Over the course of the last month, Brown has witnessed some of the stupidest, most offensive, ignorant, and downright disrespectful protests in its storied history. The Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, put on two demonstrations that still have me scratching my head.
On September 12th, SDS pranced around campus, banging pots and pans, marching down Thayer Street, and finally settling in front of University Hall. You may be wondering, For what worthy cause were these people demonstrating? Against what evil injustice? The handful of unjust dictators around the world? The unequal amount of poverty plaguing the world? Or even something more close to home: the unequal amount of poverty here in Providence? Nope, they were protesting the unjust, unfair, and malicious practices of Brown’s Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.
SDS took issue with many Corporation policies, and I found a few disagreements particularly interesting. One protester was quoted saying they wanted the University to be “democratically student run.” Let’s mull over this idea a little bit—on any issue that comes up, we should have a democratic election with over 5,000 people voting? I am sure the University would still run very well and not have any problems if it were to adopt this completely ridiculous idea.
In addition, SDS called for better access to education, specifically at Brown. Sure, let’s just throw the doors to Brown open and have everyone come on in. That’s a great idea…
While this is pretty bad, it gets much, much worse. On September 23rd and 24th, the Career Development Center (CDC) hosted a wonderful career fair for Brown students. The fair brought in many different types of employers: from banks to consulting firms to Teach for America. However, the wonderful people of SDS did not like the fact that the CIA and Raytheon, a large government defense contractor, were in attendance at the career fair. So of course, in true Brown fashion, it makes perfect sense to make a huge deal over a very small part of an event, because it is unimaginable for something to happen which the charming people at SDS do not like.
So, what was their response? Not doing something rational, like petitioning the CDC not to have these two companies be at the career fair, or speaking with the University administration (if they hadn’t already pissed off enough people from their last demonstration). SDS decided to have members of their group show up both inside of and on the steps of Sayles Hall, covered in and surrounded by fake blood. The protestors inside of Sayles Hall erected booths adjacent to the booths of CIA and Raytheon, blocking traffic to both. SDS was upset with the apparent abysmal human-rights records of these two companies. One of their members was quoted as saying that “these companies…are widely regarded as gross human rights violators.” SDS even had signs reading, “Child of Argentinean leftist killed in a CIA-ordered explosion with Raytheon radar detonator, 1978.”
The staunch conservative in me wonders why these individuals feel so passionately about women and children who died thirty years ago in Argentina, when every day in this country there are children that are just as helpless. Of course I am talking about the fact that abortion is still legal, annually claiming the lives of more than 1.25 million children.
Members of SDS, Why do you make a distinction between helpless children being killed in Argentina and equally helpless children being killed every day here in Rhode Island? By the logic of the SDS protest, the Brown Republicans and SDS should join hands and march against the Planned Parenthood near Brown’s campus. But, I think that anyone reading this who believes there to be even a small chance of that happening clearly needs to stop smoking those special cigarettes passed around at SDS’s weekly meetings.
I feel that the worst part of this “protest” is the shame that it brought to Brown as a whole. I care very deeply about Brown and I work very hard to promote it, and fear what type of message blood-covered students, sprawled out in front of the career fair, sends to the employers coming to our University. I was embarrassed for Brown and every student who walked by this protest that day.
I do not understand why SDS took such drastic steps, leaping from sending a letter (that was apparently never received) to the Career Development Center, to having an in-your-face protest. It seems to me that SDS enjoys making a splash, and that they will do pretty much anything to be on the cover of The Brown Daily Herald.
Hopefully, by now, your jaw is on the table and you are in complete shock over their actions. I am always on the lookout for the new and special ways that liberals express their feelings at Brown. If you see something, overhear something, or want me to come check something out, please email me at Brownliberalwatch@gmail.com.
