Current Campus Pro-Palestine Protests Have Roots In The Free Speech Movement
I want to followup briefly on a post I wrote yesterday on the Palestine solidarity protests at University of Pennsylvania.
The campus protest movement is getting a lot of historical linkages to Vietnam. I’ve done so myself.
But, it’s not just Palestine that’s on the line. There’s a whole lot more involved.
So, perhaps the better historical analogy is the Berkeley Free Speech Movement – and what followed.
The words of Mario Savio could not be more relevant today: (video)
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”
For addition excellent historical video of Savio, hit this link.
What a long strange trip its been, eh?