Shame on Ohio State
I never considered attending Ohio State because I always found Columbus to be about as generic and bland as a bologna sandwich on white bread. And my assumptions about Columbus and their beloved “THE” Ohio State University proved to be true based on their reaction to Pro-Palestine peaceful protestors. On two separate occasions, the university went out of their way to arrest students for simply protesting the atrocities happening in the Middle East.
One of the protestors arrested was Yousif Munir, a graduate of Walnut Hills High School. I’ve always had a positive relationship with Yousif. He would regularly attend school board meetings as well as lead demonstrations in front of the CPS EdCenter for various causes he felt passionately about. Watching videos of someone you personally know get man handled by police officers is disturbing. Particularly when you consider the fact Yousif was peacefully protesting at a public university on public property.
Governors are important because they appoint the Boart of Trustees at Ohio Universities. The BoTs then pick the University President.
When I was in college at the University of Cincinnati, a much superior university in a much superior city, I would often see religious extremist on campus spewing their hatred. Usually, they were displaying demented pictures of aborted fetuses or screaming about how fornicators and adulterers were going to hell. Regardless, I walked right past them and paid them zero attention, the appropriate amount of attention anyone should give those lunatics. The university would wring their hands and say they can’t do anything about the protesters because they were on public property. So, it was quite surprising to see Ohio State’s President beg Mike DeWine, Ohio’s grandpa Governor, to send in the Ohio State Highway Patrol to man handle and arrest college kids protesting.
The excuses for squashing these young people’s right to free speech were all laughable. Examples include, but not limited to:
· It’s finals week, we can’t disturb people taking exams!
· The students had tents! You can’t camp on campus!
· The location of the protest was unacceptable!
All of these are pretty weak reasons to arrest and traumatize college kids, but that’s not how Ohio State’s embarrassment of a President, Walter Carter, saw it. Both instances of police aggression towards peaceful protestors on a college campus are very clear first amendment violations, plain and simple. All of the protester’s charges will get thrown out in court. This ultimately will amount to nothing more than a monumental waste of tax payer resources. The government should not be policing peaceful protests, but Ohio has a history with this. One of the most notorious things Ohio is known for is the 1970 Kent State Massacre. The putrid state government’s strategy is simple: ask for forgiveness instead of permission. They have no problem roughing up college students for practicing their first amendment rights and then they’ll act surprised when they’re found to have violated someone’s rights.
One of the most unlikable State Representatives, Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), does not believe in the first amendment.
You also have to appreciate the Ohio State legislature, comprised of a super majority of Republicans in both chambers, to be cheering on the arrest of pro-Palestine protestors. This same group of people cried for months about how free speech was dead on college campuses! They also carried on about how there is no diversity of thought on college campuses. Now that these college students began exhibiting their free speech, the State legislature changed their tune really quick.
In the end, the student protestors learned a hard lesson about their university and the state we all call home. They learned this is a state dominated by gerrymandering which means our state lawmakers are extremist. They learned our state lawmakers openly cheer for the arrest of young Ohio citizens for simply peacefully protesting. What an embarrassing time to be an Ohioan.