By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...All sorts of student arrests. Voices raised to the highest decibels. We're here and we're not moving. America's largest and best-known universities are under siege. Well, that's too military a word. Schools are being tasked with offering explanations, and that is a good thing.
But cops on campus?
No college or university wants that.
The genesis? That bloody war Israel has waged against Palestine, a rather one-sided assault, the U.S. backing Israel with weapons and money. Pro-Palestine students and supporters want the schools to divest of investments backing Israel.
Countering students argue defending Israel on campus is also to be expected.
What to do?
University presidents have been summoned to congressional hearings. Some had been forced to resign when the protests went heavy. Others are still wondering about solutions. City politicians - and some in Congress - have taken the strong-policing approach.
It's a flashback of Kent State in 1970, UC-Berkeley in 1964.
We're okay with student protest. It is our constitutional right in this republic still messing with Democracy. Free thought on campus. That was the old rallying cry back when student protests on campuses centered on the Vietnam Conflict.
Here, in this latest go-round, the imagery is wilder, perhaps even worse. Maybe it's the prevalence of cellphone cameras, the cat-quick response of the international press. Seeing military-attired local police storming a campus building to evict students is a bad photo-op.
The cops and the city officials want the coverage. They want the public to know that they are acting on a problem, responding, keeping it from escalating, from some opportunistic clown arriving with an automatic weapon and...yeah.
It's not a problem if it's only students protesting. Face it: These are tomorrow's leaders, and they perhaps even care about their future and their world.
It is if outside agitators are leading the charge...
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Trump wondered why Jan6ers not pardoned. President Biden did not have a Rally to start these protests. Student protestors were not armed and they were not looking for somebody to hang. Protestors were not military militias bused from all over the country.
ReplyDeleteNo criminals for president of the United States of America. Vote blue with me, everybody.
DeleteFrom this guy’s perspective, the elections are honest only if he wins. If he doesn't, the elections are dishonest or rigged. He has conveniently forgotten that in this nation’s almost 248-year history, there has never been a proven case of a rigged election until he started making false claims.
DeleteVietnam vet here. The soldiers were not fighting for "our freedom" in Vietnam. We were involved in a foreign country's civil war, entering the conflict based on a supposed incident that never happened. It was a tragic blunder that cost many lives, on both sides, and was justly protested. You may not know it but many returning vets joined the protests, myself included. Most of those protestors were railing against the government, not the troops.
ReplyDeleteEcho that.
DeleteBiden, speaking on campus protests, says both free speech and rule of law 'must be upheld'
ReplyDeleteGood approach.
DeleteSCOTUS is so far off track they aren't abiding by the US Constitution. And that if he were the judge receiving this remand, maybe he would just send it back to SCOTUS saying "there is no immunity in the US Constitution -- go fish."
ReplyDeleteThe GOP recognizes that they’re on the losing end of demographic trends. The only way they can hope to win is by disenfranchising a segment of the electorate. So they claim fraud in order to justify their efforts to take away voting rights. Rather than change their policies to attract more voters, they will take away voting rights and then institute one party rule.
ReplyDeleteThe election will be what it will be. Whether or not Donald j Trump accepts the results is irrelevant. We've seen what happens when he loses and he will lose again in 2024. While the potential for violence is still quite real, this time he will not be in a position of power and we will have a leader in office that will defend the constitution and the nation. We've already heard enough rhetoric from him to arrest him at the first sign of violence against the results of the election.
ReplyDeleteNormalizing Trump was America's first mistake.
ReplyDeleteLock him up.
you said it.
DeleteHey, all, where's Mayra Flores eating today? (not at home)
ReplyDeleteIf Mayra sees burger joints on both sides of the street, she'll always pick the one on the right! LOL!!!
DeleteFunny how Congressman Vicente Gonzalez is doing stuff for the valley and Republican Mayra is on a restaurant tour.
DeleteYeah, I bet Mayra is using campaign contributions to pay for her road grub. Are you, Mayra?
DeleteShe'll never tell.
DeleteThe only thing I have in common with Trump is I
ReplyDeletetoo am an atheist, the only difference being that I don't pretend otherwise.
Melania is not a victim and she's not angry at Donald. She is a willing participant in Donald's life. She's also a grifter just like him.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are perpetuating the odious notion that certain types of immigrants degrade our nation’s character.
ReplyDeleteThey want immigrants from Norway! LOL
DeleteThe good news is I still do not think Trump will be on the ballot this November and this week in court shows why. It’s not his sleeping. It’s not his reported flatulence (which I care little about). It is that Trump is showing undeniable signs of dementia. He seems to be melting into a puddle of his own makeup and sweat. The stress can be seen in the photos and the videotape from New York. If Donald Trump is this stressed out a week into his first trial, how could he possibly be expected to last through three more trials, or lead our country for four more years in what is probably the most stressful job on the planet?
ReplyDeletePoor Sleepy Don does not want to hear what the bad people say about him, so he closes his eyes. Not sure how that works since most of us hear through our ears. Does Trump believe he is an ostrich?
ReplyDeleteSleeping or closing his eyes, either way is an avoidant behavior.
DeleteHe doesn't want to see or hear the evidence. Additionally, he has ADD and is unable to concentrate for long so sleeping is a way to cope with being stuck in one place for a long period of time.
I didn't vote for Donald Trump in 2020 and I sure in the hell not voting for him in 2024 Biden got my VOTE!!!!
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!
DeleteTrump is not the president…WTH….stop calling him that!
ReplyDeleteEvacuations Ordered In Southeast Texas Due To Life-Threatening Flooding As Torrential Rain Falls.
ReplyDeleteTrump trial updates: Prosecution plays Cohen’s secret recording of Trump discussing payment to Karen McDougal
ReplyDelete