Cross Town Loop: Shut It Down!

As I rode through the Colleges on the last leg of last nights' Cross-Town Loop I heard this great hubbub rising on the breeze from somewhere over in the direction of Scripps. I thought of three things, that there might be some kind of athletic event going on, the dorm-bound students were getting their weekend off to an early start, or there was a demonstration taking place. A lack of cheering convinced me to discount the first possibility, and while there was some very loud music from about the same direction the, again, lack of cheering and the repetitive wave of sound suggested it was not the second one, either. That left demonstration, and my interest was piqued. 

One of the things I remember most about college days was the free expression, and flow, of beliefs and ideas. So I rode over toward that sound which, as it turns out, originated from the sunken courtyard of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, at Claremont McKenna College, rather than Scripps. I never did find out what the students wanted shut down, but the chant of "Shut It Down" went on for quite some time, before the demonstration settled into a new, more complex, two line chant. I couldn't make out this chant at all, though the first line seemed to end with the word "degree", and the second line seemed to be rather crassly disparaging of the police. It didn't quite make a passing grade on rhyme, but if you squinted really hard and turned one ear toward the nearby dorms, it became passable.

It was kind of a thrill to be in all that again, even if I did not know what the point was. All that direct political action took me back a few years. I love riding through the Colleges, I never know what I will stumble upon.

Even though the courtyard down below, and out of view, was full, I seem to remember demonstrations being a little bigger, and assume that was the reason for the picket enclosure. Maybe it was larger earlier, or would be later?

the textured hills