As one of the students on hunger strike, I wanted to respond to the "dart" Students for a Democratic Society received from the Alligator editorial board on Friday.
For many of us, the reason we began the socially responsible investment (SRI) campaign is because of the occupation of Iraq. Outside of holding signs and marches, there is no tangible way to affect the war from UF's campus other than to divest in companies that are profiting from war or are involved in the defense industry.
The campaign was born out of this idea and has grown to encompass much more. I also suppose the Alligator must have missed a call from one of the vets speaking at Winter Soldier for students to join SDS, an event we helped organize.
If people fail to see the correlation between the war and the SRI campaign, this is more than disappointing for someone such as myself, who joined the campaign because of the war.
Furthermore, I just want to clarify that I agree that a fruit-juice fast is not a real hunger strike. Unfortunately, the Alligator quoted one of the only participants consuming juice. The vast majority of strikers, including myself, are only consuming water.
