Chomsky can save your education
Lee Cressey
Issue date: 10/29/09 Last update: 10/29/09 at 2:43 AM PST
Section: OpEd
MIT Professor and political analyst Noam Chomsky appeared at Oakland's Paramount Theater, Saturday Oct 3rd to speak about "Obama, the Middle East and the Prospects for Peace."
The issues he talked about aren't of immediate relevance here, but the wisdom he imparts to the audience from a lifetime of activism is. And it can help save our public education system
He talked about Iran's election and nuclear controversies followed by the mired Israeli / Palestinian conflict. Although he imparted a heavy dose of truth regarding the U.S. government's foreign policy, it wasn't nearly as important as what he said we can do about it.
Chomsky points out that protesting against Israel or any other country is futile. The target of our action needs to be U.S. policy. "We can't do a lot about what other countries do," said Chomsky, "but we can do a lot about what we do."
By "WE", Chomsky is also referring to young people--in particular, students. "Students are in an unusual period of their lives," he said, "They are moving out from parental control. They are free from the responsibilities of trying to make a living and feeding children. They have a period of freedom. That's one of the reasons why students have very commonly been on the forefront of activism."
This is also why 5,000 angry people, many students, packed UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza on Sept. 24th to protest the state budget cuts that will severely traumatize California's already hobbled public education system.
Following the talk, Chomsky was asked, "Why don't you get angry?" He responded with, "There is no point in getting angry visibly. The anger is on the inside. One must control anger and then do something that matters." The anger needs to be focused.
This past Saturday, Oct. 24th, an Educational Conference was held on the UC Berkeley campus in order to save public education. Its intention was to harness the momentum from one-month prior and focus the outrage into a force that Sacramento will not be able to ignore.
The visible outcome was the unification of the UC, CSU, K-12 and Community College systems--which are usually pitted against one another for state funds--standing in solidarity for public education.
Now potentially laid off teachers, furloughed workers, and classless students are heading back to their respective schools to prepare and organize for a unified "Day of Action" on March 4th.
During a break in the conference, Laney Associated Students President Ju Hong said he plans to bring this urgent issue back to the Laney campus to educate, inform and inspire the students to action.
It starts today, Thursday, Oct. 29th, with a Speak-Out Rally in the Laney Quad from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. It will be followed by a Town Hall Meeting in Rm. D-200 from 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Now that we have been given paths to channel that anger into something that matters, I will end with the same words as Chomsky did earlier this month--"Okay, now it is up to you."
Speak-Out Rally
Laney Quad, 12 - 1 p.m.
Today, Oct. 29
Town Hall Meeting
Today, Room D-200,
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
The issues he talked about aren't of immediate relevance here, but the wisdom he imparts to the audience from a lifetime of activism is. And it can help save our public education system
He talked about Iran's election and nuclear controversies followed by the mired Israeli / Palestinian conflict. Although he imparted a heavy dose of truth regarding the U.S. government's foreign policy, it wasn't nearly as important as what he said we can do about it.
Chomsky points out that protesting against Israel or any other country is futile. The target of our action needs to be U.S. policy. "We can't do a lot about what other countries do," said Chomsky, "but we can do a lot about what we do."
By "WE", Chomsky is also referring to young people--in particular, students. "Students are in an unusual period of their lives," he said, "They are moving out from parental control. They are free from the responsibilities of trying to make a living and feeding children. They have a period of freedom. That's one of the reasons why students have very commonly been on the forefront of activism."
This is also why 5,000 angry people, many students, packed UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza on Sept. 24th to protest the state budget cuts that will severely traumatize California's already hobbled public education system.
Following the talk, Chomsky was asked, "Why don't you get angry?" He responded with, "There is no point in getting angry visibly. The anger is on the inside. One must control anger and then do something that matters." The anger needs to be focused.
This past Saturday, Oct. 24th, an Educational Conference was held on the UC Berkeley campus in order to save public education. Its intention was to harness the momentum from one-month prior and focus the outrage into a force that Sacramento will not be able to ignore.
The visible outcome was the unification of the UC, CSU, K-12 and Community College systems--which are usually pitted against one another for state funds--standing in solidarity for public education.
Now potentially laid off teachers, furloughed workers, and classless students are heading back to their respective schools to prepare and organize for a unified "Day of Action" on March 4th.
During a break in the conference, Laney Associated Students President Ju Hong said he plans to bring this urgent issue back to the Laney campus to educate, inform and inspire the students to action.
It starts today, Thursday, Oct. 29th, with a Speak-Out Rally in the Laney Quad from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. It will be followed by a Town Hall Meeting in Rm. D-200 from 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Now that we have been given paths to channel that anger into something that matters, I will end with the same words as Chomsky did earlier this month--"Okay, now it is up to you."
Speak-Out Rally
Laney Quad, 12 - 1 p.m.
Today, Oct. 29
Town Hall Meeting
Today, Room D-200,
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
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