As I sit back and wonder, sometimes out loud about why the protest that have been staged since the beginning of the Iraq Invasion, Occupation don’t carry the same weight of the protest of the Vietnam era? read On.>>>
We know it’s not for lack of effort. There have been protests that have rivaled the size of any protest during the Vietnam conflict. The lack of the Media Coverage is not helping, but that is not the main problem.
Could it be that the protest songs aren’t as meaningful as those of that era were? Although there aren’t as many they do let you know how they feel for the most part. The one big difference between then and now with the protest and the songs is these people do not have to worry about going to fight if they do not want to. At least for now.
Really, if these kids knew they were going to be drafted you would see more in the street, and the songs would be allover the air waves, and have more passion behind them. Do not get me wrong, these kids have conviction in what they are doing. Nevertheless, it is not the raw conviction that was seen in the days of Vietnam. That generation new that there was a great chance, they were going into L.B.J.’s meat grinder. And that was the motivation to speak loud and do something to make yourself heard.
Another great point that was brought up last night in a discussion in Yahoo PL6 was we need to make these marches as they are called today,(Why in the hell they are called that I don’t know, or do I.) need to take longer. The "event" is scheduled for the weekend, on a Saturday or Sunday, three or four hours and they are over. What is needed, is for the PROTEST to go on indefinitely.
Don’t schedule protest in the dictionary meaning of the word. Get a movement started, and run with it. Do not let the "Man" know what you are going to do. For Christ sake, they did not have computers in the day of Vietnam and they got hundreds of thousands. With today’s technology, you would think we could get millions.
I am not totally clueless to why people don’t get out there and protest. For one, we have lost our fight to do what is right. We do not have the balls anymore. The only Civil Disobedience I have seen during a protest was from Cindy Sheehan. I am saying Civil Disobedience not violence, there is a difference. Jamming up a street so that traffic cannot move, or not allowing people to enter the jobs because you and 100 of your closest friends are blocking the door. If you took 10 people to your congresspersons office and sat in front of his door, you would get your message to them, and might make the news. And God think of it, if we did that to every Senator, and Congressperson, well I will tell you that is a message that will be herd.
So to recap. We need to practice more Civil Disobedience. We need more Sit-Ins. Moreover, we need protest that go on for days, not on a convenient day for a couple of hours. Then we will see if they take notice. This is our government and not theirs. And we want it back now! Alternatively, you can set back and take what they give you and fade away as your children become cannon fodder.
ABA