Went to a Bush protest today

[mum2sarah]

Bush came to Pittsburgh today, so we went with a bunch of other protesters. It was pretty cold, but my sister, my daughter and I were on the news! It was quite an interesting experience.

[daylily]

Good for you! Did you have to stay confined to a "Free Speech Zone."

[Arduinna]

[mum2sarah]

Ah, yes, the infamous "free speech zone..." Actually the police did ask us to stay behind those wooden work-horse looking barriers. But Bush was actually inside the building, anyway, so he could still get a good view of us.

The only thing that put a damper on the fun was about a dozen snooty college students staging a counter-protest to show their support for Bush. It was so ironic because they were holding up signs about "Duquesne Republicans," and everyone at the protest knew that Duquesne is one of the most expensive schools in the area. It was like they were proving our point--of course upity rich kids who never had to pay their own bills love Bush! They were also holding up signs that said "support our troops," as if supporting them means supporting the war (I've had two relatives mobilized during this war, and I can tell you that not all miltary personel are happy to be involved in an unjust war). So one of the Bush protesters told them "ENLIST!" Like, if you're so glad we're at war, why don't you go fight?

But the best chant that was started was "Bush, pull out, like your daddy should have done." I got a kick out of that one! :LOL

[Arduinna]

LMAO,

Enlist indeed!!! Maybe that is the type of "draft" we need?

[EnviroBecca]

Um, having graduated from one of the other most expensive schools in the area, I would like to point out that many people who attend expensive schools are able to do so because their academic prowess wins them scholarships and/or because their middle-class families have scrimped and saved all their lives in order to make it possible--not because they are spoiled brats.

A more relevant point about Duquesne, IMO, is that it's a Catholic university and many of its students are Catholic. Supposedly they believe in the infallible authority of the Pope. Well, the Pope says this war is wrong! SO HOW CAN A CATHOLIC SUPPORT THE WAR OR THE "PRESIDENT"?!? This is the question I ask relentlessly whenever I have the opportunity to converse with a pro-war Catholic.

Good for you for protesting! I didn't even know W was coming to town until afterward.

[TiredX2]

But the best chant that was started was "Bush, pull out, like your daddy should have done." I got a kick out of that one!

I'm sure they meant out of Iraq, lol :LOL

Well, the Pope says this war is wrong! SO HOW CAN A CATHOLIC SUPPORT THE WAR OR THE "PRESIDENT"?!?

I didn't know that the Pope as officially "against" the war. Thats super. Do you have any articles, or quotes, or anything. I'd love to go home armed with that for Christmas

Kay

[daylily]

Here's the Catholic Bishop's letter to GWB in November, 2002:
http://www.endthewar.org/frontps/faith/usccb2.htm

And here's a January 2003 article in which the Pope condemns the war:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2654109.stm

These are old articles. I couldn't find much current stuff.

[mum2sarah]

EnviroBecca,
Yeah, my mom pointed out the Duquesne-Catholic thing; perhaps they're staunch pro-lifers and only care about the lives of the unborn instead of the lives of those dying in war? But I did want to point out that I only partly agree with your statement about pricey schools and academic prowess. I, too, went to a very expensive private school that cost about as much as Duquesne. I wouldn't have been able to go without the scholarships I received. Same thing with my husband. *However* while it is definitely *possible* to go to an expensive school, many, many middle class high school students I knew didn't even apply to schools like that because they figured either there's no way they'd afford it or they wouldn't want to take the maximum loan amount out and be paying it back forever. I can attest that my husband and I were in the small minority of middle class students at our school. Most students' parents were not only paying for their schooling, but also paying for their brand new cars. My husband and I had scholarships, loans, and campus jobs to make ends meet, but most everyone we knew there was just going to classes, having fun, and doing nothing in their spare time while their parent's paid the bill. I was accepted to Duquesne and received *no* financial aid, which is why I didn't go--I couldn't afford it. I would be willing to bet that the ratio of rich students at Duquesne is very high--at least as high as it was at my college. Again, I'm not saying all of them are; my best friend went to Duquesne and her family did not have much money, so she must have gotten scholarships, loans, etc. But the kids at the "counter-protest" were wearing designer clothes and really had that "rich kid" look about them. I would guess they had no idea what it was like to pay their own bills...

[TiredX2]

Thank you Daylily.

I *love* that the Pope is so vocal on the necessity of breastfeeding It makes it soooo much easier on me (in spirit at least). Of course, I have no problem going against anything the pope says, but when it fits my agenda

[mum2sarah]

I just realized my last post might have come off a little harshly. I'm sorry; I didn't mean it that way towards you, Envirobecca. I guess I am a little bitter because of how snotty these kids were *acting.* I guess I shouldn't have really focussed on class but more of their attitude. Like when the cop asked us to move back so he could put up those barracades, we were all cooperative except those in the "counter-protest" who refused to move. Some of us were trying to move back like the cops asked and we couldn't because they were blocking the way. Then they had the tendency to start shouting at us, when no one was starting with them. For instance, I had my dd in a back pack and we were all bundled up because it was cold. Dd didn't seem to be bothered because she loves the outdoors. I was holding a sign that said "War is not a family value," and one of the counter-protesters said to me, "Oh, I suppose dragging your little child out into the freezing cold is a family value." I was so shocked at her arrogance. As if you should never take your child outside in cold weather, or as if she had any qualifications to judge my parenting decisions, having obviously no children of her own. Or as if everyone can afford to pay a nanny or babysitter any time they want to do "adult" things. Or as if taking a child out in the cold is worse than the children who are *dying* in Iraq. I am a firm believer that children need to be seen more in public; it's the only way our society will come to accept children as having a legitimate place besides at home with a babysitter, KWIM? Anyway, the attitude of those college kids really rubbed me the wrong way. To me, they were just showing what kind of ignorant people think that our war was justified and that you have to support the war and our president in order to be patriotic.

[Moss's Mommy]

That would really unnerve me. I've had people say things like that to me, and I'm sure your baby was perfectly warm. Some people are just really ignorant. My ds likes to be outside all the time even in the freezing cold. I think he has no concept of cold.

[EnviroBecca]

Mum2Sarah, thanks for your most recent posting. I appreciate your making judgments of those students based on *them* rather than a blanket condemnation of people who attend expensive universities. I can believe that the Duquesne students who would rally in support of Bush are snotty, now that I think about which of the students at Carnegie Mellon were College Republicans! It's still stereotyping but I do see what you mean, and I don't know a lot about Duquesne or your alma mater, so it could be true that such people are a majority of students there.

However, at Carnegie Mellon, about 60% of students receive need-based financial aid, and by my estimate at least half of the rest aren't getting need-based aid only because their middle-class families have been such smart savers that they don't qualify. (I was in the latter category; my tuition was almost half of my parents' annual income, yet my brother who started college before I graduated also couldn't get need-based aid.) The student culture there is all about living on ramen and oatmeal and layering thrift-store clothes so you can keep the thermostat low (or at least it was when I was there in the early '90s). I'm sure it's not the only expensive school that's like that.

Pardon the tangent!

[mum2sarah]

Yeah, Carnegie Mellon is a nice school, I will admit. My husband works in computing services there, but he used to work for housing services, so he's familiar with student life and says there are a lot of nice regular, every day sort of students there.

Anyway, I guess I just think back to my college days and remember how much things changed once I had to take care of my own place, pay my own bills, etc. When I started college, I was actually a registered Republican, but my husband and I (who were then engaged) got our own apartment for our last two years of school. Once we saw the bills coming to our own place, rather than being tacked on to our loans, it was a whole different world. Reality sets it more, KWIM? And it was around that same time that I developed a healthy cyncism (not too cynical, just enough not be as naive as I had been) for the world, and it seemed like the world had gone lynch-mob crazy that year over Bill Clinton and Monica, and it made me realize how petty people can be. I quickly changed parties to Democrat, because I was so turned off by the attitude of the Republicans during that whole scandal.

But even still, once we graduated, and got married and bought our own home, it was even more of a reality shock. I guess I just think that some college kids think they know all about life when they haven't really had much real life experience. They know what they read in books and learn in classes, but there's a whole world out there. There are grandmothers (yes, grandmothers, like my mother for exaple), who were activated from reserve status because of the war in Iraq. There are families that have been torn apart. I've personally spoken to mothers ripped away from infant children to fight this war. And that doesn't even start to cover all the innocent lives lost, American and Iraqi. *That's* reality... and as great as it looks to hold up a sign and say "we support our troops and the president" it was clear these college students had not been personally touched by the reality of the war. They were living a sheltered life... It's so much easier to hold a sign than a rifle, KWIM?