Sunday, May 2, 2010

Commencement 2010 -OR- Fear Strikes Out

I couldn't visit Dissenters' Row or Union Park on May Day. I had to make a 300 mile service call to repair my son's beater. I'll make it up this week sometime. Being a practical anarchist is all about finding and going with the flow? Juxtaposition with understanding and appreciation? Changing plans and lanes, from the cauldron represented by The Haymarket Monument and Dissenter's Row that shaped the 20th Century to Champaign-Urbana getting ready for the next installment of bosses, workers, fixers and doers.

On the campus of UIUC things were in a full "end of the school year" frenzy. Slackers were cramming for finals. The Illinois Marathon was rerouting traffic; causing more than the normal befuddled motorists trying to navigate into and around campus. After the "required" three trips to the parts store to rectify the problem and $100 in parts, the beater lives again. Running like the marathon's front-runners and ready for the last two-weeks of son's four-year odyssey through college. WOW! Another finish line and yet another starting line.

The atmosphere and demeanor of this year's futurists was markedly different than our last experience, in 2008. There is far more certainty in this year's class that fear is not a viable option. On whole, they aren't sure what they'll do, but they seem genuinely committed to doing whatever it's going to take. At the same time, they know they're walking into FUBAR and their eyes are wide open.

I can live with that. I've been rooting for this bunch their whole lives.

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