This is too sad for words fit to print here - destruction from within !!!!!!

WASHINGTON - The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.

Read On: http://start.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20050131/41fdbb50_3ca6_155262005013153977304

As I said in another post here, of the few peace vigils that I've attended in Winsted, CT in the past few months there was only one college age person at one of them, and she was there with her mother. Usually half or more of the people attending are older than I am (I'm 53). The rest are in their 30's and 40's. And this is literally a stone's throw away across the street from a community college. The two nastiest responses we got (a "F*** you!" and the finger) were both from what appeared to be draft age young men.

I'm not saying it's like this everywhere. This may be a blue state, but the towns up around here usually go Republican. I have heard that there are quite a few young folks attending rallies and vigils in the southern (shoreline) part of the state. But I get the feeling that there's a general apathy and just plain ignorance of things political with young people today (heh, heh! Look at me, soundin' like the old man!). I hate to say it, but I don't think there's going to be any sort of mass motivation of American youth unless something drastic happens, like a draft. Right now it's no big deal to most kids because Bush is only grabbing the people already in the normal military, or the Guard, or doing the back door draft to folks who thought that they had already served their time. Wait! If Bush keeps up the same type of foreign policy he's been using in Iraq I'm pretty sure that there will be a draft or at least an attempt to start one. It sure ain't the 60's anymore, is it?

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Capt. Zap

I don't know why these things still shock me!

It is shocking, with Iraquis dying, literally, to vote, and the Nepalese having their democracy taken away by a monarch. But it seems it's not the American kids themselves as much as a lack of education by the schools and parents. Which is even more shocking.

I agree Shel, why aren't parents of our generation teaching their kids this stuff!!
It was taught to me by my WW2 gen folks, and have drummed it into my daughter all her life (driving her crazy at times but she tells me she's glad her parents aren't ignorant sheeple.)

Some people are getting their "news" from Fox and Nickelodeon and think they're informed.

Let's face it! In the US

What percentage vote? what percentage follow issues as you go from federal to local? what percentage have a real clue about local elections? what percentage base their vote on advertising and church "think tanks"?

You know it is easier to get statistics and information about the actions of sports figures in America than politicians and their actions!!!

I can get detailed football, baseball and basketball stats going back to the turn of the last century in minutes (literally minutes) at two or three internet accessible data bases but to try to get objective information on local politicians (especially on the judicial side)in my area is next to impossible!!

This administration may reduce apathy by appointing those and/or creating policies that limit our rights to a point where people might care!

what was the song Brian sang on the cross at the end of The Life of Brian?

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I agree that parents and the school system could do more to make kids a bit more aware of things, but they can't take all of the blame. Think back, boomers. We were raised in the 40's and 50's. We had commie huntin' people in power like Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, etc. We didn't have Dr. Benjamin Spock telling our folks how to raise their kids. They flew by the seat of their pants raising us, which is where we got walloped if we screwed up. We watched TV shows with impossibly perfect families or "violent" westerns like Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, etc., played with toy guns, BB guns, and pea shooters. But it was our generation that protested the Viet Nam War and segregation and racism to the point of arrest, beatings, teargassing and even death. Earth Day started in our generation. The Women's Movement. And they weren't teaching that stuff in schools for the most part, and most of our parents were shaking their heads in dismay at what a lot of us were doing. There comes a point in everyone's life where they should take responsibility for their actions (or inactions). Sorry, but it seems to me that a lot of kids today aren't.

In the late '80's I was working in a music store. One of the kids working there was just out of high school. He had the arrogance of telling me that his generation was more politically and socially aware than mine was. I expressed some of the above mentioned stuff which he just brushed off. A couple of months after that he went into what I can only describe as a rhetorical tirade of hate against Jews. So much for his being politically aware.

About six or more years ago, WHUS, University of Connecticut's radio station, interviewed a couple of kids who were selling T-shirts that had "Eff Ar" (or something to that effect) printed on them which was supposed to be the phonetic spelling of "F R", which stood for "F*** Racism". A genuinely good intention. However, during the interview, one of the shirt's designers said that they were taking their protest (the T-shirts being their protest)to a highly active level, unlike the "passive protesters of the '60's." My freakin' head almost exploded!

So, yeah, I think we all could do more to raise awareness levels, but no, I don't think it's all on the parents and schools. A political journalist who I recently emailed addresses high school classes now and then and said he pretty much gets "the glassy stare from the kids." So, evidentally, it goes deeper than just informing them. I don't know what to think. Maybe it's a lack of genuine heroes or role models. Heck, we had (for better or worse) people like Gandhi, Kerowak, Woody, Pete Seeger, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and later, the Berrigan brothers, Abbie & Jerry & the Yippies, and musicians and songsters to inspire us like Arlo, Country Joe, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, etc., etc. A lot of music now is just plain angry or full of dispair. A Perfect Circle covered John Lennon's "Imagine", a song of hope to me, and turned it into what sounds like a dirge. And who are the heroes and role models of today?

It's probably a lot more complex than one or two issues. Sorry I may have gotten of on a rant here, folks. I'm just glad that all of my "kids" have four legs and tails. Even better, it's legal to have 'em spayed and neutered! Something I bet some parents of human children wish they could do!

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Zap

I received this in the mail - enjoy all you left-wing fans (;

One night, George W. Bush is tossing restlessly in his White House bed.
He
awakens to see George Washington standing by him. Bush asks him,
"George,
what's the best thing I can do to help the country?"
"Set an honest and honorable example, just as I did," Washington
advises
and then fades away.

The next night Bush is astir again and sees the ghost of Thomas
Jefferson
moving through the darkened bedroom. Bush calls out, "Tom, please!
What
is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Respect the Constitution as I did," Jefferson advises and dims from
sight.

The third night, sleep is still not in the cards for Bush. He awakens to
see the ghost of F.D.R. hovering over his bed. Bush whispers, "Franklin,
what is the best thing I can do to help the country?"

"Help the less fortunate, just as I did," FDR replies and fades into the
mists.

Bush isn't sleeping well the fourth night when he sees another figure
moving in the shadows. It is the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Bush pleads,
"Abe, what is the best thing I can do right now to help the country?"

Abe replies, "Go see a play."