All we are saying...

J. Kevin Tumlinson

During the Vietnam conflict (I know it's always been called a conflict, but when you're shooting at each other shouldn't it be called a "war?") many college students across the country joined together in protest. War, they said, is never justified. War, they expounded, is the last remnant of incivility in a civilized world. Give peace a chance.

That's all they were saying.

Today, it seems to be a different story. Rather than chafe at the very notion of war, the college scene seems to be occupied by proponents of armed conflict. Go in, take 'em out, live free or die! As a result, college students today seem almost bloodthirsty in comparison to those of the sixties.

In a recent Fox newscast, a few professors at Berkley were asked about the change in disposition. The explanation? Apathy. Today's students, they said, do not know what war really is, and they are uneducated about the political and human risks. And they don't care.

I'm as likely to jump on the apathy bandwagon as anyone. I teach "at-risk" kids, and apathy is the main ingredient in that particular soup. But I couldn't help noticing that those professors, the ones claiming that college students are apathetic and know nothing of the price of war, are in many cases the very people who once protested Vietnam. Couldn't the memory of an unjust and bloody action be clouding their judgment?

It's likely that the protestors are, in some respects, absolutely correct. After all, "war" in the past twenty years has been something distant and quick. It has been something that was started on Monday morning and was over by Tuesday afternoon. War has been something that today's college student's have never really seen, except in highly dramatized movies and television programs, video games and comic books. They know war is hell, but it's possible they've forgotten what hell means.

In that respect, the professors are absolutely correct. Today's average college student has no idea what it means to be at war. It is exactly what the protestors and conscientious objectors say it is-horrible and costly. Unfortunately, it's often necessary. And despite what these objectors may have us believe, college students today are fully aware of the facts.

And the facts are these: We, as a nation, have been unduly attacked. We have been threatened. We, who hold the sanctity of belief and faith and freedom above all else have been targeted by those we would protect and aide. We have our backs against the wall, and we're ready to come out fighting.

Should we object? Of course. We object to war. We object to the killing and harm of innocents. But there is a line that the enemy cannot cross, and if he does then all bets are off. It really is live free or die.

Apathy? The real apathy seems to be coming from the U.N. Those who should be our allies without question are suddenly afraid to get involved. Germany, a country that was our enemy but was rebuilt by us after the war, is reluctant. Why? There should be no hesitation, no pause. There should be only the unified front of a world that recognizes the United States as its protector and guardian.

Instead, there is the silence of indecision. There is the sound of argument, of debate. There is the quiet refusal to aide us, the world's defender, in our time of need.

Apathy? There's your apathy.

Today's college student is really no different than the students of the '60s. They still see the world in those wonderfully fresh eyes. They know the price, the cost of lives and freedom that could be paid. They see and fully understand the great sweep of death and destruction that could result from armed conflict. In this, both generations are the same. The difference comes from the position our nation is in. In the '60s we stepped into a conflict where we didn't belong. Today, we face enemies who would destroy us and our way of life.

In the end, the message is the same. It's just as it was, forty years ago. All we are saying, even today, is give peace a chance, even if we have to fight to get it.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and a schoolteacher living in Lake Jackson, TX. He supports the Iraq Parking Lot Project.