At this point, I’m sure you all are familiar

with the Occupy movement. You may also be aware that students are

being encouraged to walk out of their classes at noon Thursday. So

I am writing encouraging you not to do so. 

The police that arrest protesters and the

people that say the intention of the movement is ridiculous already

dishonor the sense of action, community and politics that Occupy

promotes enough. You, as students, don’t need to add to that.

By walking out of class you do nothing more

than disrespect your professor and disrupt your peers, both of

which more than likely have little or nothing to do with the

corrupt politics that Occupy is protesting. They are there simply

to share in the community of learning. 

By walking out, all you are doing is promoting

the stereotype of lazy college students that are just looking for a

fight. Leaving this university as informed citizens is

going to do you more good than any one day of yelling loudly enough

that the media can hear you.

Because I’m not convinced that half of the

people who will walk out of class even voted in the last election,

I highly doubt there will be much political action in the walk

out. More likely all it is going to do is encourage

students that already skip to skip again. So those of

you that do actually want to get involved with the political

protest, please do. Just don’t do it in such a way to

dishonor the integrity of our freedom of speech and assembly.

Even better, protest anywhere your heart so

desires on campus. They tell you that our free-speech

zone is in front of the library. But, guess what, at a

publicly funded university, the entire campus is a free-speech zone

where professors and students alike are free to exchange ideas in

an unrestricted manner. 

If you’re really tired of the way our politics

are going, take the first step and talk to your elected

representatives. I’m not saying they’ll give a crap, but you should

at least give them the chance. If that doesn’t work and you’re

still pissed off, run for office. You can hold a seat in the Iowa

House at 21, and it is possible to win as a recent college

grad. 

There is a lot more to our political process

than simply yelling and hoping someone hears you. It requires work

on our end too, not just our lawmakers. I’m not defending their

actions by any means, but we as students need to take

responsibility and get involved as well. So go ahead

and yell your hearts out, but make sure you can back up your cries

with logic and solutions.