The current condition and future status of a community is seen, on one level, in the state and actions of its youth, particularly its students. Although definitely not unprecedented, we are at a crossroads within the current climate: socially, politically, and academically. I have been in the field of education for decades and am witnessing an inversion of truth, an enforced narrative that belies what our eyes see plainly in front of us.
Yet, a basic tenet of a sound education is the importance of critical thinking, just as freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy. Add to those essential principles, the American constitutional declaration that all individuals are created equal. What an irony of epic proportions that the current Establishment narrative denies, or at the very least obscures, the clear oppression and injustice in Palestine. Where are critical thinking, freedom of speech, and the equal rights to dignity and freedom of all human beings when the mainstream authorities try in every way to mute the voices and block the actions of those who see what is going on and conscience dictates speaking and acting on behalf of those who are being victimized in the most brutal ways? The message is simply this: “You actually do not have the freedom to speak and act according to your conscience, even if in fully lawful ways, and despite proclamations that you do.” It seems that too many Americans subscribe to the dystopian principle in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
We have been here before. The Jim Crow laws and enforced racial segregation, the misguided and destructive Vietnam War, pressing issues about the environment, economic and social inequality — all of these took students to the streets in the past, inspired writers to express outrage by pen, and woke up the general population.
Columbia University in New York City, at the center of the current wave of protests, has seen similar uprisings before, including during the Vietnam War in 1968. Demonstrations led the university to end classified war research and stop military recruitment, among other changes, according to an article by Rosalind Rosenberg, a professor of history at Barnard College. On the other coast, in the 1950s, at the University of California, Berkeley, student groups taking part in any on- or off-campus political activities were banned from campus. Nearly 800 students were arrested by local police as a result. The overreaction to protestors ultimately worked in the students’ favor as the administration eventually overturned policies that would restrict the content of speech or advocacy. The shootings at Kent State in 1970, when police fired upon a protest killing two students, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, catalyzed the first general student strike in the history of the United States, when students from over 400 colleges and universities called off classes to protest the shooting.
Courage, Maturity, and Strength of Character
Campuses have come to the forefront of the news once again amidst the current unrest in the Middle East, as over 150 colleges and universities saw encampments on their grounds during the last academic year and now with new semester, with many faculty joining in as well. The courage, maturity, and strength in character exemplified by the students and many staff risking their livelihoods, are commendable. Encampments were set up on university campuses in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestments from companies that are advancing the brutal military objectives of the occupying force. Thousands of protesting students were arrested in an unprecedented move. Meetings were set up with deans, presidents, and directors of these institutions to voice student concerns, and many were fruitful. The president of Columbia University, Dr. Minouche Nemat Shafik, was called to a Congressional Hearing in April 2024 to answer for her reaction to the climate of unrest on campus, and then eventually resigned in August 2024 amidst the uproar.
For sure we are living at a critical time in history. In Bangladesh, for example, a tyrant ruled for decades. But she was ousted by the galvanization of students. The protests began after she instituted unfair policies regarding quotas in government jobs, and these demonstrations escalated as orders were issued to use force to disperse the gatherings. Anger mounted and could not be quelled, and former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the longest serving Muslim female head of state, was forced to resign and flee the country.
The Student Body of the World Is a Powerful Force
What makes the youth, the student body of the world, such a powerful force that can help end a war or an unjust racial policy? Why can the students, creating an uproar with their voices and actions calling for justice, bring about such dramatic and important change? The answer lies in their youthful energy and idealism. Their critical thinking skills have not yet been dampened by years of political propaganda and their own personal investment in the system. Their minds have not yet been corrupted by ulterior motives or tainted by greed, nor blurred by what the propaganda narrates and demands we conform to. They are still free. This is their power and their privilege.
The students’ minds are restless and hunger for answers. They see injustice and call it out, simmer with anger and burn with an undaunted desire for action. Their confidence is unparalleled. It triggers the call — and in the face of ridicule, accusations, ostracism, legal actions, and oppressive policing, they cement their places and release their dynamic response in history as it unfolds. They have a responsibility; and they still have an ability to respond with honesty and determination.
The kinetic disturbance of protesting energy grows into waves. This motivates others to join and soon, a group becomes a movement, galvanizing others by their voices and drowning out the backlash, overcoming those who would misrepresent and whitewash the wrongdoings that prompted the protests.
Tiny seeds of honest discernment and uncompromising conscience can be nurtured to ultimately change the direction of the world. A seed is planted, and someone appears with a drum to signal the rhythm and beat of nature’s unrelenting will to take root and grow. This beat is a planting of ideas but also a viable march in time, and it yields a chant for freedom, calling to all human beings with a vision of justice and peace, daring to stand in defiance of those who monger fear and exploitation and war.
