It may be a good thing that America seldom sees national protests. The Boston Tea Party will probably never be replicated. A national boycott of colleges and high schools in response to the Vietnam War has already been forgotten. As odd as this may sound, I want America to resume its protests and demonstrations. I am not talking about the Writer’s Guild Strike, or a pickets lines confined to particular regions. The country needs a widespread problem, one worth fighting, complaining, and battling for.
As I perused through Vietnam War articles in Wikipedia, a thought arose. Why has this never happened since? The closest was a school walkout objecting to a California proposition of identifying illegal immigrants. My school has never been subject to a wave of rallies.
The school population does not care. We, the students, including I, no longer believe in the world. World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War all produced ripples of anger and isolationistic peace in American society. The Iraq War barely nudged us. Maybe the military personnel America sends to Iraq pales to the numbers sent to Europe and potential Communist states. Regardless, lives are still wasting away, whether for a necessary cause for some, or an unworthy one.
The possibility that a war would be drawn onto American shores has always frightened the masses. Kennedy preached that Communism would eventually overtake Hawaii if the Domino Theory came true. The bombing of Pearl Harbor assured that a war on American ground is quite possible. Only now, with the production of nuclear weapons (which have been proven not to exist by the U.N.) in Middle Eastern countries, does a direct confrontation between countries seem improbable.
Regardless, I am just amazed at the series of protests that spread through 20th century history. The World Wars were met with opposition. Those that remembered the Great War or the Second World War preferred to keep the country out of foreign affairs during the Korean War. Teenagers and young adults held mass performances that included riots, meetings, and protests, that denounced the Vietnam War. Even the Gulf War was hit by “No blood for oil!” shouts and screams. Now, the playing field for Iraq is silent, but not in a tranquil sense. It shouts without noise: it screams for action, but has no voice.
Video games, like Halo and Metal Gear Solid, depict wars as vestibules for excitement, and eventually, acceptance. Movies, sadly, portray wars as morbid stories that lose all impact after two hours. A picture, however, does not. Look at Vietnam My Lai massacre. The Bataan Death March. See the insurgents in Iraq, beaten and captured by U.S. soldiers, and see our own men, look at Daniel Pearl, who died due to the United States’ constant meddling in other countries’ affairs. Look at POW’s. Look at veterans. Look at them, and now tell me whether we should subject others to torture, insanity, and mutilation. Now look at Iraq. In a guerilla war that is becoming increasingly deadly, introducing new troops will not mitigate the deaths that are occurring each day, but lead more onto trails of death and despair. Say something, say something, SAY SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY.
Or we can have this. A holiday slaughter. My prelude to a four day President’s Birthday weekend: the North Illinois College shooting. Five dead. A dozen more injured. Directly reminiscent of the Virginia Tech attack last year, this even seems too ominous. America needs something to get together under. We need a common goal to fight for, a goal that demands unification to receive action. We have to care about the people going into Iraq, and we have to say something about it. Otherwise, when left to our own personal affairs, the children will resort to violence.
Teenagers, kids, students, adults, seniors, and people need to believe in something, for when belief is gone, anything that fills up the gaping abyss will be accepted. And, likely, that buffer will be violence.
I do not think this will be the end of the school shooting chain.
However, maybe, by speaking up, it just may be broken.
