Seems some middle schoolers got rowdy in New Jersey, have you heard the story? Their lunch recess was cut to 30 minutes. They wanted to discuss this (as they should, since thirty minutes is the minimum time someone should take to eat to remain healthy). They asked the principal for a longer lunch time and he denied them. They tried to set up a meeting with him, which he denied. So a group of them decided that, in protest, they would pay their lunch money in pennies. 28 students ended up paying 200 pennies each for their lunch.
The principal suspended them for two days. Parents were furious, some calling their lawyers -- as rightly they should, since the students did pay for their lunch. News media flocked to the town. So over the weekend, the school superintendent reinstated the students.
Wouldn't it be nice if we, as adults, would take such a political move in our everyday lives -- for universal health care, for an end to a useless war, for a living wage, for peace! DO we as human beings loose something when we turn into adults? Does school snuff out any sense of justice in our minds? Is it our culture? When we are so concerned about Brittany's hair cut and Billary's chances at the White House, what time do we have for concerns about real issues of justice?
And we call ourselves a democracy....
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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7 comments:
It seems that our culture has lost a sense of wanting to look and evaluate ourselves and what we do. We believe in this state of blissful ignorance. We try to project our feelings and thoughts onto other objects so that we don't look at ourselves. That's why celebrities are so "popular."
It is a real shame that we don't take the time to evaluate ourselves and then decide what is good for us.
I had read that news article before and it made me smile.. Part of me doesn't believe that the kids were trying to demonstrate an act of Civil Disobedience as much as they were trying to be typical male adolescents. (Speaking from my own experiences with authority)
Protest is a wonderful action that can take many forms. Seems that the principal in this particular incident overreacted. The thought of all of the protesters paying in pennies and the smiles and laughs that this caused probably made the principal feel humiliated in some way. He then lashed out, as those in authority often do, as a way of "getting even." I doubt he liked the idea of being upstaged by those under his command.
People need to be energized in order to get involved in the art of protest. Organizers have to take this into account when a demonstration is planned for ant particular reason.
What is it in our humanity that causes us to be lazy in becoming politically/socially involved? The idea of just clicking on the TV or computer and reacting/protesting to the medium comes to mind. We justify our actions by claiming that we're too "busy" with our lives to add another "thing" to do.
Easy to complain to the commentator on TV versus actually getting energized and doing something productive about it.
The opportunity for living a full life fades with each "protest" we fail to get involved with.
I seem to remember a story from a few years back when an adult took a similar action and tried to pay his taxes in pennies and was refused. He didn't win his case and was told to pay in a more acceptable manner or risk the penalties from failure to pay taxes.
These passive/agressive protests are just that, protests, and anyone participating in a protest should be prepared to endure the consequences. The protesters of the "sit-ins" in the late 60's and early 70's got carted off to jail for their disruptions. Eventually the protest raised public oppinion to the point that the Vietnam war was ended, but not before a lot of people went to jail.
If you want to affect a change in something you have to be willing to fight for it and take the risks. Business and government in our society have gotten very good at reading the polls and knowing where the tipping points are for issues and doing something to mitigate them. If the federal government or big business had been involved in this penny issue at the school, they would have quicly ran out and rented a couple of change sorter/counters as well as added a surcharge for payments in pennies.
I have heard that if everyone in the U.S. just went one day without buying gas in order to protest against the corruption that creates high oil prices, this would have a huge affect and prices would probably go down.
I'm not the brightest bulb on the planet, but I have enough sense to know that our country is in serious trouble. The Democracy that was handed to us by our forefathers is gone. However, American's are too busy enjoying the good life to know it. American Idol, Britney Spears, video games,etc. have sucked our brains!
At one time in not too long ago history, schools would have been grateful to receive pennies for lunch. However, sadly, not any more. If we don't own a credit card we are nobody. We have become slaves to society and the big bankers who are making a fortune off the credit from these useless wars. We, as Christians, need to stand apart from the phony world of lies and bring the light of truth!
JP
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