Money talks

There were protests, there was a graduate student named Jonathan Butler staging a hunger strike, all ignored by the President, Chancellor and apparently the Board of the University of Missouri.

And then, MONEY, the possible loss of $1,000,000 this weekend, entered the equation and everyone stood up and paid attention.

The football team announced that they would not play until the demands of the students were met, which included the resignation of Tim Wolfe.

On Monday morning Wolfe announced his resignation and later in the day so did the Chancellor.  Those resignations marked the end of a period of the ugliness that has existed on the campus for a very long time and hopefully the beginning of a new period where rampant racism will no longer be tolerated. Where the concerns of the students will be addressed, not ignored as they were under Wolfe.  

This is a timeline of the incidents that occurred from September 12 to the resignations on 11/9.

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I have read an article, which referred to Wolfe as being too tone deaf to deal with a campus in turmoil. Tone deaf is an understatement. Wolfe was following the same playbook that is responsible for so many of the ills that have affected our society for years.  He probably felt that if he ignored the students eventually the protests would end and life would go on as before.  Just as we vote against our own best interests, we believe the lies told to us re: trickle down economics and climate change, etc., and so nothing changes for the 99%.

Wolfe like so many, believed that this was a disgruntled group of Black students who did not appreciate the crumbs that they had been given. When asked about systematic oppression he responded, “Systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success.”

That response said that he was not suited to head that school.

And so the almighty dollar came to the rescue of those students who will now be listened to, and changes made, all because black and white football players and their coach stepped up and said, ‘we will not play football again for this school until Butler ends his hunger strike’. MU was not going to take the hit of paying a million dollar fine for every game forfeited and did not want the name of the university system to be drawn further through the mud.

And so, Wolfe is gone and a new day has dawned at the University of Missouri.

Money also ended another situation yesterday. Simon Property Group that operates 120 malls in the US decided to try something new.

That something ‘new’ was to replace the traditional fireplace-Christmas tree setting for photos of children (and adults?) sitting on Santa’s lap with an “enchanted glacier with an artificial snow bank” Sounds interesting? Different? Maybe, but where is the Christmas tree? Oh no tree.

This experiment was tried in 6 of its malls. 3 were in New York and New Jersey.

A mother in NY took to social media and her online petition started to gather steam with parents threatening to shop at non-Simon malls.

Shop elsewhere? That threat is all it took. Cha-ching, away went the “modern interactive experience for the family” and back came the tree in its familiar setting.

The profits from the Christmas season where just about every ethnic and religious group goes shopping crazy, allows the malls to weather the lean times. Like the University, loss of dollars was not an option.  

And so again money talks and bull$hit walks.