Challenges

A baker in the rural Ohio town of Oberlin recently sued the small liberal arts college in that town for defamation after the berlin students protested the son of the bakery owner's actions after he beat the crap out of a black student who shoplifted the store. The protesting student majority convinced the school to end it's relationship with the bakery, costing the small store it's main source of income. The baker won the case in the Republican majority state of Ohio, costing the college over $11 million in reparations. A relative of mine questioned my opinion on the matter, asking whether or not I agreed with the actions of the college. I am in support of what Oberlin did, as they properly represented their student body, or rather, itself, for there is no separation between an educational institution and those who fund it. The parents of the students, the donors, the benefactors, and the trustees trust this institution to bring a generation of young adults into our society. The institution's responsibility is to be a shepherd of reason. The amount of money the college lost is an important figure, but the parents and students and donors who stand by the school's mission objective mitigate that figure. They are paying for an education in reason from this particular university, whose morals and values are distinctly different from other colleges. A claim that I hear regularly is that the youth cannot be trusted with a system as large as an educational institution. If that is true, then the fault is in the generations that came before. In an attempt to capitalize on the changing political sphere in the middle of the 20th century, they have created " insurmountable" boundaries for future generations. They still believe themselves to be immortal. It is not them that will live forever, but the Frankenstein's monsters of hegemonic systems they have built. MPC

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