I think this video strikingly demonstrates why education, and colleges in general, are dangerous to the 1%. You can practically watch the movement build before your eyes, employing disciplined nonviolent methods against brutal tactics of paramilitary policing. First you see the pepper spraying of students sitting calmly on the ground with linked arms, on their own campus. Standing onlookers react with disbelief, then a long chorus of strong, repeated "Shame!" Many opportunities to examine the faces of the police for signs of shame; little evidence of that, imo. Many looked wary.
Just about the time I thought the crowd might switch to, "The whole word is watching!" the cameraperson stepped back and showed a sea of other cameras recording events on Nov. 18, 2011. at UC Davis. Then a mic check initiated a statement to the police that they were being given a moment to just go without anyone "bothering" them. And they started to back away! The chant then became a resounding "You can go!" that kept up until they, in fact, went. Cacophony of cheering, whoops and whistles, an announcement for the time and place of the next action (Monday! noon!) and then the roar of "Join our strike! Join our strike!" with delight in their own collective power tangible.
UC Davis is the ag college of the state system, traditionally, and I suppose it is only fitting that its current students assume a leading role in the movement of the 99% who understand that Earth is our home, and there is none other. Corporate control of the food supply, and the concomitant forced dependence on petroleum for our food supply, will become the central facts of 21st century survival. That's why in Maine small farmers operating under local food control ordinances are being harassed by the state, for selling unauthorized milk.
We are all Farmer Brown.
As each brutality is unleashed against students, farmers, veterans, little old ladies, legal observers, journalists, it both swells the ranks of activists in that segment, and reveals the ugly hand of your tax funded police state.
The demand to bring our war $$ home does not mean, bring weapons home from Iraq to attack people domestically. Our vast prison for-profit system and localized brutal policing have targeted segments of the population for years. Those are not social programs that we demand our hard earned tax dollars be used to fund.
Can taxpayers finally get outraged enough when they see that their city always seem to have enough money for pepper spray, tear gas, assault weapons, LRAD, and a gazillion hours of overtime -- but not enough for people's needs?
Needs like an authentic education, learning to collaborate nonviolently, perhaps to produce food for the future of the 99%...
The Rugelach Man Meets the Ice Cream King: The Ben Cohen Interview
ReplyDeleteby TheRugelachMan on May 4, 2010 • 1:28 pm 1 Comment
Half of the duo that gave us Ben & Jerry’s, Ben Cohen has traded frozen dairy delights for G-20 and anti-war protests. After building a delicious empire with cream, hard work and love, the entrepreneur now has a second act as founder of TrueMajority, one of the largest liberal advocacy groups in the country.
Through this organization, Cohen fights against poverty, for human rights, and he even found a tasty way to explain the national budget. (With Oreos.) To hear more, Heeb sent Chicago baker and Cohen fan The Rugelach Man to ask the self-described “hippie dessert guy” about Israel, domestic policy and how a rabbi got the insect parts out of his favorite ice cream.
Let’s start with Israel. Two-state solution?
---It’s clear to me—and probably to the rest of the world—that the only solution that makes sense is a two-state solution. American Jews have got to get off the fence and start advocating for it because that’s the only force that’s gonna push Israel in the direction it needs to go in.
I agree, but you can’t see Syria, Iran, even Palestine—or whatever they’re gonna to call their own country—not wanting more from Israel. Then what do you do?
---Well, I think violence always begets violence. That’s kind of the cycle that we’re caught in. You’re suggesting that, yes, the two-state solution is the right solution, but if we actually put that into effect, there’s gonna be worse things—more bad stuff in the future . . . I don’t know. (Laughing) All I know is I’m addressing that particular issue, which I think is making things worse.
The current situation definitely can’t continue as is.
---The situation only continues because the U.S. supports it. And the only reason—well, the major reason—the U.S. supports it is because the Jewish community here supports it. And I think that Jews need to get off the fence and stand up. I hope that we’ll be able to get that somehow into, y’know, whatever’s gonna be written.
Let’s talk about TrueMajority? Is Israel a focus, or . . .
---It’s about shifting resources from dissents [defense?] to social needs. The path that Israel is currently on just ends up having people—having countries—more focused on arms and putting more resources into arms. And it’s a lose-lose for everybody.
Okay, that’s a worldwide concern. What’s our greatest challenge domestically?
---Well, it’s that very issue of national budget priorities. We currently spend over 50 percent of the country’s discretionary budget on the military. Things like education, healthcare, housing, poverty get little slivers. The U.S. spends as much as the rest of the entire rest of the world on the military. 730 billion dollars a year. And the country that spends the next most would be China, at 120 billion. So it doesn’t make any sense. I mean, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, they don’t spend one billion.
But we are the world’s benevolent policemen, unfortunately. Some people look at it as benevolent, other people see it as imperialism.
---There’s no reason for the U.S. to be the policemen of the world, the huge majority population does not want the U.S. to be the world’s policemen.
Enough of politics. Let’s talk ice cream: What are some of the more memorable flavor names that failed to make the cut? ...