. Luria
Ssdgwick Professor of Biology