- A student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth went on a hunger strike for gender neutral bathrooms. According to reports the student called the standard arrangement "oppressive". Luckily, the hunger strike only took one day, and the University gave in to the demands.
- I also received a review of the book Escape from Camp 14. The book chronicles the life of one Mr. Shin, a North Korean, who was raised in, and subsequently risked his life escaping from, one of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's gulag-like political prisoner camps. It is rumored that over 200,000 people are kept in these camps, and just being related to a prisoner is enough to garner a one way ticket. It seems like the rulers of the DPRK are jealous gods who visit the sins of the fathers on the third or fourth generations. The book reports the harrowing details of a Mr. Shin's life. A life of beatings, forced marriages (with visitation 5 nights a year), hunger, death., and escape for the chance, just once, to have a full stomach.
OK, which organization is actually more oppressive? Remember that hunger strikes only work when the "oppressors" actually care enough that you are hungry, and despite their hate take the steps to keep you from dying.
Me? I'd rather use a gendered restroom than live in the DPRK.
I'm with you, but I've never really understood how hunger strikes are effective. I remember many years ago defending my decision to leave a hospital room when asked to do so by a patient. The rest of my student reflection group said that I should have stayed because the person's anger made it obvious that he needed to talk to someone. I didn't see it that way. He told me that he had no use for religion or God and asked if I would please leave. So I left. He made a decision and he was an adult, so I honored his decision, whatever I thought of it. If some kid makes a decision not to eat, I guess that is his issue, not mine. I'd never make a very good Whig, because I don't have an overwhelming need to fix everyone. There comes a time when people should be allowed to make their own decisions and bear the consequences of those decisions, even if the decisions are foolish and the consequences are potentially tragic. I've never found it particularly helpful or therapeutic to cave in to whiners, activists, terrorists, drunks, or ill-behaved children. That probably makes me insensitive, but then, you'll have that sometimes. Mabey I spent too many years in uniform.
ReplyDeleteGive me any kind of bathroom over the DPRK any day.
ReplyDeleteI used one of those gender neutral BRs back in 1979. It was in a place called "The Dream Palace" somewhere in the French Quarter. The door didn't lock, and I learned that it can be a bit unsettling using such facilities, particularly when a person of a different gender walks in and stands there pleading with you to "Hurry up!"