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This Issue 02/01/2007

Also in this issue

• Brewmaster's Corner
• Street Beats
• Dispatches
• From the ed
• What's Gotta Give?

Numbers on Saturday's march remain unclear. United for Peace and Justice, the anti-war coalition that organized the event, put attendance at 500,000; the AP estimated something less than 100,000. But even with the biggest numbers, the tenor of protest has little in common with the 1960s. The urgency seems lost. Without a draft, the Iraq war can never be as immediate to college students as Vietnam. Thirty years ago, getting your diploma meant getting a rifle one week later.

Is the protest, then, only the product of the Vietnam-era mindset? Among today's generation of New Activists, is protest dead?

Penn's most outspoken activists defend the importance of the demonstration, though its purpose may no longer be confrontation and upheaval. For Matt Richman, a member of Penn Against War, the main goal is opening a dialogue. "The vast majority of people on the buses have not come around to events and meetings before. Hopefully this will be a spark that gets them into organizations so we can build on campus."

Faculty & Staff Against War in Iraq (FSAWI) works towards a similar aim. They helped organize the gravestone memorial on College Green last month, where each makeshift headstone commemorated 1,000 deaths in Iraq. Dr. Paxton, a founding member, says: "That memorial sparked countless conversations. and if people argued, that's fine too. That what we want to see: passionate dialogue."

The trick will be bringing more students into the fold. Paxton hopes dialogue will help combat the entrenched stigma of activism. "The real tragedy of our times is that it's considered rather uncool to be politically passionate.. People who speak out or camp out or march are seen as the crazies."

Ryan Burg echoes her sentiment. "What's missing from Penn activism is people dragging their friends into the fray."

Though its message may have been unclear, this weekend's protest signaled a step in the right direction for Penn's activist community. Sophomore Sean Bresslin, who describes himself as "politically opinionated," had never been to a protest before his friend convinced him to march on Saturday. When asked if he considered the protest a success, he gave the answer that Penn Against War wanted to hear.

"Yes, because it got me involved."

work that links their idealism to their studies." During his protest days, "there weren't other avenues that existed, that encouraged young people to become engaged within their role of students within the University." Without an activist climate on campus, students' only recourse was direct action.