Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative
Subject: As It Fell Upon A Day: Part 9
Message-ID: <1ke8khINNaa0@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
From: aa811@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Terri M. Librande)
Date: 30 Jan 1993 15:59:13 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu
Lines: 94


Al was watching from the back of the room.  He could see Blanket Hill
from the windows.  The Guard was already lined up out there.  Some had 
their helmets off and Al could see, with a pang, how young most of the
soldiers were.  Kids killing kids, he thought.  His fingers worked the
link, trying to pull his mind from other memories, of other kids forced
to fight.

Sam turned from the blackboard.  Picking up the chalk, he wrote a huge
"US," walked to the other side of the board and wrote "THEM".  

"This isn't the theories of Aristotle," he said, and a nervous laugh rose
from the class.  "I thought today we'd discuss the current situation.  From
the looks on your faces, I can see it's the topic of the day."

Kids sat up, sleep-filled eyes opened.

"We have a general state of emergency going on here."  He gestured toward the
window.  "As you can see, we have the Guard, the police, and everything they
can throw at you out there.  In general, a police state.  Them."  His 
fingers tapped the word on the board.  "I would like to know, from you, why they
are here and what caused this chain of events."

"The war."  A delicate-looking girl with long blonde hair spoke up.  "We 
were invoking our right to assemble and they sent in the Guard."

"It goes a little, uh, deeper than that."  Sam remembered the smashed
windows and vandalized buildings of the downtown area, and the frightened
face of Mrs. Gray.  He knew if he tried to advance the other point of view,
he'd lose these kids before he got started.  Glancing at Al, he found no
help there.  "Plain and simple, what do we do?  They are taking away your
civil rights, in much the same way as Blacks were denied theres and still
are, in some cases.  This is past the stage of students shouting 'Peace'
and 'End the War'.  We have martial law here, and curfews."
"Like in Russia, man."

"Okay, but there's cause and effect.  Artie?"

Anger crossed the boys face.  "We may have blown it Friday night.  Burning
down the ROTC was a mistake.  They say they brought in the Guard to keep 
the peace, but that 's a crock.  We broke a few windows, but anger does that.
Right?"

"You've probably been told, at one time or another, that anger solves 
nothing.  'They' don't see it as a 'gesture'.  It's considered, by
establishment standards, as simple destruction of property.  Materialism."
He studied his audience.  "There'
"There's a rally at noon, right?"

A few students nodded, one or two saying, "Right on," gesturing with their
fists.

"If every person on this campus knows about it, don't you think the Guard
does, too?"

Silence.  Sam noticed all eyes looking to the windows, except Al's.  His
attention was on the link.  Tightening his lips, Sam walked to the window,
back to the Guard.  "And what do you think they'll do when you 'unlawfully
assemble'?  Shrug it off and call it a day?  Pack up their guns and tear
gas and
clear out?  Is it worth standing up to them and going to jail, or worse,
in the process?"

"It doesn't matter to them," a black kid not far from Sam said.  "But it
does to us.  They are the ones here illeagally."

"How many of you are willing to die for your freedom?"  The faces in
front of Sam were stone.  None of them would believe that students would die
here today, even if he told them.  
And until they were confronted with the reality of the deaths, it wouldn't
sway their determination anyway.  "Okay, maybe you can't die for the
cause, but can live for it?  Each of you is responsible for the next 
generation of students.  This is more than protesting a curfew or shaking
fists at authority.  What you do here today may affect history and what
other people later on read about this series of events.  Do you want to cme
out of this sounding like a bunch of whiny, spoiled children, or people
that stood by their cause and won?"

Al understood what Sam was getting at, even if the class seemed confused.
He wasn't against the war, but for the students to exercise their right to
assemble in a calm manner.  It wouldn't change the Event, but it might make
some of the kids think about the way they handled themselves.  It could be
an influence they wouldn't forget.

Artie leaned over his desk.  "Dr. Barry, it's the war, and the anger that
causes people to lose control.  I read in TIME that a whole generation--
our generation--is dying in Cambodia."


more to come
-- 
"Unscrupulous--but effective!"  Al in "Starcrossed"
Terri Librande aa811@cleveland.Freenet.edu  Assistant Sysop
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Sig--Go SCIFI