thedrifter
03-25-07, 06:28 AM
Protest marches going way of Internet
Students have left picket line for online
By Azam Ahmed
a Tribune staff reporter
March 25, 2007
Former Marine Liam Madden stood at a lectern in Columbia College Chicago last month trying to fire up a paltry crowd to protest the Iraq war.
After more than five hours of debate, fewer than 20 students decided to go forward with a class boycott last month.
The hard-fought decision was in some respects a victory for the Iraq war veteran. The lackluster response from students was not.
"It's been frustrating," said Madden, 22. "Right now, I think it's just a matter of waiting for the scales to tip."
On the war's fourth anniversary, Madden is on a mission to address what he views as the disconcerting silence from college campuses across the U.S. Long considered bastions of political and social activism, campuses seem rather tame these days, Madden and other observers say. Protests last week did little to refute that view.
In contrast, four years into the Vietnam War, college campuses were brimming with anti-war sentiment and protests.
To be fair, there are powerful differences. The military draft is no longer in effect. During Vietnam, the specter of war loomed large for college students, and images of them burning their draft cards were immortalized in the media. In addition, the disparity in lives lost is huge: More than 58,200 died in Vietnam, while about 3,200 have died in Iraq to date.
But the muted reaction among students also is a product of the nature of the war on terror and the presence of a critical factor that did not exist during the Vietnam War: the Internet.
"E-activism and blogging online are so much more popular these days as venues for youth expressing their opinions and expressing discontent," said Phaedra Pezzullo, an assistant professor of rhetoric and public culture at Indiana University in Bloomington. "Many will sign a petition online and say they were active."
Jonathan Kinkley, an art history graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he feels a lack of immediacy toward the war in spite of having a cousin who served in Iraq.
"I'll write on a blog or comment on stories online because it's more likely my voice will be heard," Kinkley said. "I feel like my opinion will be taken more into consideration on that level and through that platform, not by trying to shout down your average Joe in the streets."
Kinkley and others like him find it easier to join a cause online than in person. Student protests are simply the latest casualty of the Internet, where people prefer to meet through the buffer of technology rather than face to face.
"Protest is both a political activity and a social activity, which was true also during the civil rights movement," said Thomas Patterson, a communications professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "Social solidarity fueled a lot of that activism, and maybe the Internet diminishes some of that."
But the Internet also has helped galvanize support and bolster participation in the anti-war movement because of its capability to reach large numbers of people with ease, Patterson said.
Madden, the Iraq veteran, has witnessed the Internet's pros and cons in his nationwide campaign to stir up campus protest.
"It's definitely a problem if people think just because they've checked out a lot of Web sites or blogs that they've fulfilled their obligation for being active," said Madden, who plans to attend college in September. "That's just wrong. I don't think we've used the Internet to its full potential to bring activists together."
Madden, who began protesting the war while still in the Marine Corps, conceded that many of the people he works with have had trouble spreading anti-war sentiment beyond their immediate friends.
Jose Martin, a local anti-war organizer, made the same observation while walking along Michigan Avenue on Tuesday with about 150 students from UIC, Columbia College and DePaul University.
He often sees the same "usual suspects" at anti-war events.
"Most people have such short attention spans," he said. "They attend one rally or one event and then that's it. But I think participation is swinging back to the level it was at when the war started."
Harvard's Patterson said protests against the Vietnam War were fueled by a wave of activism that included the civil rights movement.
"There was a generally supportive environment in the '60s for activism," he said. "That hasn't been a part of recent times."
And though protests have been held, particularly when the war began in 2003, some student organizers have seen attendance wane.
"Originally there were people showing up," said Will Klatt, a sophomore at Ohio University in Athens and an activist who co-founded the university chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. "Then, they were like, I went to this protest and realized that it didn't get anything done."
Thomas Walker, 23, a student at Columbia, understands that sentiment. The music major said his classmates feel a sense of hopelessness born of frustration with the way the Bush administration has brushed aside war criticism.
"A lot of kids are tormented about this," he said. "But a lot of people feel like, What is a protest gonna do?"
Some note that though it appears students aren't involved in any causes, they may actually be involved in too many causes.
Students are overwhelmed, forced to choose among such causes as ending sweatshop labor, stopping violence in Sudan's Darfur region and calling for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, Pezzullo said.
"I feel as if there are so many issues that there is a division about how much time and energy there is to devote to any one thing," she said.
----------
aahmed@tribune.com
Ellie
Students have left picket line for online
By Azam Ahmed
a Tribune staff reporter
March 25, 2007
Former Marine Liam Madden stood at a lectern in Columbia College Chicago last month trying to fire up a paltry crowd to protest the Iraq war.
After more than five hours of debate, fewer than 20 students decided to go forward with a class boycott last month.
The hard-fought decision was in some respects a victory for the Iraq war veteran. The lackluster response from students was not.
"It's been frustrating," said Madden, 22. "Right now, I think it's just a matter of waiting for the scales to tip."
On the war's fourth anniversary, Madden is on a mission to address what he views as the disconcerting silence from college campuses across the U.S. Long considered bastions of political and social activism, campuses seem rather tame these days, Madden and other observers say. Protests last week did little to refute that view.
In contrast, four years into the Vietnam War, college campuses were brimming with anti-war sentiment and protests.
To be fair, there are powerful differences. The military draft is no longer in effect. During Vietnam, the specter of war loomed large for college students, and images of them burning their draft cards were immortalized in the media. In addition, the disparity in lives lost is huge: More than 58,200 died in Vietnam, while about 3,200 have died in Iraq to date.
But the muted reaction among students also is a product of the nature of the war on terror and the presence of a critical factor that did not exist during the Vietnam War: the Internet.
"E-activism and blogging online are so much more popular these days as venues for youth expressing their opinions and expressing discontent," said Phaedra Pezzullo, an assistant professor of rhetoric and public culture at Indiana University in Bloomington. "Many will sign a petition online and say they were active."
Jonathan Kinkley, an art history graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he feels a lack of immediacy toward the war in spite of having a cousin who served in Iraq.
"I'll write on a blog or comment on stories online because it's more likely my voice will be heard," Kinkley said. "I feel like my opinion will be taken more into consideration on that level and through that platform, not by trying to shout down your average Joe in the streets."
Kinkley and others like him find it easier to join a cause online than in person. Student protests are simply the latest casualty of the Internet, where people prefer to meet through the buffer of technology rather than face to face.
"Protest is both a political activity and a social activity, which was true also during the civil rights movement," said Thomas Patterson, a communications professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "Social solidarity fueled a lot of that activism, and maybe the Internet diminishes some of that."
But the Internet also has helped galvanize support and bolster participation in the anti-war movement because of its capability to reach large numbers of people with ease, Patterson said.
Madden, the Iraq veteran, has witnessed the Internet's pros and cons in his nationwide campaign to stir up campus protest.
"It's definitely a problem if people think just because they've checked out a lot of Web sites or blogs that they've fulfilled their obligation for being active," said Madden, who plans to attend college in September. "That's just wrong. I don't think we've used the Internet to its full potential to bring activists together."
Madden, who began protesting the war while still in the Marine Corps, conceded that many of the people he works with have had trouble spreading anti-war sentiment beyond their immediate friends.
Jose Martin, a local anti-war organizer, made the same observation while walking along Michigan Avenue on Tuesday with about 150 students from UIC, Columbia College and DePaul University.
He often sees the same "usual suspects" at anti-war events.
"Most people have such short attention spans," he said. "They attend one rally or one event and then that's it. But I think participation is swinging back to the level it was at when the war started."
Harvard's Patterson said protests against the Vietnam War were fueled by a wave of activism that included the civil rights movement.
"There was a generally supportive environment in the '60s for activism," he said. "That hasn't been a part of recent times."
And though protests have been held, particularly when the war began in 2003, some student organizers have seen attendance wane.
"Originally there were people showing up," said Will Klatt, a sophomore at Ohio University in Athens and an activist who co-founded the university chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. "Then, they were like, I went to this protest and realized that it didn't get anything done."
Thomas Walker, 23, a student at Columbia, understands that sentiment. The music major said his classmates feel a sense of hopelessness born of frustration with the way the Bush administration has brushed aside war criticism.
"A lot of kids are tormented about this," he said. "But a lot of people feel like, What is a protest gonna do?"
Some note that though it appears students aren't involved in any causes, they may actually be involved in too many causes.
Students are overwhelmed, forced to choose among such causes as ending sweatshop labor, stopping violence in Sudan's Darfur region and calling for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, Pezzullo said.
"I feel as if there are so many issues that there is a division about how much time and energy there is to devote to any one thing," she said.
----------
aahmed@tribune.com
Ellie