Below is an excerpt from the "the Wrap" a news service from the Guardian newspaper in England I subscribe to. It concerns school walk outs in England (the right wing carping should strike a familiar note).
I certainly hope that there isn't any retaliation against students at Field or any other school for exercising their first amendment rights. But in case there is, we can help them by contacting school board members or going to the school board meeting at 807 NE Broadway on the 2nd and last Tuesdays at 4:00. Go to educationright.tripod.com for details (wait until tomorrow, Friday - Doug and I still coming down from that awesome demonstration in town this evening). Lets not let today's students experience the same types of "civics lessons" my generation received in the 60s around protests against the Vietnam war (I remember being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance once when my best friend I were caught just mouthing the words). ************************************************ A "sort of pacifist jingoism" has gripped the country, complains the Telegraph: schoolchildren are taking to the streets to oppose the war. Unauthorised absence from school may still be truancy as far as the authorities are concerned, but that didn't prevent hundreds of pupils massing in Parliament Square yesterday. The only ones with permission to be there, the Times notes ironically, were the Etonians. "Prince Harry pulls my peace badges off," one sixth-former said, but revealed that Eton had sanctioned the day off "because it believes in free speech". The Mirror's John Pilger urges readers to "leave your home, work, college, school ... "The polite term is civil disobedience. The street term is rebellion." * Britons urged to join anti-war protests http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,918039,00.html * Times: Schoolchildren bring city to a halt http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-617296,00.html TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
