I LOVE campuses, college that is

[oly884]

So, yesterday, I arrive on campus, enjoying the beautiful weather, and especially the fact that I had 55 days (54 now) till I'm officially done with school, I noticed several thousand small orange flags littering the campus lawn.

It took me about 10 seconds before I knew why they were there.

Each flag represented a fallen United States soldier. Now, I understand there are a lot of people in this country that hate the war we are in, and hate everything about the president, but I'm getting to the point where it's becoming flat out annoying. Is there NO other side to this conflict, do people just think that the war is ONLY about oil, money, and/or WMD's?

I had asked myself the question of what would happen if I, David Olson, were to stage something to the similar scale, however referring to the freedom that we are creating, the horrible people that we are, "removing" from the world? What would the response be to that? Considering I was on campus for most of the day, I did not notice any problems, no tearing of the signs down, no ripping of the flags up. Granted, I knew many people that wanted to, but they let them have their day in the sun.

I'm not going to respond as to what I think would happen if I did it, but ask yourself of what you think would happen.

Comments, suggestions, am I just a pissed off conservative?

[localmotion]

Funny that you should mention this. Today I was walking out of my class and in the middle of campus, there were tons of shoes lined up. I thought, how weird, this is different. Well as I continued walking, I noticed it was for a campaign to stop the war. Instead of putting the shoes of the fallen soldiers out to represent how many U.S. soldiers have died, they decided to do it with the Iraqis. I was kind of livid when I saw this because U.S. citizens care more about the other countries people more than they do about ours. Don't get me wrong, I am not a die hard conservative, but I feel that our country must come first.

Maybe I am taking it the wrong way or whatever, but hell, if you don't support the war, at least support the people who are fighting it. No reason to get angry at them and protest against them. Am I wrong?

[oly884]

I agree completely.

I find it very distasteful to use the deaths of US soldiers to protest a war.

Many of my friends that are/were in the armed forces say that they feel it's honorable to die for their country and freedom, and then you have people using their deaths to do just the opposite.

Then there's the fact that I go to school for one thing, to learn. I pay my tuition to keep the campus looking nice and pay the teachers. I don't pay tuition so I can go to school to see this stuff.

I understand people don't like this war, but they need to have some damn respect for the soldiers, and their families.

[Robinhood4x4]

Did any of the shoes fit?

[localmotion]

ahahahahahhaha. I am actually sick so I just ignored them and walked away shaking my head. Next time I'll just pick them up and throw them down the sewer! or hand them out to the homeless.

[calrockx]

I'm not gonna say US citizens are inherently more important or valuable than Iraqi, but I think it's important to also not forget many have died on that side as well. The terrorist *cavalier expletive removed* I don't care about, but the innocent Iraqi casualties should not go unnoticed.

So when someone puts out flags or such to visually illustrate how many US soldiers have died, I think that makes the number hit home a little more than reading or hearing it on TV.

[localmotion]

I would have to agree with you Charles. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

I just wish they would have done the U.S. soldiers as well. Today they had the same thing go one but they also included a speaker. I did not have time to stick around, nor do I think many of the students really cared, which I think is pathetic.

[Cheese]

With respect to war, it makes me sad. I was an undergraduate at a place like Berekeley when we invaded Iraq. I loathed every day and the disrespect squandered on the priviledged.

I am a closet liberal, so bear with me. In college, being a liberal is a rallying cry, people do it because everyone does it. Crapping on the admininstration always seems the right thing to do.

With respect to a counter thing, my buddies made "Straight Pride" shirts during gay pride week. They are banned for life from the Michigan Tech Student Union.

I am sad the life is lost, I am disappointed something else was not undertaken, but I understand we are there and trying our damnedest.

[slosurfer]

How come those same protesters never talk about the # of people that were murdered there by their own gov't. before we arrived, or the genocide that could possibly take place were we to just pack up and leave. Usually I just ignore the protesters, but sometimes I will pick their brains. Like comparing the # of soldiers killed since the war started to the # of Marines killed on just one island in the Pacific. Don't get me wrong, I highly value the life of our men and women, (I have at least one friend that I know of who was KIA in Iraq), I just think that many of these kids protesting have had everything they ever wanted and they don't even care to know the history of our country. They just go with the now because they heard something from a friend who heard it from someone else who read it off of someone's blog on the internet. They don't even care to get the facts for themselves anymore.

[cootees]

With respect to a counter thing, my buddies made "Straight Pride" shirts during gay pride week. They are banned for life from the Michigan Tech Student Union.

Thats rather humurous that they made those shirts. That should not be any reason to ban them though.