"I recall the experience sweet and sad"

The Answer Coalition organized a march on Washington, starting in front of the White House to the Capital, yesterday. How could I pass up the opportunity?

It was hopeful to see the masses of people gathering to raise consciousness about ending this war, and connecting it to other struggles, from Palestine to Darfur to Katrina. I was also happy to see more than the typical segment of young liberal people, with people from all generations and backgrounds gathered around Lafayette Square, including a strong representation of veterans against the war. But there were some sights and patterns that were disturbing at the march, and played a major part in my personal reflection of the experience and my generation's role in maintaining this war.

Walking around and observing the people at the march, especially my peers, I noticed a strong tendency to appropriate the 60s as a means of fashion, identity, and direction in life and ideology. People my age painted peace signs on their cheeks and wrote Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon quotes on their flower child clothes, and started up choruses of "Give Peace a Chance." In juxtaposition, a band on stage sang original anti-war anthems for the Iraq war, but they just didn't have the same punch. There is an appeal to the 60s, whether it is the hopeful idealism, or the music, aesthetic, or drugs that draw people in initially, it still holds a strong presence in liberal/progressive/activist circles, even among people who were born decades after its heyday.

While I sympathize with those who draw on the 60s for the reasons mentioned above (goddess knows I had my own patchouli oil wearing and Dylan/Hendrix listening phase), there are potential problems with people investing too much of themselves in eras past. Yes, one can draw many similarities between the Vietnam War, an event that drove much of the character of the decade liberals love so much, and the current Iraq war. But what made our parent's generation so passionately against the war? The draft. In essence, there was not anything particularly special about that generation compared to ours, they just stepped up to the plate when people other than those who go to war now (the working-class, minorities) were forced into dying for a bogus cause. By idealizing the 60s, we fail to analyze and critique it so we can learn from its mistakes, and evolve as a culture, movement, and nation. We also sacrifice the chance to create our own original era, with our own culture, hope, and anthems. Perhaps that is a pitfall of the post-modern perspective entrenched in our jaded hearts: being original is impossible, so we must look to the past and make a patchwork quilt of ideas and images to offer to the present.

I expect more from our generation than this. Perhaps we have yet to experience the traumas that generations past felt, tragedies that will define and shape us. We had 9/11, but that was co-opted before we could make it into something more meaningful than jingoistic propaganda. Who knows what it will take for us to create our own collective consciousness and impression in history, but we aren't going to change anything if we keep rehashing the same old ideas and tactics. Looking back at the past can be an exercise, an inspiration, or a reference, but it has to be done with the intention of going forward. We can march all we want folks, but the people who call the shots have demonstrated over and over again that they are not going to stop what they are doing. We need to gather, to see that there are many of us, but also to exchange ideas of what to do next to reach our goals. That was what was seriously lacking at the march, concrete discussion, organizing. Maybe the old rules are unable to apply now, perhaps, in a time of seemingly unshakable apathy and hopelessness, is the time for the new. Vision, ideas, action. Will it be us who lead it? Who else will?