Why student protesters should get off university lawns

Children today, I swear.

Standing on university lawns, protesting genocide and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to arms shipments, what are they thinking? These students should be shopping, getting wasted at end-of-semester parties, and having meaningless sex.

Instead, they behaved like citizens, expressed civil disobedience, exercised their right to free speech, told university authorities to stop all investments in Israel, and demanded humanitarian aid for the Palestinians. are doing.

Don't they know that protests are unnecessary, pointless and a nuisance?

Look at the civil rights nonsense of the 1950s and 1960s. Sure, the March on Washington, the Freedom Rides, and that business in Selma bullied the federal government into forcing black people to sit in front of buses and even vote, but did they really? Was it worth all the discomfort it caused the good white people who built America? I wish Dr. Martin Luther King hadn't been so impatient. I think he could have given some rights to minorities. Finally.

Some of these smooth-talking college trolls will argue that it was their protests that prompted Columbia University and other schools to divest completely blue-chip stakes in the private prison industry. .

Back in 1985, students at the now infamous New York institution of higher education locked down Hamilton Hall and threw a tantrum, forcing the university to withdraw funding simply because it did not approve South Africa-related funds. He claimed that he was forced to do so. apartheid. In fact, they're proud of it.

But think about it. What would happen to the United States if we allowed people to rebel against authority, say what they like, and make a fuss about injustice and inequality? Is it that bad?)

Police arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators

Look at what is happening in these so-called universities. At UCLA, protesters built a tent city, the most unsightly of all, filled with young people wearing Yasser Arafat scarves.

Young radicals say everything was fairly peaceful, at least until a group of masked pro-Israel protesters began setting off fireworks at the encampment. The pro-Palestinian students claim they called for help, but the police were probably off for the evening. The next morning, police did show up and arrested 132 pro-Palestinian protesters, but left those who threw the fireworks alone. I'm sure they were just celebrating the end of class.

But seriously, these demonstrations, occupations, etc. are getting out of hand. Things get a little sticky for Emory when this honorable woman, the chair of the philosophy department, objects to the cops clubbing students and points out that they are probably using excessive force. Became. Well, the police showed her! They pushed her down and handcuffed her – exactly what she deserved.

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The situation at Washington University in St. Louis was equally frightening. Frightened by what observers described as a “festive atmosphere” with chants of peace, police were forced to violently beat protesters, tie them up with cable ties and beat the 65-year-old history professor. .

Not that they wanted to, but the guy was standing right there filming the police yelling abuse at everyone. This professor, who is clearly a bit of a bitch, is currently in the hospital with broken ribs and an arm.

undergraduate radical

But Columbia students are still the worst. They have been talking back to adults since at least 1968, when undergraduate radicals took over five buildings. They seemed to be angry about a number of things, including the university's decision to demolish a park in Harlem to build a fancy new gym, and the university's relationship with the military-industrial complex that fueled the Vietnam War.

At the time, universities were a hotbed of irrational anxiety surrounding Vietnam. So just because you or your brother or son gets drafted and sent to Long Binh to fight some imaginary communist threat is no reason to throw a fit.

The First Amendment allows a bunch of runny-nosed college kids to walk around demanding social justice when they should be training to be fine cogs in our beautiful capitalist machine. Things are clearly getting out of hand. Shut up, shut up!

Was it the Columbia student who said “Zionists don't deserve to live”? Of course, he apologized and took it back, but the guy was wearing a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt, which, as we all know, clearly indicates that he is a “terrorist.”

It is clear that all of these protesters, including the Jews, are anti-Semites. Don't these brats realize that there are more important things than principles? For example, at a graduation ceremony, a banker tells graduates to go out into the workforce and create value. Instead of having to look at “Liberate Palestine” signs or listen to stories about starving children in Gaza, you can spend money to lie on the grass on a well-maintained campus. Or to keep right-wing donors happy.

Unfortunately, some universities are moving in an appeasement direction. Northwestern & Brown and several other companies agreed to sit down with the protesters and discuss divestment. Wimpy.

Shutting down

Well, the university authorities have had enough. They are closing all free inquiries. A University of Georgia student has been arrested for trespassing on campus. Other universities have suspended students and kicked them out of their dorms. Damn it, kick them out of school.

Doing so would teach children to express opinions that go against the wisdom of politicians from the president of the United States down.

Sen. Tom Cotton has rightly called the campus protests a “mini Gaza.” (Apparently those kids are making bombs and taking hostages on the Quad!) He wants Joe Biden to send in the 101st Airborne or at least the National Guard.

You may remember in 1970 when the National Guard did a great job showing the Kent State hoodlums who was boss. Here in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis agrees. These troublemakers need to be taught a sharp lesson. The governor claims that our country is a “nation of law and order” and a nation that loves Israel. Bibi Netanyahu is our cool friend who is close to a fascist.

We are not a nation that seeks to help the desperate people of Gaza. So the unwashed students at the University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida, University of North Florida mustered up the courage to do a small ' When he set up “camp,” a little tan — an important and much-cherished college experience — DeSantis toughened up.

“What they did at Florida State University and the University of Florida was turn on the sprinklers. Maybe they should be expelled. and was expelled.

freedom of speech

There are two major problems with this political involvement of pro-Palestinian students. One is “freedom of speech.” It's out of control. These motherfuckers think they can say whatever they want, demanding human rights and criticizing their righteous friends in the Netanyahu government. “Sudden and harsh punishment, whether suspension or expulsion, should not be applied to this protest because its message is unpopular with university officials and political leaders,” the ACLU said. Now, what could be more American than sudden and severe punishment?

Another issue is education itself. These students are taught bullshit in college about settler colonialism and the excesses of the IDF, encouraged to read books about the complex history of Israel and Palestine by sharp-witted left-wing professors, and destroyed. I am forced to do so. Some people read newspapers. Our youth are becoming corrupted into thinking for themselves. The end is truly near.

Diane Roberts is an 8th generation Floridian. this essayreprinted under a Creative Commons license and originally published in The Florida Phoenix.

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