Six Pepperdine students sat and talked about life’s uncertainty as
the first generation in nearly 60 years to see a war in their own backyard.
Interviewed by Nikki Pedersen
Special to The Malibu Times
Steve Mock, 20, Malibu campus ministry intern
“As far as U.S. government actions towards foreign policy, in relation to the nation and us as students, we’re going to see huge changes. With the threat of terrorism, different alliances will be forged. We have 25 percent of the world’s wealth; we use 25 percent of the world’s resources, yet we’re only 3 percent of the world’s population. It gives us a very biased view. I don’t agree with going to war. But at the same time, to allow a (terrorist) group of people to kill thousands of people and not do anything about it, is stating politically that those people have the power, and they’re allowed to do that without anything happening to them.”
Breton Phillips, 21, Campus ministry intern
“Being a business administration major, I’m conscious of the fallout from the terrorists and how it’s affecting businesses. It’s a huge travesty that goes beyond the WTC. Look at the airlines and how they’ve experienced huge losses–the thousands of layoffs. It will affect social services and put a strain on the system. Then look at tourism; in Los Angeles County, I heard L.A.’s losing $20 million a day. The stock market has fallen. And think about reservists being called up, how they won’t be at their regular jobs. A doctor could be called up at any moment, and his hospital’s not going to have him anymore. I still don’t think we should make war against Afghanistan, because the terrorists don’t represent the whole country.”
Lee Diaz, 20,
Member of Young Life, Political Science/ sociology major
“From a political science point of view it’s very much a time to be watching the news. There’s been a lot of political cohesion, a lot of bipartisan actions taken, which is amazing. One swift action against the country brought everybody together, and even though something this harsh brought a change, it’s made us think about what is justice. In our country, justice is getting these people who caused the terror in our lives, whereas in their viewpoint, justice might already have been served.”
Annalise Brock, 22, International studies.
“I’m concerned with people in this nation stepping up and taking responsibility–not for what happened, but for helping and loving others in this country. Also, to love other people from other countries. On campus it’s especially important, because there are a lot of international students, many of them from the Middle East. A lot of them have felt threatened. I’ve heard a lot of anger from people interviewed by the media, but we don’t know how the media’s manipulated us. Our perspective as Americans is completely different–we’re at the top of the pyramid of power. As students, we’re taught to look at different perspectives. Our perspective is not the world’s–it’s the American perspective.”
Carlina Johnson, 18
Why do we want to go to war so badly? We know that’s not a way to solve problems, because of the deep strides we’ve made in the past to avoid that. I think we’re really contradicting ourselves, and it’s an important time in our nation to really understand what we want–as head officials and as citizens–whether people who are strongly against the war really will have a voice.