Protesting students are heroic

For those of you who are still confused about what the Occupy Wall Street crowd are protesting, it is the big banks that stole our money, and the politicians in Washington who have enabled them, which has led to the mega recession and mortgage crisis that in turn has led to budget disasters in states including California, which, of course, led the way to tuition at UC Davis now headed to the stratosphere.

The powers-that-be are saying to the students and all of the rest of us in the 99 percent: “You can’t have jobs, you can’t have equity, you can’t have affordable quality education, and if you don’t like it, here is some new, improved, military-grade, extra-strength pepper spray for you.” Talk about students having to pay through the nose … and eyes and throat.

Anyone who saw the video of the now-infamous day on the Quad has to be scratching their head, wondering what it was that sent signals to the amygdala in the cop’s brain that triggered the fight or flight response. There were 11 students sitting calmly on the ground, not blocking anyone and looking as innocuous as a group of bird watchers. That is what intimidated these well-armed police?

Some philosophers say the way to judge a person is by the way that they treat the helpless or the harmless. The protesters may not be helpless but they certainly were seemingly harmless on Friday on the Quad. Therefore, we have to judge the cop or cops who perpetrated this hideous act very severely, any orders from their superiors notwithstanding.

For my money, these students and all of the occupiers are heroic. It is refreshing to see some young people and some not so young people actually participating in our democracy and not just playing with their “iToys” all the time. Maybe there’s hope.

Hey, can anyone tell me how to pepper-spray a corporation? After all, a corporation is a person, according to the Supreme Court.

Mark Rollins

Davis

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=109202

Posted by Letters to the Editor on Nov 25 2011.
Last Login:
Filed under Letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry