Confuzzled?

Wooo! Rights! No one doesn't like rights!

You see, illegal immigrants tend to come from countries that suck, like Mexico, and they want to go to countries that don't suck, like America. The main reason for this is that, under our beloved capitalist system, a bunch of dudes willing to work for not very much money will have little trouble finding that work. Therefore, it only makes sense that this rally is headed by ANSWER, waving pictures of Che, on May Day.

Some UC Berkeley faculty members canceled their classes in a show of support for the cause.

How thoughtful. They were fired, right? Right?

Tomiko Sharpnack, a graduate student at the Graduate School of Education, said she tried to use the opportunity to educate her preschool students about immigration.

I'm sure they totally understood.

Boycotting also took place. A lot of school was skipped.

Yesterday's events also caused absences throughout the Berkeley Unified School District that outnumbered those of any other event in recent memory, said district spokesperson Mark Coplan.

At Berkeley High School, between 200 and 300 students were absent yesterday, many in order to participate in the San Francisco and Berkeley protests, Coplan said.

An additional 25 Berkeley High School teachers called in sick for the day, almost a quarter of the full-time faculty at the school, he said.

Berkeley Alternative High School had only 28 of 120 students attend classes while a third of the teachers did not come to work, Coplan said.

...

At Willard Middle School, teachers integrated the protest into the curriculum by observing and participating in the San Francisco demonstrations, Coplan said.

But Berkeley's student absenteeism was limited compared to the Oakland Unified School District, where between 50 and 60 percent of students were absent from school, as were many teachers, Coplan said.

In a related story:

As recent statistics show American students performing at lower levels than their international peers in math and science subjects, local educators and policymakers are beginning to address the national trend.

Superintendent Michele Lawrence criticized the protests:

"If you take time out of the day to test you take time away from teaching," Lawrence said. "If you want to improve math and science you have to have time to teach it."

Wait, no, she's criticizing testing. It seems the same argument would apply for the protests, though. Somehow, oddly, The Daily Cal decided not to draw the connection.

posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 5/02/2006 08:50:00 AM #
Comments (3)

. . .

Comments:

I think you point about the Che is a great one, but I think the protestors that idolize him don't see him the same way as we do. They see him as a revolutionary, and they envision their struggle as a revolution, whereas we see him as a murderous commie. I would be extremely surprised if the people toting those signs had any real knowledge of Che’s history, while I am sure all of them would say “he brought revolution for workers” or some other nonsense like that.

# posted by  Alex Marlow : 9:44 AM, May 02, 2006

 

I don't even mind the fact that the's a murderous commie. It's the fact that he's a revolutionary. They're coming to this country because the current system in this country so much better than that of their own. WTF do they want a revolution for?

# posted by  Beetle Aurora Drake : 12:06 PM, May 02, 2006

 

Your're right to an extent. I mentioned that in my post when I said that they must not have that much of an "immigrant rights" problem if they can't wait to come over here. Still, their desire to have all rights equal and a wide open border would be somewhat of a revolution.

# posted by  Alex Marlow : 1:03 PM, May 02, 2006

 

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