I am sure glad the Freedom Riders, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the people that ran the Mississippi Freedom Schools didn’t follow advice like The Jambar presented to Occupy Youngstown in its Nov. 15 editorial. What a cowardly and clueless editorial position to support.
Especially coming from a college newspaper at a state university that has experienced a decades-long decline in state support. In the 1970s, going to YSU was close to being free and could be paid for with a summer job. The national investment made then in free public higher education has been paid back tenfold. I am an example of that. Now we have massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations, over $2 billion a week spent on never-ending wars and over $1 trillion dollars in outstanding student loans. The whole point of Occupy Youngstown is that we are not going away. I encourage everyone on campus to join us today in our protest against economic injustice or answer me this question: How much worse does it have to get tomorrow for you to get off your ass and join me on the street?
Ray Beiersdorfer
Professor, YSU Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences
