Jesse Lee
It is amazing what people can do when they come together for a cause they believe in. While reading this article I ponder on what could have happened if many things had gone wrong for the students during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. I have to be honest that I would find many of the situations the students had to face to be quite scary and I wouldn't know what to do in those situations, especially if I were on my own. And it is quite reasonable for me or any other students to be afraid in a situation where you have to oppose a greater power. Just take a look at the weaponry and tactics that the university can employ to use against protesting students: probable disciplinary action, campus police, blacklisting students, refusal to negotiate and student arrests just to name a few. Yet even when the university weaponry might fail and the students are able to negotiate the terms they desire, the university still has the power in making the decisions. In the article the university used an interesting tactic in which they attempted to appease the protesting students by agreeing to negotiate to review the restrictions without really intending to remove these restrictions. That is quite an evil plan, but aside from the weaponry and tactics that the university can use, there is also the risk that the students can not generate enough support. The consequences the students would have had to face if they did not have the support they had is a scary thought. If we are not able to stand together to support each other and secure each other in these struggles, then the higher powers will simply pick us apart and by ourselves, we wouldn't be able to do much in response to their retaliations.
My question is what happens to the students who get arrested or blacklisted?
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