Oregon 'terrorists' don't plan siege very well, put out plea for snacks and supplies

[lostinblue 1,989]

you think what these good ol boys are doing in oregon is a ok. do i think they should be assaulted, no. but i do think that there is no way that a black militia could get away with the same thing? no, i don't. i'm not upset, i'm glad that these fellas are proving the racial inequalities in this country. and, i'm mentioning race because - race matters. it matters in how law enforcement deals with your actions, it matters in how law enforcement perceives your presence as a threat, or not. i'm quite glad these guys have carried on with their little field trip siege, like i've said before the vindication is sweet.

Getting It Straight

Tuesday, 03 March 2009

Page 1 of 4

Enduring image: In a photo that won a Pulitzer Prize, Eric Evans '69 (center) and fellow members of the Afro-American Society exit the Straight.

It's been four decades since armed African American students occupied Willard Straight Hall, forever changing the campus. For current undergraduates, that's two consecutive lifetimes. But even after all these years, the events of April 1969 remain a source of controversy. By Beth Saulnier

It might have been just another protest, another takeover of a university building in the turbulent Sixties. If it weren't for the guns.

On the afternoon of Sunday, April 20, 1969—Parents' Weekend—a group of African American students emerged from Willard Straight Hall after a two-day occupation. An Associated Press photographer named Steve Starr was there, and he captured an image that would win a Pulitzer Prize: a group of young black men exit Cornell's student union toting weapons. The Straight, a Gothic fortress of a building that seemed to embody the proverbial ivory tower, provided a powerful symbolic backdrop. But the thing that clinched it—the factor that, arguably, earned Starr his Pulitzer—is the man at the center of the photo.

The students on either side of him are carrying their rifles with one hand wrapped around the stock, their eyes cast slightly downward; considering that they're armed, their mood is relatively non-threatening. But the image of Eric Evans '69, one of the leaders of Cornell's Afro-American Society (AAS), delivered a different message—one that announced that black militancy had come to Cornell, that the campus and perhaps higher education itself would never be the same. Evans is holding his shotgun straight up in a pose of victory, his finger an inch from the trigger. Snaked around his waist and shoulder is a bandolier studded with ammunition. His head is held high, his expression steely but placid. "Oh my God," Starr reportedly said before he snapped his famous picture, "look at those goddamned guns!"

It was forty years ago this spring that black students at Cornell conducted the first-ever armed occupation of a building on an American campus. It wasn't, despite the common misconception, an armed takeover; the guns were smuggled in after the Straight was occupied, in response to an incursion by fraternity brothers from Delta Upsilon who tried to oust the black students. Whether the occupation was a brave act of conscience or a crime that merited punishment was deeply controversial at the time, and its legacy continues to be a matter of debate. Many see it as a watershed event in the battle for civil rights on the Hill and elsewhere; others call it the beginning of the end of academic freedom.

To mark the takeover's fortieth anniversary, Cornell Alumni Magazine caught up with some of the key players in the events of spring 1969 and its aftermath: AAS leaders Tom Jones '69, MRP '72, and Homer "Skip" Meade '69; AAS member Andree-Nicola McLaughlin '70; student government leader Art Spitzer '71; professor emeritus Walter LaFeber, then head of the history department and a vocal member of the faculty; former Cornell Alumni News editor John Marcham '50, who covered the events extensively; and University of Wisconsin professor Donald Downs '71, who observed the events as a student and went on to write Cornell '69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University.

Those who were students during the takeover have taken divergent paths. Jones—who, in a radio interview, infamously threatened several faculty members and declared that Cornell "has three hours to live"—went on to become head of the nonprofit workers' retirement fund TIAA/CREF and a Cornell trustee; he now runs his own private equity firm in Stamford, Connecticut. (In 1995, he endowed the Perkins Prize for Inter-racial Understanding in honor of former President James Perkins, who was widely derided for his handling of the unrest and resigned at the end of the school year.) Meade and McLaughlin both earned PhDs and went into academia, she at Medgar Evers University and he at the University of Massachusetts. Spitzer, an attorney, is director of the ACLU's Washington, D.C., office.

More than any single event before or since, the takeover polarized Cornellians. Particularly among the faculty—who agonized over whether to punish the occupiers in an era when the campus mood was highly volatile and expulsion could mean being drafted to Vietnam—it caused personal rifts that, in some cases, never healed. Outraged that the AAS students weren't punished for their actions—in addition to taking over the Straight and stockpiling firearms, the occupiers damaged property and brusquely ousted more than two dozen visiting parents from their bedrooms—some alumni severed ties with the University, refusing ever to attend Reunion or donate money. But as Marcham notes, alumni giving actually went up immediately after the takeover. While some Cornellians saw the upending of the established order as the death of the alma mater as they knew it, others embraced it as the dawn of a new era of equality, with Cornell in the vanguard.

http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?id=361&option=com_content&task=view

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

you think what these good ol boys are doing in oregon is a ok. do i think they should be assaulted, no. but i do think that there is no way that a black militia could get away with the same thing? no, i don't. i'm not upset, i'm glad that these fellas are proving the racial inequalities in this country. and, i'm mentioning race because - race matters. it matters in how law enforcement deals with your actions, it matters in how law enforcement perceives your presence as a threat, or not. i'm quite glad these guys have carried on with their little field trip siege, like i've said before the vindication is sweet.

Shenanigans. This is not a race issue, you are squishing a round peg into a square hole and yelling gotcha! John Nash would be proud.

These people have a valid point, they are handling it wrong and acting like idiots (and personally I prefer the land in the hands of the BLM), but then so have a number of protesters in the recent past. You don't like them and have zero care for their issues so your bias runs wild.

[smilesammich 10,727]

Shenanigans. This is not a race issue, you are squishing a round peg into a square hole and yelling gotcha! John Nash would be proud.

These people have a valid point, they are handling it wrong and acting like idiots (and personally I prefer the land in the hands of the BLM), but then so have a number of protesters in the recent past. You don't like them and have zero care for their issues so your bias runs wild.

it isn't an issue at all because dudes are white. let a group of armed black lives matter activist takeover a federal property and state to the media they're ready to die for their cause "bring it feds". some vj posters couldn't handle it when a mayor said to throw rocks at police cars..anyway, let me know when a militant black group gets as far as these fellers have..

and i don't agree -these people don't have a valid point - the two men they were supporting turned themselves in. now they just want federal land 'back' - like it's theirs to begin with because they are "thee people" but you're right -they are handling their non-point wrong and acting like idiots. i just hope they appreciate the fact that they are allowed to do so. the feds are allowing them to continue. the entitled screaming oppression..yeah my bias is crazy wild.

had no idea you were a cornell fan - but i guess this pic of their ginormous gun got you a bit hot and bothered. i get it.

Edited January 5, 2016 by elitesthuglib

[ExPatty 502]

you think what these good ol boys are doing in oregon is a ok. do i think they should be assaulted, no. but i do think that there is no way that a black militia could get away with the same thing? no, i don't. i'm not upset, i'm glad that these fellas are proving the racial inequalities in this country. and, i'm mentioning race because - race matters. it matters in how law enforcement deals with your actions, it matters in how law enforcement perceives your presence as a threat, or not. i'm quite glad these guys have carried on with their little field trip siege, like i've said before the vindication is sweet.

You read what you want to read. I never said what they are doing is alright. Like you said, it's a field trip siege, it's a joke. And you are the one who is making a completely non-racial issue into a racial issue. So again I ask why must everything be about race even when it isn't?

Since you are so bafflingly insistent on claiming this is some example of whites being given a pass when blacks wouldn't be I present you to the recent example of hundreds of predominantly black teens committing crimes and no arrests: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teens-shut-down-kentucky-mall_56808b63e4b06fa688806d77

Really, you need to stop seeing everything through a racial prism, it is very blinding.

[smilesammich 10,727]

You read what you want to read. I never said what they are doing is alright. Like you said, it's a field trip siege, it's a joke. And you are the one who is making a completely non-racial issue into a racial issue. So again I ask why must everything be about race even when it isn't?

Since you are so bafflingly insistent on claiming this is some example of whites being given a pass when blacks wouldn't be I present you to the recent example of hundreds of predominantly black teens committing crimes and no arrests: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teens-shut-down-kentucky-mall_56808b63e4b06fa688806d77

Really, you need to stop seeing everything through a racial prism, it is very blinding.

if you didn't think it was ok, it wouldn't be funny to you.

just because you don't agree with me doesn't mean you're the authority on racial issues or non racial issues. it's sort of about perspective and you don't share my perspective.

but nice switcheroo with the kentucky mall bit - you know i'd heard about that when it happened but you, just now, brought to my attention that the mass of teens were predominately black. i'm trying to find something to back that up..not that i need to, white college students riot for fun all the time.

thanks for the advice on my perspective, let me know when i can tell you how to think!

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

[ExPatty 502]

thanks for the advice on my perspective, let me know when i can tell you how to think!

You can tell me any time you like! 'merica

[smilesammich 10,727]

You can tell me any time you like! 'merica

sweet. i'll take a raincheck on that, currently blinded by this racial prism i seem to be trapped in.

[Darnell 8,478]

ok- who's baking cupcakes tonight ?

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

ok- who's baking cupcakes tonight ?

I might make some Colorado cupcakes

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

If there were any CABA chicks in the building, they would have opted to be jailed with rapist and murders a long time ago

It occurs to me that any CABA chick voluntarily present would prefer Cool Ranch Patritos to Cheetos. 'Murka!

[Darnell 8,478]

i have another posit - don't stab me too deeply, aye?

If'n there were any CABA chicks actually hanging out with the fellas,

they (The CABA chicks) would have slaughtered a cow and roasted it in a fire pit already,

so no complaints of 'no food during seige'

Sheesh. Yay CABA chicks !

Well, maybe not.

Maybe the CABA chicks would have complained and whined so much about the lack of food, that the fellas would have slaughtered and roasted a cow. They use the land (theirs and BLM) for cattle anyway - so there's some inventory at hand.

----

What would be insanely funny, really, is an empty trailer outside of the compound, with a huge sign stating, "Put 5 live cows in this trailer, we give you 1/2 ton of MRE" - Now that's a good barter !

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

it isn't an issue at all because dudes are white. let a group of armed black lives matter activist takeover a federal property and state to the media they're ready to die for their cause "bring it feds". some vj posters couldn't handle it when a mayor said to throw rocks at police cars..anyway, let me know when a militant black group gets as far as these fellers have..

and i don't agree -these people don't have a valid point - the two men they were supporting turned themselves in. now they just want federal land 'back' - like it's theirs to begin with because they are "thee people" but you're right -they are handling their non-point wrong and acting like idiots. i just hope they appreciate the fact that they are allowed to do so. the feds are allowing them to continue. the entitled screaming oppression..yeah my bias is crazy wild

Yes, wild, off base, off course. You are seeing boogeymen.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Oh no! Patriots busted, one shot!

http://q13fox.com/2016/01/26/oregon-protest-leader-ammon-bundy-is-arrested-says-source/

Oh no! Patriots arrested, one shot!

http://q13fox.com/2016/01/26/oregon-protest-leader-ammon-bundy-is-arrested-says-source/

[Darnell 8,478]

whoa, i heard a blurb about a shootout.