Many of us learned about the human body’s stress reaction to danger in college if not high school: fight, flight, freeze and fawn.
A small but mighty group of Ohio State University students and supporters braved “exceptionally cold” temperatures Wednesday before making it into the Statehouse to fight an even more dangerous version of an Ohio bill that proponents claim combats indoctrination in college classrooms.
The student protest against Senate Bill 1 that would “dumbify” Ohio’s world-class colleges and universities with anti-intellectual rules points to a larger issue that disengaged, disconnected and disillusioned Ohio voters should take notes of.
The students showed the importance of staying informed and not giving up even when it is far easier to freeze, fawn or take flight.
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s victory in November, the responsibility to be informed and taking action is being shirked by some who see the president as a threat to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness or/and something else entirely.
You push back. You don’t run from the danger, suffer in place or try to make the threat comfortable so it doesn’t want to eat you.
In standing up against the bill, students provided a lesson in how not to bury your head in the warmth of ignorance even when it is very cold out from under the covers.
Fighting the ‘dumbification’ of Ohio
Senate Bill 1 would not improve higher education. It would stifle it.
The Ohio State students decided to keep fighting for what they think is right — and boy is there a lot of very wrong in Senate Bill 1.
The bill would eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public campuses, prohibit faculty from striking and fire tenured professors deemed poor performers. That’s only for starters.
Among many other things, the 70-page bill would also ban universities from taking positions on a “controversial belief or policy” such as climate policies, politics, foreign policy, DEI programs, immigration policy, marriage, abortion or “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy.”
It would also require professors to allow students to reach their own conclusions (AKA own facts) even if, as bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, said, what they are saying is as “dumb” as the world is flat.
Like many others, that part of the bill is based on a fallacy. The First Amendment already allows freedom of speech. Flat earthers can go on and on just as anyone else can spew whatever. Ohio students are being taught not indoctrinated.
The planet is round.
The world — and its impact on you — does not stop because you are not paying attention.
The OSU students on Capitol Square clearly knew that even though a lot has gone on.
Senate Bill 1 was announced two days after Trump was inaugurated president, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was celebrated, and Ohio State won the national championship. Temperatures were only in the teens.
What’s the lesson for those in flight, freeze or fawn mode?
Rallies, protests and otherwise speaking out are not the only way to show dissent and engage in civic life.
Being heard at the ballot box is not only a right, it is a responsibility that should be a requirement. It is being taken for granted.
Only 71.71% of Ohio registered voters cast ballots in 2024 compared to 73.99% of registered voters in 2020. A record 77.14% voted in 1992 when President Bill Clinton carried this state.
Being an informed citizen — not freezing, fawning or taking flight from the problem — is the only way to vote effectively. You must keep pushing.
If those Ohio State “kids” can brush themselves off and keep fighting, so can the rest of us.
Senate Bill 1 and its companion bill in the Ohio House are the rebirths of Cirino’s dead Senate Bill 83
Introduced in 2023, that bill drew large protests and an abundance of opposition testimony and written commentary.
Agree that Senate Bill 1 is something to fear or not, you should concede that the right to peaceful protest is fundamental to what we call democracy.
I definitely disagreed with those who assembled at the Statehouse to rally against Ohio’s stay-at-home order during the height of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, but they had a right to protest — and do so loudly.
The right is expressed in the last line of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting…. the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
We must do better
Unlike the students in the Statehouse Wednesday, they are freezing, fawning or/and take flight by disengaging in the “news” AKA what is going on locally, statewide and nationally at the very least.
News burnout is real and doing “something” about it (whatever it is) can be exhausting.
Taking a break or limiting consumption is understandable.
Long-term disengagement is an even bigger danger than what former Fox News host Pete Hegseth can do to the Department of Defense or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could do to our fragile health care system as Health and Human Services secretary.
You can blame the decline of the Fourth Estate, but the press isn’t solely responsible. You can also blame our politicians, courts and (fill in the blank).
Fact is that the people have not been on the people’s game either. We must all seek out truth, think critically and act with purpose for the betterment of the whole.
People have busy lives, but people have always had busy lives. Paying attention is the least we can do as citizens.
We fail each other and this great republic when we freeze, fawn or take flight from the reality of the world we live in and will someday leave behind.
Burying yourself under a comfy blanket might feel good for a while but the cold will eventually leave you frostbitten in the end.
The small but mighty group of Ohio State students who took to the Statehouse Wednesday remind us of that.
Amelia Robinson is The Columbus Dispatch’s opinion and community engagement editor.
This article was originally published by a www.dispatch.com . Read the Original article here. .