Ryan ChartrandAs a member of Cal Poly’s Students for Justice and Peace in the Middle East club and facilitator of discussion at Wednesday’s wall display, I was shocked to see that so many students had no idea that this wall is being constructed. The fact that Americans are so uninformed and that the American media is so uninformative is appalling.
Regardless of opinion, I was glad that we as a club could teach so many students about what is going on in the world. So Cal Poly, I challenge you: Go to the BBC’s Web site or look up the French newspaper Le Monde in English translation. The viewpoint will differ drastically from the one that you see on the news every night, or even in The New York Times.
Maybe along the way, you will learn about the 4.1 million Palestinian refugees that have no home, no citizenship to any country and no rights. Maybe you will hear about the $3 billion that the U.S. gives to Israel in military and economic assistance every year, or the fact that we give none to Palestinians. At least you will get a different picture from the one we are force-fed through our media every day.
Marina Barakatt
English sophomore