So, on my way to the bursur's office to pay my $1007.61 balance for my tuition (it's an installment), I had to walk past the demonstration described in my ...idiots post below. On the way there, a ROTC guy in full cammo walked past two grungy guys with guitars and "Fight for Peace, Not Oil" signs. Being an adept people-watcher, I focused in on these guys to see how they would react to the army guy walking past them. One of the protesters-to-be used his sign as a mock-axe and pretended to whap the ROTC guy (of course--to his back) and giggling ensued. Nice. Go! Party for peace!
Walking past Coffman Union, I had to wonder if it was a protest or a block-party. Man, it looked like fun. Music was blasting, people were dancing, a splendid time was guaranteed for all. Choppers from Channel Five news and KARE hovered around campus to get their footage and I couldn't help wanting to look for a place to hide.
Look, it's great that we have the freedom to disagree with our government and to show our disagreement in public displays. I love that about this country. This wasn't a public demonstration of disagreement. This was a festival. For those people who were there to sincerely show their disgust for G.W.'s foreign policy--you should be just as frustrated as I am. Your peers were not issue-savvy students ready to form an argument--they were merely Lemmings drawn in by the Public Enemy blasting from the speakers.
Yes, you showed your numbers--there certainly are a lot of people who can stand and chant nifty slogans. You can make pretty signs
with the peace sign on 'em. You can clap and scream after each shouted statement over the bullhorn. What does this accomplish, though? Why are you at the University and not the Capitol? Why not stage this on the weekend where it doesn't interfere with class schedules or learning?<-- Forget the Gophers, here's our new mascot!
My main point through this tired, groggy-minded rant is that I saw a lot of follow-the-leader today--and seeing that at a university upsets me. Couple that with the fact that the protest's organizers called for its supporters to leave class--to stop learning--in order to play Simon-Says and behave like lemmings and I get fairly angry (and scared). It may seem like I am pulling out too much symbolism here (shut off your brain and protest!) but I can't shake it.
Oh well... nuff said, I guess. It will be forgotten by most people after the news tonight. I'll pry forget about it after the Wolfies game tonight when I most likely will have something else to rant about. Hopefully not.
2 comments:
Your post troubles me. Over 2,000 dead, sad foreign policy mistakes, etc... and the best U of M students can come up with is this? It really is pathetic the way that the "Fight for peace..." clowns would treat someone who actually had a sense of duty to his country. This is an embarassing display. A person who fights for their right (sorry, don't mean to get all "Beastis Boys" on ya',) to have their little display, gets treated with schoolyard pranks. It's disgusting. You can argue for or against what Bush and our Government are doing around the world, but to treat a soldier like this... speechless. I agree with your take on the "demonstration" as well. It was what it was, I imagine. An excuse to get out of class. Instead of a class walk out, why not a foreign policy debate between the opposing sides? Why not host something a little more substantial. A weekend protest at the capitol is a great idea. Of course then the two "grungy guys" couldn't have made it I'm sure. That would have been a tremendous loss to the cause.
I would've walked right up to the Army gentleman and shook his hand and said thank you. Right in front of the "protestors."
Then I would take the sign from them and shove it straight up their liberal, confromist ass.
Smart, I know. thank you.
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