Students react to revolutions and movements

With the Arab Spring revolutions raging in the Middle East and the Occupy movement spreading like wildfire in the Western world, University students react to them with mixed views or with obliviousness.

“I knew there was a widening gap between the rich and the poor, but I never knew it actually became a movement,” said Angel Edwards, 22, a human development and family studies major from Cleveland, regarding the Occupy movement.

Chrissie Hernandez, 18, a human and family development major from Cleveland, said she hadn’t really heard of the movements either.

“There’s always that saying: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” Hernandez said.

“I definitely think it’s necessary to bring awareness to the situations because a lot of people really don’t know what’s going on,” Edwards said.

Some students who knew about the movements voiced their opinions.

The Occupy movement protestors are just getting their voices heard instead of going through a legal process to enact change like petitions or lobbying, said Ayo Ellis, 18, a business major from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I think it could be more organized because people have heard about it, but do not really know what it’s about,” he said.

Ellis said he supports the movement, given how difficult peoples’ lives have been recently.

 

Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York. Source: International Business Times

Regarding the Arab Spring revolutions, Ellis said while the protestors and rebels in some Middle Eastern countries have succeeded in removing oppressive rulers, he doesn’t know how effective they will be in in reestablishing a better form of government.

“You look at history and you hope it doesn’t repeat itself,” said Elliot Anderson III, 21, a social work major from Newark, Ohio, regarding the revolutions.

Arab Spring protesters in Yemen. Source: PR Web

Power corrupts; if a ruler has too much power, the people will revolt and take over, but power makes people greedy and the process can repeat itself, Anderson said.

It’s important that the people work together despite differing views and eliminating one person might not change that, he said.

While the two movements address different problems, some online sources attempted to find an existing correlation between the two.

A States Times article argues, however, that there is no correlation.

Nasser Weddady, a civil rights outreach director at the American Islamic Congress said in the article that the Arab revolutions evolved over a decades and happened only after every other option was exhausted while the Occupy movement really only sees the skeletons of the revolutions as opposed to the whole.

Some students agreed with this notion.

While Anderson can see by looking at the timeline of events how the two movements can be related, he said they differ in extremes, locales and motivations.

Other students did see some connection.

Both groups of citizens are standing up for their rights and what they believe in, Ellis said.

After learning a little about the movements, Hernandez said the only relation she could see is that both groups are seeking to improve their ways of living.

An Occupy Wall Street spokesperson, Ed Needham said in the article that while there is a difference between the two groups, what the two do share is a “meta-theme, the theme thаt, you know, everyone has certain unalienable rights аnԁ thаt, together, we can effect change to ensure those аnԁ provide safe-keeping for those.”

About Alexander Alusheff

Alex Alusheff is a Bachelor of Science in Print Journalism Major at Bowling Green State University.
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5 Responses to Students react to revolutions and movements

  1. Collin Sims says:

    Alex, I am always impressed and informed reading your blog. This is a great story and I agree, people need to educate themselves on the issues and make a stand

  2. Tara Keller says:

    Great lead and you did a really nice job with attribution flow smoothly, while still covering the information we had to include.

  3. Phillip Martin says:

    This story was well written. I liked the quotes you used by the students who commented. I also liked how you talked about the article comparing the two movements and how the students feeling flowed with it.

  4. I don’t like the saying “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” as it is king of discouraging. One should always have strong will and ambitions to change their material status for better.

  5. Jeeny House says:

    What I know from history is that always young people are in the beginning and initiative of a change, what I hope is that all changes from now on will happen peacefully trough negotiation!

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