What is protesters’ true motivation?

In 1968, many college students marched at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. As much as the public remembers Mayor Daley, he had no interest in arresting college students from Illinois. If one was arrested, he was immediately released from jail. Even local Chicago comedian Dick Gregory was arrested, but immediately released.

Many great individuals were in Chicago because of their conscientious objection to the war in Vietnam. College students on deferment didn’t see any point on going to Southeast Asia to die, if our government didn’t seem to be intent on winning.

Most of the college students in Chicago were of this ilk. They were demonstrating for their lives. When one group started marching from Lincoln Park to the Amphitheatre, a police officer fired his gun into the air and everyone scattered. These students were not hard core anti-war, SDS, Yippie activists. They were just exerting their constitutional right to make a statement against an immoral war.

Now it is 2024, 56 years since the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and the convention is returning to Chicago this summer. Currently, on several college campuses pro-Palestinian demonstrations and violent protests are taking place. One interesting aspect is that even the mainline media is admitting that many of the demonstrators are not even college students on that campus.

Are there that many Palestinian students in America? Do that many students hate Jews? Is Israel the only country that they are demanding that their university divest investments from?

The demonstrations against the war in Vietnam were not only ideological, the demonstrators were also deeply concerned about their physical lives.

Thus, this author has to wonder what the real motivation of the student protesters may be. And especially, what the motivation of the “outside agitators” really is.

Bruce Sutchar

Hanover Park