The SU community shouldn’t be quick to judge the Coker twins’ legacy

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We are friends and roommates of Jason and Eric Coker, who were part of the Syracuse University Abroad program in London during the fall of 1988. They were victims of the horrific Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing, and the impetus for the SU Remembrance Scholars Program.

The revelation last week that each used antisemitic language in a personal letter is painful and difficult to understand. This news has forced us to engage in deep soul-searching and self-reflection around the two years we lived with them, forged strong friendships with them and shared our lives, perspectives, experiences and thoughts with them.

To justify their actions in any way would be unjust. What they wrote was wrong. It was hurtful, offensive, and inappropriate back in 1988, today and all the time in between. Prejudice, bias and bigotry are always unjust and should not be tolerated by any of us.

The efforts of the SU community and the current Remembrance Scholars to confront all forms of discrimination is inspiring. We are confident if Jason and Eric were alive today, they would agree and apologize for their ignorance and words from 34 years ago. They would ask forgiveness of those who were and are hurt by their actions.
Unfortunately, confronting one’s own biases and prejudices takes a lifetime of learning and growing. Tragically, neither Jason nor Eric was afforded the privilege of time to continue maturing, learning and growing.

We, along with many of their friends, have spent the last 34 years keeping the memory of Jason and Eric alive because they were kind, decent, intelligent young men with big hearts who were loyal friends until the day they passed. We lived with them, traveled with them, met their families, spent countless hours talking to them and watched the way they interacted with everyone and the kindness and empathy they showed to others.

To say Jason and Eric had a “legacy of hate” and “were clearly antisemitic” as published in these pieces is irresponsible and unfair to the twins, their families and their friends. To us, it seems equally unjust to pass judgment or say those things without ever having met Jason or Eric or talking to the people who did. I am Jewish and have experienced antisemitism numerous times in my life. As Eric’s roommate and a friend of both twins, I can share with the strongest conviction that Eric and Jason were not hateful or antisemitic people.

What Eric and Jason Coker wrote was stupid. But the undersigned serve as living testimony to who they were and to their legacies, which are rooted in kindness, loyalty, intelligence, friendship and empathy. We stand with them and their families in asking the SU community and current scholars to avoid casting shame and hate in a way that is wrong, hurtful and inappropriate in light of who Eric and Jason were during their brief time on earth.

We encourage an open, healing dialogue and plan of action from the Remembrance Scholars and the SU community to find a positive and constructive way forward from this painful moment. Just as the positively impactful Remembrance Scholars Program was born of the shock, pain and tragedy of a terrorist act, something good can and should come from this moment of shock and pain.

We request SU and the community and the current Remembrance Scholars to find a way forward that both remembers and honors the victims of Pan Am 103 as promised – Jason and Eric Coker included – while also examining, discussing, learning, growing and becoming better human beings. Let’s commit to finding and demonstrating a better way forward through our example of peace, understanding, forgiveness and love.

Mike Toole (Jason Coker’s roommate), Stuart David (Eric Coker’s roommate), Lauren Cook O’Donnell and Francie Dishaw (Jason and Eric’s London roommates) and Vicki Johnston, Matt Allen, John Iovieno, Scott Craig, Michael Morrison, Douglas Smith and Matt Haynos (Friends of the Coker twins from Syracuse University and University of Rochester)