New Voices For A New War
The war in Iraq is four years old, and I finally live in a city as outraged as I am.
I sent out a mass e-mail asking friends to join me at the anti-war demonstration in downtown Seattle. When no one responded, I walked the halls of Antioch University here — the “liberal’s liberal arts school” — asking if anyone wanted to go. No one did.
I walked alone to the Federal Courthouse, and joined a small, motley group of protesters in rain gear. It was wet; it was cold. I started to worry that no one would show up. What if you held a rally and no one came?
One benefit of being alone, I’ve found in my travels, is that strangers are much more likely to approach you and begin a conversation. I ended up talking with Michael, a 50ish Vietnam vet in a bright yellow rain slicker. He commented on the “Declare Peace” sign I wore on my back, and said he was glad to see me there. When I asked why, he said, “Look around you — it’s all old people. Where is your generation?”
I didn’t have a good answer.
The faces around us had protested Vietnam when they were my age. The signs were the same — only the names had changed. The song we started singing, “Give Peace a Chance,” was written more than 30 years ago. They stopped a war with those signs and those songs once before, but without new voices, the evolution of the movement has halted. We’re recycling used rhetoric for a new war.
We talked about Vietnam, where Michael had been a radio operator. To him, this war is personal. Fifty thousand American troops died in Vietnam. That says nothing of the Asians who lost their lives and homes; that says nothing of the American soldiers who came home incapacitated by their injuries and traumas. He asked me to think about all the U.S. troops from current and past wars who will be unable to work the rest of their lives. I still am.
People began to show up, including two gorgeous senior ladies using walkers, and as the march headed south to the Federal Building, we continued to grow. The media were here in force, with news helicopters overhead, camera operators in the street, and photographers everywhere. Where there are crowds, there is news.
Without this protest, how many people would have realized that this Iraq war is four years old and growing? I certainly didn’t, until the fact was called to my attention. How can we begin dialogue without awareness? And how can we raise awareness? Disrupting downtown traffic for three hours accomplishes both.
Still, a protest in which the most outlandish, photographic protesters are the “Ragin’ Grannies” worries me. When I am an outraged granny, will there be anyone to stand with me?
If we don’t speak up, no one will hear us. With my dripping “Strike Against War” banner in my freezing fingers, it felt good to raise my voice. In retrospect, I wonder at all the voices that weren’t heard. Where is my generation?
Katherine Pryor is the author of the novel “50 Ways.” She is a graduate student in the Center for Creative Change at Antioch University Seattle.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
I am the 54 year old mother of a 20 year old college student and he is against the war, and his last protest was with me; on Feb. 15, 2003, before it started. Actually that was my last protest too. If you live in SC, one excuse goes, you mostly have to get on a bus to DC to participate in much of anything. But the dreary truth is that chanting on Feb. 15 didn’t stop anything. These ongoing conversations, this discussion, and many many others, are actually ending things faster than Vietnam was ended. The war protests did not end the Vietnam war; believing it did has made a lot of people condemn Americans in general, or the younger generation today in particular. Chicago ‘68 was about 7 years before the helicopters took off in ‘75. Antiwar protests have their place; I’m glad they occur; larger might even be better. But what really is getting the attention of our lawmakers this time is the steady ongoing persistent conversation (or argument). The internet is not “draining” protest–it is continuing it in another form. I can’t foresee the outcome yet, with Iran looking like the next glorious enterprise that both parties sign on to; but I am hopeful that they will hear the people saying don’t do that; I am hopeful because they are hearing people say get out of Iraq. And if we keep demanding it, we may even get impeachment back on the table. But we don’t need to say it in the streets. We just need to say it. Over and over, everywhere.
Also, look at the coverage of street protests.
When thousands of people march against unfair trade policies and the undemocratic nature of the World Trade Organization, the mainstream media tells people that we are “anti-globlization” or against trade. That is ridiculous. I’m not against global trade, I’m protesting against unfair trade agreements made in secret.
Also, we could put 300,000 peaceful people in the streets, but the monopoly media will focus on the few hundred anarchists or people paid by republican pr firms who cause violence or trouble up front.
Before the Iraq War, there were 15 million people in the streets all over the world. Did this do anything? It made me feel good that there were other people who felt as I did, but I had to look really hard to find coverage of the protests.
I’m putting my efforts into education and media reform. I want to encourage discussion and debate on the internet. I’m connecting with people from all over the world.
I want to see a day when politicians can promote a program and citizens will actually know what they are talking about instead of making decisions based on short, well tested talking points that hide the true issues.
I’m so happy that people are spending less time watching monopoly controlled television. Do we really want to make our democratic decisions based on media channels who don’t question the President in a time of war because it might lower their ratings?
Turn off your monopoly controlled television sets. You can turn them on again when digital internet television comes along. The change that is about to happen will be like going from a dictatorship of information to a true democratic marketplace of ideas.
Katherine- Good work, it takes a lot of guts to do a one-person demo. It is a different kind of engagement with the community than a big demo, and I think it can be very effective in getting people to open up and dialog instead of shouting slogans. Everything we do individually and collectively creates the environment for change.
I have done one-person animal rights demonstrations and was initially afraid that I was engaging in an exercise in grandstanding that would only serve to further marginalize the cause. But I did it anyway because I believe that we have to speak out against things that are wrong. Those turned out to be great opportunities to engage with people one on one. I think those kinds of contacts do more to advance unpopular causes or causes that people are afraid to speak up for than anything else. “If not me, who? If not now, when”
Check out the generational theories of Neil Howe and William Strauss - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss_and_Howe
In particular, it’s important that young people - Generation X and Millenials - be aware that we are NOT the same as our Boomer parents and elder siblings. Within the Strauss/Howe analysis, we have a very different role to play - Gen Xers, as “Nomads, are ratty, tough, unwanted, diverse, adventurous, and cynical about institutions. They grow up as the underprotected children of an Awakening, come of age as the alienated young adults of an Unraveling, become the pragmatic, midlife leaders of a Crisis and age into tough, post-crisis elders during a High…”
As a Gen Xer, active in social justice, I expect to spend my time working very hard but in the shadows of public life, preparing the ground for the Millenial “Heroes: conventional, powerful, and institutionally driven, with a profound trust in authority. They grow up as the increasingly protected children of an Unraveling, come of age as the Heroic, team-working youth of a Crisis, become energetic and hubristic mid-lifers during a High and become the powerful elders who are attacked in the next Awakening. The G.I. Generation that fought World War II is an example of a Hero generation.”
I don’t know how well the Boomers are doing at their “wise elder” stage, but Kucinich might be an example of that. Anyway, don’t knock us young people too hard. We can’t relive the past; similar as the current times may be to the Vietnam era, there are many, many significant differences.
“…violence always comes with a rational explanation and that explanation, usually expressed in lofty terms, is only dismissed as irrational if the violence fails.”–Mark Kurlansky
tideshift,
It is great to know that you are aware of Dennis Kucinich.
I wish you, your generation, and anyone else who wants a better country and even a start for a better world will embrace him. Please visit www.kucinich.us and learn much more and help some of us “Peace Boomers” get him some recognition and, dare I say it, elect him as the next REAL leader of this country.
also lets not forget,
one) as was pointed in a earlier comment, the war in vietnam was not stopped in october 1967 with the first major march on the pentagon, nor was it stopped in may 1970 when four were shot dead by national gaurd at an antiwar demonstration at kent state university in ohio - nor did the mass public opinion shift with the publicationof the pentagon papers in 1971 stop the war - what stopped the war was the overwhelming effect of all of these efforts and it was the first time in the history of the US, probably in the history of the world that a government’s malicious conduct was reigned in by its population - incredible
two)there was a large and boisterous social justice movement under way, and it was getting heard, and making significant impact - i am speaking of the anti-globalization movement - the wto was practically meeting in locations as wierd and undisclosed as cheney’s when 9/11 came along and the movement was nearly crushed by an oppresive and fascist corporate goon squad headed by a man known affectionately to readers of clear channel billboards in the south as “our leader” (some call him the idiot king)
my point is this: the movement to take the weapons out of these bastards hands, de-fuse the explosive battle for the alst remnants of the world’s oil before that battle kills all, will be extremely hard and extremely dangerous - nobody in power wants to step down now - they’d be killed - “he who rides the tiger fears dismounting” is the old saying.
montemerrick, there is plenty of oil. Reserves in the mid east go untapped. This keeps the price up. Venezula has five times the oil in the mideast, and there is more oil in the US in sand and shale than even they have. What we are running out of is clean air in which to dump our garbage.
plenty of oil is a kind of subjective statement - maybe you mean that our civilization is okay supply wise? that the current level of violence in the world is what we get when there’s plenty and that when there isnt plenty, in some mythical time, where finite amounts are actually finite, boy will it be really bad then. in other words, what is your meaning?
Okay, you guys, you’re getting off topic again. No wonder Gen x folks get frustrated with us Boomers!
Welcome Tideshift! We need your participation and perspective! Thanks for joining the conversation.
This is my take on why demonstrations don’t have the impact that they did back in the ’60s and 70s…. The commons has disappeared. The commons where we used to meet and demonstrate now belong to the powers in government and major corporations. How else do you explain the caging of demonstrators away from where the action is actually happening? Where is the commons when you can’t even attend an event like a presentation by Shrub on social security that is publically funded? Even if you have a valid ticket, the bumper sticker on your car makes you unqualified to attend and you will be physically removed. The fact is that we can no longer gather or demonstrate publically. It isn’t safe and it certainly isn’t effective.
So, in my mind, tideshift and I are in the new commons right now. Right here. The web is the new commons. And this new commons is going to unite all of the generations across all of the states. Here, by our numbers and shared knowledge and perspective, we will regain our true rights in a government that will eventuallby once again be for, by, and of the people.
That being said, we all have to make sure that the mega media do not take this commons away from us too. Net Neutrality is worth fighting for.
Again, welcome Tideshift. Please hang in there with us old foggies. Together we might even make a better world for you and the other younger generations.
The Vietnam War era and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have similarities in the nature of the wars, and of the situation at home.
The differences are also striking, including the reactions of the general public, and in particular, college students.
For more on this, the article below provides food for thought:
‘Nam War, ‘Raq War: Similarities, Differences
PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
March 19, 2007
http://www.populistamerica.com/nam_war_raq_war
first off to rebel farmer - if it was my exchange with nietzche that was “going off topic” then it was me you referred to as a “boomer” and i must beg off - no siree i am a gen x’er as it is put.
secondly, the major difference between these wars and generations is the nature of media. think of how the mass media in the fifties sixties and seventies presented such a monolithic face - we had three networks and a handful of newspapers - and then came the eighties and reagan and a new way of waging war in the media (the little action in grenada left a big footprint) and a broad misconception that the media will be the way that we, in dissent, communicate. i think that if we go looking for ourselves to be represented in the mass media of today, more monolithic than ever but with a disintegrated face, (as an example, one huge book distributor, and inside the bookstore african-american novelists are in the african-american section instead of fiction.) then we are on a fool’s errand. we cannot win this battle in the media - we never could - this battle is won, has been won, and will be won, on the pavement, in the flesh.
“I walked the halls of Antioch University here — the “liberal’s liberal arts school” — asking if anyone wanted to go. No one did.”
At one time in history, Antioch University students were the leaders in protest marches. My, how things have changed! Where did we go wrong with our little ones who have no testicles, ovaries or a sense of right and wrong?
Rebel Farmer March 29th, 2007 6:52 pm
“And this new commons is going to unite all of the generations across all of the states. Here, by our numbers and shared knowledge and perspective, we will regain our true rights in a government that will eventuallby once again be for, by, and of the people.”
I don’t think so, Rebel. It takes passion and shared sacrifice to achieve unity. Today, the majority of our youth don’t know what it is to sacrifice anything and they certainly aren’t willing to step out of their spoiled boxes to experience a new reality. The only passion most of them experience and know is “easy street”. Life is beautiful! Without a credit card in their wallet, these kids wouldn’t know how to survive.
The internet is great for communicating ideas on an intellectual level, but it will take the “physical presence” of sentient, passionate beings to engage the easy-streeters out their complacency.
As my old Italian grandfather use to say, as crude as it is: “Until you learn to wipe your own ass, you’ll never understand life.”
In short, we’ve made it too easy for them. They lack compassion for the suffering of others.
indictments?
In searching for an explanation as to why the young aren’t protesting now as they were in the Vietnam area, I am surprised no one here mentioned the obvious factor of military draft. There is nothing so galvanizing as having your own life on the line.
The difference is that the 60’s had the draft. Today, the soldier has been corporatized, with those actually enlisting having been seduced by promises of education, adventure and other carrots dangled in front of them, not realizing they could possibly become trigger-men for the Oligarchs.
Remember the Kent State incident?
Best wishes and hope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
2BFree, I believe that having your life on the line Is the greatest high of all–you feel more alive, all other problems, considerations, cares, disappear. Your whole being, pumped with adrenaline, cares about one thing–survival. It’s addictive, and lonely. Even those who shared the life threatening experience cannot share your feeling even if they also feel the high. When it is over you have no interest in talking, only drinking.
A community is galvanized by a scapegoat. If you hang around with a crowd cheering on an imminent execution you see solidarity. People who don’t know each other will behave as if they were close friends. People are ugly, small, mean, dangerous. I avoid others and try to be better than I am–or ever will be.
The author of this piece, Katherine Pryor was on Michael Medved’s radio show today. I can say unequivocally that this girl (she is not a woman) is one of the most shallow, empty headed dolts I’ve ever heard on national radio.
She should write a book about what she doesn’t know, because it would rival the Encyclopedia Britannica - but come to think of it she has written an article about what she doesn’t know and that is the Vietnam war, the protests regarding that war, and it’s relationship to the current war. She never said one word about the real reason that most people objected to that war and that was that Lyndon Johnson and the Democrat leadership of the country wasn’t fighting to win, but was simply sending draftees over there with targets on their back as cannon fodder.
I’m so sick of these stupid (and yes she is stupid) leftists who make up crap and put it out there as the truth. I think the only way America will ever get back to sanity again is to be totally taken over by the left and they take us to the brink of destruction. Then maybe people will quit listening to idiots like this.
GCloyd, how can you be so wrong? This genius informed ME that she heard on NPR that we will expend 20 Percent of our national budget this year on Iraq and Afghanistan.
WOW! One-fifth of our national budget. WOW WOW WOW! And that’s before this coming emergency allocation now pending.
I mean, what more can be said?
I’m flabberdiscombobulgascoulated.