Chaos and uncertainty ruled campus yesterday. Another chapter in Swarthmore’s long history of student protest felt intensified amidst an increasingly defensive college administration and a reactionary national environment. On the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 19, Swarthmore’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) announced an “Emergency Rally” to take place in front of Parrish Hall at noon, citing two demands: that the college drop its disciplinary cases against students for charges related to protests for Palestine and that the college divest from companies tied to Israel. The rally, which transitioned to a sit-in in the Parrish East hallway outside the office of Dean Nathan Miller, was not allowed to progress in the same fashion as those from semesters prior. Officers from Public Safety quickly barricaded the building and attempted to stop the entry of additional protesters, as well as food and water. The protest continued throughout the day along with numerous heated exchanges between officers and students. An evening email sent to protesters from Vice President for Student Affairs Stephanie Ives threatened those still inside the building after 11:00 p.m. with interim suspensions. The administration confirmed to The Phoenix the swirling rumors that the FBI had contacted the school regarding the ongoing protests. All students and public safety officials left Parrish Hall shortly before 11:00 p.m.
SJP’s announcement, sent through email and posted on Instagram, read, “Your peers are currently at risk of suspension, financial aid loss, and eviction, for daring to demand this college divest all of its blood money. Today at 12 p.m., we are calling an emergency rally at Parrish Hall to send a clear message: The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be.” Members of the Swarthmore community began their protest in front of Parrish Hall, and then marched inside and announced their sit-in in the Parrish East first-floor hallway at 12:30 p.m. The protestors sat outside the office of Nathan Miller, Interim Dean of Students and Senior Associate Dean of Student Life, who has been a key player in the college administration’s disciplinary process against students.
The demonstration came just days after SJP posted a statement on Instagram accusing the college of putting students at risk of suspension, expulsion, and deportation: “For the past year, the Swarthmore Administration and Public Safety Department have collaborated to racially profile, harass, and repress students on our campus — most of whom are first-generation low-income students … It is time for outrage against our institution.”
At 1:30 p.m., Public Safety locked all the doors to Parrish and shut the building down to the public and campus community with the protesters still inside. Public Safety officers stood at every entrance to Parrish and blocked access to any non-residents trying to get in. The students inside continued to let people in through a window to the first-floor men’s bathroom, which became the location of multiple confrontations between members of Public Safety and protesters.
An anonymous member of SJP speaking from inside Parrish, who will be referred to as Jay, said in a phone conversation with The Phoenix, “There were people standing outside who wanted to get in. There are a lot of folks who clearly realize this is important. I think this barricading from every entrance is completely new. I’ve never seen this before.”
Around 2:00 pm, Vice President for Student Affairs Stephanie Ives sent a note for Public Safety to distribute to protestors saying that the activities of the sit-in were against the changed 2024-25 Student Code of Conduct. SJP posted a copy on their Instagram story, with “We Ain’t Reading All That” in Sharpie over the note.
In a statement on their Instagram story and in a SWATALERT sent out at 2:54 p.m., Swarthmore wrote that access to Parrish was restricted due to an “active protest.” In email communication with The Phoenix, Vice President for Communications and Marketing Andy Hirsch said, “The College decided to restrict access to Parrish based on some of the protestors’ actions, which included banging on office doors, allegedly attempting to forcibly enter staff offices, using a bullhorn indoors, and other activities that are clear violations of the student code of conduct. Given the level of disruption and harassment and the fact that a number of community members were visibly upset, we decided to restrict access to Parrish for the time being.”
Jay told The Phoenix that using the dangers presented by “protest activity” as justification for the shutdown is unreasonable because of the peaceful nature of the sit-in: “This is how you know they don’t even believe their own justifications anymore. This [barricade] is not something that is creating student safety. If you gave me a guess, there were a few people within the board or administration who decided that never again will we have another sit-in, so they created a plan to mobilize the entire campus like this. They’re just afraid because they don’t want to recognize that they’re the problem.”
Jay also noted a shift in the college’s approach to student activism on campus: “I think we’re here because fundamentally, we recognize that there’s a shift in what Swarthmore is doing and how it’s done. This is not normal for Swarthmore. Swarthmore wasn’t historically the college with the most disciplinary hearings [per capita].”
At several points throughout the sit-in, Public Safety officers and members of the administration requested that the students leave the building: “While the doors are locked from the outside to prevent people from entering the building, they do not prohibit anyone from exiting Parrish Hall,” Hirsch said. However, Jay says that having students leave the building while ensuring their safety and anonymity is difficult, and made particularly significant during a protest against the college’s past disciplinary actions and surveillance against students.
Officers attempted to prevent a Swarthmore professor from holding the door open for students at the Parrish North end. His arm was grabbed by an unidentified campus personnel, he was pulled out of the doorway and the door was subsequently closed on his arm.
Around 4:30 p.m., a group of international student protestors left Parrish, potentially due to concerns over law enforcement and immigration. The remaining students marched back to Parrish, where they “changed shifts” with students inside, hoisting fellow members through the men’s bathroom window.
As the sit-in continued, students who supported the cause outside Parrish communicated with the students inside and passed them food through the window to the bathroom. Public Safety physically blocked or attempted to block many of those efforts, saying later in the evening that they “cannot let food in.”
Shortly after 5:00 p.m., officers from Widener University’s Campus Safety department arrived to reinforce Public Safety. Interim Public Safety Director Colin Quinn could be seen for most of the afternoon on the grass in front of the opened window, and at numerous points participated in heated exchanges with protesters through the window. Quinn, as well as other Public Safety officers, repeatedly directed community members not to film them, and in one instance repeatedly asked an onlooker photographing the officers to provide their OneCard for identification.
Other unidentified campus personnel who repeatedly refused to identify themselves were also present throughout the event, many in plain clothes, adding to a sense of confusion of the day. One personnel, when asked, told a student “I no speak English”; another requested that the student identify themself first. Neither party complied with the other’s request.
An attempt to open doors by students on the north side of Parrish led to the most serious – and well-documented – interaction of the night. Protesters and various Public Safety and other officials struggled over control of the door. At one point a student can be seen grappling with an officer’s arm, forcing it off of the door. In a separate instance, a plainclothes officer grabs a student by the collar and pulls them several feet, then pushes with a second hand on the student’s back, sending them staggering back outside.
Late in the evening, Ives emailed a letter addressed to SJP; print copies were also distributed to the protestors in Parrish. The letter wrote that the college made “several good-faith attempts” to end the sit-in, saying that “we have no choice but to take immediate steps to bring the occupation to an end.” Ives concluded the letter by warning students that if they do not leave by 11:00 p.m. they will face interim suspension, which results in the loss of all academic privileges and access to campus services like food and housing.
Regarding rumors of non-Swarthmore law enforcement – police or the FBI – being contacted regarding the standoff, Hirsch emphasized in email correspondence with The Phoenix that the college did not notify the FBI or any other federal law enforcement agency. But, he continued, “The FBI contacted us based on the nature and volume of social media posts by Swarthmore SJP, along with other regional and national SJP and other accounts, calling for people from outside the campus community to come to Swarthmore and participate in the occupation.” Both SJP and administration confirmed that all protestors had left the building shortly before 11 p.m., and Public Safety officers were seen leaving the building, signifying the end of the sit-in. “Given that the students complied with the letter, we do not expect to issue interim suspensions,” Hirsch wrote.
Alumni 95. The Islamists jihadism is a bad look in the corporate world. This is not at all like the pro choice activism of my cohorts time.
“bad look in the corporate world” = badge of honor
F the corporate world. You could not pay me enough to take some job that exists solely to exploit people. Raytheon? Palantir? No thank you.
Also, are Quakers jihadists now? Because BDS bases its list of corporations to boycott in no small part on the findings of the AFSC, a Quaker-founded, Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization.
You need to hop off of these Fox News takes.
It’s great to hear you are in favor of supporting a terrorist organization funded by more terrorists. Let’s not forget the money flowing from Qatar (generated through enslaving Bangladeshi citizens to do horrible labor) to US students to convince them they are on the right side of history.
Really? Swarthmore protestors are a terrorist organization now? This is Alex Jones-level analysis.
But yeah, wow, Qatar. There’s like, Muslims and stuff over there. I think that’s supposed to scare me, right?
But did you know that Qatar is the 20th largest purchaser of arms from the US? Did you know many of the very same arms manufacturers (Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin) that protestors at Swarthmore and other campuses have called on their administrations to divest from sell arms to both Israel and Qatar? Do you care about that money flowing from Qatar?
That said, it’s good that you’re out here raising the alarm about the exploitation of Bangladeshi citizens. Oh wait, what’s this I’m reading? Some of the fashion companies also targeted for divestment by pro-Palestine protestors (H&M, Zara) are among the worst exploiters of Bangladeshi citizens in the world, including engaging in forced and child labor? Do you care about that exploitation of Bangladeshi citizens?
Honestly, with your very serious social justice concerns that I’m sure you care deeply about, it sounds like you and the protestors might have more in common than you think. You want the same things: less money flowing from Qatar into the US, and less exploitation of Bangladeshi citizens.
A friendly behind-the-scenes for anyone reading the comments: These funny geese are a part of the Swarthmore community, now and in the past. But most of us like the school a lot, don’t have anything to do with SJP, and love(d) our time at Swat! We respect these folks for standing up for what they believe in; we also appreciate the admin for reining them in when they get too feisty, as college kids are wont to do.
As a Swarthmore alum (1993) and current parent, I continue to be truly ashamed of the administration’s punitive and threatening response to peaceful student protests. I hope other alumni will join me in letting Swarthmore know that we will not donate to our alma mater until they change these policies that do not match the Quaker and universal values that Swarthmore was founded on. Students free speech must be protected as well as the freedom to participate in peaceful protest against the college’s policies and actions.
The eight-day takeover of the Parish admissions office by black students in 1969 has been retrospectively legitimized in the annals of Swarthmore history as a good and important event – it was prominently featured in “Minding Swarthmore” documentary, and there is a dedicated page to it on the Swarthmore website. Retrospective validation has also been granted to other student-led protests, including the anti-apartheid divestment movement of the 1970s-80s. So why are the current protests met with such hostility? Why has the administration not sat down with the protestors to present their position regarding their demands? And perhaps as importantly, why have they not articulated a coherent position on the validity of student direct action that can reconcile this apparent inconsistency?
Ah yes, the famous Quaker Values Dilemma: fund genocide and collaborate with the FBI or fund genocide and don’t collaborate with the FBI. What a conundrum.
I attended the 2024 graduation. The behavior of some graduates and faculty was truly disrespectful to the majority of attendees who were there to celebrate academic milestones and accomplishments. The protestors thought that they were cute. They were not. It seems as if bad behavior has continued. Swarthmore used to be a storied college. No longer.
Are you saying we need to Make Swarthmore Great Again? Because that’s the vibe I’m picking up from you. Quick question, was Swarthmore storied back when it was segregated? Or are you thinking of a different time?
Ben. There are legitimate concerns about the tone and actions of these protests. For instance, the SJP “celebrated” the terrorism of October 7th on the anniversary of that date. I am all for free speech however that does not mean that those protesting are not responsible for their actions such as vandalism and endangering the safety of the college environment. Actions and words that endanger or threaten the community have consequences.
Well, Steve, that’s not what Gary said. He said the protestors thought they were cute, and that Swarthmore used to be a storied college but no longer is. Do you agree with that?
As for your claims that SJP “celebrated” the terrorism of October 7th, I am seeing no sources cited, and I also don’t know how to interpret your scare quotes on celebrated, so I really can’t comment on the need for tone policing.
As for vandalism, the US was founded on it (among other things). As a child I read about the Boston Tea Party in school a number of times, and I recall the positive tone in which it was discussed in our history books, where it was depicted as a pivotal moment in the American Revolution. But really, that was just vandalism. Here were John Adams’s words about that event,
“This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking. This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History.”
I wonder if Gary would think that was a storied moment.
Anyway, returning to what is actually going on, as far as I can tell, the protests have always been about divestment. The protestors’ demands were and remain, “that Swarthmore College divests all of its finances, including its endowment, from companies that profit off of the Israeli apartheid regime” and “Swarthmore College recognize and denounce Israel’s scholasticide, via its targeting of educational institutions, scholars, and students in its genocide on Gaza.”
What do you think about that? You know, the actual issue. What’s your opinion about these demands? Should Swarthmore divest or not? Would protestors conforming to your conception of politeness and orderliness change your opinion about the divestment?
I’m interested in the Quaker values demonstrated by AFSC (A Nobel Peace prize-winning, Quaker-founded organization) and how those align with the ideas about divestment put forth by the protestors.
Source:
https://www.swarthmore.edu/division-student-affairs/rejecting-glorification-violence
As an alum all I can say is that this is completely ridiculous and embarrassing. If Swarthmore can’t handle protests in a reasonable manner what hope is there for the rest of the country ? The college response appears to be disproportionate and excessive. Is there more to this story ?
The protesters are sending a hateful message towards the Jewish community at Swarthmore. Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons after being convicted in a lawful court for murder and terrorism, in some cases for killing dozens of Jews. This protest happened on the very day we learned that Shiri Bibas and her little boys would be coming home in coffins, murdered by Palestinians in Gaza. Where is the outrage about this, or do their lives not matter? Even if this protest was peaceful, the cause is not. It is genocidal. I am so disheartened by so many in thr Swarthmore community supporting this genocidal call for the annihilation of Israel and half the world’s remaining Jews. I thank the administration for acting swiftly and not allowing the hateful protest that violates campus policies to continue.
Amazing work, Jennifer! You have made it 30 years without an intelligent or humane thought entering your head–a feat of wall-building worthy of Israel. Here are two more to repel: 1) the conviction rate in Israeli military courts, which Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to because they are second-class citizens, is 99.7%. How remarkable that all these people, including the preteens, have killed “dozens of Jews.” 2) Yarden Bibas said himself that his wife and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, just like the thousands of Palestinian babies murdered during the last 15 months of genocide. I have read the list of dead infants under one year old, and I encourage you to as well. Maybe then you will develop an ounce of the courage shown by the brave students of Swarthmore SJP.
It’s abhorrent and an absurd distortion of the truth to think that masked jihad-lovers in black garb and boots are righteous in any way. Comparing them to civil rights activists is not only ridiculous, it’s simply an insult to the courageous, peaceful civil rights protests of the times. They did not hide behind masks and symbols of hate, they did not support genocidal terrorist groups. If anyone wants to compare these protesters to anyone, it would be specifically to the hateful students who were intimidating and shouting down Black students going to class at the time of desegregation. These keffiehs are just modern hoods. They know exactly why they are hiding their identity and faces to spew their hateful ideas. They know exactly why they can’t be public about it. Because these are just as despicable acts as those of racists intimidators of those times.
I fully expect this comment to be removed because I’ve witness any comment against these protesters have been removed by this “newspaper” throughout the day. Talk about journalist integrity.
Agreed. And for anyone who has conveniently forgotten, SJP used the 1-year anniversary of the atrocities of Oct 7th to post:
“Happy October 7th everyone! In honor of this glorious day and all our martyred revolutionaries“
https://www.swarthmore.edu/division-student-affairs/rejecting-glorification-violence
Now, while locking down Parrish, they were singing “Intifada, Intifada”. When College staff were blocking the entrances to Parrish, they were berated and cursed at by SJP members. All while hiding behind their keffiyehs. How noble…
This is not peaceful protest. This is not praiseworthy. It is a cowardly, terrorism-endorsing, anti-Zionist, anti-Jewish movement.
SJP should be permanently banned from campus and its members held accountable.
All of this. And I am a liberal as they come
It’s amazing we can have such wildly divergent views of geopolitics. The protestors want Swarthmore to divest from apartheid and genocide. What they’re asking is for Swarthmore to not invest in the war machine that has flattened Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Tens of thousands! Many of them children. Hospitals and schools bombed into oblivion. Neighborhoods air struck to dust. That is what the protest is about.
Swarthmore College and its administration have no capacity to perpetrate the annihilation of Israel, and to think that’s what protestors are asking the administration to do is in no way grounded in reality. Swarthmore does, however, have the ability to divest from arms manufacturers, surveillance, and other parties complicit in the genocide of Gazans.
Swarthmore has the ability to, you know, live up to its alleged Quaker values. https://afsc.org
PS – How can you have lawful courts in an apartheid regime? Was Nelson Mandela, who himself called Israel an apartheid state (he would know, right?), convicted in a lawful court in South Africa? Would you have protested South African apartheid?
It makes me sad to think that Jennifer or Greg were able to graduate Swarthmore in any era. To compare these students to American segregationists is perverse. I hope Brendan’s clear and well-informed response isn’t censored. I hope your reactionary bait isn’t either. I’m glad to know where you stand.
So sad and disappointed in the S’more administration to have not figured out better skills and empathy in dealing with upset students.
I am a graduate from the Class of ‘66 and this is the Opposite kind of conduct that we received from the Administration, who were open minded, conciliatory, respectful and even proud about our speaking up back then. Just because the conflicts are so Big and roiling are country and the world, the administration needs to up its commitment to non-violent communication, open their hearts and increase their skills. This negative publicity and obvious failure to handle students’ concerns will hurt S’more’s reputation for decades. I wouldn’t apply or pay thousands for tuition to a feckless college like this. Come on S’more, get a backbone and open your ears and hearts.
Don’t these students have midterms to study for? The push for divestment is dead in the water, why continue to risk being kicked out for a lost cause? No matter where you stand on this, we should all agree that Swarthmore has a responsibility to protect the campus and Parrish Hall from outside agitators. There are people waiting online for the green light to enter campuses and cause chaos. I hope Swarthmore can beef up security for the safety of the students and staff.
First they came for the socialists, and I said nothing, because I had exams and that shit was a lost cause anyway. What am I, a person with morals? Principles? You want me to Mind the Light!? LOL LMAO even. Maybe you would protest for a cause you believe in, but not me. I need to get good grades so I can go work for McKinsey and tell some Trump donor which people to lay off so that his stock can go up a couple of pennies.
Swarthmore Phoenix please stop posting comments from Ben (Legendary).
Or, if you’re going to let him dominate the comments section, let people know more about him. For many years, he was a professional poker player. Which is why he seems to have so much time to comment here.
Yeah I’m not hiding, classmate from ’98. I’m the same guy who wrote this:
https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2024/05/01/ben-williams-99-letter-to-the-editor/
And this:
https://swarthmorevoices.com/content-1/2024/5/3/cfwla5zwj1uszlezwqhgi0hfcgtm8f
And signed this:
https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2024/05/03/swarthmore-college-alumni-open-letter/
Phoenix is welcome to let people know more about me (dox me?) if they want.
But you’re right; I’ve got the time to post and apparently “dominate the comments section” (thanks?). I also happen to enjoy using my time to do things like read books, and I highly recommend Edward Said’s “Orientalism” to anyone interested in understanding the historical underpinnings of the Islamophobia we see all over the comments sections of campus newspapers from Columbia to USC, including this very comments section here at the Phoenix, and how Islamophobia is wielded by everyone from the Trump White House, to Fox News, to Swarthmore Phoenix comments section participants to disparage campus protestors.
Ben Williams, may I recommend Islamophilia by Douglas Murray. I think you would quite enjoy it.
Congratulations, MW, you played yourself with that recommendation. So much so that I’m not afraid to reply to myself on account of the formatting limitations and have this post be epic long with like six words per line.
Here we go. Some highlights from Murray’s Wikipedia entry:
“His books include Neoconservatism: Why We Need It (2005), The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (2017), The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019) and The War on the West (2022). Murray was the associate director of the Henry Jackson Society, a neoconservative think tank, from 2011 to 2018.”
“Murray has been praised by conservatives, and criticised by many progressives. Articles in the academic journals Ethnic and Racial Studies and National Identities associate his views with Islamophobia and he has been described as promoting far-right ideas such as the Eurabia, Great Replacement, and Cultural Marxism conspiracy theories.”
“Academic and journalistic sources have variously described Murray’s ideology and political views as conservative, neoconservative, far-right, alt-right and Islamophobic. Murray is a regular critic of immigration and Islam. British journalist and broadcaster Peter Oborne described Douglas Murray as an anti-Muslim polemicist. Murray has argued that there is an effort by the left to destroy Western culture, and has argued that criticisms of Western leaders and philosophers are motivated by attempts to hurt the West”
“In a February 2006 speech to the Dutch Parliament, Murray said “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.” and that “All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop.”
“Murray is a vocal critic of mass immigration. In March 2013, Murray said that London was a “foreign country” due to “white Britons” becoming a minority in 23 of the 33 London boroughs. In Murray’s book The Strange Death of Europe, he writes that Europe and its values are committing suicide due to mass immigration; in the opening pages, he calls for halting Muslim immigration. In the book, he also details crimes committed by immigrants in Europe and writes favourably of immigration hard-liner Viktor Orbán.”
In other words, you recommended a book by a white nationalist. I’m sure if you’re championing this guy, you must have a lot of really great takes on all sorts of issues related to race, gender, and immigration. Let’s hear some more book recommendations.
Oh no, a professional poker player? My alarm bells are going off and I’m clutching my pearls. What I’m hearing is that Ben, among the top 1% of poker players, has excellent analytical skills (logical), capacity to withstand downswings (thick skin), and emotional control (not resorting to personal attacks on one’s profession to make an argument).
Ben, good job copying and pasting from Wiki. If you did graduate from Swarthmore, I would think you would educate yourself on multiple viewpoints of an issue as complex as Israel and Palestine and have better critical thinking skills.
The students are morally and ethically correct and justified in what they believe and stand for. Please continue to build a nonviolent peaceful coalition to pressure Congress (particularly, the House of Representatives) to end defense contracts that lead to genocide and other forms of violence, including exploitation of workers across the world. May God continue to give you courage and keep you safe!
Douglas Murray is not a white nationalist. As you wrote, he is a neoconservative. I’d write more but I don’t want to be censored.
That’s a false dichotomy. He’s both a neoconservative and a white nationalist. Arguing that “all immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop” is a white nationalist position. Attributing the “demise of European civilization” to declining white birthrates is a white nationalist position. These are examples of what Douglas Murray believes, and why he’s a white nationalist.
You’re in the Swarthmore Phoenix comments section defending a racist, Saundra. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
Ben, why don’t you read the book and not just the false wiki statements. I would think as a someone who graduated from Swarthmore, you would educated yourself on all viewpoints around an issue as complex as Israel and the wider Muslim world, and not just one text written nearly half a century ago. And calling people racist just bc you may not agree with them is kinda racist.
These are his own words that you can find all over the internet. You really going to deny he said those things? The second is FROM one of his books, a work titled “The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.” Right in the intro. Go read it yourself, though the title is kind of a spoiler that you’re dealing with an Islamophobe and a white nationalist.
This guy is a flagrant racist and you all can’t line up fast enough to defend him.
I am educated on “all viewpoints” on this “complex” issue, which is why I know this guy is a racist and I will not be bamboozled by people defending white nationalism in broad daylight in the Swarthmore Phoenix comments section.
Instead of hiding behind “all viewpoints” why don’t you defend these viewpoints? Do you think “all immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop?” Is the answer to that “complex” or is it a simple yes or no?
And while we’re at it, do you consider Palestinians human beings? Just be honest about your views. Can you even answer that without invoking some alt-right personality or engaging in some whataboutism? Because I’ve made my views entirely clear, and they align with the Quaker values put forth by AFSC.
https://investigate.afsc.org/divest
Why so many letters and comments in Swarthmore publications when you haven’t been a Swarthmore student in 26 years? Are you putting the same or more energy into trying to write about this in the Philly Inquirer or the Delco Times and writing your Congressional reps? And if not, why?
Because I’m still a Swarthmore alum and I would prefer my alma mater divest from war profiteering, expand the Board of Managers to include representation for workers, and also not do things like lean into surveillance capitalism and the chilling of dissent. I would like Swarthmore to live up to the Quaker values they espouse. Maybe Mind the Light a little bit.
Beyond that, I want to let the student protestors of today know that not every Gen Xer is a reactionary Neo-Boomer. Some of us do support them and do not buy into the right-wing framing of protestors as rowdy hooligans and/or terrorists. It’s beyond satire to call Swarthmore kids terrorists.
As for your concerns, I have written my Congressional rep, and all he does is spam me with fear mongering about Trump and force me to unsubscribe from his email list every time I write him. Yeah, Trump is terrible and all, but what is this guy doing to meaningfully oppose him? Not much, if you ask me. I have voted against him three times in the primary, but his opponents have not been able to defeat him. Alas. All that said, have you had success writing your rep about an issue he is paid to ignore? Any advice about that?
Inquirer is adwalled so I don’t know what’s going on there. How has their coverage of campus protests been?
Delco Times is owned by a hedge fund and I would fully expect to be ignored by them.
Anwyay, I see I’ve dragged you down to my level, Classmate from ’98, what with you posting in the Swarthmore Phoenix comments section two times more than a quarter century since you graduated. So while you’re here, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the rationale for the protests: divestment. Do you think divestment from state violence, perhaps as per the ideas put forth by the American Friends Service Committee (https://investigate.afsc.org/divest), is a worthwhile pursuit befitting of Swarthmore College and its stated values? Or am I just acting like an idealistic 18 year old to even care about this at all?
Hope your 40s have been kind to you and that you are thriving. Take care.