Street protests, to me, are always equal parts inspirational and disappointing. Even here in the "People's Republic of Lawrence," Kansas, a progressive island in a sea of reactionary, militarist red, only about forty folks showed up. Most were older hippie-types, though a sprinkling of twenty-something socialists and intersectional justice activists were visible in the crowd. The one notably absent demographic – in the largest university town in the state – was students! It was, frankly, and embarrassment to the storied University of Kansas (KU) as an institution.

What a far cry, a shameful fall from grace, for a college and city that was a veritable war zone in the aftermath of President Nixon's Cambodia invasion and the killing of four students at Kent State University. Hundreds, then thousands, protested. The student union building was burned, gunfire exchanged with the police, the National Guard called in, and the entire city placed under curfew for a few days. Indeed, little Lawrence was, for years, a flashpoint city in the anti-Vietnam War movement.