Lately, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading in StudLife the coverage of post-sit-in SWA protesters. There has been speculation and banter as to what their punishment should be, and there has even been a day-in-the-life article about Joe Thomas after the culmination of the sit-in. I contend that this celebrity status shouldn’t be confined to our college newspaper – we should put it to good use. The protesters could be the basis for a new reality television show. They could travel the country and stage sit-ins in famous American sites. The Oval Office might take some doing, but I’m sure there are some impetuous producers out there that could make it happen. After Season I, they could go global: the Louvre, the Leaning Tower, Taj Mahal, etc. There’s really no limit. They could sit-in on Mars, and the entire country could watch their every move.
After the response that I’ve seen here on campus, I have no doubts that it would be a damn successful show. And that saddens me.
I’m just wondering two things: first, how the protesters attained this weird reality television celebrity status, and second, why the general public cares about them as individuals (not to be harsh here, but really, get on with your lives).
I was confounded by this celebritization at last with Jeff Stepp’s editorial entitled “Let Them Fail.” The author’s argument was pretty thoughtful, saying that not to reap the punishment for their actions would be to undermine the actions themselves. I can buy that, I suppose, if the purpose of their sit-in was to teach the protesters a life lesson. However, I’m sure if you asked any one of the protesters, they would tell you that they sat in to raise wages for campus workers, not to learn the value of self-sacrifice. The protesters themselves were merely a tool for bringing living wages to campus, and so it baffles me that they should be the objects of examination on individual levels. So they got what they wanted (sort of). Leave them alone.
If the administration finds it necessary to punish them in order to set a precedent so that next year, no one will stage a sit-in to lower bookstore rates, or get in to med school, or bring the Foo Fighters to WILD (please?), then so be it. But certainly there is no point in having them fail classes if by the end of the semester, they have completed all the work. Secondly, there is no point why the student body should care, anyway. I realize people could be jealous if they thought that Brookings was a three-week non-stop party locale, but I assure you that its temporary inhabitants were working and suffering just as much as everyone here in the university community suffers.
I realize that by claiming no one should care about the plight of the SWA protesters except for the protesters and the administration, I’ve made this article terribly ironic by writing about it. But mainly, I just want people to shut up. Shouldn’t you be studying for finals?