Good morning America!

Now it’s time for another episode of… Operation Iraqi Freedom!

Today we’ll analyze how oil prices will change after we drop another 1,000 bombs over Baghdad. We’ll talk with troops to see how they feel now that they are facing sand storms and heat exhaustion. Then we’ll check out those supply line problems that have forced soldiers on the front to cut back to two meals per day!

Sound all too familiar? Turn on your television and you’ll see the latest patented version of the “War with Iraq”, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” or “Bombs over Baghdad”. There’s a new phrase coined everyday.

Is the government using the war with Iraq as some kind of sick reality television show to boost their approval ratings?

After watching this new show that premiered two weeks ago, it is hard to decipher the hopes of war planners from reality. As war coverage becomes more twisted, it is hard to know what to feel and how to react to what we are seeing.

…And speaking of seeing, we’ll see you right back here, tomorrow, for more of “Saturation Coverage!”

You can see the effect of the coverage on campus. When the war began, students at Sac State gathered to protest in the library quad, listening to speakers and anti-war songs. Other students around the country protested as well. Berkeley students gathered and blocked access to the Bay Bridge. Some protesters even traveled to the Middle East to physically block the troops.

But, no longer is the war a spectacle anywhere but on television and a few liberal hold out hot spots, like San Francisco. Our campus has gone silent.

For all of us students who are nestled in the security of Sacramento suburbs and for those of us lucky enough to have not seen loved ones sent off to Iraq, what do we do now? Are we just giving up the fight for our beliefs?

…We’ll be back after another commercial break, sponsored by supporters of the Bush Administration…

Now that the bombs are falling, protesting can seem like a lost cause. Antiwar demonstrators seem like they are just whining. Bush has his own agenda, and when he sees crowds shutting down San Francisco streets, he thinks, “Wouldn’t vote for me, anyway.”

So here’s my plea. Remember the war next year. Do what hundreds of protests can’t do.

Vote Bush out of office.

It isn’t dramatic. It doesn’t attract a crowd or get you on TV. It doesn’t give you an arrest story to tell your kids someday. But it works.

Citizens ages 18-24 comprise nearly 27 million of the U.S. population, yet only nine million of us voted in the November 2000 election. That’s pathetic. We have no room to complain about the current state of affairs if we did not vote. How many of the people who are taking to the streets now will take the time to vote next year?

Part of what Bush is banking on is that young adults love to throw rocks but don’t cast ballots.

So here’s to hoping that the war ends soon, that TV returns to normal… and that everyone remembers how divisive Bush’s policy has been.

…We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…

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