What is it with you Cal State Long Beach people? What is your major malfunction? Just when I’m resigned that you are apathetic and complacent to the world around you, you make a liar out of me.
That isn’t fair.
I’ve consistently proclaimed that you women and men are at CSULB for petty self-advancement and suddenly, you decide to become activists by refusing to listen to lyrics meant to incite contempt.
You confuse the crap out of me and I’m less than disappointed. You showed me that not every individual on this sandy Beach is here for fun in the sun.
This community actually has a spirit. You have given me something that transcends a sheepskin. You gave me a graduate-level diploma in the humanities on Nov. 13.
I thought I (and another dinosaur or two at CSULB) had the only caring heart left on this campus. I’ve dared all to confront social injustice, anti-feminism, prejudice and bigotry, only to be reviled as the epitome of the “L” word.
That liberal label comes from protesting, in every dark nook, the minimization of “minorities” of every walk of life, whether they are women, black, Latina/o, Asian, Muslim, gay, lesbian, Jew, Anglo or purple. The “L” word represents living and loving. It also represents learning to embrace our diverse cultural treasures.
I thought I had heard almost every provocative thought available from my professors and fellow students about the immigration issue, but I have much more to learn. Like many, the humanity element occasionally gets lost in the argument.
I bumped into an old friend (another dinosaur) and CSULB grad, Long Beach City College Trustee Roberto Uranga, who is hardly considered the “L” word. Uranga added more to my antiquated “L” arsenal. Uranga said of undocumented migrants, “Knowing they [Mexican people] have among the worst living conditions in the world, wouldn’t you want to come here? I know I would.”
Having never lived anywhere but El Norte, my paradigm is skewed. Given Uranga’s assessment, “I know I would, too.”
When I saw that so many on our “commuter campus” cared about the person next to them, I went all geezer emotional and dinosaur tears flowed the “cheekular” downstream.
As I witnessed humanity make a united stand against prejudice, inequity and unequal distribution of resources, it wasn’t the blazing sun that made the wooly mammoth weepy. It was the sense of a common bond against oppression and human indignity.
When I attended the ad hoc Campus Coalition Against Hate meetings as a pro-humanist, I had a sense of dread that peaceful protest would fail. I chirped in with my concerns. Others chimed in with theirs. Before I knew it, a viable plan evolved.
That plan was to provide accurate information, intelligence and, above all else, peaceful representation of our diverse community. Not one plan fell asunder.
We brought our voices, our passions (and cameras) and lopped off the message from a drama king, without raising more than our voices.
What better message could a promoter of bigotry send than to wear a bulletproof vest to a university debate? By pulling the vest off in a self-serving display of bravado, a fearful little person exposed more than his external vulnerability. He showed what was inside: paranoia.
The only measurable threat was the one inside of the individual’s mind.
But you found a cure for that egotistical self-absorption, CSULB inhabitants. You faced it peacefully. You truly represented “our self” with dignity.
As always, peace takes practice and I hope to attend more ad hoc meetings for causes that are critical and important across our diverse community.
Shame on you, CSULBeachites.
Duke Rescola is a senior journalism major and the opinion editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
