Dating back to the Vietnam War, protesters have been a problem to American society. War protesters can affect almost anyone, even me. Spring break of my freshman year in high school, my family and I took a vacation to California. Unfortunately, the week of spring break was the week that the major battles in Operation: Iraqi Freedom broke out. We took one of San Francisco's famous trolley rides late at night to view parts of the city. About half an hour into it, the trolley stopped at Union Square, and we were dropped off to await pickup by a bus. The trolley could take us no further due to the protesters ahead. The normal route ran through Market Street, which was where rioters were protesting. Standing outside of the barricaded Union Square, I looked up at the sky, and heard the loud noise of helicopters, and saw them flying overhead, en route to Market Street. When the busses did not arrive, it took my family at least half an hour to figure out how to get back to the station. This event was unnecessary, and angered me. The violence of anti-war protesters is getting out of hand, and is having a negative impact, not only to the well being of the city they are in and its tourists, but the city's economy.
The Anti-War movement's roots date back to 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson began his bombing campaign against North Vietnam. It was here that words like "pacifist", "draft-dodger", "draft card burnings", "sit-ins", and "free love" became part of America's everyday vocabulary. This was the start of the "hippie generation", "sexual revolution", and the drug culture. The huge movement in America even caused soldiers in Vietnam to support it, in fear of their lives, and their future. They started wearing peace symbols, and disobeying orders. Most likely, guess that if they had paid a little more attention to their orders, and less on peace, we would not have had such a great loss of soldiers in Vietnam.
