Many anti-war Americans recently have attempted to focus on our increasingly bleak domestic picture, one that finds far too many citizens unemployed, debt-ridden or without access to health care. Iraq, for some, has become an elaborate distraction, keeping America’s attention glued to easy targets of traditional “evil,” instead of the evils of poverty, inequality and injustice here at home.
It requires extreme skepticism to classify this as the primary motivation for the administration’s current agenda, but it is undeniable that a focus on all things international leads to a less thorough, and discriminating, look at all things domestic. Inattention to matters of domestic concern has frightening potential consequences.
We must, therefore, be conscious of this tendency to ignore “lesser evils” during times of crisis. Otherwise, those in power will almost certainly take advantage of the distracted voting populace to push forward with initiatives that would receive widespread critique and attention during times of peace.
Politicians will toss around two major proposals during the upcoming state Legislative session, which will convene, in all likelihood, against the backdrop of an American-led Middle Eastern military conflict. One is an attempt, spearheaded by the Tiger Athletic Foundation and athletic department, to give TAF control of an unlimited number of seats in Tiger Stadium and the right to charge an indefinite surcharge for the rights to said seats. The other seeks to ban all 18-to-20-year-olds from any bars or clubs where alcohol is served.
The traditional “kid in a candy store” comparison would be grossly inadequate to describe a Louisiana Legislature, running at full throttle, with little or no oversight from a war-weary public. If the upcoming session receives as much attention in Louisiana as, say, the medical malpractice crisis in the Northeast or the conviction of licensed medical marijuana grower Ed Rosenthal in California (virtually none whatsoever), thousands of students may find themselves victims of groundless age discrimination, yet again, and tens of thousands of loyal Tiger fans may find themselves watching future home football games on PayPerView.
The timing for the groups pushing these proposals could not be more perfect. Both involve issues which affect the lives of countless Louisianans and LSU students, but which pale in comparison to issues of terrorism, biological toxins and global warfare.
In times of relative peace and prosperity, policymakers would respect the objections and opinions of ticket-holders or fun-seeking teenagers and judge them on their merits. In the midst of a bloody conflict, however, the complaints of these groups will most likely be met with a resounding “who cares.”
It would seem to be exponentially more difficult to find motivation to take a stand on such “secondary” issues when war is a daily reality. But the motivation should, in fact, be easier to muster in the midst of bloodshed. If American troops losing their lives to protect our rights as citizens in a free, democratic society is not enough justification to exercise our rights to the fullest, surely nothing will be.
We must ensure that our time-tested political process, which must involve input and criticism from the average citizen, does not fall victim to a tragic apathy masquerading as concern for the things that “really matter.”