UARC

UARC seems to have brought the extremist out in everyone. The liberals have ceased hugging trees; now they've climbed up and moved into them. The conservatives are bursting blood vessels, losing their voices screaming "Support the troops, support America, save UARC!" But where are the moderates? Google has apparently hidden them and their reasonable blogs in some parallel, unattainable cyber world.

Some background:
The popular issue at UH was never about whether there should be a UARC or not, the issue revolved only around the actions of the oft refered "Save UH/Stop UARC Coalition." For those who somehow escaped that mess, for a week in May, about 30 students and faculty sat in our uni president's office in protest of a proposed implementation of a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC), which would bring in millions of dollars over the space of five years, to the delight of some, and pain of others. The action quickly became overblown. Hell, our uni paper Ka Leo O Hawaii, would report everytime a protestor would whistle them over, whether there was something to report or not. However, after some of us protested at the unprofessionalism of the protestors, only the most sychophantic of Ka Leo reporters could get into the protestor's barricade. Then the protestors began calling the other couriers of Hawaii media with the same indiscretion.

I was down there every day of the protest, and of all the striking images of solidarity and "courage" I saw, the one that sticks with me still is of a protestor posing for a photograph at the president's desk, feet up and with a wide smile. Commentary unecessary.

I remember watching odd glee shine in the eyes of the boy I was dating at the time as he described how the local papers had begun to capitalize the "C" in "Coalition," ostensibly his prerogative. This glee was the intangible representative of how ridiculous the situation had become. For years, no one took part or initiated protests at UH, and suddenly because some students, who were, make no mistake, highly driven, well educated and committed, protested, everyone with a grievance with UH, Hawaii, Lingle, ah hell, the world, joined in.

The first time I discovered Andrew Walden and I shared similar views on the behavior of UHer's Anti-UARC crew, the phrase "politics makes for strange bedfellows" suddenly became illuminated in a new, sickly way. NB - emphasis on "behavior." Walden is convinced the anti-UARCers are just another cog in the anti-American death machine. I think the protestors had a damn good cause, but evidently no one in charge knew how to run a protest. Thus, a disorganized and elitist movement results.

While I was a senior in high school, Bush declared war on Iraq. About 40 of us began wearing shirts, divided fairly evenly, half wearing pro-war shirts, the other half wearing anti-war shirts. What resulted was a textbook case of disjunctivity. The self/other lines were drawn up, mythico-histories were forged, imagined communities flourished, (yea, we were a dedicated bunch of protestors) and so on. I don't think we broke down those barriers until graduation day.
I did learn a few things though. The brilliance of the democrat was found in the ability to inspire the emotions, to involve the apathetic. Likewise, the republican, in the organization, the uniformity of opinion and appearance (all the shirts of the pro-war students were the same, professional designed).
Amazingly, two years and 7,000 miles later, the same occurence. There was nowhere an uninformed student could go to hear a presentation of facts and opinions without being recruited by a Navy officer, or harassed by a protestor in a monkey suit. There was and still is nowhere a haven for the student of moderate views.
Today, I read this problem has become more pronounced. Anti-UARCers are interupting class time to present their case. (Ironically, these are the same people who had refused to create a petition for the cause last May) This link isn't the best explaination for what is going on, but sadly, seems to be the only one available.
I pay quite a bit for a rather inferior education at UH, and if I was in a class which was suddenly interupted by biased students... well, I'd be doing some interupting of my own. If these students wish to reach others so badly, then let them do it at their own inconvienance.

Thanatos

Have I become too cynical?
The problem with wanting to work in the field of genocide prevention/analysis is that you're working in the field of genocide. After a certain point, you become convinced that all humans want to do is die, and if they themselves can't, then they'll do most anything to help other people reach this goal. We sell drugs and guns with a fanaticism. We watch hundreds of thousands be slaughtered by thousands of others. Then when the slaughterers run out of ammo, we bend over backwards to re-supply them. Indonesia 75, anyone? We place UN generals in impossible positions and then crucify them after with a sadistic joy. Humans are expendable, but some of us are just a bit more precious than others. A thousand people die in a stampede in one part of the world, and a couple hundred die from a hurricane in another... no perspective. Why should we try and write treaties that no one follows? We kid ourselves. Just treading water til some shark comes along.