Just a cursory glance over some of the letters that seem to take issue with what Nancy Kalish has to say about homework reinforces what she has to say about our general atitude towards homework.

I don't know if these people remember when they were kids, but I do, and I remember homework, and I remember knowing it was, for the most part, a waste of time. Kids are not stupid, and when you assign them 40+ math problems, or tell them they have to write down which chapters they read, along with reading them, they know they're digging ditches and filling them back in. I'm sorry, but just because it come's home from school in bookbags, doesn't mean that it's nessecarily important.

So Goddamn funny.

"In his frustration with the conflict, and desire to do something, he is deluding himself into thinking he is making a difference. He is not."

Bingo.

The thing I hate most about those magnetic yellow ribons is not the conceit of the message ("Look at me! I support the troops, unlike everybody else!) or the subtext ("Shut up about the war."), it's the thought that putting this thing on your car actually does anything for the soldiers in Iraq. Displaying this ribbon takes a miniscule amount of effort. They are in fact, magnetic, so you don't even have to spend 45 minutes or so with some Goo-Gone to take it off. Is this starting to sound similar to what Joseph DeLappe is doing in America's Army?

I have a BA in Fine Art, and I think I "get" comtemporary and modern art. Art does not nessecarily take effort or craft, but labeling the act of posting messages on an in-game chat channel as art stretches even this rather loose definition past the breaking point. America's Army is really just another forum, not unlike a street corner or the editorial page of a newspaper. If what DeLappe does in America's Army is art, then so is what I'm doing right now.

As far as political statements or activist statements go, it is, but so what. This is the internet we're talking about, after all, and provacative messages, whether the motivation is political or just to piss people off, are common.

The closest thing to a common experience all three generations born after World War II have had is the constant and relentless message that we shouldn't have to wait for anything, everything should be convenient, and everything should be easy. Recently, when President Bush was asked about why the American people had not been asked to sacrafice anything in either the war in Iraq or the war on terror, he answered that we had, indeed, been making a sacrafice; we had been paying taxes. Our burning desire to avoid any personal sacrafice, be it of safety (or the the illusion of total safety), of life and limb, or the loss of prestige, was the raison d’être for the Iraq war in the first place. To me, this is the same mentality that confuses posting messages on the internet as an important anti-war statement. In another time, DeLappe's act could be seen as comment on this pervasive attitude; holding an electronic protest placard in a simulation of a war. But nowadays, with real people dying, and a nation filled with people making token gestures, it hardly seems remarkable.

The paragraph that starts off "Does it take courage to protest a war? I sincerely doubt it."

"Obviously it does not take courage to protest, it just takes a fad."

"I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that you ever actually feared for your safety or freedom while criticizing the American government."

Do people beleive these things? What you're basically saying is that because it safe to protest in this country, it is wrong to do so, especially if it somehow offends one's sensibilities. I'll certainly admit that some people protest to go along with the crowd, but what's the bigger "fad"? The protests, or how got into this war in the first place? I don't know if anyone remembers, but we went in to Iraq because we were scared stupid by 9/11, and we were scared stupid enough to beleive any cock-and-bull story that the administration was willing to spin out for us. Where's the courage in that? Where, pray, is the courage in sending other people's sons and daughters to die based on a hunch?

Maybe it doesn't take any courage to protest. I disagree. Let's try a thought experiment. You say you're against this war, that it was a mistake. Now imagine a conversation with a VFW member - he got a purple heart in WW II, he has trhe cap, and the flag pin - the whole nine yards. And he asks you what you think of the war. What are you going to say? Do you think it doesn't take courage to politely and respectfully tell the truth about your beliefs?