"Get Up Stand Up"-- Literally

Although the anti-war protest held Tuesday, April 24 may have kept the army recruiters out of the job fair at UCSC, the almost 75 anti-war activists who attended the rally can hardly account for a victory. So the war machine is out of the job fair. Unfortunately, it is still a flagrant component of the UC system. While we manage their nuclear weapons labs and continue to maintain financial ties to military contracting corporations, they have the pleasure of using our highly educated and innovative minds to employ defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, that the UC system itself endorses. So roughly 75 people cared enough to show up. Where are the other thousands of so-called activists at UCSC? That’s right, they are in the thousands, and they are mobile enough to converge at the Porter meadow on 4/20, advocating their liberal pacifism with peace signs and Bob Marley blaring from blown speakers. Consequently, that bumper sticker on the back of your SUV is not going to stop global warming or create world peace; but you can. So take that Ché shirt off your back and stop singing “Get up, Stand up,” unless you’re willing to do just that. The first call to social change, Santa Cruz, is showing up.