Thursday, March 28, 1991
So few people use Freedom of Speech
by Andrew Festa
"This is school."
"I've other things to do."
"I don't have the time."
"Besides, what difference
can one person make?"
"No one will listen to me;
I'm just one tiny voice in a
sea of noise."
"It takes a lot of people
with the same ideas to make
things happen, to bring
changes about."
And to think, such
words come from
"educated" people.
Are we building a nation
of apathetic morons? Are
there no people out there
who have a reaction to the
world around them? Where
is the courage to speak out
against injustices? Are things
so perfect there's no need to
`rock the boat'?
How quickly we forget
the people of earlier
generations. While it is often
true that one voice by itself
is too often seen in a
negative light, one voice
which speaks true is heard
by others and, over time, is
joined by those in
agreement.
When I hear others talk
about the generation I grew
Ed. Note: What
happened? We were getting
all these Letters to the
Editor, and now nothing. I
hope that somebody out
there still has an opinion on
something happening on
campus or about something
they've read in The
Collegian. If you would like
For each veteran, his own memories
by Mike Royko
Mayor Daley says Chicago's
parade to honor the Gulf War
troops will be the biggest in the
city's history. If so, fine.
Everybody loves a good parade.
And there will be big parades
in other cities, more joyous
family reunion scenes at airports
and the grand finale on the 4th of
July when President Bush leads
the nation in a massive
celebration.
But watching all of this, I
have to wonder how veterans of
other wars are reacting.
Actually, I'm really not
wondering. I'm sure many or
most veterans are enjoying the
patriotic surge. But some that
I've talked to are bemused or
puzzled.
As Harry, a Chicagoan
nudging 60, said: "I had to laugh
at something I saw on TV. There
were these reservists who just got
back. And there were people all
over them at the airport.
"They interviewed one guy
about how he felt, and talked
about how great it was to be back
and what an experience it had
The next generation will be hard pressed to find pride
being the offspring of the apathetic. Years from
apathetic will jounce grandchild en on
reminisce about what they could have done or should have
done but didn't have the nerve to do.
up in, I hear negative and
uninformed interpretations.
Many people recall the
negative aspects of 'the old
days' (the younger folk
going only by what they've
read or have been told) and
they speak as if those days
should be forgotten.
Young people who
weren't there talk in
derogatory manner of those
times, failing to see any
good. Many say, "The 60s
and 70s were full of drugs
and free love."
Get your head out of the
middle part of your anatomy
and take a hard look at the
world you seem to be so
ignorant of. Look at today's
drug epidemic; the growing
corruption of the media and
the porn that's creeping its
way into television shows;
the violence: the growing
debt our inept government
to voice your views on an
issue, write a Letter to the
Editor.
The Collegian
encourages letters on news
coverage, editorial content
or University affairs.
Letters should be
typewritten, double-spaced
and signed by no more than
been. It turned out he had been
there about three months and was
some kind of a welder at an air
base.
"I'm not taking anything away
from guys like him. He did what
he was told to do, and that's what
it's about. But I had to think
about what it was like when I got
back. I was an infantryman in
Korea and that was the Chinese
army up there and they were one
hell of an army and I saw them
up close. I froze my ass off for a
whole winter and a lot of guys in
my outfit were killed. I was just
lucky it wasn't me.
"So when I got back, I went
home and my mother cried. My
father shook my hand. Then I
went to the neighborhood bar,
and the guys I knew asked me
how it went. I told them I was
alive, so it went OK. That was
the last time anybody mentioned
it. Maybe it's the TV. It wasn't
all over the place in those days."
Roger is 67 and lives in a
suburb. "I spent my 21st birthday
as a POW. I was caught right in
the middle of the Battle of the
Bulge. I'm not proud to have
been a POW. I suffered some and
The Collegian
keeps increasing; our foreign
policy which supports a
foreign government figure,
no matter the injustices, until
we no longer need him.
Look at the realities of
our modern world and stop
avoiding your responsibility
to that world and to
yourselves. Get off your
butts and speak out. You can
speak, can't you? If nothing
else, you were at least taught
how to open your mouths
and release audible and
intelligible sounds?
Are people generally
lazy? Do few people care
about making positive
changes? Are they afraid to
rock the boat? Do they have
little real intelligence or are
they just afraid to test the
level of the intelligence?
What right, if taken away,
would people speak in
defense of? The government
two persons. •
Letters should be no
longer than 400 words.
Letters should include the
semester and major of the
writer. All letters should
provide the address and
phone number of the writer
for verification of the letter.
The Collegian reserves
I know a lot of my buddies did
too. And they beat the hell out of
me too. I lost 50 pounds. I was
bloody from lice. Our guys
marched for 10 days with no
shoes on because the Germans
took our shoes.
MIKE ROYKO
"But I'm no hero. You want
to talk heroes, let's talk about the
guys in Bataan. Or those English
guys in Dunkirk. Those guys
were heroes.
"A lot of this, to me it's like
propaganda to get America to feel
now today's
their laps and
can take those rights away
because most people are
either afraid to make a stand
and voice their concerns or
they're unable to act or see
what's happening.
Smokers no longer have
the right to smoke indoors.
We may soon lose the right
to burn the flag, a crime
against and the murder of the
IDEA of Freedom. Women's
bodies are being ping
ponged between various
groups of politicians looking
for a platform on which to
run.
The media has grown in
its coverage of world news
to the pointwherethe wrong
person can come along and
utilize it as the most
powerful propaganda tool
ever devised . All this, and
no complaints or questions?
Small social groups meet
in local hanlouts or other
the right to edit letters for
length and to reject letters if
they are libelous or do not
conform to standards of
good taste. All submitted
letters become property of
The Collegian.
Letters should be
submitted to The Collegian
office, first floor of the
like Rambos. I think a lot of
veterans feel this way, and we're
afraid to talk. That's why I don't
want you to use my name. We
sound like sour grapes. So we
can't say anything. I don't like
this. Everybody feels good,
everybody feels euphoria. Is that
what we killed all those people
frx?
"Oh, yeah, when I got home.
They mustered me out when I got
off the ship. Then I went home.
That was it. Whatever parades
there were were over. I just went
home. It was no big deal."
There were some grand parades
after World War 11, but most of
the Gls weren't in them. They
got off slow troopships, went to
a military base, received their
discharge papers and took a train
or a bus to their hometowns.
I remember the arrival of one
of my relatives, the family hero.
A paratrooper, he spent almost
two years in the Pacific fighting
on one island after another. He
was in a foxhole with his closest
buddy, the best man at his
wedding, when his friend took a
Japanese bullet in the head.
The day he came back, his
Page 5
social settings to bitch about
the state of the world, but
few openly voice their
concerns. Few have the
courage to speak, the kind of
courage which was prevalent
in the 60s and 70s.
The next generation will
be hard pressed to find pride
in being the offspring of the
apathetic. Years from now,
today's apathetic will bounce
grandchildren on their laps
and reminisce about what
they could have done or
should have done but didn't
have the nerve to do. Those
children will inherit what
ignorance, inability,
stupidity or apathy to exist
or be forced to die.
I'm glad I grew up in the
60s and 70s. I look back
with pride at my
accomplishments and the
things I spoke up for and
spoke out against. Maybe I
didn't change anything, but I
didn't fall back on excuses. I
tried.
Andrew Festa is an
eighth semester English
major. His column appears
every other week in The
Colle I 'an.
Reed Union Building or
The Collegian mailbox
located in the SGA suite
also on the first floor of the
Reed Building no later than
noon on the Tuesday prior
to the desired publication
date.
young wife and the rest of the
family gathered at a tiny flat his
wife had rented on Lincoln near
Montrose. There was some beer,
tears and sandwiches. Then
everybody went home and left the
young couple alone.
A week later he took a job
scrubbing the outside of streetcars
until something better turned up.
And to this day, he doesn't
talk about his own wartime
experiences or, for that matter,
about wars, in general. The last
time he mentioned war, I think
he said: "They're stupid."
Many of the politicians who
are organizing the festivities say
they will not only be honoring
the Gulf War victors, but also the
veterans of our other wars.
I suppose that's a nice gesture,
and many veterans will appreciate
it. But there will be others who
will ask to be excused. No
offense meant, of course, but
they had their own wars, and they
have their own memories.
Mike Royko is a Chicago
based, nationally syndicated
columnist. His column appears
weekly in The Collegian.