{"id":6042,"date":"2012-05-28T08:27:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T12:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6042"},"modified":"2012-05-28T08:42:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T12:42:39","slug":"in-montreal-students-force-a-noisy-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/05\/28\/in-montreal-students-force-a-noisy-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"In Montreal, students demand an important (and noisy) conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6044\" style=\"width: 270px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6044\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6044 \" title=\"montrealgirl\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/05\/montrealgirl.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/05\/montrealgirl.jpg 260w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/files\/2012\/05\/montrealgirl-150x109.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vimeo videos like this one have spread the conversation in Quebec beyond the student movement<\/p><\/div>\n<p>People in Montreal are understandably weary of student protests that have gone on for more than 100 days.<\/p>\n<p>But after walking and talking with marchers for more than two hours late last week, I came away with the sense that this is both a richer and more nuanced discussion than I had understood.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, people are painting their faces and banging pots and pans.\u00a0 But they&#8217;re also asking big questions about their society.\u00a0 What values matter?\u00a0 Education?\u00a0 Health care?\u00a0 The right to gather in protest without government oversight?<\/p>\n<p>And when people do see certain public services as essential, as an integral part of any moral community, who should pay for them?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/42848523\" width=\"300\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nI wonder sometimes at the lack of a similar &#8220;conversation&#8221; in New York, where we&#8217;re making decisions (selling off public nursing homes, raising student tuitions, laying off teachers, and so on) without a big-picture debate over where it&#8217;s all taking us, and what our society will look like when we&#8217;re done.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not suggesting that New Yorkers need to take to the streets.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not even suggesting that the students in Montreal are &#8220;right&#8221; in their views.\u00a0 A lot of smart people in Quebec think their government is too big, too unaffordable.<\/p>\n<p>But I do think it makes sense to have a fundamental debate over how our our communities should look five, ten, twenty years down the road.<\/p>\n<p>As always, your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People in Montreal are understandably weary of student protests that have gone on for more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,6,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6043,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions\/6043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}