View - Digital DU

The Denver media called it a shantytown and a makeshift commune whileChancellor Mitchell christened it a ''mushrooming squatter's camp",but those who built and rebuilt Woodstock West, nation of peace andfreedom, on the sprawling lawns of the University of Denver last spring,were not squatters. They were students. Students grown tired of a war theycould not understand, let alone defend. Students horrified and frightenedby the deaths of six of their peers who also said they were tired of thisbrutal war. Students who learned in a few fleeting hours that their homesin suburbia and a round-trip ticket to Europe are not what makes lifedecent. And these were, most importantly, students frustrated to thebreaking point because they realized that, even three thousand strong,they could not do as much to determine their own destinies as one man inWashington.Woodstock West and the University of Denver, one inside the other.One the pregnant mother, the other its unabortive bastard, an unavoidableproduct of its time.209