Keffiyeh Kids

So at a couple of dozen campuses we are seeing an outbreak of “occupation” campouts. Maybe in the belief that university administrations are critical contributors to the Israeli defense establishment; maybe as a capstone project for antisemitism majors. The schools’ responses have ranged from riot cops at UT to Harvard turning on the lawn sprinklers. They folded the tents at Princeton after five minutes of finger wagging. There seem to have been somewhat more suspensions than the norm for spontaneous rage festivals. Are we turning some kind of corner on performative wokeness?

Some have profited. Amazon has sold a lot of Keffiyehs and camping gear. Enterprising schools like Brandeis and Franciscan are streamlining their transfer processes for students who prefer a pogrom-free educational experience. Politicians of various stripes have put their oars in the troubled waters.

But what will happen if the school year ends before the war does?

Here in St. Louis rioting has taken place in the past 48 hours at Washington University. Wash U administrators came out with a strongly worded policy statement, saying they will not tolerate camping out on their campus, but they support their students making their voices known in peaceful protest. But setting up camps – nope.

Cops were called in and fisticuffs ensued and three cops were injured yesterday. Apparently much of the blame goes to outside influencers not students or faculty getting things going here.

Well, those darn peace activists actually changed the course of my life back in 1970, when I was accepted at both St. Joseph College and Boston College. At the time I got my acceptance letters, my mother was gobbling up the news about the students overtaking the administration building at Boston College in protest of the War, and she so she wangled me into going to her choice of college--the convent-like St. Joe's, which she was certain would keep me free from the taint of controversy.

This is nothing new or different. I still have some lingering regret about not going to Boston College, and so I hope that anyone who has received acceptance letters to go to Columbia, or UCLA, or Princeton or Harvard won't be dissuaded by a few tents with signage on the quad.

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Originally Posted by catherine

Well, those darn peace activists actually changed the course of my life back in 1970, when I was accepted at both St. Joseph College and Boston College. At the time I got my acceptance letters, my mother was gobbling up the news about the students overtaking the administration building at Boston College in protest of the War, and she so she wangled me into going to her choice of college--the convent-like St. Joe's, which she was certain would keep me free from the taint of controversy.

This is nothing new or different. I still have some lingering regret about not going to Boston College, and so I hope that anyone who has received acceptance letters to go to Columbia, or UCLA, or Princeton or Harvard won't be dissuaded by a few tents with signage on the quad.

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yes yesterday I spent some time really thinking about the protesters at Wash U.

. Anti-war protesting, sure, that’s familiar. I’m sympathetic. Railing against the war machine and their own university’s cozy relationship with Boeing is OK with me. There were the usual Hamas supporters, though, and that is very irritating.

there is nothing about Hamas that is anti-war. Hamas wants to kill Jews, period. Their war will be over when all the Jews are dead worldwide.

Jill Stein ( perennial Libertarian Presidential candidate) was in St. Louis and participated in these protests. I have voted for Jill Stein. I didn’t know she was a terrorist supporter. Or maybe she was there for the Boeing arm of the protest.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

yes yesterday I spent some time really thinking about the protesters at Wash U.

. Anti-war protesting, sure, that’s familiar. I’m sympathetic. Railing against the war machine and their own university’s cozy relationship with Boeing is OK with me. There were the usual Hamas supporters, though, and that is very irritating.

there is nothing about Hamas that is anti-war. Hamas wants to kill Jews, period. there war will be over when all the Jews are dead worldwide.

Jill Stein ( perennial Libertarian Presidential candidate) was in St. Louis and participated in these protests. I have voted for Jill Stein. I didn’t know she was a terrorist supporter. Or maybe she was there for the Boeing arm of the protest.

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I ALMOST got into a "discussion" with DH just now. He told me he sent away for an "I Stand With Israel" pin to wear on his lapel. Of course, that's fine with me... I stand with Israel, too, but I also stand with the dead Gazan children. This is a very difficult situation we are in. I wish the Israeli hostages would all be released--it is horrific what they are going through. But for Hamas to sacrifice its own citizenry is also appalling.

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace"

Easy to imagine, maybe, but that's it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by catherine

I ALMOST got into a "discussion" with DH just now. He told me he sent away for an "I Stand With Israel" pin to wear on his lapel. Of course, that's fine with me... I stand with Israel, too, but I also stand with the dead Gazan children. This is a very difficult situation we are in. I wish the Israeli hostages would all be released--it is horrific what they are going through. But for Hamas to sacrifice its own citizenry is also appalling.

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace"

Easy to imagine, maybe, but that's it.

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Hamas will always sacrifice their own citizens for the higher good which is killing the Jews.

Hamas will not always have hostages and protect them, because if Israeli military is strong enough Hamas will not get hostages.

But always and forever, Hamas puts killing Jews above the life and liberty of their own citizens. And for those who think Palestine citizens are distinctly separate from Hamas, there’s a whole lot of blending and Palestinian citizens are pretty much OK with killing the Jews.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by catherine

Well, those darn peace activists actually changed the course of my life back in 1970, when I was accepted at both St. Joseph College and Boston College. At the time I got my acceptance letters, my mother was gobbling up the news about the students overtaking the administration building at Boston College in protest of the War, and she so she wangled me into going to her choice of college--the convent-like St. Joe's, which she was certain would keep me free from the taint of controversy.

This is nothing new or different. I still have some lingering regret about not going to Boston College, and so I hope that anyone who has received acceptance letters to go to Columbia, or UCLA, or Princeton or Harvard won't be dissuaded by a few tents with signage on the quad.

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I started at U of Illinois in 1976, and participated in the AFROTC program there. There was a certain amount of jeering and sneering and threats aimed at people in uniform then. It seemed to mainly come from superannuated grad students rather than undergraduates. I wonder what proportion of today’s revolutionary cosplayers are members of the professional student class.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by catherine

This is nothing new or different. I still have some lingering regret about not going to Boston College, and so I hope that anyone who has received acceptance letters to go to Columbia, or UCLA, or Princeton or Harvard won't be dissuaded by a few tents with signage on the quad.

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I'm still paying off my daughter's student loans from Princeton, and she graduated in 2018. I'm down to about $25k from the original ~$260k. She received a fine education there, though there were some serious issues with misogyny and sexual predation by some of faculty within her department, Classics. And since she had her sights set on a profession in that very small field, her ability to speak out then, and even now, was a bit hampered. (The situation was finally resolved by the University, but it took years, and during that time quite a few women were impaired in their ability to enter or proceed in the field.)

Fees/tuition/room/board at Columbia run about $90k/year now. I'd sure be miffed as a parent if my kid couldn't attend classes, exams, or graduation ceremonies because of protests on campus. Or if my kid's professors tried to have sex with her in exchange for grades/recommendations/mentoring.

Two interesting articles I came across yesterday:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/29/opini...uri/index.html

https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/...llege-protests

Apparently the cops in DC actually know what the first amendment is:

https://wapo.st/3JGJ2Tw