For those who thought that the costumed youth parading down Sherbrooke St. Thursday afternoon at peak traffic time were just a bunch of overzealous trick-or-treaters, the Friday Gazette headline offered a much-needed explanation: "Students worried about FTAA's effect on tuition."
Ah, so that's what it was, one of those bastions of free speech and participatory democracy: a worry parade. Well, their pain was felt by thousands of other Montrealers who couldn't participate in the parade because they were busy working to contribute to the tax coffers that finance these students. They were worried, too - worried about missed meetings, lost sales, broken shop windows, and children stuck at daycare while their parents sat in traffic for hours. But never mind the productive classes.
Students risk having to get jobs to pay some of their tuition, which would leave them much less time to worry and parade. If these protesters were looking to establish the value of education to society at large, that giant Soviet flag waving high for all to see sure was a well-considered prop.
But here's a humble suggestion: rather than jamming the wheels of the local economy, how about trying to benefit from its successes? Why don't these students calmly take their worries to local businesses, work on raising funds and establishing grants for the underprivileged?
It's time that socially conscious students got over the outdated notion that action for action's sake is inherently noble. Actions have consequences, and the only consequences that quixotic demonstrations like Thursday's are sure not to have are the intended ones.
Elizabeth Wasserman
Montreal
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