From 'Hero' to Zero

[minx]

So now Johnson is calling for military action to clear campuses of pro-Gaza protestors.

I will be one of the first to say that these people are protesting the wrong thing, and have been brainwashed by social media into taking a hard black or white decision with no nuance at all.
And I do believe that no one is really on the ground challenging that position or asking them to back it up with hard facts and history.
But, they have the right to protest as long as it's peaceful.  And peaceful does not equate to sitting silently.

Funny how he wasn't calling for the military to get involved on January 6th....

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Military action? WTF? Is he old enough to remember Kent State?

What the university should do is expel anyone that disrupts the campus and poses a problem for the security and education of the students, faculty, and staff. This includes blocking entry and exit from all university buildings. If the campus police aren't able to do the job of collecting them and removing them peacefully then call in the local authorities. It should never come to needing the NG for keeping order in non-violent protests.

And where was his call for military intervention on 1/6 indeed. Where did his allegiance lie on that day? Hopefully someone calls him out on that stupid shit in front of as many cameras as possible.

[minx]

So now USC (think it was them - one of the CA universities) is cancelling graduation due to the protests. Which to my understanding are on the other side of a pretty large campus.

I truly hope this causes a second protest of students demanding why the campus doesn't have enough security to keep a group of protestors confined to a single area on campus, along with a demand for the president of the college to reinstate graduation. From what I've read, the protests are disruptive in that you have to walk through them to get to classes (they've set up on a main drag of the place, but don't seem to be impeding foot traffic, just chanting and in general verbally harassing folks), but they're not physical.

Nephew graduated from Colorado State last year. While they didn't check to see if you had a parking permit, you did have to have a ticket to get inside, and there was a security presence that was visible (not a platoon, but you could easily see that they had security).

So just issue some parking passes and put some security on the parking lot. You have a pass, you can park. You have a ticket you can get into the ceremony. It's not rocket science.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

It's bullshit. There's no way I'm taking that lying down if I am a graduate or the family of one. We'll be there one way or the other.

At GW the DC Metropolitan Police apparently declined to get involved. From what I understand the protests have been pretty disruptive there.

[minx]

I was just reading that some of them are getting disruptive and protestors are harassing passerby. One thing to hold signs, chant and make people uncomfortable because they have to come face-to-face with an issue they want to avoid. Completely separate thing to be harassed and called out because you aren't responding.

And yeah, I'd be up in arms if graduation was cancelled.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Some arrests at UMW

This is going to get worse before it gets better and a whole bunch of it is because of the media and disinformation. No or severely inadequate information is equal to misinformation at this point.

[minx]

Very true. What's really sad is that the protestors at UMW had negotiated with campus police - they agreed to take down their tents, and the police agreed to leave them be. Win-win.
But noooooo. Students (including the protest leader) brought tents back on Saturday after they agreed not to. And now they're being arrested.

There's a 'right' way to protest and a 'wrong' way. The right way is to stick to the agreement you negotiated.

But yeah, things will get a lot worse before anything gets better.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I would like to talk to some of them and ask what exactly they are protesting, to learn if there's a core message. If it were me so moved to protest it would be for the U$'s material $upport for I$rael, not to "free Palestine". And the one other question I'd like to pose is, "why doesn't Hamas surrender?"

[minx]

Yup. I'd be calling out both sides (Hamas and Bibi).

And 100% I'd tell them to stop chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will one day be free!" It's an old saying referring to Arabs wiping Israel off the face of the Earth. Do some research.

I'd add one other question though - why were you not calling out when Hamas was pretty much ruling Gaza with an iron fist and not making any concessions to Israel to improve conditions for their citizens?

Because yes, Israel was treating the people of Gaza as criminals - they waited in lines that could stretch up to 3 hours to travel back and forth to jobs and medical care that couldn't be provided in Gaza. And Israel pretty much cut off trade to that area. BUT, Hamas had more than a hand in creating and perpetuating that situation too.

In terms of divesting, students should read up on where else money is going. Cause they would have a greatly eye-opening experience I'm sure.