Political Activist Tom Hayden Speaks with Students
http://tsl.pomona.edu/new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=999:political-activist-tom-hayden-speaks-with-students&catid=28:life-a-style&Itemid=80
By Katie Gosewehr
April 08, 2010
Visiting Professor Tom Hayden is a former student activist who helped
organize Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, wrote
the organization's manifesto, the Port Huron statement, and later
served as a state assemblyman and senator for California. According
to Mark Golub, Assistant Professor of Politics and International
Relations at Scripps College, Hayden has "expanded our understanding
of what democracy is," in his 17 books, including Ending the War in
Iraq, as well as in his work for the Los Angeles Times.
Needless to say, Hayden is a man with opinions. In his casual yet
powerful speech at Malott Commons on Mar. 25, and in a recent
interview, he shared his perspective on the Long War, student culture
today, and our generation's contributions to society.
In addition to his social activism and political and writing careers,
Hayden has taught at Pitzer College and Occidental College. This
semester, Hayden joined Scripps College as a visiting professor.
"I think I'm a teacher by nature and by background," Hayden said. "I
use the class to deepen and sharpen something that I'm working on.
Students have a way of knowing that is different than mine. They have
different generational experience."
Hayden currently teaches one class on gang violence and one on what
he calls the Long War負he wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan
that he predicts will last 50 to 80 years. He published Street Wars:
Gangs and the Future of Violence in 2004, and a lengthy article of
his on the Long War appeared in the LA Times on Mar. 28.
At his Mar. 25 talk, entitled "Waking up to the Long War," Hayden
presented two articles in progress苑oth to be published in the LA
Times苔nd asked the audience to give him feedback on his work.
Hayden went on to share his recent research and ask for the
audience's input. "I'm interested in the give and take of arguments
rather than my own opinions right now," he said.
The first article he shared was a draft of an op-ed piece that was
subsequently published in the LA Times on Mar. 28. The second was an
open letter to Osama bin Laden in which he asks bin Laden to
recognize the anti-war sentiment prevalent in American public opinion
and to pursue long-term peace.
In the former article, Hayden develops the notion of a 50- to
80-year, undeclared "Long War" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan
that will likely cost trillions of dollars.
"It dawned on me there was a doctrine emerging from think tanks: the
doctrine of the Long War," said Hayden. With his current work
focusing on the Long War, he emphasized the excessive cost of such a
war and the hidden nature of the policy debate.
"It's remarkable if students are curious at all," Hayden said. "Even
more remarkable if they are involved in this war that is by design
isolated from them."
Hayden cites the lack of a draft, the relatively low number of
casualties, and the open nature of college campuses today as reasons
why protest against the Long War isn't comparable to, for example,
students' anti-Vietnam War efforts in the 1960s. "My class [on the
Long War] wouldn't have been taught back then," he said.
However, that is not to say that our generation has not effected
change in other ways. He points to Barack Obama's election to the
presidency, increased awareness of global warming, and the cultural
phenomenon of hip hop as ways in which today's college students have
contributed to society. "Each generation is original," he said, "but
also carries an imprint of past generations."
Hayden notes that only one student in his Long War class will
directly engage with the war in the form of deployment. By contrast,
Hayden's highly popular gang violence class has been participatory in
a way that the other course could not be: students recently visited a
rehabilitation facility, and he has brought in six or eight speakers
to add different perspectives to the class.
Hayden believes that students are drawn to the issue of gang violence
by our generation's music and culture, which are closely connected to
the street culture. He also notes the fact that those being
imprisoned for gang violence are often college-aged, so the issue
hits close to home for his students.
"How has this country gotten to a point where people of the same age
might end up sitting in the sun on Scripps' campus, or else at a
juvenile hall somewhere?" Hayden asked. "The people who are locked up
are young負hat's why students have a generational affinity for this,
one of the greatest puzzles of our time."
.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
