been listening to bob dylan all late afternoon and early evening, a trip thru time, nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. although i have to say, "Times Have Changed," the most recent song in the compendium is one of the best. the old boy still has it, in his own strange incomprehensible way.
but that's not what i meant to say. i meant to say i have done it, yes. started another journal. as i said. one for meandering bad prose about matters literary, endless reams of it perhaps. i've already made two entries over there today. and yet i find myself wanting to talk about the book i'm reading right now, in this journal. (nostalgia again.) the book is American Woman, by Susan Choi. a novel about young leftist radicals in the militant underground of the 70's. can you say symbionese liberation army? so, listening to bob dylan, reading about the fringe left radicals of my youth. and wondering, where are the radical youth of today? where in hell are they? are they somewhere? i am a tribal elder now, but i have more rage, wrath, brainfrothing anger, than i had years ago as a protestor for civil rights, against the VN war, against the nixonion tricks and games. but what's happening now makes those years seem like the good old days. there were many young people (but as many older ones and downright elderly too) in the antiwar protests i attended last spring in D.C., but the universities aren't exploding with actions and protests, student protest groups don't seem to be forming. i'm not championing the SLA, don't get me wrong. but i'd sure like to see some evidence the young are paying serious attention to current events. perhaps like the arrival of coffins from iraq, or any sort of protest in the area of a bush photo-op, student protest is happening on a regular accelerating basis and getting no media coverage or being shunted into a "free speech area."
or, am i completely out of the youth loop? entirely possible. quite likely, in fact. send me websites, blogs, whitehot radical writing, send me hope. if you're plugged into anything of the sort. if it's happening i want to know about it.
4 comments:
perhaps, the platform for dissent just changed from school campuses and public parks to the internet. there's a strong progressive movement building out there in the web, i'd like to think all is not lost.
There's nothing like a good draft to get the young people involved...
All is not lost. Get those young people, those ones that enroll in your classes, registered to vote. There is no greater thing they can do right now than participate in their future. We need to get them registered, and involved in the dialogue. It's their future.
Tank Gurl
Small smattering of radical, but not in the same frame of mind that you are thinking. I am educator, and what is being taught, conformity and the drone mentality. Thinking for yourself, is not chic anymore. Liberal is a bad word now, even amongst the Democratic Party. Let things continue they way they are you will see the radicals return.
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