John Whitehead's Commentary
The Antiwar Protests of the Young: A Ripple of Hope for Freedom
"A little child will lead them."--Isaiah 11:6
They have been labeled apathetic and indifferent. They were destined to be the generation steeped in their own violent acts, but that may soon be a label of the past. In response to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, thousands of young people across the country are staging antiwar protests. In the process, these young dissenters, like our forefathers before them, are making themselves known as a generation of activists who are willing to put their beliefs on the line.
Chanting "Drop Bush, not bombs!" throngs of students recently descended on Washington, DC. Hours after the bombing began in Iraq, thousands of teenagers skipped class to take part in a "die-in" near the White House. Lying prone in the street, their bodies covered in fake blood, they sought to call attention to the war's human toll. Although they support our troops in the Middle East, they're concerned about the inhumanity inevitable in any war. As one young protester who was arrested and jailed for three hours remarked, "It's not just 'collateral damage.' It's people and children and students like us who will be dying in this war, brutally and bloodily."
In Lombard, Ill., roughly 150 students walked out of class at Glenbard East High School to protest the war with Iraq. Even here in my hometown of Charlottesville, Va., students are staging walk-outs and protests.
With slight variations in number and method, these same scenarios are playing out again and again in cities across the country. Although many of these young protesters barely remember the Gulf War of 12 years ago, they remember the devastation of 9/11. And in a few cases, these youthful protesters--some of them children of the children of the '60s--are even chiding their parents for not opposing the war on Iraq.
Said one protester, "Every building we bomb in Baghdad will be another September 11. There will be innocent people dying in them." Unknowingly, she was merely reiterating the age-old wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi, who put it a different way: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
These young people have dared to reach across the lines that separate us in hopes of helping innocent civilians and, in essence, have freed themselves from the clamor that has dehumanized others. They have in a quite unique way reduced their moral universe to caring for other human beings.
Many in the adult world have a tendency to turn a deaf ear to our young people, especially when it appears they are rebellious. However, sometimes they may have a clearer view of the world than many of the so-called grown-ups. As the ancient wisdom found in Psalm 8:2 says, "Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength."
Indeed, many adults who are trapped in materialism and political straightjackets often have trouble sorting out the truth. Most of us have lost our idealism and are thus unable to discern the fundamental moral issues involved in a world enmeshed in distractions and fantasy. Young people, however, are often more adept at seeing behind the mask of political deceit that plagues every regime and every government, including our own.
Young people often have the uncanny ability to see through the hyperbole and the hypocrisy of what adults accept as reality, as was true during the Vietnam War. Although the leaders didn't listen to them then, maybe now it's time to open our eyes and ears.
With coalition troops steadily moving further into Iraq and bombs falling on Baghdad, the question of war has become somewhat moot for most Americans. Now we are forced to ask, "Where do we go from here?"
As the winds of change swirled about the '60s generation, that same question may have been posed to Robert F. Kennedy. Standing before a crowd of young people at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1966, he suggested that there comes a time to pass the torch on to the next generation:
Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth... It is a revolutionary world we live in, and... it is young people who must take the lead. Thus you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.
Speaking to young people who had seen racial apartheid tear their country apart, Kennedy exhorted them to activism and warned them to beware of futility, the belief that there is nothing one man or woman can do to change the world; expediency, the mindset that says hopes and beliefs must fall prey to immediate necessity; timidity, a lack of moral courage and an unwillingness to brave disapproval; and finally comfort, the temptation to follow the easy and familiar path of personal ambition and financial success.
It is a warning that young people today would do well to heed. There will be many who will try to silence them, subvert their messages or seduce them with promises of financial rewards. I, for one, hope they hold on to their idealism and the belief that they can make a difference in our violent and torn world.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
They have been labeled apathetic and indifferent. They were destined to be the generation steeped in their own violent acts, but that may soon be a label of the past. In response to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, thousands of young people across the country are staging antiwar protests. In the process, these young dissenters, like our forefathers before them, are making themselves known as a generation of activists who are willing to put their beliefs on the line.
Chanting "Drop Bush, not bombs!" throngs of students recently descended on Washington, DC. Hours after the bombing began in Iraq, thousands of teenagers skipped class to take part in a "die-in" near the White House. Lying prone in the street, their bodies covered in fake blood, they sought to call attention to the war's human toll. Although they support our troops in the Middle East, they're concerned about the inhumanity inevitable in any war. As one young protester who was arrested and jailed for three hours remarked, "It's not just 'collateral damage.' It's people and children and students like us who will be dying in this war, brutally and bloodily."
In Lombard, Ill., roughly 150 students walked out of class at Glenbard East High School to protest the war with Iraq. Even here in my hometown of Charlottesville, Va., students are staging walk-outs and protests.
With slight variations in number and method, these same scenarios are playing out again and again in cities across the country. Although many of these young protesters barely remember the Gulf War of 12 years ago, they remember the devastation of 9/11. And in a few cases, these youthful protesters--some of them children of the children of the '60s--are even chiding their parents for not opposing the war on Iraq.
Said one protester, "Every building we bomb in Baghdad will be another September 11. There will be innocent people dying in them." Unknowingly, she was merely reiterating the age-old wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi, who put it a different way: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
These young people have dared to reach across the lines that separate us in hopes of helping innocent civilians and, in essence, have freed themselves from the clamor that has dehumanized others. They have in a quite unique way reduced their moral universe to caring for other human beings.
Many in the adult world have a tendency to turn a deaf ear to our young people, especially when it appears they are rebellious. However, sometimes they may have a clearer view of the world than many of the so-called grown-ups. As the ancient wisdom found in Psalm 8:2 says, "Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength."
Indeed, many adults who are trapped in materialism and political straightjackets often have trouble sorting out the truth. Most of us have lost our idealism and are thus unable to discern the fundamental moral issues involved in a world enmeshed in distractions and fantasy. Young people, however, are often more adept at seeing behind the mask of political deceit that plagues every regime and every government, including our own.
Young people often have the uncanny ability to see through the hyperbole and the hypocrisy of what adults accept as reality, as was true during the Vietnam War. Although the leaders didn't listen to them then, maybe now it's time to open our eyes and ears.
With coalition troops steadily moving further into Iraq and bombs falling on Baghdad, the question of war has become somewhat moot for most Americans. Now we are forced to ask, "Where do we go from here?"
As the winds of change swirled about the '60s generation, that same question may have been posed to Robert F. Kennedy. Standing before a crowd of young people at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1966, he suggested that there comes a time to pass the torch on to the next generation:
Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth... It is a revolutionary world we live in, and... it is young people who must take the lead. Thus you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.
Speaking to young people who had seen racial apartheid tear their country apart, Kennedy exhorted them to activism and warned them to beware of futility, the belief that there is nothing one man or woman can do to change the world; expediency, the mindset that says hopes and beliefs must fall prey to immediate necessity; timidity, a lack of moral courage and an unwillingness to brave disapproval; and finally comfort, the temptation to follow the easy and familiar path of personal ambition and financial success.
It is a warning that young people today would do well to heed. There will be many who will try to silence them, subvert their messages or seduce them with promises of financial rewards. I, for one, hope they hold on to their idealism and the belief that they can make a difference in our violent and torn world.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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