Dust Gathering On Some SJSU Blogs

It's getting warm (global warming theories aside), and students are beginning to do their annual mental vacation. This is no less true for bloggers, apparently. A technorati search of SJSU tags will atest to this.

Students are blogging less, and the blogosphere is again being overcome by other voices.

A CHALLENGE TO ALL SJSU BLOGGERS: Try to post at least one post EVERY OTHER DAY during the work week, and link it to a local blogger you dig. I'll start it off here with this link to a post from Kyle Hansen's blog about student fee increases at SJSU. I hope this gets a conversation started. The CSU system is in desperate need of student voices.

Or, if you're REALLY tired of the real world and just need a getaway, try going to the SJSU campus in Second Life.

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Silence is Complacency

Last night, Paul Rusesabagina, known for his efforts in saving over 1,200 Tutsis while general manager of a hotel during the Rwandan genocide, spoke at SJSU's Morris Daily Auditorium. Rusesabagina, who was depicted by Don Cheadle in the award winning film, Hotel Rwanda, sheltered the Tutsis for over 100 days in 1992, before fleeing to Belgium with his wife and family.

His message for the night: ordinary men must do the right thing. On his heroism, Rusesabagina said, "I never decided to take the risk, someone else, maybe God, made the decision for me... what I did was our duty and our obligation." His humbling remarks speak to the weight of the lessons he teaches.

"'Never again' are the two most abused words I hear today," said Rusesabagina, responding to those who decry the barbarism of the Holocaust but do nothing to stop atrocities like those being committed in Dafur. "It is happening again today."

The speech was pointed and insightful. On the topic of US and western foreign policy, he said, "observing gets a higher salary," adding, "behind every African dictatorship is a Western superpower."

"Silence is complacency," he said. "Today is the day to stand up."

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