How is it that, 7 years into the Iraq War and 8 years into the Afghanistan War, a lone high school teacher can be treated with such contempt as seen in this video for taking a stand against war? Did student anti-war movements take this long to develop in response to the Vietnam War? Why is she the only one? Why are no students with her? What is so wrong with our country that opposition to war is this impotent, isolated and disrespected? Why are children still volunteering for military service? Did no teacher assign them to read Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” (now available for free online)? Why on earth are they being sent off with such glee to self-destruction? Why are police officers handing out diplomas? Has George Orwell’s world of “1984” finally arrived?
Notice in the local media coverage how creating controversy is mocked under color of journalistic objectivity. At the end, the reporter claims that the children are going to war in order to protect the teacher’s right to dissent. In fact, these children are being sacrificed to extend the imperial ambitions of a power-hungry gang of murderers enabled by millions whose illusions of freedom and prosperity are sustained by the thin thread of cheap oil and cheap imports which these wars buttress.
The local news station even admits that a former student was killed in one of the wars but is unable to enunciate the next logical step of questioning whether the cause justified a young man’s life. Hopefully, some truth, empathy and thought-provoking questions will soon reach those involved in this incident.
