Bertram Online on children taking part in anti-war protests:
They grow up fast now, don?t they, those teens and even pre-teens. They constitute one of the fastest growing segments as consumers, what with designer clothes, mobile phones, fast food, computer games, and so forth, and so forth. They dress like adults, and are sucked into a highly sexualized universe even before their bodies are ready ? once Christina Aguilera gets to be the role model for 10-year old girls, you know something has changed. Of course, some parents voice concerns, but I don?t see the general public and the media being all that concerned. Heck, it is business, ain?t it?
In the last couple of weeks, they have also been the core group of the anti-war demonstrators. Now, that is not funny. ?Child abuse in the name of war? cries one pundit, and goes on to say that he is upset by all these innocent kids being abused and coaxed by misguided adults (probably adults who have infected by the ?pest of pacifism?, as one spectacularly stupid local politician phrases it). Which must mean that he thinks that those kids are not able to think for themselves?