On Mario Savio and Thomas Jefferson

A plethora of theories and philosophies attempt to explain or define the aging process.     Many a song suggest that dying before one gets old or burning out as opposed to fading away impacts the aging process, but a recent discovery leads me to question the old hippie notion that nobody over the age of 30 should ever be trusted.

 

As I was searching for something I’d lost, because the memory is, after all, the first thing to go, I came across a folder of articles and letters I’d written that were published way back when I was younger—under 30. Being young and idealistic, my thoughts flowed on the pages with ease and purpose. Having my thoughts published in well respected publications validated the notion that what I thought mattered to someone. 

 

Like sands through the hourglass, the dust falling off these pages symbolizes time—and it turns out, time has not changed the way I feel about most things. What I thought was wrong then is still wrong, and what I thought was good then is still good.

 

So what happens at 30? Does cynicism replace idealism? Does war, hate, and close-mindedness replace peace, love and understanding?

 

I believe the answer to these questions lies somewhere in this current month of March.

 

This month, those over the age of 30, as well as those under the benchmark age of innocence lost, can decide whether they will stand up and voice their opinions to our government—a government that is clearly out of control.

 

This month’s series of protests aimed at those responsible for slashing education spending is a great barometer for judging who has lost whatever it is those over the age of 30 apparently lose.

 

Marches, sit-ins, walk-outs, and other symbolic measures of solidarity are planned—pick one, or two, and participate. 

 

The late great free-speech activist Mario Savio led an entire protest movement with a message of rebellion—a scary philosophy to politicians who have forgotten to whom they answer:

 

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part…and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop…and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all,” said Savio, on the steps of Berkeley’s Sproul Hall in 1964.

 

If Savio’s philosophy is combined with Thomas Jefferson’s eloquent message that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots,” a lethal combination is achieved.

 

If I were a politician, I’d either be terrified or getting ready to roll up my sleeves and preparing to solve an education crisis.