VLVL2 (3): The Snitch System (part 1)

[Tim Strzechowski]

>
> One side effect of the war on Iraq is to radicalize
> young people again. Almost every kid at my son's high
> school walked out to join the protests in downtown San
> Francisco the day the war started, and they take it as
> a given that the government is lying to them about the
> war. I recently had a chance to hear from a bunch of
> teenagers from all over Northern California and
> Nevada, including small towns and rural areas, enough
> to know that it's not just the private school SF &
> Berkeley kids who feel this way. It's a promising
> sign, imo.
>

Keep in mind, of course, how location and its accompanying mindset play a
role in that.  I teach in a midwestern, suburban high school where students
were told by the administrators, in no uncertain terms, that if they
participate in one of the many walk-outs that were staged that day around
the area, they'd get suspended, multiple detentions, whatever the deans
could concoct.  Then, to enforce the rule, administrators and security stood
at every possible exit at the expected time, to shag kids back to their
classroom.

What's the phrase from Robert Lowell?  "Cowed, compliant fish"?

Only one kid made it out of school that day.  Took the bus to the Loop to
participate in an anti-war demonstration, and mom was fully aware.  Deans
and administration "encouraged" certain teachers to drop the girl from her
activities as a result.

Pretty sad.