Editor’s Note: The piece Mueller is responding to was originally published in Vol. 59, Issue 16, as a sub-article under the series “Protest perspectives with the Guardian’s Opinion Writers.” The UCSD Guardian welcomes feedback, criticism, and continued dialogue from our readers in the form of letters to the editor. Our full policies for submission can be found here.
Avani,
I hope this email finds you well. I read your commentary, “Leave the guns at home,” in the February 9, 2026 edition. I wanted to express my agreement and disagreement with certain parts of your column.
As a student of the 1960s, I loved your reference to the 1968 DNC in Chicago. I think it is important for this generation of protestors to learn from the history of the anti-war movement and realize that the disorderly, aggressive form of protest which some groups are currently leading can easily bring about the conservative backlash embodied in the call for “law and order.” But there is a more important lesson to be learned here. Chicago police beat protesters over the head with batons, gassed them and dragged them across concrete, whereas most protesters were peaceful and, at most, threw sticks and rocks at police. To criticize their protest as politically ineffective is to give in to this sort of lifeless centrism in which we are always willing to apologize for the way we issue our demands. I do not want to be a part of a political movement which is more concerned with perfecting its appearance than it is with achieving justice in fact. In my view, what we need at this moment is a principled liberal movement which refuses to compromise in its defense of what is right, but still resists the arguments of those arrogant few who say that “sometimes violence is the answer.” The only fact that matters in the case of Alex Pretti was that his murder was “both unnecessary and unjustified.” The buck stops there.
One more thing: the date reads “February 9, 2025” on pages 4 and 5 of the paper. The last sentence of your column also lacks a period. These are small errors, but if you are going to advocate that all political expression be consummate and professional then I might suggest you begin by cleaning up your own paper. Nay, nay, I jest.
Best regards,
Grant Mueller
