The Young And The Peaceful
by Seth Sandronsky
Dissident Voice
January 22, 2003
You can see it in
Juniper Manifest’s eyes. The 20-year-old from Carmichael (suburb of Sacramento)
is very concerned about her country attacking Iraq. So she is going public,
joining “old heads’ from the 1960s and others. Manifest is one of many young
people energizing the growing anti-war movement in the U.S.
“Unless I make
my opinion known to my government, and to my fellow citizens, it counts for
nothing,” Manifest said. “I don't want to stand idly by while people kill and
are killed. I'm doing what I can for what I believe, and to prevent the truly
horrendous future I fear will be the consequence of a mindless war.”
Building a
better future is what compels her and other anti-war activists born a
generation ago. Their backgrounds are similar and diverse. For example, some
have served in the armed forces abroad.
Ryan Wiggins is a 24-year-old from San Diego who attends
the University of California at Davis. Four years of duty in the Navy stationed
in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in part led him to protest U.S.
Iraq policy in San Francisco on Jan. 18. Crucially, he is bothered by the
absence of humanizing detail about the people of the Middle East.
“People in that
part of the world want the same things as people do everywhere,” Wiggins said.
“Here, there’s a need for more education about the Middle East and Islamic
culture.”
Mari Wright is
an 18-year-old student at La Costa Canyon High School (suburb of San Diego).
She edits the school paper and feels compelled to speak out on behalf of those
whose voices aren’t being heard in the U.S., such as Iraqi civilians.
“I don’t think
it’s right for such a powerful nation as ours to go in and kill Iraqis,” Wright
said at the beginning of the Jan. 18 anti-war rally in S.F. An upcoming issue
of her school paper will cover the event, the first mass anti-war rally that
she has attended.
Under the
current U.N. weapons inspection process, Iraq is being forced to prove a
negative. What do young anti-war activists think about the White House’s view
that the U.N. finding no evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction doesn’t
prove that such weapons don't exist in the Persian Gulf nation?
“The Bush
administration is playing a contradictory policy game that muddles things,”
said Wiggins. “A lot of young people don’t understand what’s going on. Still,
lots of them feel that it’s time for the U.S. to do things correctly, and not
to just go and fight.”
Why? Perhaps
some youth are in a better position than their elders to see the
inconsistencies in U.S. Iraq policy.
“Young people
are more curious than people who have been in the system longer,” Wright said.
Besides
curiosity, the threat of war also breeds a sense of national unity among the
young. This trend cuts both ways, to peace and its opposite.
“I think by
becoming activists—and, as much as I disagree with the choice, by joining the
military to support this war—young people are finding the sense of community
and purpose that we've so long lacked,” Manifest said. “Both sides see
themselves as fighting to protect what past generations fought for, and to keep
the world we are rapidly inheriting intact for ourselves and future
generations.”
Like other young
people before them, anti-war youth today experience changing relations with
family and friends. Such was the case during the movement to end the U.S. war against
Vietnam, and this trend exists now.
Just ask Maria
York, a 24-year-old office worker at UC Davis who hails from Rochester, New
York.
“My family is
lower middle-class and tends to be more conservative, politically, economically
and spiritually,” she said. “Our talk about Iraq is always contentious. My
parents support me but don’t understand my activism.”
The Sept. 11
terrorist attacks in the U.S. cast no small shadow here.
“Republicans
give them a sense of security, but it’s superficial,” York added. “Their
security needs are different than mine.”
In some U.S.
high schools, supporting the humanity of a group of people who are the
collective object of scorn can be a minority position.
“My affluent and
conservative classmates disagree with me,” Wright said. “Lots of people I know
think that after Sept. 11, 2001, all Arab and Muslim people are terrorists.”
She doesn’t. And
her anti-war activism has swayed one family member.
“My mom, who’s
from a small, sheltered Midwest town, has become more open to different
political views since I’ve become politically active,” Wright said.
Manifest has a
close friend who is puzzled by her anti-war activism. He wonders why she
bothers to protest the U.S. war on Iraq.
“He's deeply
saddened at the looming possibility of war but thinks that my actions are
futile,” she said. “He doesn't believe that one person can effect change.”
Anti-war youth
confront such a lack of hope about the future. For Manifest, such despair is
understandable, but not inevitable. That’s where walking the talk of peace
comes into play.
“I have my own
fears about the futility of my protests,” Manifest said. “But if I stand by and
say nothing, I've as good as supported this war. It's because I love these
people, even the ones who argue about it with me, that I make the efforts I
do.”
As the Bush
administrations builds up a U.S. armada in the Persian Gulf for a possible
attack on Iraq sooner than later, Manifest and thousands of other youth
protested for peace across the U.S. on Jan. 18. They are lending a vitality to
an anti-war movement that is growing broader and deeper with each passing day.
Seth Sandronsky is an editor with Because People Matter,
Sacramento's progressive newspaper. Email: ssandron@hotmail.com