I'm Wearing Black on Thursday

I decided to wear black on Thursday to protest the conspicuous consumption of the inauguration of President Bush. Also, I didn't vote for President Bush, and don't like the fact that we are in Iraq and have lost much prestige in the world, along with many lives.

MOST OF ALL, I think that the soldiers who are dying are leaving behind families who are getting hardly anything in return for this sacrifice. We need to do more for them. We need to provide for their families. What is happening is wrong.

The prisoners who are being kept in Guantanamo prison without being allowed to have a lawyer or representation and being tortured and abused should be allowed to have their day in court. Nobody should have to be humiliated or tortured by our country. What good is this doing? No good. The bombings are continuing, the situation is grim. But nobody wants to stop it from getting worse.

So I made up my mind to join the protest on Thursday. No war protester is supposed to buy anything, no food, no gas, nothing. Plus everyone who is protesting is supposed to wear black, plus the pockets are supposed to hang out to show no money in them.

Well...

I didn't promise to do the pockets thing, but now I am in a speech class and the professor is obviously very pro-Bush. Although she says we teachers should be as open-minded as possible, she told us about the Anti-Clinton Center going up 4 blocks from the actual Clinton Center and also informed us that she hopes lots of people go to it.

Uh-oh.

I still plan to wear black, but my grade may suffer for it. I am realistic about professors. Sometimes if they don't like you, your grade shows it.

I must do what I think is right, though. And guess what class is on Thursday, the only class that is meeting that day for me? Yup, you guessed it.

SPEECH.

It's really Argumentation and Debate. It's a required class.

I wonder if she will call me on it. Oh well!!! I will just have to say, yes, I am wearing black as a protest. I feel that this is like Moratorium Day. Remember Moratorium Day? It was in 1969. Sometimes people just have to stand up and be counted.

Rickey says, "Well, if she says something to you and it isn't good, be prepared to be upset about it all day. " I think he's going to wear black too, if he can, but he isn't as gung-ho as I am. I just think it's about time people did SOMETHING.

Rickey has a uniform he has to wear to work, so can't do it then. I think he's just saying "don't say I didn't tell you so...." Well - you know.

I guess he's getting to know me a little. (har har).

Remember Moratorium Day, anyone? Well, I was really young (really). One day I went to school and the older kids had black armbands on - they asked if I wanted one. I didn't know. I asked what they meant, what they were for. They said, "The Vietnam war is wrong. We are showing that we believe that it's wrong and that the soldiers should come home. There are too many people fighting and dying over there and for WHAT? These armbands show that we are all standing together over this." I could understand this. I asked if I could wear one.

I was the only person in my classes (my grade) who wore that black armband. Everyone knew what it was for, and I believe I saw some looks that day that made me sit up and stand up straighter. That was hard for somebody who was head and shoulders above most of her classmates. It seems I was always stooping down to hear what my friends were saying back then.

They looked at me like they wished THEY had a black armband to wear, I think. Plus there was another part in those looks, something like awe. I guess people thought I didn't have it in me. Or that I was too young to wear that black armband. I don't know, but I do know I was proud of myself.

It's the same thing now. I feel that something wrong is happening, and I want to say that it is wrong, I want to say it in a large way and be a part of something right that is bigger than myself.

History will be made on Thursday, and I want to be part of it. If my grade is docked for it, so be it. There are more important things than an arbitrary speech grade in this life.

B