Being political

I have never been to a political rally before. It was quite interesting. There were roughly 2,000 people there. Most were wearing black. Most were students at the three state universities. As I walked from my car to the rally area (ironically, I ended up parking at the state education building), the people I passed saw my sign and said encouraging things about what we were doing.

It was an energetic group, but for the most part, they were also respectful. The two people that I saw who were being excessively disruptive were not students. My mom thinks they were leftover hippies.

Several of the members of both the House and Senate came out to speak to us and say that they heard us, both Republicans and Democrats came and spoke. One thing a lot of them said that I found interesting, was that education needs to not be a partisan issue. And yet every Democrat that spoke was saying it was the Republican’s fault. There was quite a bit of subtle, and not so subtle, Republican bashing going on. Seems a bit partisan to me. One of the politicians who spoke to the news said he was not looking forward to being re-elected last year because he knew this budget crisis was coming. If he didn’t want to be e-elected, why did he run?

The three solutions to the budget problem I have heard are not cures, they are rather very small band-aids for a very large wound. I am afraid that our culture is too focused on the now or the immediate future to work on anything real effective over the long term. But I will still hope for the best.

The education committee has set up a website. Not sure what that’s for – EducateAZ.org

The local news covered it, as well as NPR. I also took pictures while I was there.

• Local ABC – Ariz. university students protest proposed cuts
• Local NBC – Over 1,000 UA students protest at the capital
• Local CBS – Students protest university’s proposed budget cuts (with video – and I could point out where you can see my sign in a few quick shots too)
• Local newspaper – Thousands of Arizona college students protest proposed cuts & Ariz. legislators poised for special session
• University news – Support for higher education overwhelms capitol
• NPR – Students protest Arizona education cuts

One advantage of having your own sign at a rally – you have your own shade.
my photos