Antiwar advocacy gains ground at Washington state campuses

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Seattle Times
Friday, October 18, 2002, 12:31 a.m. Pacific

Activism fervor rising at state campuses

By Robert Marshall Wells
Seattle Times staff reporter

With their fall terms well under way, college students across Washington
state are slowly turning their attention to what many see as the growing
potential for armed conflict between the U.S. and Iraq.

"I think people are interested and staying informed," said Western
Washington University student Nate Johnson, 26. "With Iraq, there's been a
lot more time to think about it. There's history there. There's a lot more
awareness."

But in contrast to the anti-war activism that swept many U.S. college
campuses during the Vietnam era, students in Washington haven't mobilized in
great numbers.

Johnson, a member of a student group at Western called the Associated
Students Peace Resource Center, believes that could be about to change.
Johnson and his colleagues are among many students at Washington colleges
and universities in the early stages of planning events aimed at stirring
debate in their communities.

At Seattle University, philosophy professor Gary Chamberlain, who has worked
with students to help organize several on-campus anti-war protests this
year, said interest there is on the rise.

"For some of the students, it's just a real dissatisfaction with the
American foreign policy in general," said Chamberlain, while "some of them
just look at the war and don't see a rationale for it."

But Mike Wallin, 19, a member of the University of Washington College
Republicans, said his group believes military action against Iraq is
justified. Wallin said he and others plan to publicly demonstrate their
support for Bush administration policies.

Wallin said he senses that many UW students hold similar views but that many
are reluctant to speak out because it's easier to either remain silent or
take popular positions in favor of things such as clean water, clean air or
lower college tuition. "It's easy to say all those things," Wallin said, but
this "is a war. It's not an easy thing to do."

At some campuses, discussions, sing-alongs, meetings, lectures and forums
related to the war are starting to occur more frequently. Even so, some say
the level of activism among today's college students is a far cry from what
it was for those who came of age during the civil-rights, women's rights and
Vietnam War eras.

"There was a direct sense of persecution then that there's not now," said
Seattle University music professor Jim Ragland, a self-proclaimed
anti-Vietnam War student activist in the early 1970s. "I don't find that
readiness to be outraged. It's all become very mushy."

Across town at the University of Washington, some students are attempting to
take action. Many participated in anti-war events in downtown Seattle
earlier this month, and more are expected to take part in similar events
later this month.

UW students can often be seen on campus handing out anti-war literature and
staging various demonstrations to spark interest and involvement. Jessica
Long, a senior, said she and other UW students are also working to form
coalitions with high-school and other college students in the state.

Logan Price, 19, who attends Seattle Central Community College, believes
that any U.S. military conflict with Iraq would be more about oil in the
Middle East than about Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and whether he controls
weapons of mass destruction.

"When Saddam Hussein has been on our side, we didn't have a problem with
him," Price said. "The way I see it, war is a way of securing access to a
country's resources."

Those sentiments are echoed by many at Washington State University,
according to student leaders there. But to date, there have been no large
on-campus events focused on potential military action.

"We're more of a 'discuss-it-among-ourselves' kind of community," said WSU
student-body President Scott Dickinson, 21.

Robert Marshall Wells: 206-464-2607 or rwells@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company


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