Anatomy of a Protest: Pomona Students Try to Shut Down Frary

If you'll remember correctly from the controversy surrounding the banning of David Daleiden and Kyle Kinneberg, Feldblum insisted that the reason the boys were banned was that they were disruptive. It was not that they were pro-life.

Dean Feldblum, by the way, maintains that she had the right to ban those students and that they were disruptive of the proceedings of the Women's Union, even though the video from the event shows just the opposite. (They were unfailingly polite.)

Well, I wonder what Dean Feldblum will do now that we have many of her very own students on tape disrupting the proceedings on campus by effectively shutting down Frary. Reportedly, several of the members of the coalition for workers and staff stood in the door, Wallace-style, and prevented students from entering.

This first video was filmed at around 5:00 PM. As you can see, one of the protestors who was leading it, walked out of the shot, making me wonder why it is he's unwilling to be on camera if he's so proud of what he's doing. He also said that I was not an honest observer of the event. To be fair towards him, I have kept the videos entirely unedited.

I came back after I ate at Collins to see what was going on. Apparently, the coalition members were standing in front of the door to block students who wanted to enter. They were led by the guy who is pictured here. (Does anyone know his name?)

Here's some of the promotional material that the protestors put up throughout Pomona's campus. As you'll notice it doesn't have any official stamping on it saying that it is permissible. Now to be fair, I oppose that stamping, but still I find it odd that no one else has brought up the lax enforcement.

This is the video I took on the other side of Frary. As you can see, at around 6:00 PM, there are several students who are eating their dinners. As they told me off camera, they really enjoyed the banning, but they were upset that there were no tacos present.

This food was brought down by a member of the dining hall staff. He also brought water for the students. Unfortunately, this shows that the workers were supportive of the forced boycott. Given that the protestors probably did not pay for the tacos or the burritos, doesn't this constitute stealing? Will Dean Feldblum punish these students? (The chubby guy in the second video told the students to eat up.)

Make Mine Freedom

I know it's hokey, but I believe it and would fight against any 'ism.' (But remember at CMC, you mustn't throw bottles. It's a J-Boardable offense.)

Remember what Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden, p. 131. 

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost. 

Book Banning 101? Pomona College Should Show Us The Way

Why Not Here? The Germans May Be On To Something...

Dan mentions Ray Bradbury in the comment section and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that yes, he is a resident of the greater L.A. area. But thinking of Bradbury reminds me of his most celebrated book, Fahrenheit 451, and what it portends for the Claremont Colleges.

I recently put up the article about sci-fi and the Claremont Colleges. Upon rereading it, I have a few questions for the song censors, who recently banned a few Pomona College school songs.

Namely, when will they transition to books? Given the alleged racial subtext of much of Edgar Rice Burroughs work, when is the book burning?

You might say, Charles, you're being silly -- I do really enjoy being silly -- but history is on my side. Professor Ward Elliott wrote of the end of Gilbert and Sullivan at Pomona in his forty pages on the history of Claremont McKenna.

Pomona faculty demanded that a performance of The Mikado be cancelled [sic] as "racist, sexist, and imperialist." Despite the outcry and picketing, the performance took place as scheduled -- but no Gilbert and Sullivan has been performed in Claremont since that time.

We already know that Pomona has banned students for asking questions, will it make the transition to books? And given its ban of the performances of Gilbert and Sullivan, why hasn't Pomona banned the books already? I'm told that the old ones -- and therefore more often than not the good ones -- have a rather high concentration of lead. (Congress already seems at work dispatching of those books.)