Last Thursday, I went to the Defend Public Education Protest
in Cal, and I was looking for a big turnout. However, Cal administration
conspired with Homeland Security and created the artificial rainfall in the morning, which deterred a lot of
potential protesters. One of my friends promised to go the day before and
scratched that because he hated rain.
Well, although the turnout in Bay Area
was not that that big, I still find it arrogant for The Times not to cover the National
Day of Action to Defend Education at
all. It reminds me of how long it took The Times to cover the baton wielding
police in Cal last semester. I do not know if it is The Times’ contempt for
hippie heaven Cal or it is caused by The Times' severe
financial crisis. However, Fox News also showed its ignorance for Thursday’s Protest, wasting an opportunity to condemn public education and its secret backer Obama.
In
comparison, San Francisco Chronicle cared much more about bay area as a local
newspaper. It used a series of 10 photos taken across the bay to
illustrate the event. Although the first photo only featured 5 protesters in
San Francisco State University, the second photo captured a much bigger crowd in Cal.
It seems
that if we want to learn more about the Defend Education day turnout countrywide, we have to resort
to independent media, like The Nation. In The Nation, a much longer article not
only detailed the National Day’s events but also explained why students and
faculty members had a good reason to go out and protest. However, there is still a problem with this article--it’s too long and it has no photo at all.
