Here in Austin, the students at our wonderful University of Texas like to take charge and freely demonstrate their right to protest. They don’t really NEED a good reason, or have to have a strong following, they just like to protest. Typically, it comes in the form of students speaking on the West Mall, holding banners, sitting on the steps of the Tower, all that good stuff which is fine and dandy. But today…well, they’re really just phoning it in in my opinion.
Students at UT are staging a protest. To show they dissapproval with the President’s push for war, students are going to “Walk out of their classes at 11:30.” Of course, classes are pretty much halfway finished by now, and the wonderful thing about college…your professor probably doesn’t even give a shit. That’s the joy of college, you get what you put in. You leave, your professor doesn’t care, because you’ll fail and it will be your fault and he still gets paid. But damnit, he’ll get the message…right?
Oh, and just in case you DO agree with the President’s push for war, there’s something you can do, too. Just show your support by…staying…in…class?
Uh. Of what does a ‘die-in’ consist? I’m imagining a mass suicide or something…or are they the kind of sissies who just pretend to die, instead of really putting their money where their mouths are?
The problem with college kids (not all of them, but many of them) is that they’re in that in-between stage of their lives - old enough to believe that they have brains, but too young and inexperienced to actually know how to use them. Plus, it’s easy to be an idealogue when you haven’t been exposed to adult realities, and Daddy’s paying for room, board, car, and beer money at a big college.
Like the guy that sings horribly in the shower, but firmly thinks he’s Pavarotti, these kids think they are capable of insight and analysis, when in fact, they aren’t.
Again, there are exceptions. I wish I had been an exception when I was in college (at U.T., no less), but I wasn’t.
When I was in college there was a story that a famous math professor, Paul Halmos, used to lock the door to his classroom at the precise starting time of his class, to keep late-comers out. He forced the students to arrive on time, so as not to interrupt his lecture.
Or course, those were the days when students wanted to go to class so they could learn stuff from the professor. Today, it might make more sense to lock the students in.
I have one much better than that: here at UT (Tennessee/Knoxville), we have protestors spray painting (which is really hard on the poor maintenance people) “War = Death” on the side sof buildings.
When I saw that one, I immediately thought, “Duh! That’s the point you morons!”
Yeah, 'cos every one of those groups that are out on the West Mall every day tabling have good reasons and strong followings. Shit, at least the ISO actually gives a shit about Socialism, instead of using it as an excuse to stand around a table on the West Mall all morning talking on cellphones and sipping expensive coffee drinks.
Yeah, that’s why there were people there protesting the people PRAYING ON THE TOWER STEPS AFTER THE TWIN TOWERS FELL!!!
There are people camping out at UT, and an organization has lined up a lot of good speakers for the West Mall today…that I can respect. But, hazel-rah, as someone who (I assume) attends UT, you have got to admit, the second ANYTHING happens that ANYONE could have a problem with, there’s a fucking protest. There is no point to it, and it makes the protests that actually have meaning seem like another bunch of stupid followers with nothing to do with their time. That’s the thing that amazed me when I attended UT…it was supposed to be a place where everyone can be themselves, have their beliefs, and it was such an “accepting” atmosphere that one could speak their mind. The problem is, the second you speak your mind, there ends up being a fucking protest about it. In such an “accepting” place, I’ve never met so many sensitive, touchy people.
And using war as an excuse to skip class is an absolutely stupid, and fucking pathetic.
At work today, my boss turned on the TV to see if the walkout had local TV coverage. It did, and we watched for a while, until we were had to get back to work. I work at one of the bookstores that serve UT, and following campus news is one of our stated duties. I generously keep my boss company in doing this, since it gives me a good excuse to read the Daily Texan every day.
Presently, there are people camping in tents on campus to protest the war. I’d be more impressed if it were colder. There was today’s walkout. If people want to express their views, more power to them, but I joked that if the protesters wanted to be taken seriously, they’d skip something they actually want to do, like a concert or a movie.
“You would think there would be more of an outcry about the racial tension,” my boss said.
UT’s editorial pages have recently been filled with outcry over two racially charged incidents. A black student has accused UTPD of racial profiling, and a frat party had guests in blackface at a “gin ‘n’ juice” party. So far, no big campus rallies, though a couple of years ago plenty of people with bullhorns had their panties in knots because the administration didn’t go far enough in responding to National Alliance fliers.
“You’d think,” I said.
OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” is reporting a talk show host at KLBJ, Don Crawford, is sponsoring a pro-war demonstration. If you support the war, you should turn on your headlights from sunset to sunrise. Apparently support is overwhelming, though there has been some minor incidents:
What’s the Straight Dope from Austin on these pro-war demonstrations?
Don Crawford’s show is one of those time-fillers on weekend nights that very few people listen to.
His call for pro-war people to turn their headlights on gets a response from everyone who is driving- since his show is on after dark. It’s about as scientific as calls for people to wear jeans to support ___ mentioned by gonzoron above.
People that take this too seriously are probably the same ones that skip classes to protest the cause of the week.
