The 136th edition of one of college football’s oldest rivalries, the Harvard-Yale game, was disrupted by a couple of hundred students who stormed the field at halftime to protest climate change, delaying the start of the second half.
The hour-long delay meant that the game, played at the Yale Bowl, finished in near darkness as the stadium has no lights installed. After two overtimes, Yale prevailed 50-43.
Make no mistake: this ain’t your granddaddy’s Ivy League.
In a statement, the Ivy League referred to the protest as “regrettable.” Yale said that while it “stands firmly for the right to free expression,” it had issues with how the protesters went about their demonstration.
“The exercise of free expression on campus is subject to general conditions, and we do not allow disruption of university events,” Yale said in its own statement.
Yale coach Tony Reno said the unusual interruption was an example of what has made his university’s rivalry with Harvard stand the test of time.
“It’s what makes Yale Yale,” Reno said. “Our group, I’m sure if you asked them and the Harvard guys what makes it special, it’s not only the game of football. It’s the passions.”
Yes, even if those passions are due to blind ignorance.
The grown-ups tried to wrangle the unruly kids and get on with the game, but this is 2019, not 1968, so no tear gas, no police truncheons — even though some of the protesters could have used a good spanking.
The public-address announcer implored the group to leave, repeating, “As a courtesy to both teams, the game must resume.” Protesters responded by chanting, “OK, boomer.”
Yale police Chief Ronnell Higgins spoke to the protesters over a megaphone, trying to convince them that they had made their point, but it would be lost if the situation escalated.
Some protesters held banners asking their universities to act on climate change and Puerto Rico debt relief, including one sign that read, “Nobody wins. Yale & Harvard are complicit in climate injustice.” Another read, “This is an emergency.”
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” some protesters chanted.
The Vietnam era has been so romanticized in popular culture that kids can’t even come up with original slogans to scream at police. I get it. Maybe the kids are pining for the days when sex was guilt-free, drugs were cheap, and rock ‘n roll ruled. Or maybe they’ve been watching History Channel documentaries about the protests of that era that make it seem fun and cool to get arrested.
The fact is, these kids have been programmed to panic over climate change. They’re not thinking, they’re emoting. If they ever grow up, they will realize that what they are asking is impossible without destroying industrialized civilization.
This, of course, is what those who are programming these kids desperately want. They don’t give a hoot about climate. They care about control. Pray God they come to their senses before it’s their turn to run the world.
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