Some Priceless Prose From Berkeley

Tigerhawk weighs in on the Berkeley protests here, with links. But no one seems to have included a few gems from the original source article. They deserve to be highlighted. The world view of the protesters tells us this will happen, again - and likely get worse; the university's weak response will be partly to blame for it; and no amount of reasoning will help.

Who led the protest and what do you suppose her preferences are for the Middle East? Don't be surprised if the same mindset, perhaps among others, helps to contribute to violent protest on behalf of the Palestinians here one day.

"We decided it was necessary to take action," said Andi Walden, a Middle Eastern studies and political science major. "A lot of people have been saying, 'Whose university? Our university.' So we decided to put that into action."

How did the administration respond in thought? They're "disappointed". My, however will these students cope with such a strong scolding? And how much does it do to tell them to do it, again?

Janet Gilmore, a spokeswoman for the university, said employees on campus "share the frustration" of the occupiers, but "at the same time we're disappointed that they had taken this action."

Finally, what was achieved? Well, nothing, really. But it was a great success!

"There was no negotiating going on," UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said. "They had an all-or-nothing stance, and the university had neither the ability nor the inclination to give them what they were demanding, and not under these conditions."

After she was led from Wheeler Hall to wild cheers from onlookers, doctoral student Ianna Owen, 23, said, "I feel like we really mobilized people."

She said she would continue to address the fee hikes issue and was not disappointed the group's demands were not met.

"Not all gains are material," she said.

Comments

[Dave B]

I can remember my college days. How wonderful was it to be that stupid? How wonderful was it to view the world in terms of "theory" without having to deal with everyday life, taxes, and responsibility? God, I miss those days! I had almost forgotten what it was like to view the world without considering your little children, your wife, your family, and the elderly in your family. I remember when I didn't even consider other people that paid taxes when I theorized about social justice and what should be done. Life was better when the long haired professor was ranting about the military industrial complex and the "man." Unfortunately, I grew up, had responsibilities, common sense took over and all my professors were exposed as the idiots they were. Life was simpler then. I miss those days.

[Jayne on the left coast]

No mention that CA. Rep Karen Bass [D] was at the meeting, at least the one in LA. 3000 bucks a year for tuition, maybe the students should move to another state where tuition is even higher. I went to college in MO. back in the day of mimio graph machines and type writers. My yearly tuition was was 1800 bucks a year at a state college, I got grants and scholarships. Of course I worked too. At UCLA campus protest they bussed in protesters from Berkley. Still they only had a few hundred protesters as compared to the thousands who stayed in classes.

[Rob Crawford]

This situation is easy enough to solve: close down the schools.

[Andrew X]

It's NOT "YOUR" university, you insufferably arrogant, spoiled, childish, scummy little punk!

The day YOU build the buildings and hire the faculty, you can call it "your" university. Until then, how about some thanks to the taxpayers of the state of California for doing that building and hiring, and allowing you to go there for what is still a highly subsidized tuition rate? How about a smidge, the tiniest HINT, of awareness that many of those taxpayers are facing harder times then you have ever known in your life, in no small part because of save-the-world, stick-it-to-the-Man policies you have likely advocated since you were a wise and seasoned twelve years old?

I really don't like the next sentences I am about to write. It bothers me, and I have to be introspective about it, and sturggle with it. Because it may be wrong.... But....

I HATE college activists! I HATE them. There is no more selfish, arrogant, misguided, and spoiled breed on the frikkin' planet. And they do horrendous and inescapable damage to us all, while sacrificing NOTHING... and then go home to their cozy little beds, convinced of their own unassailable wonderfulness. I hate them.

[Long Haired Country Boy]

I am a Berkeley student who was on the frontlines of the protest. And everything you all are saying is so off-base. I served as an airborne infantryman to pay for college. I didn't risk anything!? I didn't study as hard as I could, I didn't work two jobs to go to college!? Yeah, I'll be on the frontlines when public education is attacked.

Because what we were defending was the democratic basis of public education. We know that there is a budget crisis. We know that everyone has to tighten their belts and that people everywhere are hurting. That is NOT what we were protesting.

What we wanted was that during the layoff process, that the decisions would be made so to be even across the board. If 38 janitors are going to be cut, and absolutely no managers or administrators, then that is wrong. Especially if the administrators are giving themselves a raise!

Yep, we know the state is in a budget crisis. But when faced with that, the Board of Regents formed a committee to make the cuts, but it was an nontransparent and undemocratic process. We want transparency on where they are spending the money (it is a public institution) and for faculty representatives from all the departments to be included in the cut/layoff deliberations.

As for the tuition hike, 32 percent is a lot in today's economy. We know there is going to have to be some sort of increase - that is inescapable. But the implementation of it and the nondemocratic manner in which it was decided should revolt any American. How do you raise tuition mid-semester!?

It is easy to beat your chest about Berkeley students or other villains such as long-haired professors. But the university has been one of the primary economic engines for the state, and a lot of scientific discoveries have been made here. It is one of the primary means that low-income students like myself can get a quality, affordable education.

If I work hard enough, and I study hard enough, and put all my effort into my work, through an institution like UC Berkeley, I can realize the American Dream. I don't have a rich daddy to pay for it or to start me out in business. But public education provides an opportunity to students like me who intend to work my ass off to better myself and those around to be able to do so. That's America.

[Andrew X]

LHCB - I want to honor you for your service, and your response to what I even acknowledged was a disconcertingly (to myself) emotional reaction to these protests. When I speak of sacrifice or risk (the lack thereof), I don not speak of people working their way to pay for college, I speak of protesters per se who might, might.... mind you, spend an hour or a night in jail, with their friends, and chalk it up to a good 'ol time to tell stories about in the future. Other than that, what are these people "sacrificing" in their protest movement? Classes? Money? Genuine sweat off their brow? What?

The vast majority of them enjoy doing what they are doing very much, for personal reasons, and they wouldn't be doing it if they didn't. I speak from attending (as an observer) South Africa divestment protests at UCSB in the 80's. "Feel-good" politics was a huge factor there, let's not pretend it wasn't.

My issue is with such things as occupying campus buildings, as was apperently done at UCLA and Berkely. There is not the slightest difference between that and a bunch of students occupying buildings to demand all illegal aliens be deported, it's just whose ox is up for the goring. It is the arrogance of such actions, the righteous imposition of their views upon others without a whit of concern for them, which have taken place since the 60's, that is infuriating, and an inescapable selfishness that is part and parcel of it, that I explain above and witnessed personally.

I think you must agree that, as an airborne infantryman, at least you have a larger sense of the complexities of the world, dare I say a maturity, that so many out there with you in these protests do not have. I simply have to assume that is the case. Because, in the building occupiers et al, I have been astonished since age 18 at the arrogance and self-rightousness of these... puppies, most of whom are upper middle-class, are not working their way through school, have never raised a family, held a prolonged job, started a business, and.... hello.... paid significant, life-affecting taxes. So they do their feel-good politics on the cheap, and, as always, others, many making far less than their parents, get to do the heavy lifting to bring about their utopia. (And by the way, these "make-a-better-world" ideas.... what, no-one has heretofore thought of these things before?? Apparently not.)

If, as you plausibly say, the issue is more nuanced than I or others are acknowledging, then so noted. We just have seen too much protest on the part of people who are all to inclined to be wrapped up in the act, rather than genuinely dealing with the same complexity in the issues they are addressing, and we have seen far too much know-it-all-ism on the part of 18-21 year-olds, who, news flash, have always known far less than they think they do, and thought higher of themselves than they have earned.

But thanks for your insight to the issue.

[Long Haired Country Boy]

Yes, I completely understand that there is a certain stereotype out there of the type of students involved in these type of protests. And that is CERTAINLY there. Rich, white, upper-middle class students who don't really know what is going on or don't have the same experience as someone who has worked a blue-collar job.

But when you are actually at these protests, you actually see that the whole spectrum is represented. In all actuality, that stereotypical student is much less prevalent. Of course, the media focuses on that, but in the trenches you'll meet a variety of students who aren't professional protestors and are firemen's kids, teachers kids, carpenters kids, policemen's kids, etc.

These are the real kids who are doing the fighting. The upper-middle class kids for the most part don't want anything to do with actually being clubbed by the police. Because that's what was happening to us. There was absolutely no call for the violence, but I stood there and took a nightstick to the body repeatedly. I used my body to shield 19 year old girls from being hit by full riot gear police. I saw other students doing the same.

But when we do this activism, when we stand up for morals and beliefs that we hold dear, all of a sudden we are brats and students who won't take any real risks. I don't know how that works. I stand there and take a beating for a cause I believe in, but I won't take any risks? A girl had her hand shattered by a baton. Another student was shot with a rubber bullet. We ALL knew that risk, and we still stood there. When we thought they would teargas us, I instructed the other students how to respond, and they stood their ground. When the riot police came in swinging, we didn't fight back, but we held our ground and took the blows.

As far as occupancy of buildings, yeah, it is a little overplayed. I'll agree. But I disagree that it is arrogant when the majority of the student body agrees with the objectives. I was here for the treesitter stuff, and that was complete baloney. Those people were idiots. But that doesn't mean that for every cause and every situation, that the same holds true.

We are also involved in other avenues of action - pressuring our state legislators, engaging in discussion with the administration, coming up with solutions like opening the financial books and forming more inclusive committees to decide on budget cuts and layoffs. We have been constructive and legal throughout, but the Regents will not budge. It is either their way or the highway. The Regents are political appointees, and aren't from this community.Sometimes you do have to engage in nonviolent direct action and protest.

[Andrew X]

It will be interesting, to say the least, if the Tea Partiers and associated groups begin to assume that such tactics of confrontation, law violation, and building occupation are both justified and a desirable course of action, if not the only recourse left to them.

And it would not surprise me to see it down the road. Just so everyone is aware that they cannot open this genie's bottle and expect that they alone get to take advantage of its power..... or its righteousness.

History and irony are old drinkin' buddies.

[Long Haired Country Boy]

I actually support the actions of the tea partiers and associated groups. I think the American People need to be more active in their politics and to be engaged. Its not enough to vote once every four years, and then just sit back. We all should be taking direct action when it is necessary. That's what real democracy is - organizing and pushing for causes you believe in. Whatever cause it is that motivates you and think is worth working and fighting for, then do it! I do advocate nonviolence, though!

[eaglewingz08]

So it's ok for liberals and socialists to occupy a government university because they raised their fees and tuition but not ok for Israel to occupy lands to root out terror cells and genocidal maniacs. Mmmkay.