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Student protest weak
Editorial Staff
Last November, Grinnell assistant librarian Christine "Chris" Gaunt was arrested trespassing on military property during a School of the Americas protest. While some of us on the Scarlet & Black staff disagree with Gaunt's politics, we all admire her conviction; she stood by her actions and risked her livelihood for a cause. Last time we checked, this was the heart of political protest.
In stark contrast, four Grinnell students who were arrested taking part in a Free the Planet (FTP) protest outside a Victoria's Secret store in Des Moines are not standing up for their cause. Rather than trying to publicize their arrest to bring attention to the Victoria's Secret practices that they disagreed with so vocally, these students tried to keep even their names, not to mention their stories, out of the media.
We question these students' commitment to a cause they abandon when they get in trouble. When provided the opportunity to spread their message to the Grinnell community, they heeded the advice of their lawyer and declined to speak to the paper.
Have student protests at Grinnell become nothing more than empty rituals that are abandoned the second they may pose a threat to grad school applications or job interviews? Have the days passed when Grinnellians chained themselves to Office Depot to promote recycling despite the consequences?
When Gaunt showed up in court and pled guilty last November, she knew she was risking a lot-at least six months of freedom and at most her job at the college.
When student protestors handed a dozen roses to a clerk working the Victoria's Secret counter, they likely thought their actions were harmless. When their actions provoked a ridiculous arrest and a dramatic episode spanning several hours, they had an opportunity to call attention to the cause of old-growth wood with several press outlets, including this one, ready to relay their story. When faced with the steely gaze of the law, the four Free the Planeteers sacrificed their cause to preserve their clean records, hoping that their arrest would magically disappear without a paper trail.
Grinnell College was once known for it students' commitment to direct action on behalf of the causes that they truly believed in. Now it seems that an afternoon outing to a local mall is the only protest that we are willing to trouble ourselves with, and even then only if there are no consequences for making a scene. Still, it is nice to know that the library staff is picking up the slack.
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