After New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker's 25-hour speech, a 14-year-old Palestinian American who was raised in New Jersey was killed by Israel in the West Bank on Sunday, and Cory Booker hasn't said a thing about this:
NEW for Dec/Jan edition of @theprogressivemag.bsky.social //
I spoke with pro-Palestine student activists about how college administrations cracked down on campus protest one semester after a nationwide wave of Gaza Solidarity encampments. Here's what they told me:
progressive.org/magazine/one...
NEW for @theprogressivemag.bsky.social //
A youthful post-mortem of Trump's landslide victory over Harris. Did Trump galvanize new ranks of young voters toward right-wing populism, or did the Democratic status quo squander gains with youth from 2020?
progressive.org/latest/why-t...
Looks like Amazon is no longer allowing people to buy Refaat Alareer's book on its publication date.
Yo Jeff Bezos what are you trying to pull? Put the buy button back on. Even if it's temporarily out of stock due to surging demand you should still let people order it
My pipe dream becoming a reality – creating a corps of field reporters for the military-industrial complex at @inkstickmedia.bsky.social. I'm excited to introduce @n311.bsky.social + @hurwitz.bsky.social, who will be reporting from Connecticut/Missouri/NYC
inkstick.substack.com/p/meet-our-n...
Nice weeks where decades happen we're having right?
A press release from ENRON Corporation 12/2/24, headlined "ENRON CORPORATION ANNOUNCES RELAUNCH WITH A VISION TO SOLVE GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS"
sure, why not
Anyway, that's the brief history of the rock. Though the administration has deflated the political football, students are still finding ways to put Palestinian freedom on campus.
UConn's pro-Palestine divestment coalition held their first press conference of the semester here, continuing calls to cut ties with the genocide in Gaza and decrying a slew of other measures suppressing student speech that I wrote about in brief here!
progressive.org/latest/trump...
The rock is now in a more "student-centric" location between a handful of student resident halls, safely out of the way of people who attend on-campus fundraisers, conferences, basketball games, and performances at Jorgensen. A cynic might suggest the encampment was the impetus for this move.
And so business as usual continued—that is, until UConn's Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the aftermath. Here's a beautiful message in support of the 26 students arrested at the encampment on April 30.
Less than a month later, UConn would haul the rock off with a crane to a less visible spot.
It was at this point that they began discussing regulating rock painting to avoid it becoming a "political football," as the provost called it. Proposed changes included a reservation system whereby students could have their message up for a week, but these changes weren't implemented
Interesting sidebar: University provost Anne D'Alleva was concerned enough to rope in the Arab Students Association, because they had allegedly painted "Allahu Akbar" and the flag of Iraq on the rock a few days later. She asked if this was authorized. At that point, no authorization was required.
By Oct. 10, high level administrators, including UConn President Radenka Maric, were already discussing removing the iconic fixture entirely to avoid "further tension."
According to these emails I FOIA'd, they were talked down by other administrators—for the time being.
After Oct. 7, a group of students painted a message of support for Palestine, which was at this point under a complete siege and escalating bombardment by Israel.
A group of students painting a pro-Israel messaged followed it up, a short-lived back-and-forth that didn't last over a few days.
Previously, the rock's location was highly visible, sitting between Jorgensen theater, a large visitor parking garage, and the office of the UConn Foundation, which manages the school's $700m endowment. It's also visible from Gampel Pavilion, where the Huskies play.
Painting the spirit rock is something of a tradition for student groups promoting themselves. Painting the rock was virtually unregulated. Prior to 2023, its only controversy it involved students defacing and mocking a "Black Lives Matter" message painted after the police murder of George Floyd.
I know that rock! Here's a fun lived history about UConn's famous "spirit rock" and how the administration moved it away from public view because of pro-Palestine protesters
Thread 🪨🪨🪨
Renewed crackdown on free speech aims to overwhelm US student protests - www.middleeasteye.net/news/massive-crackdown-f...
Israel bans Islamic call to prayer - www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-bans-islamic...
BREAKING: Gaetz withdraws from consideration for attorney general.
I have been resistant to come back to Bluesky because my assessment is it has no villains or cranks, and that until these essential genres of poster are mass imported here it’ll have little to no juice. Is this fair assessment??
We're running out of nails to put in the coffin of euphemisms like "self-defense" and "security."
Everything is becoming LinkedIn