Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, where pro-Palestinian protesters recently camped and clashed with pro-Israeli students and authorities…
RECKONINGS REGARDING THE TENSIONS AND CLASHES AT MY COLLEGIATE ALMA MATER
Entering the last week of May next week,
I was fully aware that I had only posted two pieces on this blog for this month.
I wasn’t sure of what to post, being I had already recently written and posted stuff that pertained to me.
Then, while I was on my Twitter, or X, page, I saw that UCLA was trending.
Being a graduate of that number one public university in this country and an over thirty-year member of Bruin Nation, I clicked on the UCLA trending spot,
Only to find out that the protesters of what Israel has done to the Gaza Strip after Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group whose ultimate goal is to wipe the state of Israel and all Jewish people off of this planet, attacked and killed 1,500 Israelis this past October 7th,
Have returned to the Westwood campus to create a “Liberation Encampment” among other things;
I just saw a video of a large group of police walking to apparently get the protesters out, hearing one person remark “The Calvary has arrived!”
Which they apparently were as they ultimately broke up the protest.
There’s another video I saw showing food being blocked from the protesters’ camp.
And yet another video of a mob pushing a cameraman down some stairs while chanting, “NEE-O-NUTZI!”, a take-off of a certain term.
And from what I’ve gathered,
All of this was triggered by Chancellor Gene Block testifying before Congress in Washington, D.C. that the previous encampment between Royce Hall and Powell Library was dismantled;
I saw a video on X of a new encampment being raised, then another clip of a large group marching on Murphy Hall, the administration building, after they were threatened with arrest while at their new encampment.
Along with yet another group of pro-Palestinian students taking over Dodd Hall, one of the prominent classroom buildings.
My prevalent thought regarding all of this, after the clashes on that campus a few weeks earlier, can be summed up in three words…
THIS. IS. NUTS.
I remember writing, either on this blog or elsewhere, that the only thing I want, hope and pray for regarding this longtime conflict and clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians comes down to one word as far as I’m concerned…
PEACE.
I still feel that way, obviously.
I also support the right to protest, as UCLA has had a long history of such from students protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, to protesting the first Gulf War in 1991 (which I saw as that was during my student days), to now this current polarizing issue.
But I can’t help but wonder if all these clashes at my alma mater, as well as on college campuses across this country,
Can ultimately get the skirmishes and attacks in the Gaza Strip, which has cost nearly 35,000 lives, to end.
Like I said, all I want, hope and pray for is peace.
And for all this strife and tensions to stop.
I’m sure that only God will be able solve this conflict.
Like Forrest Gump said in his 1994 Oscar-winning movie,
“That’s all I have to say about that.”
The iconic Bruin bear statue in the center of the UCLA campus…
hartlandchronicles 