0 'a 4B Wednesday, November 7S 2012 // he Statement Wednesday, November 7, 2012 // The Statement The moderator talks into the microphone - testing, one, two, yep, much better. The audience wanders from the coffee machines back to their seats. It's the first full day of the University's Port Huron Statement conference, this two-part work- shop, one-part reunion honoring the 50th anniver- sary of the New Left manifesto. Under the chandeliers of the Michigan Union Pendleton Room, seven students in blazers and button-ups gather to discuss the impact of the doc- ument. More importantly, they're talking about the students of the 60s, our can't-stop, won't-stop predecessors that shook this campus - shook the ideas of any campus, really - until it was blue in the face. The whole thing makes them uneasy. "The 60s were a time of huge social change - you know, with rallies and protests," one of the panelists says. "We just don't have that anymore." Another student chimes in, "It's obvious that* people are angry today. What's not so obvious is if anyone willtake their frustrations past Facebook." The student on the end grabs the microphone. "In comparison, nothing we do today is good enough." An exasperated generational sigh hovers over the panel. Not because the groups these panel. ists represent aren't important. Not because they aren't trying. As the discussion of the differences between them - the take-it-to-the-streets stu- dents of the 60s and us - come to a close, it's clear. We're fighting a bigger monster of apathy. And we have no idea how to kill it. The audience senses it too. "You know, I really feel bad for your generation," an old during questions. "You have no mov have all these issues, and no movemej know what's the problem? You have nt A kid sitting in front of me adjust, shirt, revealing the familiar motto hi his hood - Michigan, home to the leadt When did that promise start to ring: "Not the compromised second For a 50-year-old document, the : Statement looks pretty young. Of course, the references to the Cc the suppressed black vote give it som But on the whole, the Statement's abi tle up and explode the student cond frustrated, fed-up, but conscious c+ hasn't withered over the last half-cer the first sentence on, it's hard to reat without thinking someone yanked tb frustration out of your brain and tran hell out of it. "We are the people of this gene: Statement begins, "bred in at least n fort, housed inuniversities, lookingun to the world we inherit." Drop the book. That subtle "uncc - there's something about it that j Because maybe when you're in the mi second procrasti-shower of the day, in line at 7-11, you remember - ther beyond that calculus exam. It's a big side our Ann Arbor bubble, and good; was gone. rtably hard to But the energy was not. The anti-war move for it - yugen, exploded, the fight for racial equality intens iggers respons- And the students were there, working unde >rds. Today we presumption that something's gotta chang y nonexistent." their minds, they were the ones who could fix ary and real to Here's where the original audience takes a from today's reader. By and large, the student Left's defining at least, the thousands involved in Students ss the political Democratic Society, thought they could do s save called it a thing about this cluster-fucked world. Dr too-ambitious of the democratic Shangri-La may have died David Horow- participatory democracy - the cornerstonea >nscious effort Statement - did not. from its Soviet And as for students today? We still look un ologies, just for fortably to:the world, but with muchiless optin ychic power to "Protesting is just a little too inconveni hat a manifesto says Rory Cahill, an LSA senior who helped c gripes, but the nize the conference. "You've got to finish your sis and get a job." o business-as- "That's where the emphasis is now," Cahill ference to the "Not on social change, but on staying afloat." t rel Efirmation to the if you prefer - "You want ecstatic experiences he controversial "You know, we were in a period that's tatement and its Hayden says between a sip of coffee. "It rea t, romanticized. seem like we could do anything. But it was s dissemination of that it's hard to say much more than that." ation of John F. We're sitting in the alcove off the An< the biggie - the room in the Union. A makeshift bookshe To borrow from put together here, displayingsome of the 20 who drafted the Hayden has written over the last40 years. .e utopian vision half-hour or so I'm with Hayden, several See LOST GENERATION, P "