By Diane Roberts
Kids today, I swear.
Standing around on college lawns, protesting against genocide, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms shipments — what are they thinking? These students should be shopping, getting wasted at end-of-semester parties, and engaging in meaningless sex.
Instead, they’re going around acting like citizens, engaging in civil disobedience, exercising their right to free speech, telling university administrations to get rid of all investments in Israel, and demanding humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
Don’t they know protests are unnecessary pointless, and annoying?
Look at the civil rights nonsense in the 1950s and 1960s: Sure, the March on Washington, the Freedom Rides, and that business in Selma bullied the federal government into letting Black people sit in the front of the bus and even vote, but was it really worth all the discomfort it caused the nice White People Who Built America?
If only that Martin Luther King fellow hadn’t been so impatient. I’m sure we would have gotten around to giving minorities some rights. Eventually.
Some of these smart-mouthed campus wokesters will argue that it was their protests that pushed Columbia and other schools to dump perfectly good stocks in the private prison industry.
Back in 1985, students at that same, now-notorious New York alleged institution of higher learning, blockaded Hamilton Hall and threw such a tantrum the university had no choice but to divest from funds involved in South Africa, just because they didn’t approve of apartheid.
They are actually proud of this.
But think about it: Where would the United States of America be if we allowed people to buck authority, say what they like, and make a big noise over injustice and inequality?
(OK, we might still be a colony of Great Britain, but would that be so bad?)
Cops arrest pro-Palestinian protestors
Just look at what’s going on at these so-called colleges: at UCLA protestors built a tent city — most unsightly — and full of youth wearing those Yasser Arafat scarves.
The Radical Youth say the whole thing was pretty peaceful, at least until a bunch of masked pro-Israel folks began shooting fireworks into their encampment.
The pro-Palestinian students claim they called for help, but the cops probably had the evening off.
The cops did show up the next morning and arrested 132 pro-Palestinian protestors but left the firework-throwers alone.
Surely they were simply celebrating the end of classes.
But seriously, these demonstrations and occupations and whatnot are getting out of hand.
Things got a little nasty at Emory when this uppity woman, chair of the Philosophy Department, objected to a cop clubbing a student, pointing out that perhaps he was using excessive force.
Well, the cops showed her! They knocked her down and cuffed her — just as she deserved.
The situation at Washington University in St. Louis was equally terrifying. The police, terrified by what observers called the “festive” atmosphere complete with peace-demanding chants, were forced to go in hot, hitting demonstrators, zip-tying them, and beating up this 65 year-old history professor.
Not that they wanted to, but the guy was standing right there, you know, filming the police whomping on everybody.
The professor— obviously — a whiner–is currently in the hospital with broken ribs and a broken arm.
Undergrad radicals
Those Columbia students are still the worst, though. They’ve been talking back to adults since at least 1968 when undergraduate radicals took over five buildings. Seems they were bummed over a lot of stuff including the university’s determination to destroy a park in Harlem for a nice new gym plus the university’s ties to the military industrial complex fueling the Vietnam War.
Colleges back in the day were hotbeds of irrational unrest over Vietnam.
I mean, just because you or your brother or your son was going to get drafted and shipped off to Long Binh to fight against an imaginary communist threat was no reason to pitch a fit.
The First Amendment has clearly gotten out of hand when a bunch of snot-nosed college kids can go around demanding social justice when they should be training to become worthy cogs in our beautiful capitalist machine.
Shut ‘em up and shut ‘em down!
That Columbia student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live”? Sure, he apologized and took it back, but the guy wears a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt which, as you know, shows he’s clearly a “terrorist.”
It’s obvious these protestors are all antisemitic, even the Jewish ones.
Maybe especially the Jewish ones: don’t they like being God’s Chosen People?
Don’t these brats realize there are some things more important than principles? Commencement ceremonies at which some banker tells the graduates to go forth and create value, for one.
Being able to lie around on expensively maintained campus grass without having to see “Free Palestine” signs or hear about starving children in Gaza.
Or keeping right-wing donors happy.
Sadly, some colleges have gone the way of appeasement. Northwestern and Brown and a few others have sat down with protestors and agreed to talk about divestment.
Wimps.
Shutting down
Well, university administrations have had enough: they’re shutting down all that free inquiry stuff.
Students at the University of Georgia have been arrested for trespassing on their own campus.
Other colleges are suspending students, kicking them out of their dorms.
Hell, kick them out of school.
That’ll teach these kids to go around expressing opinions contrary to the wisdom of politicians from the President of the United States on down.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton rightly calls the campus protests “little Gazas” (obviously those kids are building bombs and taking hostages out there on the quad!). He wants Joe Biden to send in the 101st Airborne or at least the National Guard.
You will remember the National Guard did a bang-up job in 1970 showing those Kent State punks who’s boss.
Here in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis agrees. These troublemakers need to be taught a sharp lesson.
Our governor insists we’re a “law-and-order state,” an Israel-loving state. Bibi Netanyahu is our cool fascist-adjacent friend.
We are not a let’s-help-the-desperate-people-of-Gaza state. So when an unwashed bunch of students at UF, FSU, USF, and UNF had the gall to set up their little “camps” where nice normal students might want to have picnics or do a bit of tanning — important, much-cherished college experiences — DeSantis got tough.
Deploying syntax which admirably demonstrates how he remains untainted by his fancy Ivy League education, the governor said, “what they did at Florida State and the University of Florida, they turn the sprinklers on. So that’s how it’s gonna be, but it’s about conduct and about making sure you’re doing the code of conduct.”
Maybe they should be expelled. And deported.
Free speech
There are two big problems with this pro-Palestinian student political engagement thing.
One is “free speech.” It’s out of control. These damn kids think they can say whatever they want, demanding human rights and condemning our righteous friends in the Netanyahu government.
Don’t they know the whole purpose of college is training to become worthy cogs in our beautiful capitalist machine?
The ACLU says, “Sudden and harsh punishment, whether it be suspension or banishment, should not apply to this protest movement because that message is unpopular with university officials and political leaders.”
Come on: what’s more American than sudden and harsh punishment?
The other problem is education itself.
These students are being ruined by universities where they’re being taught crap about settler colonialism, the excesses of the IDF and encouraged by their pointy-headed leftist profs to read books about the complicated history of Israel and Palestine.
Some even read newspapers.
Our Youth are being corrupted into thinking for themselves.
Truly the End Times are upon us.
Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
If they were, indeed, college kids from the educationally-brainwashed generation, it would be one thing, but several media reports indicate that more than half are PAID protestors in pretty matching-colors tents with prepaid food-delivery cards. What’s more, the majority don’t even know what happened to Israel on October 7th and they look pretty stupid when asked about it on camera. Sorry, but Ms Roberts’ argument does not hold water. Waiting to read an editorial here that presents the other side, perhaps from the viewpoint of families whose loved ones were beheaded, raped or otherwise taken prisoner. I know I’ll have a long wait.
Pogo says
@Diane Roberts
“…Truly the End Times are upon us.”
No, that starts when the election is sent to Speaker Johnson, Justices Alito, Thomas, et al., to decide. Or a stay bullet sets off the end of the world.
Shelly says
They are paid protesters that are there to protest for Hamas, thanks Soros.
Marc says
Atrocities were committed on October 7th. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first example in human history, nor will it be the last if we continue to have “an eye for an eye” mentality. Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas, but it has no right to commit its own atrocities in the name of revenge.
Deirdre says
Just so you won’t have to wait, apparently much of what you’ve heard is just not the case.
For example, based on my research, the claim of having Israeli babies beheaded is not true, there were no babies there in the first place.
Also, number of Israeli people were killed in the October 7 attack by IDF soldiers, that used machine guns to stop Hamas, by shooting through Israeli houses.
If Netanyahu cared so much for the hostages why doesn’t he accept a cease fire resolution, so they will be returned? Hamas agreed to it, Israel won’t in spite of their people demanding it.
In terms of college protesters being paid that’s a new one! I was expecting to hear the usual comments about how they really love terrorism and hate Jews. That’s the standard propaganda anyway, even for pacifists and Jewish people who are horrified by this ethnic cleansing.
I’d be completely shocked if even one kid was paid, there’s demonstrations all over the world, including massive demonstrations outside of college campuses.
Is everyone a paid liar who doesn’t know anything about the tragic terrorist attack October 7? How could anyone not know? It hasn’t been a secret to say the least.
Why can’t it be clear this is really and truly about protesting a genocide, the war atrocities, the starvation of an entire population of innocent people, who have been oppressed by an extremist apartheid government for decades.
While there’s plenty of evidence of Palestinians suffering and being murdered, in spite of the fact Israel won’t tolerate journalists, much of the Israeli government claims don’t hold water.
My suggestion would be go to one of the demonstrations and talk to people, then you can determine for yourself if they’re really paid and don’t know anything about what happened in Israel.
Most people, including educated college students, know was an attack by terrorists, who were not voted in by the Palestinian people (except for a handful) because most of them weren’t born yet or they were children when that election was held. There has not been an election held since.
I’m sure no one there wanted their family’s killed and their land and everything on it destroyed, and later stolen when they were either killed or pushed out. Even Hamas didn’t want that!
We’ve all heard plenty about the Israeli victims, that terrorist attack was horrific, they were innocent people murdered and kidnapped, and I’ve NEVER heard anyone argue that point.
That Hamas attack has been condemned worldwide and they should be destroyed, but that’s completely unrealistic at this point.
Terrorism has been the only tool they’ve had to be freed from this oppression, although I find it contemptible personally, Israel is not going to destroy terrorism with a genocide.
They’re only making it worse, the hate and rage by the Palestinian victims will never forget this massacre, assuming anyone survives. I can’t imagine their suffering. Israel is breeding future terrorists, including ones outside of Gaza. They might not use the same name but they will still use the same methods.
Israel is becoming a pariah state, and their people will suffer from this economically for years.
Why is Netanyahu making plans for finding oil deposits and rebuilding Gaza for themselves? He says it’s going to be great when they anniahlate these ‘human animals’. He said he was going to cut them off from everything, food, water, fuel, electricity etc. and he has.
Obviously the October 7 attack was a surprise to Israel, (even though Egypt warned them one was planned before it happened and they ignored it), and it was a obviously a surprise to the Palestinian people as well!
They don’t deserve to be butchered, can you really justify the murder and starvation of tens of thousands of children? Their mothers? Is literally every man there a terrorist? Do they deserve to be imprisoned and tortured because they’re male, with no other evidence? Do these people deserve to be thrown into mass graves covered with sewage?
What if someone did that to American or Israeli people?
The Palestinian people are human beings, and college students know it and care about their survival. Maybe this is the generation that will bring peace to the world.
These students are standing up for human rights, as are people worldwide, they care about the world and thank God they do! Years from now they will be celebrated for their personal sacrifices to put an end to these horrors.
Why are colleges financially supporting weapons manufacturers in the first place? I didn’t know that they were until the demonstrations brought that to light. Peaceful demonstrations and divestment are the best tools they have for ending this nightmare.
It’s not easy to fight the war machine, American politicians have been bought and sold by Israel so the weapons flow will never quit. The only hope the Palestinian people have is that America stops funding this war.
Apparently they won’t.
It doesn’t matter what the people want, our government insists on sending billions of dollars and weapons of mass destruction to Israel, even though they are one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on earth. If nothing else, can we all
agree that our tax dollars should be used for helping American people, not a foreign government?
Israel is far from helpless, and has so many bombs now they can complete this genocide without more, but we keep sending them anyway. They are more important to
American politicians than American people.
AIPAC money for politicians and the profit from selling American made weapons will keep this going, as the war continues to spread across the area, and eventually we’ll send troops as well. Selling munitions is very profitable, and Israel has to buy more from us with the money we give them, that’s the agreement.
This could lead to WWIII, and this generation needs to have a voice, they’re the ones that will pay the price for America’s complicity in this.
Jim says
Many of these comments are sad to read.
What Hamas did on October 7, 2023 was horrible, inexcusable, unjustified and just plain cruel. What positive outcome they expected from that is beyond me. Of course, Israel w0uld respond with their military and I do not blame them for that.
Now, that said, since then, over 35,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s response. Should we expect civilian deaths in a military operation like this? Yes, of course. It’s virtually inevitable. But can any of you look at that fact and not have any doubt whatsoever that Israel is doing the right thing here?
And I know some of you feel that since the Palestinians have allowed Hamas to rule Gaza, they deserve whatever fate befalls them as Israel eradicates Hamas. After all, Hamas has the guns and the civilians do not so I just don’t understand why they put up with it.
All that said, I’m saying that the Israel response to October 7 might be considered excessive when you look at the 30-1 kill ratio of Palestinians to Israelis in this conflict. I also think dropping 2,000 pound bombs in residential areas/cities does not indicate to me that precision strikes are being used as much as advertised. Israel has leveled 70% of structures in Gaza according to reports and Israel has done little to help offset the famine and medical shortages in Gaza as a result of their actions. Again, this is okay if you think the Palestinians deserve whatever happens to them.
As far as the college protesters not all being college students, I’m sure that is correct. That said, many or most of the protesters are college students and, like it or not, in this country we have the right to peaceful protest (I don’t know how much longer, though). I’m sure you’ve seen “dumb” protesters unable to articulate why they are out there. I’m sure Fox News can find one when they want. But do you really think most of them don’t know about October 7th? How did you reach that conclusion other than what is said on “Fox and Friends” or another equally creditable “news” source?
You don’t like the protesters and you don’t like what they are protesting about. That’s your right. But when you decide they all need to get rough treatment from police (or the National Guard) and they all should be arrested, you show the rest of us just how little you understand our rights.
How many protesters got arrested in Charlottesville? From what I found on line, it appears to be less than 10. But then, again, the president felt these protesters were just fine so it was okay to attack counter-protesters with sticks, etc. So it’s just a matter of prospective, right?
Let’s all hope Trump gets elected! That way, when a protect breaks out anywhere in this country that you don’t agree with, the government can put a quick stop to it using whatever means necessary and that’s okay. But, to think of it, that sounds a lot like Germany in the 1930’s and that really worked out well for them and the world….
Bill C says
Hey conspiracy theorists, the landing on the moon was fake! The proof: the moon is made of green cheese.
Deirdre says
The moon is made of yellow cheese, these lies can’t be tolerated!
I read that somewhere!
Wow says
I am a little confused why people so vehemently defend and protect a country where women are persecuted by “modesty police”, face insults and attacks for driving without a male, and suffer sexual/domestic violence without retribution.
They act like Palestine is a paradise we need to defend at all costs. No one deserves genocide, but I am seeing this idealization of poor little Palestine. Who by the way elected Hamas.
Pogo says
@Where is the first word from a protester (or their defenders and advocates)
…demanding an explanation for the utter neglect of provision of bomb shelters for the people living on the roof of hundreds of miles of HAMAS tunnels, aka military bases?
The dog that never barks
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=bomb+shelters+of+gaza
Protesters: after Genocide Joe is defeated, American democracy dismantled, libraries converted to gun clubs — good luck living with the legacy of your fashionable guilt and convenient conscience.
RobdaSlob says
Hamas got what they wanted. Except maybe they thought they would get a little more support from Iran. So maybe I should have said Iran got what they wanted.
whiplash says
So says a supporter of Hamas! Over 92% of the Palestine people voted in the last election for Hamas to be their government body and rule them! They have brought all the fire and brimstone on themselves!
Mark says
Some of you are making comments without reading the whole story above with taking it tongue in cheek and getting a chuckle, basing your comments on the Faux News Channel along with OAN and NewsMinus.
Mary Lumas says
They should be kicked out of college plan and simple.
cpp says
“These students should be shopping, getting wasted at end-of-semester parties, and engaging in meaningless sex.”, hate to spoil the party, these kids do this and still have time to protest.
Angela says
The police know how to handle obnoxious drunks. Mental Health Professionals should use the police as tools; not the other way around.
Endless Dark Money says
did fox tell you that? Id say they are protesting using american bombs to kill children but those pesky facts republicons hate. Ban facts they are woke!
Whos paying college kids to protest, show me the w2 or 1099…..right …..nobody.
Endless Dark Money says
Police are tools to protect their profits of the ultra-wealthy. Theres no mental health in this nation just profitable medications to alter side effects.
Now lets all silently protest……. Thanks for your participation.
Nancy N. says
I don’t see anything in the comment you are responding to that supports Hamas and their actions in committing this terror attack. Yet you immediately jump to someone supports Hamas because they don’t support without questions Israel’s actions in response? This is what happens when you’ve been taught to see the world in black and white, winners and losers, no grey area. It is in fact possible for BOTH of them to be wrong – Hamas in committing the initial attack and Israel in its response. But that requires higher level ethical thinking that we are not taught these days.
As for the Palestinian people voting for this government…that election was nearly 20 years ago. That means that you have to be in your late 30’s to have voted in it. No one under that age, not the young men being rounded up being presumed guilty of terrorism simply for their age and gender, not the young children being starved, not the young women burying their children…none of them had a say in this.
Billy says
I would say that executing a sneak attack on a country, deliberately targeting civilians and a music festival, sexually assaulted women, killing infants, hiding your leadership and command in hospitals and then posting it all online would be considered a “war crime,” but I guess not in the brainwashed college kid era
feddy says
Actually the arrest statistics told us that and that is even on un-biased news outlets.