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Horn: What are Battle Dress Uniforms doing on campus?


The Army ROTC detachment at ASU wears camouflage BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) on campus every day. Between the cadets who wear their "cammies" on Tuesdays and Thursdays and their active duty trainers who seem to wear BDUs almost everyday, at times they make the campus look and feel like a military encampment.

The other week, the Army ROTC was out on Hayden Lawn marching around in a very vocal and visual way. As a peace activist and concerned student, I thought it appropriate to dissent, considering what I saw as the increasing militarization of our college campus. And so I made an effort to try to discuss this issue with the cadre while eating my lunch on the watchtower steps.

Without disturbing their little military maneuver, I tried to make my point, but instead, one of their cadre threatened physical harm. They eventually promised to have me arrested by what they insisted were military police.

"See," I said, "as soon as anyone questions your authority you resort to brute force, and you prove my point about the dangers of militarization on campus."

In effect, I feel that we Americans are too quickly giving up all of our hard-fought civil liberties so that we can receive a little presumed protection against terrorism. As new revisions to the Patriot Act come about, there is very little resistance to the George W. Bush administration's attempts to gain even more control.

Under the loose wording of these revisions, anyone who dissents in the future (belonging to a monitored or suspicious peace/activist group) could now be labeled a terrorist. Remember, Bush said, "You are either with us or against us." Further, people can now be detained indefinitely without any charges being brought against them, and can even have their citizenship taken away.

Is this the America I grew up in, or is it something else? Did all of these changes since Sept. 11, 2001, (or for that matter, the early '80s) happen gradually in front of our collective eyes?

If America feels we are at war -- a very different kind of war, so we are told -- and that we must never question the troops and what they do or how they do it, then we relinquish our democracy in favor of a de facto military state.

In Orwell's "1984," Winston observes that people have the ability to fight amongst themselves over material possessions with tremendous vigor.

But he further notes, a "frightening [cry of] power" from their throats emerged, as he wonders why they cannot show such concerns about the political situation. In a moment of inspiration he observes, "Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious."

After the militarization of American universities, in particular the Kent State and Jackson State campuses in the '70s, college students rose up in various acts of defiance and the Army shot them down and murdered them in cold blood. No authority figure or soldier was ever brought to justice and these despicable acts of extreme violence against civilians stand today as a stark reminder of how far an unchecked military will go to seek their own ends. My fear is that it may be too late for us as history seems to be repeating itself.

Just as the Germans experienced when the Nazis set their Parliament on fire and the media-amplified fear convinced the populace that special emergency steps were needed -- we also may have passed the threshold. And since the '60s, we in America have lost the very spirit that has always been our strength. It was gained by the struggles of the '60s and '70s -- calling things into question, and protesting the militarization of college campuses. Unfortunately for all, not only are we not conscious of this fact, but we seemingly lack the very fundamentals to resist this oppression.

Am I wrong? Great! I hope so. But let us see then where we are after another four years, and see if we are any better off by that time. And if I am wrong it will be interesting to see if we have all collectively opened up our eyes to the fact that, "Hey, we are all under military control! How did we get to this point?"

Simple, I'll say. We forgot that in order to live in a relatively free and democratic society that we must question everyday seemingly innocuous things as why there are BDUs on campus.

Patrick V. Horn is a justice studies student. Reach him at patrick.vonhorn@asu.edu.


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