Frederick Meekins
October 4, 2007
Often in the attempt to get their way, children threaten to hold their breath or refuse to eat until their parents agree to meet their demands. Usually, nothing much comes of it as most youngsters don’t have the will to resist the sway of their base appetites and most normally outgrow such juvenile displays as skills are acquired to navigate conflicts in a more rational manner or they learn to make peace with what they cannot change,

Of contrived social environments, among the most artificial and detached from reality is the college campus. Either as a result of having never matured as tends to be the case of many drawn to certain useless fields of study or the result of deliberate psychological regression on the part of academic faculty, a number of young adults often return to such behaviors during their college years.

Instead of employing the skills and knowledge they are sent to college to acquire such as communication and analysis that can be used to make the world a better place, some of those persuaded that they are so far beyond the rest of us along the continuum of enlightenment that they are not bound by the same set of expectations imposed upon the rest of us resort to behavior not all that much more advanced (and certainly less justifiable) then when they were toddlers.

Increasingly, protestors are coming to contend that it is not enough that they be given the opportunity to express their opinion as provisions have been made under the First Amendment so that they might be able to persuade the masses as to the correctness of their position. Rather, they contend it is the obligation of those of us on the other side of the political spectrum to not only listen to their ramblings and also to keep our own mouths shut if we happen to disagree.

To draw attention to the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that would extend education handouts to illegal aliens, a group of largely Latino students went on a hungerstrike. In commenting on the foolish extremes to which some will go to coerce handouts from the American taxpayer, broadcast sage Michael Savage remarked, “Let them fast until they starve to death.â€