Us darn kids.
After a couple of beers at State Street Brats, an out-of-town journalist recently confided in me his personal frustration with covering students’ reaction to Sept. 11.
Unlike students in the ’60s, our reaction to war has been complex and slow to develop. We are seemingly unified — campus protests since Sept. 11 are relatively rare — yet our position is too sophisticated for the mainstream media to report with much subtlety or insight.
To explore students’ reaction, Harvard University conducted a nationwide poll late last month of 1,200 undergraduates. The results confirmed what the press thought, but has not reported: Our cohort overwhelmingly supports air strikes and the use of ground troops in Afghanistan.
More interestingly, the poll indicated an emerging appreciation for leadership and authority that our generation has always lacked. Sixty percent of us trust the government to do the right thing, up sharply from the 36 percent of students that expressed trust in the government a year ago.
In trying to cover our generation’s response to the attacks, a divided media is seemingly embracing two theories about today’s kids. The first, espoused by UW’s student government and administrative leaders, contends that we are sensitive and innocent — the attacks of Sept. 11 are beyond our comprehension and understanding.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, it is argued that todayís college students are tough. Many of us grew up in single-parent homes. We have seen more drugs, school violence and R-rated movies than any generation before us.
While Sept. 11 was unprecedented, it was not unbelievable to a generation already desensitized to senseless violence.
Neither description fully fits.
Today’s war is unquestionably deflowering an otherwise naive and innocent generation. We share America’s fear and anger. At collegiate sports, campus rallies and in the army, we gleefully embrace patriotism, even though we are relatively unworldly
Clearly, this is not the first time us kids have seen the dark side. We’ve felt threatened before, be it in guarded high schools, troubled families or something as innocuous as a violent video game.
To the extent that today’s college students are having difficulty coming to terms with the events of Sept. 11 and its aftermath, it is only a matter of relating past experiences to the recent, macro events.
We will get there.
The Harvard poll indicated that 71 percent of undergraduate males would go to war today if drafted. The same percentage says they have already given money, or blood or volunteered for the relief efforts.
When our time comes, our generation will be just as tough as — if not tougher than — our parents’ and grandparents’.
Alexander Conant ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics. He is the editor-in-chief of the Badger Herald.
