Wednesday, February 12, 1997
ACTIVISM:
Involvement the first step to ensuring better education,
rightsBy Alberto Retana
The solutions to the problems faced daily by students do not lie
within student government  they lie within the student body!
Student government is a tool. It is a means to an end. More faith
and trust than that should never be put into any institution. In
order to further explain myself, I would like to share with you my
personal experience.
The most important day in my life was the day I decided to get
involved. It was May 29, 1994. It was the end of my freshman year
when I picked up the Los Angeles Times and noticed thousands of
beautiful people marching peacefully down Broadway in Los Angeles.
There were signs that said "Support Immigrants" and "Human Rights
NOW." There were flags from Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, other
Latin American countries and yes, even the United States.
It’s interesting how no one ever realizes that the United
States’ flag was up too. It was up because thousands of these
immigrants were searching for the "American dream" while at the
same time continuing to go back to the long hours in the fields,
garment industry, hotels and other low-wage and labor intensive
jobs in the market. While most immigrants work with no health care
and barely enough money to feed their children, they continue to
have hope. This hope is on the road to complete destruction.
They did not know that Proposition 187 would pass and that they
were no longer welcome. They did not know that Proposition 209
would pass two years later. They did not know that welfare would be
restructured and that, as immigrants, they would no longer receive
prenatal care or public assistance. They did not know that their
children go to prison at twice the rate whites do. They only had a
dream.
So did I. I wonder where it went … Could it have been an
illusion constructed to give people false hope? At that point I did
not care. I had to do something. The reason I got involved was
because I felt a responsibility to my community and that it was my
obligation to do whatever I could to protect my people from these
attacks. This is also the reason I chose to work with and to make
Students First! a part of my life. We wanted to use student
government as a tool to better our communities. We wanted to create
real hope for students on campus and engage them in the
construction of a new dream for all people.
Quite frankly, though, student government is an institution to
which we all contribute $54 a year. As students, we must always be
critical of these institutions so that we do not mimic those
institutions that keep us down. We must always ask ourselves: How
do we make student government relevant to students’ lives?
The answer to this question is not within the context of student
government. The solution is not student government. Too often
people get caught up in the intricacies of this institution when
what really matters are the issues and everyday problems students
are facing. I am sick and tired of arguing over things that mean
nothing to students.
For instance, this whole debate around the Judicial Board is
minuscule compared to the attacks that students are facing. In
fact, most students do not even know what the J-Board is. I am
tired of picking up a Daily Bruin and seeing it focus on those
"intricacies" and not on the fact that the student-run Campus
Retention Committee on campus may be threatened with elimination,
or that an ethnic and gender studies requirement is crucial for a
better society, or that President Clinton has put no money for Cal
Grants in his budget for next year. There are so many relevant
issues that will make or break families, keep people in school, or
help a student on campus find a place that is friendly, fun and a
great learning experience.
This is how we have continued to "revolutionize student
government." We give student government back to the students. We
use it as a tool to better students’ lives by directly engaging
them in the issues that affect their everyday lives.
Everyone has a burning flame inside. We all face problems and
the flame is the passion that, as students, we need to ignite
together in order to increase federal financial aid, bring back
affirmative action, strengthen rights for lesbians, gays and
bisexuals, protect immigrant’s rights, create a safe campus for
women, and work on all the issues pertinent to breaking down the
walls of oppression.
I will not sugar-coat our message by saying that we believe in
working on all issues. As Students First!, we believe in working on
issues of educational access  the ability for people to get
into the school, stay in school and graduate from school while
feeling a sense of control of their own lives.
I invite every student to take control of their lives and
challenge those societal forces that hurt our ability to succeed. I
invite each and every single student to our meeting on Thursday at
5 p.m. in Kerckhoff 404 to discuss taking control of the next
millennium through student activism. It will be an opportunity to
continue the dialogue necessary in developing a real hope for all
people and deconstructing the illusions created to keep us down.
Let’s create a paradigm that will bring real hope back to
immigrants and students.
All your input will be deeply appreciated. Your involvement will
further empower students and will help in winning concrete
improvements in people’s lives. If you have any questions, please
call me at (310) 825-8545.