Friday, May 21, 2004 |
18:00 - Ivory Tower of Peace and Tolerance
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2004-05-19/feature.html/1/index.html
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Then again, who needs wargames? Just read this massive four-page article by Anneli Rufus in the East Bay Express (via LGF), and try to keep from picturing yourself as a student walking the halls and courtyards of UC Berkeley, head down, hands in pockets so nobody can see them clenching into fists.
After the lecture, attendees filed out of the hall to discover that the protesters had massed so as to allow only a narrow passage between themselves and a retaining wall. In effect, all those leaving the lecture were forced to walk a gauntlet. Some ducked their heads, others set their jaws in anger, squeezing past the dozens of assembled faces chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" as fists pumped the air in unison.
A young woman in a kaffiyeh screamed up at a Jewish student significantly larger than herself. Her lips were wet with fury. "If I don't agree with you, then you call it anti-Semitism!" she shouted, as friends arrived to support her. The young man was surrounded. "You call it anti-Semitismmm!" she raged. "Why can't you tolerate anti-Semitismmm?"
"I can tolerate it," the student replied, his voice a low, tired rumble. "I have to. It exists. I just don't have to like it."
Why do I keep trying to post examples of why I think California is so cool? Because I feel so filthy living so near to Berkeley.
I need to go do something to take my mind off this. Really. I don't think it would be healthy for me to dwell on it any further.
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