Breaking the law

I am not a Christian. I don't believe Jesus is the son of God or the path to salvation. Such mysteries remain mysteries, and while I don't mean to offend anyone, I frankly don't believe anyone can tell me what God wants.

But I've read the Bible, and Jesus rocks. When push came to shove, Jesus was down with the people, in the streets with the poor and the whores and the lepers. Despite the uses that he is put to today, he was no friend of the status quo, no ally of the rich and powerful. He was a radical and a revolutionary, out to overturn the established social order in the name of justice.

Perhaps Lynette and Joe and the people who "agree" with them can spend a few minutes thinking about where Jesus would stand on campus issues, if he were here.

If Jesus were at the UW today, which side would he be on? Would he be with the teaching assistants, readers, graders and tutors of the Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition/United Auto Workers GSEAC/UAW in their fight for full recognition and a grievance process, or with the administration that washes its hands with legalistic pantomimes to deny the right to unionize?

Would he support an administration that requires graduating students to pay for Jostens gowns made using prison labor or in sweatshop conditions? Or would he side with the students who resist this requirement, even if only a few students are speaking out?

Would he support our multi-million- dollar UW contracts with Nike and the new Nike and Husky logo, or would he be overturning tables in Gerberding Hall, insisting that there are higher values than cash?

Speaking of overturning tables in Gerberding Hall, students should consider the option. Jesus was a law-breaker. He was arrested. He was publicly denounced by leading officials. He is revered today as an inspirational leader. Why do so many of us automatically think it must be wrong to resist earthly authority, disobey orders and cause trouble?

The fact is, Dick McCormick and his allies in the Board of Regents and state Legislature are imposing injustice at the UW, raising tuition and driving away the poor, slashing health benefits for TAs, turning Husky athletics into a crass money-making scheme, abandoning the ideals of democracy and opportunity and turning the public university into a private corporation.

Students and workers who cause trouble and resist these injustices are right to do so, even if it disrupts your life. These troublemakers are the kind of people who overturn social orders and do things like end slavery, win women's right to vote and win worker's right to unionize. If you don't see yourself as part of history, taking sides for or against today's injustices, then you have been well trained to be powerless.

Why should some enjoy human freedom while others are enslaved? Why should some have the right to vote while others are voiceless? Why should some enjoy the right to education while others are kept in ignorance? Why should some enjoy decent working conditions while others are powerless?

I would have more respect for the Jesus pushers if they would overturn a few tables and take a stand. Large numbers of people have no prospect of ever attending the UW, and if we aren't standing with them then we are standing against them. Union busting and privatization are pushing workers to the edge, and if we do not stand with them, then we are pushing them into the abyss.

As the Board of Regents and the Legislature continue to raise tuition and privatize the UW, they are guilty of sowing deep social divisions. The right to education for all is worth some disruption on your path to a good job. The right for workers to unionize and bargain as equals with employers is worth a bit of trouble.

If you're the kind of person who talks to Jesus, ask him where he stands. But first, tell Dick McCormick, the Board of Regents and the state Legislature where you stand. Every citizen deserves the right to higher education, every worker deserves the right to unionize and the public is best served by a public university that remains public. If the modern-day moneychangers and hand washers don't get a clue pretty soon, they may find some of their fancy furniture overturned.