Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

I was unable to go to the protest at the capitol yesterday, but R-Cubed correspondent James Joseph Jefferies IV (yes, his real name!) sent me a report. By the way, House of Pain is retro now? I am so old.

The protest kicked off at the little bowl area directly in front of the Capitol. ASUA President Tommy Bruce spoke first, gave a very generalized breakdown of the situation and how catastrophic the cuts would be to all three major state universities. A musical interlude (House of Pain’s “Jump Around,” how retro!) and then a large chunk of Democratic Reps and Senators came on stage, introduced by Kyrsten Sinema. A lot of rah-rah, then yet another musical interlude (Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Yeah, I was puzzled too.) Then a few terribly uninspiring speakers, including one brave Republican who did caution that some cuts would HAVE to be made. He was booed virulently.

Then the actual march from the bowl to the Capitol Dome, and that was a raucous good time. Lots of chanting, and the size and enthusiasm of the entire thing really occurred to me. It was a pretty awesome sight to see a few thousand students come out and make some serious noise. On the down side, someone later pointed out to me that there were in fact snipers poised on the roof of the Dome. Was that really necessary? For some students demanding that education funding remain the same? Paranoid much? I’d really like to know who made the call to have those guys on the roof. Lame.

NB – Photo from Jefferies’ Facebook page.