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Students Unite

By Michael Albert
I well remember the paternalistic condemnations we had to overcome to keep our b
oots moving when I was in college. You are disruptive, disrespectful, violent, a
disgrace. Be civil. Cut out the dissent.
Grow up, grow up, grow up.
Truth be told, my reaction was,
ot the worst.

Fuck you

Not the best reaction possible, but also n

Come gather round people


Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin
Then you better start swimmin
Or you ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin .
I explained: Your rules and structures disrupt my life potentials and so I disrup
t your rules and structures.
You don t respect me so you don t deserve the respect I have given day in and day out
, all my life until now.
I am not violent because I believe violence for overcoming injustice is ineffecti
ve and I reject too many byproducts of violence. You support carpet bombing and
ask me to turn my cheek to injustice that benefits you. Of course I don t take you
seriously.
Being civil is a fine value, I agree with you about that, but only if one exists
in civil circumstances. Society s wars, racism, sexism, poverty, alienation, hypoc
risy do not provide a civil situation.
Finally, I would conclude with a scream and a glare, I am already grown up and th
e whole point of my actions is precisely that I am thinking of my future. I woul
d like mine and everyone else s to be what we decide and not what you impose.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won t come again
And don t speak too soon
For the wheel s still in spin
And there s no tellin who
That it s namin
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin .
Again, way back when I was in school, we weren t steadfast enough to accomplish ou
r chosen tasks. We didn t get our eyes fixed onto a prize that we could pursue con
sistently and persistently enough to actually achieve a fully liberated future f
or you who are now awakening to protest and rebellion
and I am forever sorry for
that failure.

And yes, by all means way back then we were sometimes too violent and very often
too dismissive, too unyielding, too a lot things, but our errors were made whi
le pursuing justice. And they were errors only in that our acts sometimes uninte
ntionally damaged our prospects because of how they could be exploited to weaken
our outreach. They were never intentional acts of gross violence pursued to def
end a deadly system
but it is true that we would have done better without them.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don t stand in the doorway
Don t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There s a battle outside
And it is ragin
It ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin .
I admit is it age and disconnection or is it insight that when I hear stories ab
out contemporary students wanting safe spaces, or trigger warnings of discomfort
ing content even in books, or seeking explicit top-down rules against certain ut
terances, I shake my head in wonder and have some doubts. But, when I see stude
nts leave their prescribed patterns to protest, confront, disrupt, and demand, I
say whatever flaws may accompany such courage, hopefully these activists can le
arn to diminish and overcome those flaws, more so than my generation did, and no
t be deterred but instead deepen their expectations, desires, and demands even a
s they get more militant and radical.
Those of you who are railing at the students for their supposed free speech vio
lations or incivility
get a grip or admit your true motives.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin .
By get a grip I mean if you are really concerned about free speech but you also su
pport the students efforts against racism, against rape and sexism, against war,
against demolishing humanity via global warming, against wages that destroy dign
ity and impoverish families, against corporate and government spying, against co
rporate profit making, then say that very clearly and then exercise your concern
about free speech not just where you think some possible act may in some minor
way diminish your personal options but where it is utterly obvious that massive
state and corporate incursions against free speech operate. You might also want
to consider that today s students are routinely seeing their friends and neighbors
shot down in the streets, losing their homes to vile banks, reduced to threadba
re poverty. These students look side to side and see friends who will be saddled
with enormous debt, friends who have been harassed or raped. And then consider
that they live in a society where violence is the norm, where disrespect is ramp
ant, where paternalism is celebrated. It is a wonder they aren t immolating their
environments. They are, instead, merely trying to do better, much better.

And if what you object to is not presumed free speech incursions, but simply tha
t students are in motion, admit that you don t like them trying to change their ca
mpuses and their country in the only ways at their disposal. Don t hide behind val
ues that you don t apply to all, like free speech, civility, and the rest. Admit y
our true motives.
Finally, those who are demonstrating can I offer a little bit of advice that hop
efully has relevance even though it comes from far away in time and space?
What happens right now will tend to monopolize your feelings and minds. That is
natural. It is also a dead end. This is a long struggle. Without a long view, th
e best intentions will peter out.
On the other hand, when I see that your gatherings all display banners for race
issues, gender issues, economic issues, war issues, and ecology issues
it tells
me that even while you may be immediately focused on one part of an overall agen
da, you know that all parts matter, that all are worthy, that all deserve your s
upport and should be giving you support. That is a giant step you have already t
aken.
When you encounter what feels like opposition, can I suggest that you not rush t
o assume that you face an enemy or just an ass. Why not assume legitimate confus
ion. Assume they may even be you before you became more aware and confident. Rea
ch out. For those whodo prove to be enemies or asses, there is no great need to
rush to that conclusion. For those who aren t enemies or asses, or who need not be
, there is every reason to try to reach them.
And please, don t make another of our big mistakes. You have no binding ethical re
sponsibility to educate those who are ignorant or hostile. You are not required
and it is certainly a burden to be patient and bring along others and to experie
nce even their racism or sexism or classism and then smile and patiently but com
pellingly explain and instruct rather than getting mad and walking off. But even
if it is a burden, it would be unwise to avoid educating others based on your r
ight to avoid the task. Instead, for your movement to win it is necessary to edu
cate others. Indeed, it is paramount. Growing your movement, developing ties pre
cisely to those who earlier did not agree with you and were even hostile to you,
depends on reaching out effectively. It is prerequisite to winning, and winning
is the point, not simply dissenting.
Things are often complex. You might hear someone say, what the fuck are you doing
, what about free speech, or what are you doing, you don t know what the hell you wa
nt, I don t know what the hell you want. Sometimes this will be said by those who a
re trying to obstruct you, to derail you, to re-subordinate you. But the truth i
s, there will be others who will say much the same things in real and sincere ig
norance and with honest concern. These latter people are quite reachable, if you
put in the effort to convey compelling answers.
Call it an old guy s fetish but I can t help offering words from one more song I hope
you have your own songs, but some of my generation s aren t too bad the songs that is
, not always the singers.
Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep in their eyes
And they ll jerk from their beds and think they re dreamin
But they ll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it s for real
The hour that the ship comes in.
Then they ll raise their hands

Sayin we ll meet all your demands


But we ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharaoh s tribe
They ll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they ll be conquered.
Transform your schools, your communities, your towns, your country. It will take
time. It will not be easy. But it is possible.

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