March 21, 2010
Editor’s note: This will be running in the upcoming 3/23 issue of the Express. We are releasing it early due to the “March in March” protests planned for March 22.
If you want government to do what you want, then the key is to ask. Politics is all about getting what you want and knowing how to ask to get what you want, but the key thing all of us should be considering is how to ask. There are different ways of asking like voting, writing letters and protesting.
When protesting, protesters need to have proper protest etiquette because without it, there’s no chance for the cause to grow. The worst thing anybody can do when trying to protest the government is to act immature and become a beacon of stupidity.
Approximately a thousand students, parents and educators swarmed around outside the Capitol building in Sacramento on March 4 to rally against budget cuts that have caused class sizes to swell and tuition costs to increase almost exponentially. While frustration was visible with these protesters, they offered solutions and aren’t the individuals that acted childishly against the legislature. But not all protesters that day were constructive.
About 10 miles east of the Capitol, a group of about 350 dissatisfied and disgruntled students attempted to block Interstate 80 to stop the transportation flow from Davis to Sacramento. Scores of police officers kept them from walking onto the freeway by swinging batons and shooting pepper balls. According to The Sacramento Bee, demonstrators in Oakland climbed onto the freeway during the evening rush hour and shut down the interchange of I-880 and I-980 for about an hour. Police arrested about 150 people.
Sadly, this makes people think: “What the hell were they thinking!” This didn’t seem like a protest, but more like an imbecile plan for a suicide mission or revolt promoting anarchy.
Frankly, the behavior of a few hundred immature students almost overshadowed the reasonable protests of thousands more at the Capitol almost irrelevant and undermined the entire purpose of encouraging government change through peaceful protest. This doesn’t get us anywhere. No legislator would want to negotiate with public education representatives because of the rowdy behavior that occurred.
Sure, the argument can be made that extreme measures insure that your cause gets seen and heard. Extreme measures, like when Alice Paul and her branch of the Suffragist Movement did hunger strikes, revolts, and disrespecting the government to get what they desired.
There were others that used nonviolent and gentler methods that hit home and were credited for achieving greater equality, like how Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony promoted the right for women’s suffrage. They both fought for women’s suffrage through lobbying with Congress and ratified the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Through dialogue, agreements can be made and understanding can be reached. We encourage protest as a means of political persuasion, but please, do keep it in check.
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It’s ironic that this editorial’s tone is so patronizing in its criticism of people who clearly know what they’re doing, and who have been wildly successful.
The author, in speaking for all of us on the staff, ought to have examined the history of the decline of public education in California, and the results of “asking nicely” for the last 30 years.
In a perfect world, a Political Science 300 world full of elected representatives who act in good faith and negotiate with stakeholders and all of that Mr. Smith Goes To Washington high-minded idealism, this article would make sense. We don’t live in that world, and the activists who climbed up on the freeway know that.
The least constructive thing that happened during the last protests were the speeches in front of the capitol. They said nothing those legislators haven’t heard before. What they haven’t seen is students in ever larger numbers willing to risk their lives, and jail time, to defend their ability to get an education, and the fact that this article was even written is a testament to their success.
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The problem is that they weren’t just risking their life and jail time. Their actions negatively affected a lot of other people — including the people they were trying to help — putting our education on hold (which they claim to fight for) and using our tax dollars (which they say they want to go to education) to quell their protest. I don’t appreciate that.
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It’s definitely a valid point that bad publicity caused by extremists can hurt the mainstream of a cause, but there’s another point here to consider.
Do you think the government would have been as cooperative with Martin Luther King if Malcom X hadn’t been around? Would FDR have been re-elected if it hadn’t been for Huey Long, his Socialist opponent?
A lot of political theorists would say no, based on a theory called the Overton Window. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window.
Having an extreme end of a movement to back up the moderates is a political tactic with a long and successful history, and it looks to me like it’s working.
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That’s a very interesting theory, and it makes sense. But if I understand it correctly, for it to work the moderate group has to distance themselves from the extremists, right? Because the reason people start liking the moderates is that they aren’t the extremists. So basically we should be saying, “I don’t like what you did, but whatever; thanks for helping us”?
Haha! This becomes a bit of a conundrum.
There’s got to be an allegory somewhere to help us out here… What about this? I recently took a test where almost everyone got a certain question wrong. The teacher threw it out, but gave the few of us who got it right extra credit. So I’m glad in a sense that most people got it wrong because I now have 20 points extra credit. But I still don’t approve of their getting it wrong. And if someone asked me if they should get it wrong or get it right, I’d still say get it right, even though that would mean I wouldn’t get extra credit — for principle’s sake.
And I think it’s the same here– while what they did may end up helping us, on principle, I still can’t approve of what they did.
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Sorry, didn’t mean to be anonymous. That was me, Sophia.
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I am with Matthew. I totally agree that while “peaceful” protests have their time and place, what the author of the article did not bring into their piece is the information about for how many years these protests have been going on at the capital regarding education, and for how many years our WONDERFUL legislators have continued to cut our educational funding.
Seems like year after year, they gleefully wait for the masses of students to arrive at their capital doorstep, picket signs in hand and voices ablaze, and they happily come out from their offices…wave and smile at the crowds….some are even emboldened enough to deliver speeches to the crowds….but when the day is said and done, they return to their sessions and continue to vote AGAINST additional funding for California’s FAILING educational system.
They could give a rat’s a** about the millions of students that are impacted by their quick “no” votes….and have continued to make them, year after fateful year.
At some point, those who are being harmed by the choices of those in positions of power NEED to make a decision. They need to choose if they will continue to be ignored, or if they will change their tactics.
This year…CLEARLY, we have all had enough.
While I did not stand on a freeway, or block traffickers from getting home that day….in a way, I WISH I could have been there…and one things for sure, I was there with those who stood on those roads…in spirit.
THANK GOODNESS For them. Thank goodness that it is clear that we have ALL had enough. These are our LIVES that our legislators are playing with….our dreams, hopes and aspirations. For a lot of us, College is not only the chance to better ourselves, but to make lives better for our children, for our families. What they (the legislators) see, when they look at us, is a bunch of “workers”….and they intend to pass legislation that creates a college system that is a couple of things….(1) Higher (and I mean HIGHER….like state universities and the like) will become an elitist system. Those who can afford it, will be granted the opportunity to attend….and by financially closing the doors to so many…they are ensuring that it is only a certain audience that has access. (2) for the “rest” of us…college will become a place where we can obtain a “technical” skill….one skill and one skill alone…that we can then use to go out and obtain one kind of job. That will be the job that we will have for the rest of our lives….it will be the job that we live on and barely make ends meet on for the rest of our lives….and it will be the job that we can’t stand and loathe. It will be the elimination of our aspirations and the killing of our dreams and hope, not only for us but for our children as well. It will be the elimination of the middle class and the confirmation that the lower class will STAY that way….for the rest of their lives.
Sorry…I don’t know about you….but that just doesn’t sit well with me…and personally I will do WHATEVER it takes to make sure that never becomes the ultimate reality.
So if that means going and standing on a freeway for a bit……possibly being briefly arrested, and maybe enduring some kind of punishment…then so be it.
Because when I look at my three year old…I want better for him, and I want better for myself. I refuse to give up on my dreams…and I refuse to let POLITICIANS tell me “I CAN’T”…..any longer.
Oh….and btw….to the author of the article….I STRONGLY suggest you research your facts. Womens suffrage did not pass because of Susan Anthony and her patience…but rather because of Alice Paul and her indignation. Had it not been for her protests…and the many that followed her, had it not been for the refusal to eat while she was in prison, had it not been for her friend that was also arrested whose husband was a senator…..Womens Suffrage would not have passed.
It is the LOUD, the ANGRY, and the INDIGNANT…that refuse to be quieted….and refuse to be silent….it is because of those people….that any of us are EVER HEARD.
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