The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 04, 2024, 02:34:20 PM

Quote from: marshwiggle on May 04, 2024, 07:44:55 AM

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 03, 2024, 08:57:21 PMAnd for the record, I think one can be anti-occupation and anti-occupied Palestine without being antisemitic.  Israel has things to answer for and America should stop supporting her until she becomes a humane state.  Oh, and Hamas is a terrorist organization.

However, we have been marching, screaming, occupying, and fighting police for close to a hundred years if you count the Bonus Army of 1932.  MLK prevailed because of his maturity in the face of oppression.  Now we have kids occupying their very vulnerable college campuses, resisting when given lawful commands by the police, and then crying to the media when they are arrested.  And many people have a specific kneejerk reaction, "The students were peaceful," as if that gives them the right to break the law.

We need a new cultural imagination to meet our challenges.  I don't think the old system is working any more.

Well said. What I think many young people don't get is that MLK modelled his actions on Gandhi, and both of them saw that their protests were only a pointer to the social change that would inevitably happen in a basically moral society. No protest had to achieve specific, short term results. The impatience of protests now requires that they have concrete, immediate outcomes, so the disruption has to escalate until they win.

"Getting out the message" has been replaced by "getting in peoples' faces until they cave."

Well, to be fair, MLK and Gandhi led disruptive movements.  I mean, the point of protest is to make people uncomfortable and to make the news.

One other distinction is that when they broke the law, they broke the specific law they wanted to change. Modern protesters just break whatever laws they like, which is basically run-of-the-mill criminal behavior.

They are not remotely following the example of MLK and others.

QuoteBut they were also involved in a lifelong fight against institutionalized oppression and for their own and their peoples' civil rights, and they both paid the ultimate price.  I've never thought it right to point to the "entitled" or "rich" kids as if it's their fault that their parents are wealthy or to talk about "elite" students as if it is an accusation to be accomplished enough to get into an Ivy, or any college, for that matter.  But we also have to acknowledge that the price the students are paying is pretty cheap, even if they are arrested, and their chants such as "This is what democracy looks like" are cliche, a little facile, and not the ostensible point of their protest. No matter what happens in Palestine or their college campuses, these kids are going to be fine. Then I would be careful about martyring students or professors.  It is bad optics to see cops in riot gear----they look like your typical bad guys in video games or sci fi films----but the police don't want to get hurt, and who can blame them?  I'd armor-up too.  Then I read stories from professors who have no sympathy for a late paper or a missed exam but who are then outraged by police officers upholding the law, hypothetically speaking, of course.  And being a kindly professor is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

I just don't see the analogous situation between the great era of protest in the '50s through '70s that garnered so many ethical changes in our society and the situations now.  I think we have copycat kids who, while I agree with their stance, are enacting a paradigm that is rather self-serving.   

Their tactics reflect their failure to follow the moral principles of those they claim to emulate.

IHE: Virginia County Defunds Community College Over SJP Film Screening

Lower Deck:

QuoteAfter Students for Justice in Palestine showed a movie on campus at Piedmont Virginia Community College, a local county suspended funding for the college.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 05, 2024, 09:20:43 AMT1 and the report for real today. And hopefully a nap, too.

Did my chunk, submitted the report, napped for 30 mins.

I'm glad you were able to help your daughter and her wife out, cathwen! Yikes.  That's a long drive to have to deal with car issues, and breaking down is so stressful.  I hope the rest of their trip goes smoothly and that car repairs work out, too.  Sorry to hear about the tow truck.  They often don't seem to be in any hurry to get to you, unfortunately.

Whether the concept of protest works or not is not my main focus, rather the institutional response. The Big 10 campuses were all really benign protests, but the responses were dramatically different. For example, at Purdue the official response is that if they stay on the Memorial Union Lawn (they have) we'll do nothing. IU and Ohio State both for some ridiculous reason used force (and yes both featured rooftop snipers). Michigan left them alone, while Wisconsin tore down the tents (and yes, they came back anyway).


IU's faculty have called for the President to resign, but recall she canceled several previously scheduled Palestine speakers/artists for no apparent reason but currying favor with politicians. Here is a letter to the editor in the Indy Star:

https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/readers/2024/05/03/jeffrey-c-isaac-jim-banks-iu-lies-threaten-academic-freedom/73548988007/

Afternoon!

Pangram (after much teeth gnashing) and above genius. Don't remember whether or not I completed the bee yesterday. My excuse--went birding both days, so had to get up early.

ab_grp, sending good wishes for husband's appointment. cathwen, that's scary to have one's car break down in the middle of a long road trip!

Happy solving!

Good afternoon!

I never finished QB yesterday—missed evidence/d/ing and veggie. Today I'm at genius with the pangram.

QB was interrupted yesterday by a daughter in distress. She and her wife were driving down from Maine and their car broke down in northern Connecticut, about 50 minutes away from us. Parents to the rescue! We drove up and waited with them for a tow truck to arrive (that's another whole story), which finally did show up. She's planning to rent a car to drive home tomorrow, then return, and we can drive her back to pick up her car (assuming it can be repaired—that's a big question). Drama to be continued!

LB: Before the drama began, I found overwhelmed-doubt. Talk about appropriate!

Wishing your husband all the best, ab_grp. Heart issues are scary.

Happy puzzling!

Rain part of the morning and it's now stopped.

Good day!

Finally got to genius with the pangram.  Seems like a tough one today for some reason.  Yesterday got to QBABM with last word vivid, also husband's last word.

No luck on LB.  I just haven't had as much time to look at it lately but will try again today.

Happy solving!

Keystone's most famous alum is Christy Mathewson, an inaugural member of the MLB HoF. That's not sayin' much.