Plymouth State Activist group, Students for Sanity, to protest against Tea-Party on Friday

On Tuesday April 12^th, 2011, the group known as Students for Sanity, met in Hyde to finalize logistics for a protest down in Concord for Friday, April 15^th. The protest is geared towards redirecting the national priorities of the youth back to the youth.

            Elyse Sedgley, leader of Students for Sanity had this to say: "The future of young Americans today is under attack through poor choices, impulsive actions, and selfish program cuts that are currently on going in the U.S."

            Sedgley referred to the Pell grant cut, which is a federally funded college student grant. According to the article by Kelly Field in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the fifteen percent cut would make 1.7 million students ineligible for the grant and be the largest cut in the history of the Pell Grant program.

            Sedgley also referenced the cuts to Americorp, Teach for America and Environmental Protection Agency which, as Sedgley mentioned, would be a "direct threat to the preservation of a sustainable environment of American youth to thrive in."

            Representative of Grafton County, Suzanne Smith,  was in attendance of the Students for Sanity meeting and thought it was great that the students were getting involved and "standing up for their rights."

            The tea-party, who also plans to be at the State House on friday, has spoken out against the student group, particularly focusing on PSU Professor Roderick MacLeish. An anonymous student forwarded a copy of e-mails that Macleish sent out to his students to the tea-party coalition of New Hampshire. The tea-party responded, saying in an article on nhteapartycoalition.org that "This is what your professors are doing instead of teaching. Perhaps Roddy should be shown the door?" The article on the website also provided a link to contact President Steen and "demand he get back to teaching or be FIRED."

            Sedgley reacted to the article in a press released, saying, "This is a gorilla attack on our 1^st Amendment rights by attempting to intimidate the students with threats directed at our professor. We plan to continue our organization of a counter protest on April 15^th in Concord with more motivation than ever to be heard."

But the fireworks don't end there. During the middle of Tuesday night's Students for Sanity meeting, the group discovered a new article on the New Hampshire tea-parties website titled PSU Prof Incites Anti-Tea Party Rally.

A source reported to the tea-party movement saying: "On March 15th I attended an organizational meeting of some activist students at PSU. They are planning to hold a counter rally at the Tea Party Rally in Concord scheduled for April 15th."

Roderick MacLeish, who was at the meeting, was concerned that a member of the tea-party may have infiltrated a student organization anonymously.

The Tea-parties article mentioned "the police have been notified," of the Students for Sanity movement, saying "We are the only ones who have a permit to rally on this date at this location."

The Students for Sanity group intends to march, since they do not need a permit to march, but acknowledge it's going to grab attention. The group intends to bring signs and noisemakers, even reviving the "ghetto blaster," which is slang for loud boom-boxes that have taken the backseat since the age of the ipod. The group also intends to wear their new Students for Sanity shirts, organize chants and attract an audience with theatre that may come in the form of singing, music, humor, dancing, and even small skits.

 "It will be in stark contrast to the humorless, dark and generally negative rallies of the tea party. And, yes, it will be designed to show your class and their stupidity," MacLeish mentioned in an e-mail.

To learn more about Students for Sanity, check out the Students for Sanity Facebook or check theclockonline for updates on how Fridays protest unfolded.