On Monday at the California Hall about 25 people started a hunger strike to the UC officials trying to denounce the Arizona Immigration bill that was passed last week. These strikers plan to starve themselves but can only drink water. The hungry strikers said that they plan to camp out in front of the building up to a week or until they get a response from UC Berkley Chancellor Robert and other officials. These strikers are going to wait until officials respond to them so they can denounce Arizona sounds really reasonable, right? In Berkley there are more than 100 supporters that are gathering around carrying signs reading "Hungry for Justice" and "Down with SB 1070" These UC Berkley students are also demanding that the campus administration will drop all the student conduct charges against activist, and also ending layoffs of low-wage employees and rehire already laid off union workers. Also students are asking to rehire laid off janitors and to make the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. For these strikers it is going to be a long starving week! So what do you think? Do you think their efforts will make a difference or are they just waisting their times? How do you feel about the bill of Arizona do you agree with it or disagree?
*This initially was suppose to be posted last week sorry!
Squishable Pre-Dawn Open Thread
1 hour ago
5 comments:
I think that the hunger strike is indeed a drastic thing for the students to do. It may or may not be effective, depending on how publicized the strikes get. I mean, if there is no media attention whatsoever, then it is almost pointless to do start a hunger strike.
I think that hunger protests are only really efficient when society cares about the people starving themselves. I'm not saying that people don't care about these students, but they don't exactly command the same respect as Ghandi.
Actually, now that I think about it, the hunger strike is sort of ridiculous. These students are DRAINING themselves of energy by not eating to prove a point, when they could be using that energy to go out and have people sign petitions,write letters to the government, march, and do so much more to make a statement.
-Jesscia B
While I applaud the actions of these Berkeley students, I don't think it is entirely the smartest thing. Their form of protest seems to be effective, however, targeting UC officials doesn't seem like exactly the smartest thing to me. If they want to get their message across, try targeting California State Legislators or government officials. Unfortunately, even if UC officials disagree with the nature of the Arizona Immigration Bill, there isn't much they can do. Also, I don't entirely agree with making "the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants." Yes many illegal immigrants come to America in search of a better life, and many of them come from rough and disadvantaged backgrounds in life. However, the Berkeley students make it seem like they are praising illegal immigration. Unfortunately, undocumented immigrants do present trouble for the American Economy and Society, so I don't feel like this is something one should be praising. But these are my thoughts, and I know that Illegal Immigrants do help America in a vast number of ways, but there's only so much people in its population that America can handle. If someone wants to convince me otherwise, I am completely open.
I agree with Michael. I think the UC berkeley students should direct their strike toward state legislators and other people who seem like they would have more influence in this area. I also dont really think trying to get laid off people like janitors rehired will really help right now since california is already in a budget crisis. I applaud the effort of these students on strike but I think they can help a lot more by doing something else...
While I do not agree with necessarily creating a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, I do believe that they felt that they had to immigrate illegally for a reason. It is possible that they felt that had to do that because the current immigration process is too challenging or the requirements too severe. On a related note, can anyone name who said "Give me liberty or give me death!" without first googling it? That is a question on the naturalization test.
Post a Comment