The article titled “UA Student gets credit for being involved in protest” highlights many of the shortcomings of the so-called Occupy Wall Street movement. Disregarding the absolute absurdity of many of the demands that have been made, such as a $20 minimum wage, a living wage regardless of employment status and open borders with the right to work for immigrants, it is just as absurd that a student at this university is getting credit for leaving school and being a part of it. Then again, New College is not a real discipline anyway, so I suppose I should not be surprised.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is nothing more than leftist disillusionment to their messiah (Barack Obama) turning out to be nothing more than a charlatan. Four years ago these same people were the “Blame George Bush” party who elected Obama with his hollow promises of hope and change.
Now, they have no one to blame but themselves. Being unable to admit they were wrong, they have instead taken to the streets of New York en masse demanding the government give them free handouts and raise taxes on evil corporations. These corporations, mind you, have done nothing illegal. They provided a product or service in exchange for money. There was no grand illusion or puppet master behind the scenes orchestrating the demise of the middle class. Just because some people had the temerity to profit from this exchange, what right does OWS have to condemn them?
Very few people in the mainstream media (or CW) are speaking out against OWS. This is in glaring contrast to the Tea Party protests, which were widely condemned with little to no investigation into their agenda.
I certainly think these two groups could find common ground in that America has a broken political and economic system and needs reform. The difference is that the conservatives want to create jobs and the liberals want free handouts.
The other difference is that hundreds of people have been arrested in OWS and, as far as I know, none have been arrested at Tea Party gatherings (despite firearms being present). I think this is largely because most of the OWS movement wants to be there for the party, they do not understand the repercussions of their demands and they are intellectually unable (or unwilling) to understand how we arrived at this point.
America does need change and I honestly do not think there is a singular right answer. Prosperity and liberty do not have to be mutually exclusive, however.
What is not the right answer, though, is to “Drop out of school and come to New York.” This is just another example of the irresponsibility and short-sightedness of this movement. I happen to know Henry Perkins personally and have no problems with him, but I do not think his example should be encouraged or followed.
The fact that he is being given a degree for such an attitude is disrespectful to the millions of students who actually want to work hard for a living instead of begging for handouts. Not all of us can talk about our feelings in Lloyd Hall and be given a degree for it, after all.
Ross Owens is a senior majoring in anthropology and German.
