2-year colleges remained quiet

How widespread was it, really? Not nearly as ubiquitous as our assorted media would have you believe. In fact, the outbursts affected only a scant few schools, although some were high-profile, including most recently Stanford.

Some pundits offered that the latest modest wave of unhappiness mirrored the bitter atmosphere back in the late-1960s/early-1970s. Sorry, not even close.

In those chaotic days and nights decades ago, protests were ubiquitous and often two-pronged, with a double dose of anger and violence involving a controversial war in Vietnam and pressing civil rights issues here at home. The shocking assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. added to the unrest.

For many in the forefront of the divisions rocking the U.S. back then, the military draft was front and center. Eligible males, at least a significant number of them, did whatever they could to avoid being conscripted and sent to an Asian battlefield, even fleeing to Canada (and Europe) as a last resort in some desperate cases.

In all, the bean counters with the federal government declared that just over 200,000 young men were official draft resisters during that era. It was estimated that close to 600,000 individuals avoided being inducted one way or the other. Precise numbers were difficult to calculate. But conscription became a dirty word.

Make no mistake, the national angst was far worse back in the day. Then came the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Nixon. The drumbeat of bad news seemed never-ending.

That’s not the case today. Just examine the conditions at California’s own collection of 116 community colleges that educate 2 million students.

These tax-financed, two-year schools experienced barely a whisper of anti-Israeli angst during the spring semester. That could change, of course. But, so far, the state’s community college scene, including the atmosphere at San Mateo County’s three campuses, has been markedly quiet.

Maybe that’s because students at those schools, many of them working class adults, tend to have more relevant day-to-day matters on their minds than events far offshore.

FREE MEALS AGAIN AVAILABLE: With the 2024 vacation period underway for San Mateo County public and private school students, it’s worth reminding folks that free meals are again available in areas where at least 50% of the youngsters living there are enrolled in free or reduced-priced meals during the school year. It may seem counter-intuitive in a county that includes some of the wealthiest families in the U.S., but there are no household income criteria for participation in this taxpayer-funded program. All are eligible. To learn if your local public school district is hosting a summer free meals program, contact your district (or the county’s Office of Education). The program ends in mid-July.

BLACK NUMBERS IN DECLINE: Recent San Mateo County Juneteenth observations, intended to recall the belated announcement of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, a Confederate state, after the Civil War had been concluded, tended to ignore a demographic reality here: The number of African-American residents living along the Peninsula has been in serious decline for some time. The latest government data available indicate that just 1.9% of the county population (14,250 residents) was listed as Black. In 1980, according to census figures, Blacks represented 6.1% of the total, or 35,575 individuals.

BAY MEADOWS DREAM DENIED: Baseball legend Willie Mays’ passing last week brought back a memory. Burlingame baseball historian John Ward noted that, as the Giants and Mays prepared to move west from New York to San Francisco after the 1957 season, Peninsula boosters lobbied hard to convince Giants’ ownership to build a stadium on sun-blessed Bay Meadows Race Track property in San Mateo. Didn’t happen. The Giants opted for cold Candlestick Park northeast of Brisbane instead. Horse racing at Bay Meadows lasted another half-century. The land has since been transformed into offices and housing.

Email: johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.