Death of a Hippie Salesman

Published April 29, 2008

By Bill Ottman

At this point, I’m not even sure what it means to be a hippie. It seems like it can mean anything from being a lazy stoner to an activist. The common thread is… that they all like music? They have long hair? A beard? They dance? They care about the environment?

Looking at Tent City and the Jailhouse, it was interesting to see people’s reactions to the whole thing. Most seemed to be totally on board with bringing actual social justice and free speech to UVM, giving lots of positive feedback, and signing the livable wage and divestment petitions. Of course, there were the crowds that would walk by, laugh, and shout profanities about “hippies,” while rebelliously putting a bottle in the trash can rather than the recycle bin. Well let me tell those hooligans, you showed us!

“Fucking hippies.” Yea, you know you’ve heard that before, but what is it that bothers people? There were plenty of participants at Tent City who don’t smoke weed, don’t listen to The Grateful Dead, and don’t really do anything that would resemble a traditional hippie, other than questioning the normal routine and protesting the current system.

I can understand frustration with the ones who wear all the “headie gear,” care about nothing other than drugs, and constantly fiddle on cell phones texting in code about lucy and herb and molly, but why lash out at people who are trying to make this school live up to its name? It’s about worker’s rights and our school’s investments in general.

You’d think that everyone who goes here would be concerned about where our school’s money is going because, well, it’s our money. When UVM invests in private mercenary firms and weapons manufacturers, it’s on all of us because the ones controlling things have no plans for making real changes without outside pressure.

At a “Coffee with President Fogel,” he claimed to not even know what we are invested in, which was either a total lie or a sign that there is something seriously wrong with the way things are set up. It should be a president’s first priority to see where we’re invested in. It defines who we are, and lack of involvement by the most powerful person at the school is
borderline ridiculous.

At the last Board of Trustees meeting they approved a $844,000 study to be conducted on mere research for the new athletic center, which is looking to cost nearly $200,000,000. Livable Wages for a year are $1.2 million. Can we not spare half a percent of two hundred million on our own people? The economy is obviously struggling, but isn’t that more reason to support the people who are getting hit the hardest?

There’s less than a year left before contract negotiations, which will be the last time for a long time that we’ll be able to make real changes in terms of wages. The Sodexho workers get none of the benefits that regular UVM workers do. Why not?

These issues are connected because it’s all about where the money goes, and UVM living up to its name. The limited free speech is straight up unconstitutional. Every day we’re invested in irresponsible companies is another day on our record, so it’d probably be best to forget about the way certain people dress, and realize that these issues affect all of us whether we’re headed for the farm or the city.

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