MSU students challenge community >From Michigan State University Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) / Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS)
It’s time for both students and members of the community to act against injustice. This has been done in several ways in the past; students have voted, marched, protested, and demonstrated for specific causes. As concerned students, we do the best we can. But what can we do when nothing seems to work? For more than eight years the United States has been involved in an unsuccessful and unpopular war in Afghanistan; and nearly seven years in Iraq. These wars are nearing a trillion dollars in spending, a number too large to comprehend. Numbers that are easier to comprehend are $25 billion and $235 million which are, respectively, the costs of these wars for Michigan and the Lansing area. ... Why are so many in the world and in this country unable to share in the success of the upper echelons of society? Why do so many have so little? If our society is an airplane, it is on its way down. This time though, it can’t be blamed on shrubbery in the intake or the brown people on board. It is pilot error. It is our fault. How are we going to afford to pay the Social Security benefits for our aged population? How are we going to afford to equitably, adequately, and responsibly educate everyone in our society? How are we going to afford a system that provides free health care to everyone that needs it? How many more young men and women can we afford to send to die and kill for an uncertain cause halfway around the world, in a country many Americans can’t point out on a map? We need to end these wars. There are hungry people in America. There are homeless people in America. There are people in America that are sick with preventable diseases. Our primary and secondary schools are inadequate. Our institutions of higher education cost more and provide less every year. Racism is alive and strong in America: People of color here struggle every day to survive in a society in which white privilege, while not always consciously perpetuated, is an accepted reality. Women, minorities, and LBGT people face discrimination daily in a society and culture hell-bent on destroying them. ... There are children who wake up and wonder where their next meal is coming from, and whether or not the homework they didn’t get done is even going to matter in the end, while their mother works three jobs to make ends meet. Other children wake up with their lives laid out for them. They won’t have to worry about paying for their Bachelor’s degree that won’t even come close to getting them out of their financial and moral debt or to helping them achieve their own impossible expectations for their future. Young people today strive for an unattainable and undesirable future that they’ve learned about from the televisions that raised them. For us, this is unacceptable. We will not watch this mess go down while clutching our seat cushions to our chests in fear. We are hopeful for our future, because we are going to be the ones to build it. We are going to do whatever it takes to create a society that is free and sustainable for all people, built on true democratic principles. We are building an organization and a network of resistance and direct action for a free university in a free society. ... Our first action is to officially fully endorse the March 4 [2010] National Day of Action to Defend Education. MSU SDS/MDS is committed to promoting quality, equity, and freedom in education, from kindergarten to higher and adult education programs. Our first issue of focus for this call to action is the impending cancellation of the Deaf Education program at Michigan State University. With the only program of its kind in a state with over 1,000,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing residents, it is irresponsible and unacceptable to cut this program (or any other program at this or any other public university that benefits the good of the people, and especially a traditionally disadvantaged group), and we will fight it. Dare to struggle, dare to win. Contact: msu...@gmail.com / www.msusds.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
