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Is Patriotism Dead on Today's College Campuses?
CNSNews.com ^ | October 05, 2001 | Lisa De Pasquale

Posted on 10/09/2001 6:33:56 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen

Following the horrific attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, more than 100 campuses in America have held anti-war demonstrations. Candlelight vigils and protests with banners reading "No Military Action," "Don't create more terrorists," "Stop scapegoating" and "Resist the racist war," are part of the anti-American culture on today's college campuses.

At Florida Gulf Coast University, faculty members were told to take down "Proud to be an American" stickers because they might offend international students.

San Francisco State University's "Students for Peace" was "formed in response to the reactionary war supportive position being taken by the US government and corporate media." Their slogan - "Fight War, Not Wars."

At Wittenberg University, a Lutheran private school in Ohio, students are displaying the peace sign rather than the American flag because the flag is a "symbol of the military and male oppression." One student explained that the peace sign is better because its circular shape "promotes a more inclusive atmosphere."

But, why the students are taking up these views should be no surprise.

The anti-war protestors of the 1960s and 1970s are now the tenured professors at America's colleges and universities. They have traded their placards and sit-ins for chalkboards and classrooms. More than 70 professors at Berkeley, along with 100 other academics, signed on to a New York Times ad calling military action "unacceptable."

Professor Clement Henry of the University of Texas-Austin is teaching a class called "American Under Attack: A Search for Meaning." Said Professor Henry, "The United States policies toward the region, especially over the past 10 years [have] engendered serious grievances. Our actions were looking to much of Arab and Muslim public opinion like a re-edition of 19th century imperialism."

On today's college campuses, this anti-American, politically correct attitude is the prevailing doctrine. Gone from course curriculums are the writings from American patriots like Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Karl Marx and Andrea Dworkin have replaced them.

Students are being taught that Western Civilization has been oppressive and imperialistic. Said one student in the Indiana State Student, "[America's] economic system has hurt a lot of people."

Fortunately, many students are reclaiming their campus and their First Amendment rights. Taylor West of Harvard University organized a Rally for Patriotism and American Unity. One rally participant said it was needed because of the overwhelming "distaste of the government" and "inappropriate distrust and second-guessing of our government" throughout the campus.

Students like Taylor really are rebels in the fight for free speech on college campuses. While the anti-war march at Harvard had more than 300 participants, the unity rally only had about 50. These freethinking students aren't afraid of standing up for their beliefs in an environment that is so hegemonically leftist.

These campuses were once a haven for the exchange of ideas. But today flags are being torn down, ROTC offices are being closed and students are being silenced. Anti-American sentiments are tolerated under the protection of free speech while ideas on unity and patriotism are called "intolerant" and "oppressive."

The number of young people going to college rises exponentially every year. It is important and wholly American that these students have the opportunity that so many crave - the freedom to explore a wide range of ideas without fear of being silenced and to have pride in the country that allows them the freedoms and opportunities that so many countries do not.

(Lisa De Pasquale is program director for the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute.)
Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute


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1 posted on 10/09/2001 6:33:56 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Patriotism, as well as most intelligent, independent thought.
2 posted on 10/09/2001 6:36:31 AM PDT by rogers21774
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To: Stand Watch Listen
There is a simpler answer. While it's true that their leftist professors give them a pseudo-intellectual list of high-sounding excuses for hating their country, this is just a cover.

These college students are mollycoddled fairies, physical cowards who are deathly afraid of being drafted.

Their antiwar rhetoric is motivated by a deeply selfish and puerile worldview - they believe the world exists to entertain and amuse them and that pain or privation of any kind is immoral.

3 posted on 10/09/2001 6:40:46 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: Stand Watch Listen
I think we need to cut off taxpayer aid to any of these students, let them get jobs and work their way through college, they have far too much time on their hands.
4 posted on 10/09/2001 6:42:14 AM PDT by FITZ
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To: Stand Watch Listen
For the most part yes. At Northwestern, the PEace Protesters take over alot of the vigils and are everywhere. Those who support military action are quieter and not recognized as often. We have had about ten peace rallies and not one rally to rally behind our troops. WHich gives me an idea, catch y'all later.
5 posted on 10/09/2001 6:42:56 AM PDT by StAthanasiustheGreat
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Is Patriotism Dead on Today's College Campuses?

To me this is a sophomoric question. The fact is that in comparison to yesteryear, patriotism is UP on college campi.

You should have seen things back during and at the close of the Vietnam War. I remember in 1976, the USMC came and recruited on our small college campus in Wisconsin. Several people in my dorm, mostly (ironically) Jewish kids who argued all the time that Israel had the right to kill all Arabs within its borders to "defend itself," decided they needed to protest the Marine Corps presence.

So they picketed, and to keep things "peaceful" the college administration threw the Marines off the campus. The students congratulated themselves on taking a stand against "imperialism."

I think you'll find a HUGE contrast today, where military recruiters aren't routinely picketed, and most college students love and appreciate this country.

I think we are playing into the hands of the "peaceniks" when we attribute to them far more strength and influence than they actually have.

6 posted on 10/09/2001 6:45:20 AM PDT by Illbay
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To: wideawake
It depends on the school, and on the makeup of the student body. I was in college during Desert Storm, at a fairly liberal school, but there were only a handful of anti-war protesters, and it was obvious the majority of the school supported the military action.
7 posted on 10/09/2001 6:45:48 AM PDT by joelmc
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Ask a college student whether liberty of others is more important than his life and future carreer, and all patriotism in America will dry out like we always had been communists ... which we are. Why do you think global businesses flirt with communists lately? Why do you think they'd rather pay them than face them? Because they are the same people who would not sacrifice their college studies to fight in Vietnam.

Give me liberty or give me death is too hard of a burden to bear for those idiots.

8 posted on 10/09/2001 6:47:28 AM PDT by lavaroise
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Don't be too critical. Patriotism on college campuses may appear to be dead but that is only because college professors have been confused ever since the end of the Soviet Union and have been unable to identify a successor to work for. Once the commies stopped giving most of them instructions, they began to preach that true anti-Americanism would be served by all sorts of means, faux-peace, saving animals, anti-capitalism, unionism, advancing fairies, ebonics, shifting power to those the professors designate, and so on. This confusion/difusion on the part of professors has made it appear that students are no longer loyal to the Soviet Union, but, they are working hard to loyalty object that will ceratinly undermine the US way of life equally as well.
9 posted on 10/09/2001 6:47:58 AM PDT by Tacis
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Yes, it is a sad, sorry situation. Get rid of tenure and deport communist/socialist idealists.
I've been emailing individual students whose names have come up as "peace protesters" in the news. From Connecticut:

"Students walk out of classes in protest of bombing"
October 9, 2001

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) _ About 150 students walked out of classes at Wesleyan University Monday to protest the American and British bombing in Afghanistan.

Demonstrators said a violent response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will only provoke more violence. They urged government leaders to develop a peaceful solution.

``We're trying to critically think about ways in which we could affect a movement of peace,'' Wesleyan senior Ritu Sen told WVIT-TV.

Last month, students formed a coalition against violent retaliation. Other students said they supported bombing Taliban targets in Afghanistan, while some said they had mixed feelings.

``I'm frustrated because I'm not sure what our other options are,'' said Nicole Wellington, a senior at the university. ``A lot of people on campus here are saying they don't support the war, but they're not proposing any other options besides peace.''

The university has scheduled several teach-ins _ lectures, panel discussions and question-and-answer sessions designed to educate the community about terrorist attacks and America's response.

10 posted on 10/09/2001 6:48:36 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
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To: Stand Watch Listen
The anti-war protestors of the 1960s and 1970s are now the tenured professors at America's colleges and universities. They have traded their placards and sit-ins for chalkboards and classrooms. More than 70 professors at Berkeley, along with 100 other academics, signed on to a New York Times ad calling military action "unacceptable."

These people went to school.
They never came out.
They're still there !!!!!
They don't seem to realize there's a whole world outside those four walls, and the world is not flat.
They need an update.

11 posted on 10/09/2001 6:51:21 AM PDT by concerned about politics
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To: wideawake
These college students are mollycoddled fairies, physical cowards who are deathly afraid of being drafted.

Their antiwar rhetoric is motivated by a deeply selfish and puerile worldview - they believe the world exists to entertain and amuse them and that pain or privation of any kind is immoral.

What really stopped the anti-war protests of the Vietnan era?
Was it a change in American foreign policy?...No.
Was it a warming of international relations?...No.
Was it an apology given by then President Nixon?....No.
Was it the advent of real movement in the Paris peace talks?...NO.
Was it the withdrawing of American troops in Vietnam?...No.
Was it the advent of the Age of Aquarius?..No.

IMHO...It was the ending of the draft (1972). For so many of the 'peaceniks', it was the fear of being drafted not of any moral standings against the 'war'.


12 posted on 10/09/2001 6:52:26 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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To: Stand Watch Listen
The article is a bit one sided, but there is much truth in it. And part of the blame lies with a decades long conservative and GOP indifference to educational policy.

We treat academia as enemy teritory, we fund it, and we rarely take a stance against its follies and excesses. [Lynne Cheney is a shining exception here.]

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Richard F.

13 posted on 10/09/2001 6:54:26 AM PDT by rdf
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: Stand Watch Listen
The first step would be to quit taking so many forgeiners.
15 posted on 10/09/2001 6:58:38 AM PDT by boycott
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Said Professor Henry, "The United States policies toward the region, especially over the past 10 years [have] engendered serious grievances

Professor Henry is a peddler of drivel whose objectivity is overwhelmed by his hatred of America, because it's cool ya know!

Other than liberating Kuwait, our policies in the region have been mostly benign. We even stood by and watched as our friend the Shah of Iran was deposed by the same muslim terrorists that we are fighting now. (This one event is the orgin of all our current problems IMO) The sum of our assistance to the region is equal to, or greater than what we give to Israel.

The reason why we are so despised by the muslim rabble is because their leaders, while happy to accept our generosity, use us a scapegoat for their problems. The rabble is brainwashed into believing that the US is the reason for their wretchedness instead of their self-serving leaders and religious slavery.

16 posted on 10/09/2001 6:59:17 AM PDT by Ceebass
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: Stand Watch Listen
"Is Patriotism Dead on Today's College Campuses?"

Answer: NO!

Reason: It was never alive.....It was aborted long before Roe met Wade!

18 posted on 10/09/2001 7:02:29 AM PDT by TRY ONE
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To: Stand Watch Listen
Wait until they get their first anthrax scare, those peace signs will turn to flags over night when they need the US.
19 posted on 10/09/2001 7:10:48 AM PDT by big bad easter bunny
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To: LLAN-DDEUSANT
...just an act of a relatively few criminals and mentally unstable types..

It appears that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of these 'types' located in tens on countries. They need to be rooted out and eradicated for the welfare of the world politic.

20 posted on 10/09/2001 7:10:48 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
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