Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Forty years ago, students were asking people to make love, not war.

While many students today may not identify with this '60s mantra, some - like freshman letters and sciences major Robert Riker - are discovering just how closely they are linked with their parents' generation through a series of films hosted by Beyond the Classroom, a living and learning program on the campus.

Through the films, the two-semester undergraduate program aims to teach students leadership skills and engage them in social change.

"As people become increasingly more unhappy with the situation in Iraq, we can try and use what happened in 1968 to help facilitate change," Robert said.

Robert's father, James Riker, is the director of Beyond the Classroom and wants to stress to his son and other students the impact "people power" can have. These lessons are most important to learn during national convention years and election years, and even during turbulent national times such as the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq, Robert said. By using films such as American Revolution 2: The Vietnam War Protests, the film shown Monday, James says Beyond the Classroom can demonstrate to students the importance of social activism.

And Robert, who attended the film's screening, said it caused him to think differently about "looking at peace and war, and the ways people can change government both locally and nationally."

American Revolution 2 depicts the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. During that time, the whole world was watching the Vietnam War protests, James said, making the film a fitting choice for the program's purpose. The film was screened Monday night in South Campus Commons Building 1 to a crowd of students, many of whom said during a discussion after the film that they could see similarities between the Vietnam War and the current war in Iraq.

Freshman government and politics major Jon Berger, who is a member of College Park Students for a Democratic Society, said the film inspired him to continue his work with the organization. SDS recently held two student marches against the war, Berger said.

"The goal of the street marches is to give students and youth who don't feel empowered a sense of empowerment, so that they can take action and change the world," Berger said.

After watching masses of college students passionately displaying the peace sign and being beaten for their beliefs, students attending the film screening said something should have been learned from the Vietnam protests.

"It interests me considerably, both in hindsight [of] what should have been done differently and applying it to the present and what lessons should be learned," said freshman government and politics major Michael Novello, who is the treasurer of STAND, a campus group against genocide. "It's troubling that only when something goes wrong does it get media attention."

mkcleve@umd.edu

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