Fewer young activists take it to the streets

With no draft, sense of cynicism, chanting voices of the Vietnam generation largely absent

 by Daniel Newhauser
 published on Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Tie-dyed T-shirts and picket signs, guitar-clad minstrels singing "Kumbaya" and cries of "Hell no, we won't go!" will not likely be found on Hayden Lawn today.

According to a 2008 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq, but, on its fifth anniversary, ASU student-organized protests are absent, anti-war activists said.

An outspoken critic of the war, Phoenix talk-radio personality Charles Goyette, has attended several protests over the last five years.

"Students seem to be represented in the general population [at protests], but I haven't seen any protests that are strictly students," he said.

Lisa Blank, a member of the grassroots peace organization CodePink, said she has tried to attract ASU students' attention to no avail.

CodePink handed out more than 1,500 flyers for an anti-war protest when Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama spoke at ASU in October, she said, but fewer than 10 students showed up that evening.

"I ask all the time, 'Why aren't kids involved in anti-war activities?' " she said.

Older protesters think young people do not fear the personal consequences of a draft, as did Vietnam-era protesters, Blank said.

But Goyette said college-age Americans might not be protesting because they are accustomed to living in a state of perpetual war.

"People have become somewhat acclimated," he said.

Dakota DiSanto, secondary education sophomore and member of the Socialist Party of Central Arizona, said students might not be protesting because they feel disillusioned and that protesting would be ineffective.

"We feel hopeless," she said.

DiSanto does organize meetings and protests, however. But most of her counterparts are upwards of 40-years-old, she added.

"I would hate to, when I'm older, look back and think, 'Wow, I didn't do anything,' " she said.

Regardless of differing opinions about the reason, these activists agree that student protest is lacking.

DiSanto said that rather than protesting in person, Arizona students show their scorn by engaging in digital protest, joining anti-war Facebook groups or signing online petitions to their congressmen.

While Blank said online activity is better than none, she added, "Nothing is as effective as showing up at [a politician's] front door."

CodePink, End the War Coalition, MoveOn.org and other groups will be at the front door of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's office in Phoenix Wednesday evening, Blank said. Goyette will be addressing the crowd, and DiSanto will be performing with her band, Dakota and the Black River Bandit.

Joaquin Rios, ASU political science senior and former president of the Young Democrats of Arizona, said he might also attend the protest, but no campus Young Democrats protests are planned.

At the initial invasion of Iraq, he said the group protested, trying to stop the war through activism.

"[But lately] it's been more participation concentrating on the political end of the war," he said. "There are other ways to express a sense of protest."

But DiSanto said she thinks students should stick to activism.

"I don't think a group of kids can look at a political view on the war because they're not politicians," she said.

Goyette said he hopes young people attend the protest Wednesday.

"It would be wonderful to see the ranks, the number of people at this protest, swelled by students," he said.

Reach the reporter at: daniel.newhauser@asu.edu.