My generation’s for sale,
Beats a steady job.
How much have you got?
My generation don’t trust no one,
Its hard to blame,
Not even ourselves.
The thing that’s real for us is: fortune and fame,
All the rest seems like work.
Its just like Diamonds
In shit.
-Queens of the Stoneage: I’m Designer

As of late I feel that I am practically the only person my age who is very disturbed by the tazing of an unarmed student at the University of Florida just because he asked too many questions of a US Senator. Maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole, I have spoken to a few other peers who are just as disturbed as I am; but on the whole most people my age seem completely unphased. In fact, among people my age this whole incident has turned into a massive joke. I have seen interviews with many of the students that were present at the John Kerry speech where this incident took place, and students from other areas of the country, and many of them seem to feel that the police did NOT act use excessive force! They must be out of their minds! I’m also disheartened to see that some people have actually started selling t-shirts online that say “Don’t taze me bro!” (This is what Andrew Meyer, the innocent victim, screamed out as the police officers were about to taze him). Leave it up to my generation to witness a gross violation of HUMAN RIGHTS, and then go out and mock the victim. My generation will remember this, but unfortunately it will be remembered on VH1’s “I Love the 2000’s!” There will be some third rate comedian on the screen asking if anybody remembers that jack-ass that got tazed at the University of Florida. Then they’ll laugh at it, mockingly repeat the line “Don’t taze me bro!” and then move on to the time Britney Spears had her baby taken away by the state. Nobody will remember it as a shocking example of creeping authoritarianism.
What is even more disturbing is that this is not the first such incident. Last year in November, an Iranian American student in a computer lab at UCLA was tazed multiple times by a security guard for refusing to present his student identification. When the security guard tried to remove the student from the computer lab the student went limp and dropped his weight so that he would have to be dragged out (this is a common form of non-violent resistance). When this student was on the ground, posing not physical threat, the security guard started to taze him. I have provided a link to a video of this incident below. This video is even more disturbing to watch than the one of Andrew Meyer. Mostafa Tabatabainejad, the victim in the UCLA incident, was even tazed after he was put in handcuffs. Yet, for some reason this incident did not get the same kind of media coverage as the incident in Florida. Why? I think probably because Mostafa Tabatabainejad is brown; and Andrew Meyer is white. It’s okay to oppress as many brown people as you please, but God forbid you fuck with a white kid.
Of course the really scary thing about all of this is that even if these remain isolated incidents, they got national coverage. Everybody saw this, and it is quite intimidating. I believe that this may have quite a chilling effect on those who wish to speak truth to power. Many people who would have spoke out in the past might think twice now after the Florida incident. And this all goes back to the slow and painful death of the First Amendment. Everywhere we look today our freedom of speech is being challenged. One only needs to look at Congress’s condemnation of Moveon.org’s “General Betray Us” ad in the New York Times to see what I’m talking about. Although such a condemnation has no real legal authority it is still a clear message from congress to the American people that if you question the authority of our government you may suffer.
Another thing we can look at to see how free speech is being challenged is when you listen closely to the rhetoric of the proto-fascists in our government. George Bush always says that it’s okay to disagree with the war as long as it is done so “responsibly.” What the fuck does he mean by responsibly? Does he mean by not screwing up and saying things like this war is a crusade so as not to enrage the worlds billion or so muslims? Oops, George Bush already did that.
Or how about the whole flap over the honesty of the Dixie Chicks when they criticized President Frat Boy for his invasion of Iraq? Their songs were banned from hundreds of radio stations across the country. They received death threats and couldn’t your in this country for years. And for what? For speaking their minds
There have been countless other incidents like this over the past six years, but there are too many to list here. But we are still the United States of America, right? We still believe in our rights and freedoms, right? The people will stand up, right? No, they won’t. And you know why? Because it is my generation that is going to be coming to power over the next decade, and we just don’t give a shit because “It doesn’t affect me.” Half of my generation can’t even name any of our Founding Fathers, so how the hell are we going to expect them to stand up for our principles?
My generation is apathetic, disinterested, and really quite ignorant. It only takes one generation to throw out over 200 years of progress. It’s easy to throw something out that you have forgotten about.

Brian Lehrer

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/011606.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g7zlJx9u2E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/16/ucla-student-tased-repeat_n_34272.html