Behind the student protest

I am a freshman at Laguna Beach High School. On Tuesday, March 25, I

joined a group of 70 or so fellow students to protest the war in

Iraq.

Our goal in doing so was to bring publicity to our cause. I wanted

my fellow students to stop saying “Only those old people protest.”

This summer I will turn 15 years old. I am not an elderly person, and

I am not politically unconscious.

You made a comment in your story (“Students take to street,”

March 28, Coastline Pilot) that there were an equal number of

supporting honks for both the antiwar protesters and the pro-war

protesters. In reality there were quite a few more honks for those in

favor of peace. You also made a comment that the antiwar protesters

left early, but did not tell the people why. We left early because

the wonderful woman who came to talk to us from the Saturday protests

was giving a speech. In the days before the walkout, my Spanish

teacher, Jim Garvey, told us that we shouldn’t “waste our class time”

and that we should walkout at lunch. Although in theory we shouldn’t

have left class, you don’t make the newspapers by standing around at

lunch. Sometimes it is important to break rules in order to

accomplish your goals and stand up for what you believe in.

Many students in Laguna Beach have difficulty accepting opinions

which they themselves do not hold. I was once called a terrorist by a

fellow student because I do not believe in saluting the American

flag. It is about time that we teach our children not to be afraid of

differences but to embrace them. I grew up in Los Angeles where

children no longer see color, sexual preference, religion or

political views as something that separates us. In fact diversity is

what brings us together.

I know that there is a very blatant gay community in Laguna Beach;

maybe it is about time that members of this community reached out to

help gay children through the hardships they encounter. At the school

I attended in Los Angeles there were places to go that supported

diversity. In fact we had a diversity club, as well as a gay rights

club for people of all sexual preferences, a debate team, and

lectures on accepting all religions. Sooner or later the children of

Laguna Beach should realize that most people in the world aren’t

heterosexual, Republican, Caucasian Christians.

* EMILY BRAVEMAN is a Laguna Beach High student and Laguna Beach

resident.