Recruitment Center Bombing
Talk about a flash from the past - my brain is replaying Subterranean Blues as I'm reading another article on the hunt for the person who set off a bomb in front of the Times Square military recruitment center. I doubt that we're seeing the resurgence of Weathermen. But I am surprised that we haven't seen more in the way of war protests. True, it's a new time, full of a new generation that works through text messages and blogs, not sit-ins or marches.
The protests of the 60s were derided and mocked by the general public. But they did help push public opinion against the war, and in the end were a factor in getting us out of Vietnam. Do text-messages and blogs have the same power in the long run? Five years into this mess, protest hasn't done much. Is this the beginning of a new stage? Or just a fluke? More importantly to my mind is the question, will people ever take to the streets again in the numbers and anger of the anti-war Vietnam era? Or have we left that to the monks of Burma?
The protests of the 60s were derided and mocked by the general public. But they did help push public opinion against the war, and in the end were a factor in getting us out of Vietnam. Do text-messages and blogs have the same power in the long run? Five years into this mess, protest hasn't done much. Is this the beginning of a new stage? Or just a fluke? More importantly to my mind is the question, will people ever take to the streets again in the numbers and anger of the anti-war Vietnam era? Or have we left that to the monks of Burma?
posted by Anonymous at 4:52 PM
2 Comments:
Good question. And I fully agree that the protests of the 60s made a huge difference in policy maker's (and the publics) perception of the war. There was a sense that if the war went on, things could completely come apart on the home front. One current problem seems to be control over the press--many protests that do happen are under-reported.
I think the difference is spelled d-r-a-f-t. if it were suddenly announced that all l8-24-year-old men will henceforth be eligible for active duty in the armed forces, I think you'd see quite a difference in the national mood. Right now, you can turn it off, choose never to read about it and probably never encounter any iraq or afgan vets...if you can ignore it, you usually will.
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