Apparently the students at Washington University involved in the protests against Peabody Coal feel that the best way to air their grievances is to shut down any voice with which they disagree by walking out of meetings, demonizating their opponents or having them kicked off boards and the University campus. They obviously feel that if your opinion or way of making an honest living does not fit in their pigeonhole, then you have no right to be heard by anyone. All good Marxist and neo-fascists have been using these tactics long before any of these students and their faculty co-conspirators were born.

If these protestors feel so strongly, perhaps they should put their money where their mouths are and cut back on all electrical usage by about 82 percent, the approximate percentage of electrical power produced in Missouri by coal. (Might as well shut down an extra 9-12 percent since that is what is produced in Missouri by nuclear energy, and you guys hate this also!). This would virtually shut down their college careers and their lives in general and send them back to the mid-19th century.

Nobody wants dirty air and we should do everything we can to make sure air stays as clean as possible. But student/faculty temper tantrums will not get the job done.