Our
View: Protesting do’s and don’ts
finally revealed
Monday’s
small, one man protest on the ledge of
the second floor of the Social Sciences
and Public Affairs Building is a prime
example of how not to carry out an effective
demonstration. The entire charade proved
to be more of a nuisance than an outlet
of intelligent, worthwhile dissent and
discussion.
That is a real shame. The issues he was trying to shout to the masses were
of legitimate public concern and interest, even if they came from an apparently
radical method of demonstration from an SSPA ledge with cops and all. The topics,
as indicated on his signs taped on the building windows, included the War in
Iraq, the genocide in Darfur and American involvement in foreign countries.
These are all valid topics in today’s world. The conflict in Iraq continues
to the dismay of much of the American public.
Many have died in Darfur and seemingly nothing is being done about it. American
interventionism, a method championed by President George W. Bush in his latest
State of the Union Address, is too much for some who feel America should stick
to its own business.
All of these topics and more are worth our consideration.
Engaging in potentially dangerous forms of demonstration, even if only from
a second story ledge barely capable of breaking a leg of those who fall off
of it, is no way to go about things. The First Amendment grants Americans two
important rights: the freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble. This protester
and others should optimize those rights instead of wasting them.
Besides, if Monday’s protester was expecting an exodus of the 36,000
students he claimed were on this campus to come hither and hear his gospel
(his number was approximately 1,000 too high), he was surely mistaken. The
majority of our student body, probably to the dismay of the vocal, protesting-type
crowd, usually pays little attention to campus protests.
Consider last year’s pathetic “walk-out” designed to foster
outrage over rising tuition costs that, ultimately, no student or staff here
has control over. Merely a couple hundred people, if that, walked around campus
banging assorted noisemakers during lunchtime. It was nothing compared to a
good, old-fashioned 60s-sized riot.
We are not an infamous campus full of tear-gassed, Berkeley pot-smoking students
and hippies who sleep in
People’s Park while protesting Vietnam. The National Guard does not storm
The Beach’s shores. Although some of us here may like such a notion,
it certainly does not characterize Cal State Long Beach. We’re more likely
to throw eggs at muscleman gubernatorial candidates.
If people, liberal, conservative or beyond, want to organize a protest, there
are better ways to do it.
Distribute flyers everywhere including, but not limited to, the bathrooms,
the Nugget, the dorms, classes and lectures.
Don’t just pathetically throw them on the ground like Monday’s
protester in a fashion more like littering than informing.
Alert your campus publications, pay for an advertisement or write a fascinating
column on an important subject.
Inform your professors and classmates. Use the academic prowess of your instructors
and amigos to spread the word far and wide. Heed today’s technology and
use MySpace to post bulletins, invade the Long Beach State groups and paste
comments.
Knock on the dorm doors to tell the unsuspecting freshmen what’s going
on in society. With swift rhetoric, charismatic delivery and enthusiasm, the
on-campus followers may go anywhere.
Lastly, don’t forget to tell your grandma. Or, better yet, climb to the
top of The Walter Pyramid with a megaphone and signs to flash the passing airplanes — the
propaganda potentials are boundless.
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