A summer of discontent infects America’s campuses

By Rene Pastor

It is confusing to take in the convulsions sweeping over the college campuses of the United States ignited by the paroxysm of violence sparked by the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7.

The easiest and laziest instinct is to compare it to 1968, a year when American troops were hammered by the Tet offensive in Vietnam, a time when two iconic leaders in the U.S. were assassinated and race riots pummeled the nation.

Martin Luther King was slain in April by a gunman in Memphis, and Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in June after winning the California Democratic primary. Burn, baby, burn was the mantra that year.

Today, no U.S. soldiers are on the ground in Gaza. But the passions of the fighting there have still caromed like a pinball around the nation.

Partly because of Vietnam, the United States has inherited a robust tradition of powerful dissent in its schools. It is the reason why no one begrudges students their right to protest what they passionately see as a grievous injustice.

In 1968, the war in Vietnam became deeply unpopular, especially since more than 50,000 American boys came home in body bags.

Muhammad Ali gave up his heavyweight boxing title for his refusal to be drafted to fight in the war. He was loudly vilified, but his status as a conscientious objector became golden.

 While there is a healthy tradition of protest and dissent present in our schools, that has been sullied by the ugliness of racism from those whose anti-Semitic rantings have spread.

The demonstrations have also been infected by the seeming participation of professional agitators who are neither students but mainly provocateurs.

Cool heads will be sorely needed by everyone concerned and a commitment necessary from the people who are part of the process.

There is also a silly demand which should be struck down because it is unlikely to be granted by the school authorities in the first place. The shrill ask of getting companies to divest from Israel cannot be granted by any stretch. The protesters can demand that schools denounce the excessive violence perpetrated by Israel but divestment is a bridge too far.

The negotiations must stay in the realm of the possible, not a fantasy that is just out of reach.

There is a need to rein in the aggressive instincts of Israel’s government and to remind others that peace and humanity should be the better nature of our behavior. Hopefully, that will always be the case going forward.

(C) The FilAm 2024