I am not familiar with the background of this protest. If a 10 year old threatens to harm himself if he doesn’t get what he wants a psychiatrist is called and the kid enters therapy. If a 20 year old does it he is a social hero and the victim of an uncaring administration.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/09/tufts-students-end-hunger-strike/2XWGOdqC9Pudf21bmCoUhO/story.html
Thoughts?
did these kids volunteer to pay more money to Tufts so the school can afford more staff?
I don’t know, but I have a good guess what the answer is…
It is pretty funny to look at it that way. Everything that makes you a fighter for the underdog when you become an adult is a sign of psychosis when you are a kid.
Also wonder, did they do this on their own, or did the union sanction it? Because I darn straight would not want college kids to go on a hunger strike to save my job. How insulting to the janitors.
I don’t get the point of a hunger strike. It wouldn’t convince me to give in on any issue. You want to not eat, go right ahead.
Basically, it looks bad on the news. You might not care, but if you’re a politician and you have a high profile person in custody (think Mahatma Gandhi or [suffragette Marion Dunlop](Suffragette hunger strikes, 100 years on | June Purvis | The Guardian)) it looks really, really bad if that person sickens and dies while you’re holding them because of their protest activities. It’s not intended to change the government’s mind, just give them a scare when they start doing mass arrests and holding protesters in prison indefinitely. (Force-feeding is another possible outcome, but that can be as grotesque and embarrassing as a starvation).
It may seem silly to you but to those people they didn’t exactly have a wealth of options; Gandhi wasn’t going to carpet bomb London.
Keyword-when you’re holding them. These students aren’t in anyone’s custody.
When I was a broke freshman (“MOM, send money!”), I went on “mandatory” hunger strikes…didn’t know I was fighting the Good Fight!
My mistake, I thought you were asking what the purpose of a hunger strike was. I agree that it’s probably not as effective in the environment of a college campus like this, though anything that gets your cause in the paper isn’t totally useless.
My S, who is currently a senior there & getting ready to graduate says that these kids are the same to protest anything. He says that most other kids think they’re idiots.
chocochipcookie, when are you going to be around next weekend?!?
^^CD:
I sent you a pm message.