Letter to the editor: Mar. 10, 2010

By William Herbe
March 9th, 2010
Section: Letter to the Editor - Opinions

In response to Lisa Squier’s letter published Mar. 9:

Lisa Squier:
I am proud to be an active participant in the walkout.  My participation included classroom interruptions and blocking traffic by sitting in the street.

I am also dismayed you didn’t mention the horrendous police brutality perpetrated against unarmed peaceful protesters, including myself, several women who were pushed in the back and Professor Karen Baird-Olson.
I’ll ask a simple question: How far do you think the civil rights movement or the women’s rights movement or the anti-Vietnam War movement would’ve gotten making cute and polite phone calls to legislators?

What if Malcolm X’s “By Any Means Necessary” was instead “By Any Means That Don’t Upset the Authorities?”

What if Martin Luther King’s march in Selma, Alabama (technically against the law) was instead an orderly petition-drive including a sharply written cover page?

I’m not saying our education struggle in California is equivalent in importance to these previous movements, but from our history we clearly know what methods work to make change.  It’s not violence, voting, phone calls or letter writing.  It’s non-violent, civil disobedience.

You charged that we “disrupted education” while claiming to fight for it.  What we did was in the great tradition of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers: it’s called a “strike.”
Strikes are what gave us child labor laws.  It’s how the minimum wage was won.  It’s why you only work 8 hours a day instead of 12 or 15.

People used to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week until some “disruptive hooligans” came along and did their walk out.  The “serious” people were writing letters to corrupt politicians, asking if they could please work less.

We don’t “shake up” anything or anyone by coloring inside the lines and playing well with others.  In fact, it’s doing exactly that which has gotten us into this horrible situation.  “Telling” news companies how bad it is at CSUN will get us nothing more than a yawn and an un-returned phone call.  ABC7 came out with cameras; that’s when the police had to back down from their violence, and our rights were respected.

When’s the last time the media came out to cover a phone banking operation?

Asking nicely has gotten us nowhere, but demanding our rights and being determined to take them back empowers us as students.  We don’t have to just sit there and take it.

I agree that the classroom interruptions could have been more organized, perhaps with speeches prepared ahead of time.  What you witnessed was a spontaneous display of democracy, which can sometimes be messy.  Instead of criticizing the details, why not thank us for standing up for you and your rights?  It’s not every day CSUN students stop texting and facebooking long enough to actually do something that matters.

The students united will never be defeated.

Best,
Joseph Glatzer, Senior Political Science Major

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  • Lola

    So you were late to class/work once.. boo-hoo! I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of this. There’s something that must be done. Let’s face it- politeness will get us nowhere. Sure, we could’ve all been more organized, but the problem is just getting out of control and the massive demonstration just reflected it.

  • Nikki

    It is hard to believe that so many can be so complacent. Leaving all other arguments aside, how fair is it to charge students an increased tuition/fees for a semester and then, before the semester begins, demand more money? The Chancellor and CSU-level administrative folks are engaging in nothing short of blackmail. You pay or else we will disenroll you. What’s a student to do? It doesn’t matter if the fees are “affordable” or if they are on par with other states (now they are). It matters that students and faculty have no say in the process and are merely pawns to be acted upon for the benefit of higher ups. Do you know why the Chancellor has reduced the number of students (FTE’s) across the system? He is doing it to “make a point” to the governor and legislators that we can’t do it for free. What it amounts to, though, is a game of chicken that he is losing badly. The governor and legislators don’t really give a flying care…they will give a little nibble (our 309 million that we haven’t seen yet) while stealing from disabled, elderly, and the poor. Wake up and smell the festering pile that has become complacency and laziness and giving in because “it doesn’t matter”. That is if you aren’t enjoying the Chancellor’s new office furniture (replaced at least once a year…not IKEA either) and having a cigar with the governor.

  • Jonathan “Yoni” Mann

    Curtis, I wish it were that simple, but you are continuously ignoring the facts on the ground.

    I am a participant in the fight against budget cuts, and I stand with the students who protested on March 4th.

    I am fortunate enough to be able to afford public education. I am uniting with those who are not as fortunate. Those who work two jobs just to make ends meet. Those who might even have one to two kids. Those who are working hard in college in hopes of reaping positive returns from their investment in a college education. Those who are in college to be able to get a better job than their parents, so their children won’t have to grow up in poverty.

    But even this is not the issue, consider the following scenario:
    Ok — Great! I’ve earned enough money to pay my tuition, and now it’s time to enroll in classes! Nope — no can do, I suppose I will just graduate in six or seven years from now since the prerequisite classes I need are unavailable, I’m delayed another few semesters.

    Unrealistic? I regret to inform you this is the reality.

    So now I’m in my last semester, I’m planning on graduating and begin applying to jobs, but I’ve been crashing classes all day and cannot add the last class I need to add. Perhaps I should enroll in summer session and pay another $1200 for three units (one class), assuming there is space available and I have the money.

    There is an opportunity cost for having a lack of access to available classes. Adding another year to my college career at CSUN could potentially cost me $30,000-$50,000 in salary that I would have earned at my job straight out of college.

    Unfortunately, tuition is rising. Factor in that many students already work two jobs. Factor in a large cut in the number of classes. Factor in the extra tuition resulting from extra semesters as a result. Factor in the opportunity costs.

    Thank you for attending Budget Cuts 101.
    You will not receive any credit, for this class has just been cut.

    • Josh

      Hey, thanks for blocking the intersection! It was great showing up to work late because I was trapped in a traffic line!

      Dont worry, it is only the job I use to pay rent and tuition.

      You sure taught me a lesson!

      Oh, and our Congressmen who votes in favor of cuts to education? He already forgot about you gettig arrested, and will likely vote for education cuts in the future.

      Great job!

      • On the Right track

        Agree with Josh. Keep the protest on campus -where people care. Don’t screw with us, we need our paycheck.

    • David

      Jonathan: Hope you don’t mind if the taxpayers–who payed for the lion’s share of your education–send you the bill for the police officers, and associated resources, who came from all over the city to deal with your brethren.

      You should be grateful for what the taxpayers have given you but I suspect you’re not. You and your buddies have a sense of entitlement which is good for neither you nor our society.

      I suggest that California get out of the higher-education business altogether.

  • Curtis

    Spoken like a true union lackie!

    Sorry but your pitiful excues for a protest because your out of pocket problem is in no way a comparison to the likes of Dr. King. I bet you voted for every spending measure in the last election too. Sorry but the bill is now due. Spent all your money and the rent is due. Not the evil land lord’s problem it’s your problem.