July 5, 2007 - Peter, Paul, and Mary where are you? Where have you gone, Pete Seeger? The last time we were hip deep in the Big Muddy and the damn fool said to go on you were there. You were there to call on our reason; to call on our consciences and to remind us that the score was National Guard – Four and Kent State – Nothing while the flowers had all gone to Vietnam. There were 12 riders in the gloom when The Limeliters brought the First Battalion home. Where are the new protest songs now that we are neck deep in the Big Muddy and a new damn fool Texan is in charge? Oh sure, there are the Dixie Chicks but they are fighting their own battles with their songs. Yes, there is Larry McMurtry but he only sings about economics mentioning the war only in passing. Nobody is asking, “War! What’s it good for?” The Boss records the Seeger Sessions and it is only nostalgia. Where are the patriots of protest today?

They don’t march anymore; brandishing burning draft cards. There are no draft cards to burn. Then graduation meant that they handed your diploma to you with one hand and your induction notice with the other. You took one step forward, swore to defend the Constitution and the next stop was Vietnam. Unless, of course, you wormed your way into grad school and another student deferment or you were the son of a congressman who got you a safe billet in the National Guard.

Today the kids who signed up for the National Guard to pay for an overpriced college education find out that they bought a one way ticket to Baghdad with their enlistment. They are marching alright but it is to the beat sounded out on a Pentagon drum. Country Joe, where did you go? Swear to defend the Constitution? What Constitution? It is gone with Presidential Directives; wiped away with a sheaf of signing statements.

The score has risen with the times. More than 3500 came home in boxes. More than 25,000 with arms and legs and minds shot away but it is quiet on America’s campuses. A generation ago Vietnam stared the students in the face. Today all they see is the career they are aiming for, and the SUV and the price of gas because it is not their war. Someone else is fighting it. Someone else is coming home with a lifetime left behind in the heat and the dust. Today there are other priorities.