In a minute, man: I was reminded today about someo…
May 8, 2003 | 6:53 am
In a minute, man: I was reminded today about someone I went to college with: Martin Jones. Martin was the eternal student and campus activist — he was, I believe, a fifth year senior when I arrived at UMass in the fall of 1991 and, as far as I could tell, he was a fifth-year senior when I finally graduated in 1996. While he may have outdone himself after I left, Martin’s biggest claim to fame was going on a hunger strike to protest the school’s Minuteman mascot.
UMass is looking to get rid of the Minuteman again, this time because, quite frankly, it just doesn’t sell well in campus bookstores when it’s affixed to sweatshirts, coffee mugs and other crap. Martin’s campaign wasn’t economic: he resented the fact that the school would promote itself with the image of “a white man with a gun.”
For awhile, at least. During the few days his hunger strike lasted, Martin had countless pizzas delivered to his dorm room by people who wanted to fuck with him. In the end, he held out, finally breaking his hunger strike when the chancellor took him and his mother to Bertucci’s for pizza. Martin did a complete about face — the Minuteman, he said, represented people who were willing to fight for freedom for themselves and others — and moved on to the next campus issue.
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