Thursday, February 17, 2011

Harrisburg Protest

Tuesday morning saw me rise with the sun for a protest in Harrisburg. Students from four Pennsylvanian colleges gathered to fight recent austerity cuts that threaten state funding for higher education. With those cuts comes an inevitable tuition hike, as much available to be cut was already in previous years. The school buses left at 8, but not actually. Fortunately, the media turned out to support our cause. Unfortunately, no students did. Of the approximately 300 signed up to attend, ~65 did, including our entire student government. At least the ride was fun. Jacob and Abi turned out, both aspiring photojournalists. They're both politically aware and ideologically opinionated, so a beautiful conversation began from their meeting. I did manage to get some reading of The Botany of Desire in, so I was much satisfied by the transportation experience.

I'd never realized from my times there with HiQ that Harrisburg is kinda more town than city. Yes, it has skyscrapers, but maybe two unimpressive ones. The capitol building remains a lovely building, and the February weather was slightly more bearable than expected. Sadly, there was little actual protesting. Students from Temple, PSU, Temple, and Lincoln were gathered on the rotunda staircase as a backdrop to our student speakers. Some were excellent. Original poetry was read and our homecoming king gave an impassioned speech. Give him a cause to speak on, and I would follow. Most others were forgettable or unintelligible from my location. The only moment of group solidarity was during the Temple Gospel Choir. They sang Lean On Me, and the entire student body began swaying and singing together. It was almost like an honest to goodness ole' fashioned protest movement. Afterward, Temple and Lincoln students gathered in a circle for a step off. We lost by a lot. It was still a great exchange.

Our bus ride back had much more exaggerated stories from a few seats up, but quiet reflection for us sleepyheads. Jacob even managed a nap.

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