The Danger of Words

A teacher in Spokane was suspended today for using the lyrics from a Blue Scholars song Commencement Day. The official report stated that some of the content and language used was inappropriate for the students. With book such as the Catcher and the Rye i don't really see what the problem is. Like most things in education if its new or edgy the administration likes to take control. Below are the some of the Lyrics from the song, let you be the judge.

"To the graduating class of two thousand whatever,
Congratulations past due, you deserve better,
Looking dapper in a cap and a gown,
You got fam snappin flicks, clappin loud in the back of the crowd.
Now the band playin Martin Circumstance got you amped feelin like a champ,
Class is out of session at last.
You’ve been patiently waiting,
12 years in the making,
Anybody who has doubted you is sadly mistaken,
With the paper with your name in old English for the taking,
So moms can bring it home and frame it and display it,
With the grade point average hanging over head,
Brother sister please don’t believe the bullshit they said.
Fuck the pledge of allegiance and arrogant teachers
But peace to the people who don’t ever preach in the front of a classroom
All day long, planting seeds of revolution,
We dedicate this song.

It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
And two for the teachers who are underpaid as shit
It’s the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the strikes giving young bloods life
And four for the years you spent stifled inside
It’s the next generation of miseducated youth-next time ask em for proof." - Blue Scholars

Taking the Higher Road

At bumbershoot last weekend. A representative from an another college group stopped by our booth and played a round of water pong with us. Through our conversation i learned that we had a similar mission, but a different method for the same outcomes. It reminded me of a something one of my political science teachers told me.

"Never think that your political opponent, hates or wants to destroy America. They love America , but just have a different view on what America is. Once you start believing you opponent is out to destroy America there can be no middle ground, or educated debate."

I try to keep that in mind with people i encounter along my travels. At bumbershoot i ran into radical leftest that verbally attacked us for our support of the "evil capitalism" and our views on economic reform. After embarrassing himself with his rants and raves the people around him came to our booth to learn more of what he was yelling about. In a way he ended up being a great tool to show the oppressive nature of the left and what the Student Freedom Project is fighting against. A great deal of politics today is done by race baiting and with smear campaigns, and having worked on campaigns and as an activist on college campuses i have been the target of some of this "strategic" verbal anger. As the organizer of the Student Freedom Project i try to rise above that and hold my volunteers and member to higher standards. If we want to change whats happening in politics we to have to change how the game is played.

Letters From the Frontline ( Bumbershoot)

This weekend i spend three days in the Seattle center running the booth for the Student Freedom Project. 30 hour of water pong later, i have an amazing behind the around the back shot and 252 new members for the Student Freedom Project mailing list.  Hosting a table at bumbershoot truly was a new experience. Thought our many ....many games.... of water pong i learned a great deal about the students and young adults of the greater Seattle area. We found out that like most young adults they knew nothing about the current political climate or the world around them and didn't care to know. But even through the apathy, we made many new connections hand helped forge a place for ourselves in the Seattle community. The parents and community members we in counted supported our organization and further motivated us in our mission to help young people get their voices heard in the political climate.  We meet with people from all back grounds, ethnically and politically, and found that one issue transcended all economic reform, and a waste full government. Over the three days we as an organization grew and refined the Student Freedom Project. Thus taking us one step closer to accomplishing out goal ; to enable college students to take an active role in shaping the future they will graduate into.