Reality Check

Sploid: ‘Up yours, Bush!’

High schools under lockdown as kids ditch for nationwide anti-Bush protests. […] School walkouts and other protests were expected in more than 70 cities and at 40 universities throughout the country, according to the New York-based group calling itself The World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime. The protest organizers report big turnouts in many big cities, including Seattle, New York and Washington, D.C.

No shit!

Duh. There were big turnouts? What a choice: stay in school for classes or leave to walk around outside in a mob, while tacitly ignoring the ironic fact that the most sought after item by a teenaged boy has the same name as our current President. Even the dumb kids can figure out this one: leave school!

This is not to say that all of the students are simply looking for a skip day… maybe it’s just 75% that want to skip: some of them probably do care about world affairs and the political scene. They would support driving Bush out of the government. I believe that. Now ask those same students why they want him out. The number of protesters that can answer that question? 1%. Give or take a certain cynicism on my part, make it 3%, maybe. The other 97% that are driving this will give you a blank stare or maybe a “That’s what I heard on the news!” response. Or something like that. A very Doonesbury moment to be sure.

Props to the schools too, for threatening punishment. I mean, since when does being pissed off give you permission to sidestep the law, or in this case, school rules? If there’s a rule that walking out of school gets you a punishment, it applies here, no matter how noble the cause. Think the protesters in the 60’s go away with sit-ins without getting arrested? Hah! No one at the school is saying you can’t protest. No one at the school is oppressing you or violating your civil rights or preventing you from exercising your rights. They’re simply stating that if you want to break the rules – for whatever reason – there will be consequences to contend with.

For the students that are protesting for real issues – the ones that truly understand what they’re doing and why – and are still willing to accept the punishment for the actions they are taking, I applaud you and your efforts. No bullshit. I do, because that speaks highly of your character.

Of course, back when I was in middle school, we tried to help the world by supporting USA for Africa, rather than pissing on Reagan for his policies or politics… sign of the times, I guess.


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