Not easy being green

Robin Hood was a Communist. Or at least that's what some members of the 1954 Indiana State Textbook Commission thought. According to "What Did It Matter? The Legacy of Protest" from the IU Alumni Web site, Mrs. Thomas White, a leading member, had wished to remove Robin Hood from all student textbooks because his character had "Communist connotations." The opinions of these state officials and the widespread conservatism in postwar America catalyzed a student group, "The Green Feather Movement," which decried McCarthyism and stood as the forerunner of Indiana's student activism and protest in the 1960s. The new millennium has ushered in a world of terror and fear. But is the GFM's legacy alive at Indiana or has the era of student activism burned out?\nAlthough Indiana now has the repute of an activist student past, before the Vietnam War, Hoosier students remained relatively silent in the pursuit of social change. The G.I. Bill brought thousands of former soldiers to schools and the "silent generation" of the 1950s trickled quietly through college. By 1954 virulent anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy was at the zenith of political power. "The Green Feather Movement" only had six members. Standing alone against a storm of criticism from the administration, the conservative Bloomington local newspaper who called them "long-haired dupes," and an FBI investigation, the members of the GFM ignited criticism of slanderous anti-communism by leaving fliers and pamphlets throughout campus, and spent nights dying feathers green and spattering them around campus.\nToday's America, like the early 1950s, is gripped in fear but not by one demagogue or a "Communist menace." Citizens are reminded constantly of the impending doom of another terrorist attack. Why are there no green feathers peppering the campus? Why is it then we are engaged in war, have a sluggish economy, are inundated by reports of genocide and bombings in the developing world but still remain shrouded in silence? \nI believe the voices will come; it will simply take more time. In 1962, after almost a decade of silence, activist voices rose higher and louder. Dunn Meadow became a hotbed of daily demonstrations. The Cuban Missile Crisis inspired students to march with signs supporting President Kennedy saying, "The Hell with Fidel!" and "Block that ship!" Later, as the war in Vietnam swallowed thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese civilians, Dunn Meadow filled with students demanding an end to the conflict. Hell, in 1969 a tuition protest that added a $130 fee to in-state students led to one of IU's biggest demonstrations! Is today's student body too apathetic? Tuition for in-state students who enrolled at IU Bloomington before summer 2003 will increase 4 percent for in-state residents and 6 percent for out-of-staters! Yet, only a whisper of disapproval and grudging acceptance has come from students. \nEach year it seems more fees are introduced, parking fines rise exponentially and the IU bureaucracy becomes harder to maneuver. Why then are the college campuses paralyzed by an opium-like immobility? Maybe it is the fact that most -- although certainly not all -- students are living out of Mommy and Daddy's pocketbook. What interest is it to us if rates go up, scholarships aren't sent because of "PeopleSoft," millions in tuition disappears or genocidal war occur in a country very few students have been to? But that leads me to ask: What will our generation's legacy be in 30 years when students look in the archives or the photographic exhibits around IU? Will we be remembered simply as a new "silent generation" who were bribed into inaction? Maybe it is our younger siblings who will rise to the challenge; maybe they will be archived and written about. Either way, at the kegger on Friday, I'll bring the feathers if you bring the green paint.