A gathering of support for students was held on Friday in Aleksandrovac. The meeting was attended by both young and old. People were crying, greeting each other and shouting: "Well done, children." It was ordered that the students do not give up the blockades until all demands are met
I enter a local cafe in Aleksandrovac (Parish) with a friend the evening before the announced "Parish Together for Students" gathering. We say goodbye to acquaintances and friends, and the topic discussed during these festive days is one - students. "Children, tomorrow is a big day for us, you are our hope," said a fellow citizen at the next table.
On Friday (December 3), a gathering of support for students was held in Zupa. This protest organized by students, high school students and educators. Political parties with their symbols were not invited, but everyone was invited as a citizen.
It started at 11 a.m. in the center of Aleksandrovac, near the wine fountain - one of the symbols of the city. Protests in the parish are a real rarity. The only gathering, in the recent past, that young people remember was due to the construction of a quarry on Radjevica.
At the protest on Friday, there were children, parents, high school students, students, professors, those who traveled abroad by force of circumstances and came to their city for the holidays. There were also pensioners. Employees of the Post of Serbia waved at the students, they were also greeted by other people from their shops who could not come because of work.
"We have to support the children," said one pensioner. Passers-by repeatedly heard the message: "Alal wam vera, children!".
The gathering was addressed by students Pavle Gašić and Vuk Džamić, teacher at "Sveti Trifun" Secondary School Nina Pejić and high school student Dušan Savović. During the address, people cried and there were many emotions.
The banners read: "It's nice to stay in your bazaar"; "The future is not for sale"; "The parish is with the young".
Children with their parents carried banners with the inscription: "When I grow up I will be a student."
A professorial bow for children
Student Pavle Gašić read the students' demands and said that the blockades will not end until all demands are fulfilled. He later told "Vreme" that, among other things, they wanted to inform citizens who do not have access to all information through traditional media.
He says that citizens in Aleksandrovac are partly scared, because it is a small community and "everyone knows everyone". "Our idea was to give the other side of the story." We are not forcing anyone to support us, we just want the information to reach all people."
Professor Nina Pejić started her speech with a bow to the parish youth, and then she recited the verses of Desanka Maksimović:
And now the big moment has come
about which mankind has long dreamed of:
when a student needs a teacher to guide.
Let me sit over there in the corner
and now you talk to me about freedom...
Halfway through her speech, the professor received applause and a shout of "Bravo, Nina!".
"Believe me, I'm nervous in front of you," Professor Pejić continued. "You showed something that none of us could do or knew before. When I thought about what I was going to tell you, the first word that came to my mind was dawn. The most beautiful Serbian word."
"You are the children of the dawn of Serbia! You are the dawn of the world! You are the crack of dawn that comes after midnight, that wakes up a new day, that gives the future, and that's why I'm with you and that's why I trust you!", said the professor.
She added that her biggest impression was the silence at Slavia on December 22, and then she said: "That flame you lit there, and it's easy to do it in Belgrade in a city of millions, you did it in Aleksandrovac as well."
"Each of my lectures ended with the sentence: 'Dear children, think for yourself,'" Professor Pejić concluded.
"The parish always gave birth to the sun"
High school student Dušan Savović spoke on behalf of the high school students and said: "Finally, we from Aleksandrovac stopped being rebels in our apartments and houses and came out to say what we have."
Savović said: "Each of us has a child in our family or neighborhood, do you want to see them here in 20 years or do you want everyone who is young, promising, smart to leave here?" When we were little, we didn't even notice it. Now, when we miss our friends, who have already left here, it started to affect us personally. So what are we left with? We are left with people who, after 15 victims, do not feel the slightest bit of conscience to admit their guilt. When that's the case, we have to be their conscience."
At the end of the speech he said: "Being silent outside is more useful than talking inside."
Student Vuk Džamić ended his address with the verses of Miroslav Buca Mirković: "The parish always gave birth to the sun, brought a new day."
Intersection blockade and 15 minutes of silence
After the address, the citizens headed towards the blockade of the intersection where they paid tribute to the victims of the tragedy in Novi Sad. The intersection of 29 Novembar Street and Vinogradarske Street, which is the main intersection in the city, was blocked.
Dušan Đukić, a fellow citizen, tells "Vreme" that it is essential that young people have woken up. "We are a small community, economically quite underdeveloped, and I think this is a message to all of us that we have life in our hands."
Some people got out of their cars and were silent together with the students, while some did not know what it was about, but they said it was "nice".
At this peaceful meeting, the students of the Župa gathered who, as those who came from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Niš, defended the values they were raised for. The youth defended justice, showed solidarity, empathy and dignity.
When the holidays are over, seven or eight busloads of youth will head back, mostly to Belgrade.
They will greet their grandparents, moms and dads until the next holiday or fruit harvest. As is usually the case, the city will surely fall silent; coffee shops will be empty, the lights in the "children's rooms" will be turned off in the homes. However, this time, something different remains - and that is the spirit and hope that the students have developed over the parish sky.
"And, with time, the fact that you left stops hurting you as much as it did in the beginning, but it doesn't stop hurting you...Four years ago, here, hope was awakened in me again." ("When the pumpkins were blooming" , Dragoslav Mihailović)
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