Tuesday, November 13, 2001

Generation gap is worse
This is not the first time the nation has been at war
Emily Dupuis is a columnist for The Bona Venture at St. Bonaventure University.

The college-age generation is getting a bad rap.

Writers from older generations — survivors of the Great Depression, World War II and the Vietnam conflict — have deemed the late-teen to early-adult age bracket unpatriotic and even ungrateful for the sacrifices of those before.

Damon W. Root, a middle-aged columnist from the Objectivist Center, a philosophical organization that promotes “values of individualism, freedom and achievement,” is only the most recent writer I have come across to voice his distaste with young American’s attitudes.

Root wrote that while rescue workers labored at Ground Zero in New York, “On the calm campuses of America’s elite universities, however, students wasted no time before wallowing in anti-capitalist slogans, identity politics and the appeasement of evil.”

Why the widening gap between generations?

Maybe we can’t see eye-to-eye. Root and his contemporaries label many college students liberal, anti-American pacifists. Many of my peers view individuals like Root as bomb-happy nationalists.

Many college students have spoken against the Bush Administration’s War on Terrorism, advocating peace, negotiation and non-violent reaction. Their public words, which ran in campus newspapers and aired on college television, drew criticism from older generations.

Before two age groups go throat-to-throat in a war of words over America’s place in the Middle East, they need to understand where each comes from.

Sept. 11 slammed into my generation, crushing our lives of stability and comfort.
I remain undecided on the United States’ place in this war, as do many students with whom I have spoken. They don’t want to see their peers sent overseas in military action. Many don’t want to witness bombings against Afghan civilians.

Many don’t understand why the United States decided to take military action or who exactly they are fighting. They don’t understand what the United States hopes to accomplish in its new war and whether fighting is worth that price.

But college students do know these terrorist attacks killed thousands of innocent Americans. They know something must be done in response. They know their lives are forever changed and the futures they had planned nearly two months ago are now in question.

What they don’t understand, however, outweighs the little they do. Uncertainty pervades their lives now, mine included. Will the economy support us as we graduate and head out into the world? Will jobs still be available? More importantly, will our freedoms still be there?

Rather than the older generations criticizing the views of America’s young, perhaps they should reflect on the terror and uncertainty Sept. 11 brought on us all — especially on the members of a newer generation raised in relative peace and just beginning their lives.

The young must remember the sacrifices made, knowledge gained and experiences survived by those who came before us. This is not the first time America has been at war.

Freedom of expression for or against the U.S. government’s actions stand central to our nation’s foundation.

Now is a time to stand behind these uniquely American freedoms and reach out to one another with compassion, not push each other away with criticism.

Emily Dupuis is a columnist for The Bona Venture at St. Bonaventure University.
This column was distributed by U-Wire.