Hal - Deliberately Basic

A Generation of Protesters

Where have all the hippies gone? We, as a country, are embroiled in an unpopular war that is unwinable. More than 3000 of our countrymen have been killed in this small country in the Middle East. Are we more afraid of our own government than the enemy - whoever the enemy is? And the big question, why are we not seeing the college generation all over the US protesting this war like the sixties generation did?Yes, there have been protests, but nothing on the scale of young people in the past. Most people these days associate anti-war protesting with the Vietnam era. In fact, there was a very powerful movement against the war in Europe in the 1930s. Of course opposition to war in the US started with the American Revolution. The colonies were markedly divided, those who remained loyal to the king, and the rebels.In the current war young men and women are not faced with the draft, and except for everyday exposure to the horrors of Baghdad through the news media, the effect on young people, in general, is minimal. In no way does this mean that the troops and families involved are experiencing any less pain than in any other war ever fought. Of course they are, and for them I feel the utmost sympathy.

I am one, to be blunt, who feels we should get the hell out of Iraq and let them fight the inevitable civil war - in fact, this has already begun. I was against this war from the beginning, but a protester four years ago was a societal pariah.

I know there are those are “experts” those PHDs who study sociology, and may have very structured explanations for the phenomena of protest. I don’t care. It does not take a PHD to understand the wrongness of this war.

The kids of the sixties displayed a high energy, a rebelliousness akin to the American Revolutionaries. I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that the government should reflect the will of the people. When the government reflects the will of one man, we have a name for that - a dictatorship.

Where are the protesters now? I don’t really have an answer for that, but I suspect they are having a few frat parties, thinking about their careers, their future lives, and how much money they can make. Meanwhile, who is thinking of the kids in the Middle East, and their shaky, unstable future? Their families and loved ones at home, and maybe a few old war veterans from Vietnam.

Sorry folks, but what I am seeing is a movement toward selfishness. And that is more scary than even the war. If you really want to “support the troops” bring them home.

Hal Brown

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