Apathy and misplaced priorities: the twin diseases of this generation. I spent this past Saturday afternoon speaking through a bullhorn in opposition to war – or at least opposition to escalating the existing state of war – with Iran, during a local rally as part of the International Day of Action on the subject. Street protests, to me, are always equal parts inspirational and disappointing. Even here in the “People’s Republic of Lawrence,” Kansas, a progressive island in a sea of reactionary, militarist red, only about forty folks showed up. Most were older hippie-types, though a sprinkling of twenty-something socialists and intersectional justice activists were visible in the crowd. The one notably absent demographic – in the largest university town in the state – was students! It was, frankly, and embarrassment to the storied University of Kansas (KU) as an institution.
What a far cry, a shameful fall from grace, for a college and city that was a veritable war zone in the aftermath of President Nixon’s Cambodia invasion and the killing of four students at Kent State University. Hundreds, then thousands, protested.