I Know What I'll Hear Tomorrow

Breaking news:

There was an incident this evening at Baruch College CUNY in Manhattan, where the City University of New York's Board of Trustees was having a meeting, where one of the issues (if not the only one) was a proposal to increase tuition. The news has begun to go viral, but this posting will not link to it because I do not want to boost the hit numbers of the websites which are now spinning the story. I have watched the posted videos. My comments, in no particular order:


1. I have witnessed (and indeed, participated in) "nonviolent" demonstrations which were conducted with far, far better decorum.

2. The arrestees were apparently told to disperse and cease and desist, and were arrested only after failing to do so.

3. The people excluded from the Board of Trustee's meeting were denied admission because they did not register in advance. Advance registration is a prerequisite for admission. Advance registration is open to anybody.

4. Even with the proposed tuition hikes, CUNY's tuition is by far one of the best educational bargains available anywhere.



I'm sure that I will hear more about this one within the next 24 hours.

Useful Idiots as Sacrificial Lambs

First and foremost, let me wish everyone a Happy Purim. This world has so many Hamans, but only one Purim!

I'm now between trips out of town, and will be on the go for much of this coming week. One place I will not be going is to Albany, New York. It seems as though the far-far-left faculty union of which I am (reluctantly) a member is trying to mobilize its members to go to Albany to protest against Governor Cuomo's budget cuts to education.

This, of course, places me into a bind. On one hand, it is clear that the taxpayers of New York need to have significant relief, and significant and painful budget cuts must be instituted. On the other hand, some of the proposed cuts may well affect a portion of my regular income (and, for that matter, a portion of the regular income of my wife).

But my union is not only protesting the budget cuts, they are also protesting the proposed tuition increases. And my local chapter president, who majored in economics as an undergrad, is fully aware that what is being proposed means higher taxes. Can you say "Redistributionist?"

In any event, the union is calling for a peaceful protest, yet is providing civil disobedience training and transportation reimbursement for those who are willing to get themselves arrested. I've seen enough in my years on this earth to know that "peaceful" protests that end up in mass arrests usually, in fact, do not play out quite as peaceable as the organizers would have the world believe.

This is one where I would say that individual union members need to follow their consciences as to whether, and what degree, they actively oppose the proposed budgetary cuts.

Point of information: My local chapter's Chair and Vice Chair, who are circulating the "Come to Albany and Protest" e-mail, have admitted that "for reasons essentially related to [their] teaching" they themselves will not be showing up in Albany.

Okay, I can buy off on that excuse (though I know of at least one far-left union-active colleague who has admitted that he cannot risk arrest for another few months, until his criminal case, now ACD (adjourned in contemplation of dismissal), actually gets dismissed).

But my local chapter's leadership would carry far, far greater credibility and respect if at least some local chapter officers were willing to go to Albany and stick out their own wrists for the handcuffs.