"The recent coverage of college campuses reminded me of an important life lesson. I don't know about you, but the coverage started frustrating and angering me. So, I've been trying to abstain from the sensationalist headlines and rage porn saturating my newsfeed. Did you know that there are stories that don't involve pepper bullets, riots, antisemitism, Islamophobia, mass arrests, and violence? In fact, several colleges don't involve *any* police action whatsoever. Take a moment and read what's happening at Brown, Middlebury, and UVM. Rather than allow tensions to fester and escalate, some college administrations agreed to"gasp"meet with students and hear them out. Some colleges have ongoing discussions and negotiations, while others have reached agreements and ended the encampments."
Continued:
"You don't have to seek out obscure news sources to read about these events. The New York Times, CNN, and other major publications and platforms have covered these stories. I'm not saying that all campus disputes are the same, all students are righteous, all administrators are evil, and all demands are reasonable. Indeed, there are several examples of the contrary. Instead, I'm saying these riotous scenes demanding our attention are neither ubiquitous nor inevitable. Moreover, it's incredible what people can accomplish with genuine, good-faith dialogue. Undoubtedly, Middlebury and Brown are "unsexy" compared to Colombia and UCLA. However, this asymmetry in coverage serves as a good reminder that our algorithms purposely cultivate rage. When your blood pressure rises after reading or watching something, take a step back and recognize how that emotional manipulation negatively shapes your worldview. It's not healthy. And it's killing this world slowly."
@#1
Having said that...
... meet with students and hear them out ...
A significant portion of the people who were arrested at Columbia Univ and CCNY were not students at the college.
Protesters unaffiliated with CCNY, Columbia made up nearly half of arrests: police
abc7ny.com
Tangentially related...
Explainer: How US campus protests over Gaza differ from Vietnam war era
www.reuters.com
... A deep generational divide, anti-war protests on college campuses and a looming Chicago Democratic convention invite comparisons between today's protests against Israel's attacks in Gaza and the movement against the Vietnam War.[emphasis mine]
The 54th anniversary of the Kent State University shooting on Saturday, marks the day when the Ohio National Guard troops sent to quell campus protests shot 13 students, killing four and unleashing a surge of unrest across the country.
The campus protests over the past two weeks differ in both scale and motivation. Student bodies have changed, as has the Democratic Party. But given the tight rematch incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, faces with Republican Donald Trump, they could hold political sway.
DEATH TOLLS
By 1970, the Vietnam War had been raging for five years, and Republican President Richard Nixon had announced an expansion of the war into Cambodia. By the end of 1970, nearly 1.8 million young American men had been enlisted and nearly 30,000 had died.
There are no U.S. troops fighting in Israel's war in Gaza, but many U.S. citizens have lost family members there. ...
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - Ohio (1970)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
[Chorus]
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
[Verse]
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
...
@#15 ... protesters will be shot ...
Former Pentagon chief Esper says Trump asked about shooting protesters (May 2022)
www.npr.org
... Esper said he and other top officials were caught off guard by Trump's reaction to the unrest in the summer of 2020.
"The president was enraged," Esper recalled. "He thought that the protests made the country look weak, made us look weak and 'us' meant him. And he wanted to do something about it.
"We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. [Mark] Milley and said, 'Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?' ... It was a suggestion and a formal question. And we were just all taken aback at that moment as this issue just hung very heavily in the air." ...
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