This afternoon, I went with twenty of my students to protest outside MTA headquarters. It was a peaceful but passionate protest. My students were angry, and rightly so. They understand the meaning of this decision: No transportation, no education! Don't you care? Pay our fare! We need passes to get to our classes! These same young people often struggle to see the connection between their lives and the history I try to teach them. They wonder if protesting will make a difference. As Billie Holliday sang, the impossible will take a little while. Howard Zinn has said much about how people make change, but I offer these words to my students and all the other young people who wonder if it's worth making noise about this issue:
"...Throughout history, people have felt powerless before authority, but at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, and persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little. That is the history of the labor movement, the women's movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the disabled person's movement, the gay and lesbian movement and the [Civil Rights] movement...."
