Attitudes may shift

There was a time when one of my favorite T-shirts read: “Avenge

yourself. Live long enough to be a problem to your kids.” Now, some

three decades later, my T-shirt would read: “Be nice to your kids.

They may choose your nursing home.”

How times have changed. And in more ways than one.

The outlook of young adults today seems to have done a turn-about

as well. During the 1960s, as a university student at UC Berkeley, I

found myself holding a picket sign or participating in a sit-in

opposite the administration building or walking the streets in a mass

ACLU or Free Speech Movement demonstration.

In graduate school, my diatribes became a regular on the local

paper’s opinion page. So many college students were activists and

protesters. We were the voices of dissent, the voices of

dissatisfaction with the U.S. policies in Vietnam. Many university

campuses were the scene of violent upheaval.

At Kent State University in Ohio, for example, the National Guard

stormed the campus, guns ablaze, killing four people. At Penn State,

the country witnessed near-riot confrontations. Students threw

stones, rocks and bottles. Policemen sustained injuries, even to the

point of needing hospitalization. The campus sustained thousands of

dollars of damage. About 30 protesters were arrested. Over the next

few years, student activism became a nationwide trend. Some 400

university campuses closed for weeks at a time in protest to war.

The music scene was no different. Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and

Mary, Donovan, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez reflected this

social turmoil in their lyrics. Their music was more message than

entertainment. Remember “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” How about

Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” or “The Times, They Are A-Changin’”?

These songs made us think. They helped us to dream.

Back to the present.

The latest issue of a local university newspaper displays a

headline that saddens me: “Impact of war lost on students.” The

writer quotes a sociology professor in asserting that young people

care more about getting on with their life after graduation and about

doing something they like. This professor, a Vietnam veteran, says

that most college students today are disconnected from the war in

Iraq. Many of his students have very little factual information about

the events in the Middle East. Perhaps, he guesses, their apathy

stems from a sense of frustration or inability to change the

situation. I see a change coming.

A relative of mine served in the military in Afghanistan. He was

one of the “grunts” who help to protect the National Guard. The

National Guard is in charge of protecting the corrupt war lords. Not

a pretty picture. And my relative was frustrated, to say the least.

He was counting the days before a formal discharge.

Well, guess what? Several months before his discharge, this fellow

learned that if he did not formally reenlist, the Army might just

send him to Iraq. What was he going to do? Not reenlist and risk Iraq

now? Reenlist and risk Iraq later?

Thank God (I can hardly believe what I’m thinking here), my

relative tested positive for tuberculosis and is now riding out his

remaining months stateside.

My conclusion -- our armed forces are being stretched extremely

thin. The most logical solution will be a compulsory military draft.

And here’s where the attitude readjustment comes in. I know that

when the military draft is once again the order of the day, college

students will sit up and take huge notice. We’ll see a resurgence of

political awareness among our young people. We’ll witness sit-ins,

marches and maybe even a closed campus or two. The daily events in

Iraq will evolve into a reality here at home that will be very “up

close and personal.” Everyone is going to care. Not only young

Americans, but also their parents. And that might be more than just

some of you.

* FLO MARTIN is a Costa Mesa resident and faculty member at Cal

State Fullerton.