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Lack of Protests
by James Glaser
You ever wonder about the lack of anti-war protests here in the States? Well I did, and I started giving that some thought. When I returned from Vietnam in '69 the protest movement was in full swing. The anti-war marches they had in Minneapolis were attended by the young, the old, and even whole families. Today things are so different. Back then we had only four TV channels, and one wage earner families were the norm. A peace march didn't have to compete with the internet, MP-3 machines, x-box, working overtime, hockey and basketball season into May, both of which compete with baseball today. Today people don't even have time to think with all the things going on, and then there is work and the kids. Both parents working means that if you want to get anything done it will have to be on the weekend. "I would like to go on that march, but somebody has to do the laundry or get the oil changed in the car or cut the grass, and besides that, it not my kid over in Iraq." Nobody gets drafted anymore, they all volunteered for this war. No pictures of flag draped coffins on the television. . . that is against the law now. No body counts either. . . we don't do that any more. The families who lost a loved one in George Bush's war are grieving, and with only 130,000 troops in Iraq at any one time, few people have a real stake in the war. Today, America's population is higher, and people are worried about their credit card payment and their job. We had a half million troops in Vietnam, and thousands of young men running off to Canada to avoid the draft. Today's war is small in comparison, and people can't be bothered with it, unless it is their child or their parent who is killed. Go to a war protest and you will see some combat veterans who know the real horror of war, and some of those who marched back in the '60s. The rest of America has been sheltered from war and they have no idea of the cost this one is having on our country. Until more blood flows, Americans will stay at home or keep working. |
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