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Where did All The Students Activists Go?

C.W. Nevis took his daughter to a protest this weekend and wonders "Where did all the student activists go"?

I've been on college campuses over the past couple of years taking a variety of classes. One of those classes was a German Language class. The instructor was a very nice lady, an older German woman who lived through the war as a child. She was a very good instructor and frankly she was such a good instructor of German that she invigorated my love of the english language, which is a hell of thing for a German Langage instructor to do. She was a genuine nice lady.

She was also quite a free spirit and tended towards a leftist ideology, which is really not unusual on campus. Most of the time she kept politics out of the classroom, but we usually got a small 5 minute lecture during the week on some subject that bothered her.

The students were predictably young, but they also held a secret that they revealed to me and the rest of the class one week after a lecture from the liebe professorin.

One week she began a pre-class lecture on the evils of "Depleted Uranium". I listened quietly, being the good observer that I am, as I was more interested in the class reaction than playing verbal tennis with someone who was not going to be turned by my arguments in any account.

The class sat quietly and listened, but didnt react to the accusations of horrible crimes against humanity, they just got ready for class and organized themselves for the task at hand, only half listening to the instructor. When she finished her 5 minute lecture, she left the room to pick up some paperwork for that class session.

Then they did it. As soon as the door closed, almost every student stood up and unzipped jackets or pulled off their sweatshirts and vests to reveal something absolutely stunning.

80% of the class was wearing grey t-shirts with one word on the front

ARMY

"Well why didnt you say something"? I said with a laugh to one of the kids, nay, soldiers who were also attending the class with me and about 5 stunned party animals.

"Dude we've got work to do. You spend all your time getting angry at nitwits and you miss the whole point of being in school in the first place". The discipline that the service had given to my classmate showed in his professionalism He wasnt angry, he had a job to do, he was there to learn. My classmate had just returned from 2 years overseas duty in Korea and was about to be sent to Germany, and possibly "parts beyond".

After a round of high-fives, they all tucked in their shirts and went back to their previous slacker camoflage, when the instructor came back and started the class all the while seemingly unaware that nearly all of her class were actually reserve or active members of the US Military.

So, C.W. -Where did all the student activists go? Apparently they joined the Army.

Posted @ March 21, 2006 10:59 AM | Current Affairs

Comments

Classic. Just superb. You know, it's the disciplined students who are in class and the 'slackers' who do not go to college that are busy finding demonstrations to attend. Any demonstration. The good ones have rich chicks.

Posted by: mdmhvonpa at March 21, 2006 12:54 PM

The best! There may be hope for civilization after all. :)

Posted by: Sissy Willis at March 22, 2006 04:38 AM

I've always encouraged my students that if they really want to subvert the reigning paradigm, join the Marines.

In my brief lifetime, the U.S. Soldier has ended totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, eliminated Manuel Noriega, silenced Mohammar Qadaffi, overthrown Saddam Hussein, liberated Afghanistan and Kuwait, and gunned down countless terrorists, fascists and despots.

Meanwhile, proto-Leftists have made a tidy capitalist profit off of t-shirt sales and shakedowns of the easily intimidated. Otherwise, they are quite harmless.

The good guys have the guns.

Interesting to match Presidents to military achievement following WWII:

Eisenhower - Korea - W
Kennedy - Bay of Pigs - L
Johnson - Vietnam - L
Nixon - Vietnam - Withdrawal
Carter - Iran Hostage - L
Reagan - Libya - W, Grenada - W, Beruit - L, Cold War - W
Bush - Panama - W, Gulf War - W, Somalia - W
Clinton - Somalia - Withdrawal, Kosovo - W (sort of), Afghanistan - L
W - Afghanistan - W, Iraq - W

Note the batting record of Republicans v. Democrats. I'm sure I've forgotton many smaller examples.

Posted by: Dan at March 22, 2006 01:37 PM

I don't understand this depleted uranium thing. Have you ever asked what it is depleted of? Well, it is U235, the radioactive form of uranium. It is what is left over when U235 has been stripped from natrual uranium it to enrich nuclear fuel. When I first heard someone say we were poisoning people with depleted uranium I thought they meant heavy metal poisoning and asked why anyone would eat it..

Do you know what they use to shield the radiation of high powered radioactive sources - depleted uranium.

Posted by: Tom at March 29, 2006 06:47 PM

I always thought that "depleted" was the operative word, but apparently for some people its "Uranium".

Posted by: frank martin at March 29, 2006 07:16 PM