Are Protests Dead???

I was a little girl when the National Guard shot and killed four Kent State College Students protesting the Vietnam War

This image, along with the image of the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King remain in my mind and spirit -not an etching but a scarring-of turbulent and chaotic times-older brothers, cousins, older sisters' boyfriends and young dads were drafted - over thirty thousand men died-in a war we believed, would eradicate Communism in Vietnam.
Those protests helped end the war-and the collective activism built cohesion ,

I was asked by MoveOn.Org to participate in protesting the Bush decision to escalate troops in Iraq.

Talk about a Deja Vu moment-escalating troops?!-a mere 15 people signed up for the protest in Las Vegas.

I know that we have more than 15 people in the city of Las Vegas who believe this war we are in is nothing but heartache and loss. That the boys we are sending to Iraq to fight a war we were misled to believe was important is now wasting life after young life -and if you knew anything about the thousands of men who died in Vietnam-you would want to bring our men and women home -yesterday.

So many of us had lost someone during the 10 years of Vietnam-so many-it was commonplace to count the related dead - while sitting in our high school classrooms-the void -huge gaping gash of lost fathers, brothers, boyfriends left a generation of children, born in the sixties and early seventies without family, or growing up without fathers in the home.

The POW bands we wore, the hope some would still be alive-
ask John McCain how he survived-ask John Kerry how it felt each day to wonder if it would be your last.

The lack of protest reflects our country's belief we can no longer make an impact on government. The lack of outrage does not seem to be a support of our government but a sense of overwhelming helplessness. As if we are so small (as one citizen)we don't matter anymore-the government is bigger than the people.

We not longer can claim we are a democracy when we believe we do not have the will, the right, the belief that we, as people, citizens of the United States elect and send who we believe to represent our interests to the seat of of our government.

How sad for us-losing our sense of freedom-sense of indignation and demand for justice.

Is the protest dead?
Perhaps -I have this post 60's heart (although I wasn't quite the 60's generation) that somewhere that sense of spirit I deeply love, that sense of passion-I embrace, continues to exist-
to save us from our apathetic sense of hopelessness.