Play. "...the Zionists are..." Stop. Rewind.
Play. "...the Zionists are..." Stop. Rewind.
I've given up being angry, or paranoid or horrified at Troy Buckner-Nkrumah's hysterical ranting. I'm embarrassed.
I'm embarrassed to be going to a school filled with sore losers whining about phantom bogeymen. This is supposed to be an institution of higher learning -- in which we all act like adults -- exercising good sportsmanship and a willingness to take responsibility for our own actions.
Despite ten years of building a machine that operated with contempt for the students at large, that laughed at and ridiculed anybody outside of its little fortress, that raided the student fund for its little pet projects and packed the elections committee with its own rubber-stamp mob, the Progressive Coalition still managed to lose.
What did Buckner-Nkrumah's Associated Students ever do to create an open student government? Did they print a newsletter? Did they hold open houses? Did they publish and post their operating budget? Did they do any outreach? Did they make concerted efforts to hear the concerns of all their constituents? Nope. Nothing.
Does any student coming in off the street and hustling off to class remember any concerted effort against fee hikes or Prop. 187? How about working to make students' lives easier in the city -- like lobbying for a Muni student discount or a pedestrian walkway built over 19th Avenue? Jack. Nothing. No petition drives. No phone banking. No lobbying. No letter writing. Nothing. Or, if there was, it was such a feeble and amateurish attempt that it made no difference.
Maybe the Progressive Coalition got a little too self-serving -- a little too fat and full of itself. Maybe the students at large finally got sick and tired of a student government playing behind closed doors and seeing their "representatives" hurling absurd rhetoric and childish threats in public. Maybe the Progressive Coalition collapsed of its own weight.
Ever hear of a little thing called "democracy," Troy? It's kind of a cool idea. You hold an election and whichever side gets the most votes wins. Traditionally, the side that loses is supposed to graciously and gracefully extend its hand to the winner and offer its hearty congratulations. It's considered good sportsmanship, good form. Sandbox 101.
However, instead of taking his administration's loss like a man, Buckner-Nkrumah seems intent on blaming absolutely everybody else for its failure. It's the Zionists' fault, he says. They put Quddus in jail, he says. They stole the election, he says. They're tampering with the files, he says. They're stealing the financial aid money, he says.
Next, he'll be trying to pin the blame on little three-eyed men in spaceships, or huge swarms of blackbirds or sunspots.
This victim mentality isn't getting anybody anywhere. We're all adults here; we're equals. I thought Buckner-Nkrumah was supposed to be a student leader. I thought he was supposed to be talking about self-empowerment. Instead, his whining and carrying on is getting tedious. I'm beginning to wonder if he has a mind of his own instead of a little tape recorder lodged in his head.
Play. Stop. Rewind. Play. Stop. Rewind. Play...