WHILE ALL EYES were on the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where Julian Assange has been granted political asylum for good reason, there was a two-man demonstration on Sunday at the British consulate (875 Third Ave.) in midtown Manhattan.
Occupier Yoni Miller and, standing behind him, George Weber, a member of Veterans for Peace, in front of the British consulate in Manhattan. [Photo: JH]
Yoni Miller, 18, identified himself as an “occupier” who believes in “direct action.” Articulate and steadfast, he has vowed to continue the protest for as long as it takes to gain Assange’s freedom. “This is a 24/7 indefinite occupation,” Miller said last week on Facebook. “We will leave when Assange can leave.” The protest is “in solidarity with the London occupation.” Miller was joined by George Weber, a member of Veterans for Peace.
Apparently, Miller is also a math whiz interested in “collaborative and altruistic learning institutions.” He has, for example, posted a free math lecture with the OnlineMathCircle. It begins:
In this paper, the phrase “Induction by Faith” is used as a personal metaphor to denote what mathematicians have historically referred to as “Proof by Induction”. For many of the problems you are about to encounter would be practically impossible to solve, even with all of the world’s supercomputers working in unison.
The rest of the paper seems to me mind-boggling-brilliant, although the mathematical theorems are so far beyond my comprehension you can’t take my word for it. Have a look and judge for yourself.
Miller has noted elsewhere that he is “concerned about the superficial elements of a college education, such as prestige, varsity level, etc… and of course, exploitive tuition pricing schemes.” He tells me, by the way, that he’s a high school dropout. Hello!
Postscript: Aug. 21 — William Osborne writes:
At first I was skeptical about the idea that Sweden would extradite Assange to the USA, but it is becoming clear that is the plan as explained in detail in an article today in the New York Times (of all places).
You’ve been rather quiet of late. You are the only blogger on AJ who regularly covers media issues such as truth in journalism and its relationship to culture. I hope we will hear your voice once in a while.
UPDATE: Sept. 19 — I hoped I wouldn’t have to write this update. The promised round-the-clock occupation at the British consulate in New York has ended. After arranging for other Occupiers to replace him, Yoni Miller decamped to Florida for demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. At the consulate only one or two hardy Occupiers ever showed up at a time, and finally even they gave up. But the NYC Police Department didn’t. It still has a pair of patrolman stationed at the site, keeping watch over an empty sidewalk.
