THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Editorials
Commentary
MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1967
Page 2
The Peaceful Snatch
OF
... BY STEVE ABBOTT
is-
Why doci columnist call this bit the
Peaceful Snatch? Because many of us
feel that despite our easy life and high
standard of living, we are somehow get
ting done in.
Spiritual Rapt
It's a puzzling sensation. We don't
quite know who is doing us in and we
don't clearly know how it's happening,
but we do know we're being had. The
Peaceful Snatch Is my term for this
spiritual emasculation of America to
be more specific the spiritual rape of
me and you.
Do you think that I'm just another
mouthy critic who can't get along in life.
For proof of what he says columnist will
go under your skin. Columnist says: Con
sult your reason, consult your feelings.
Honestly now, don't you feel helpless
and powerless against the System (i.e.
University Housing Policy, tuition hikes,
over large classes, policemen who break
up parties, the draft, the inevitability of
unwinable wars, taxes, government poli
cies In general)? Don't you feel some
body's taking you for a ride just a tinsy?
Felt Powerless
Havenl you always felt powerless,
even way back in grade school when
you wanted to play marbles and teacher
made you skip rope with Mary Lou?
("Be a good boy," she said. Then re
member when you overheard her tell
mommy that Johhny has to learn to fit
the system.) Yes, and we've been skip
ping rope ever since.
But maybe you have no specific
gripe right now. What is it then reader?
Something worse, something more vague?
The feeling they've got your number?
Impersonal forces you can't even explain
but feel nevertheless? Is that it reader?
Our enemy is a fog, hence our frustra
tion. Hera you reply to me: "Oh silly
columnist! Stop being so dramatic. That's
Just the way life is. You're being childish
to complain about the nature of things.
Two Creatures
"There are only two kinds of crea
tures Is the world: leaders and follow
ers, wolves and rabbits. If we feel done
In, it's simply because we're maladjusted
rabbits. If we'd only learn our place and not
be always trying to fight what we can't
change, then we'd be happy, responsible
rabbits like our parents.
"Of course administrations and gov
ernments fog over the issues. That's what
they're supposed to do protect our
education and democracy from trouble
makers. It's not our business to see so
why complain? Fog is good so stop try
ing to turn us against the ways of our
country. We'd be mature and happy in
our rabbithood if you'd leave us alone.
Let s stop pretending we re wolves."
Is this the way you feel reader? If
Our Man Hoppe-
Draw A Hemline
Young ladies have taken to wearing
shorter skirts to school. This has created
some mild reaction around the country,
such as suspensions, expulsions, court suits
and emergency school board meetings.
Passing Rules
Most school boards have faced the
crisis gamely by passing rules that a
young lady's skirt must be no higher than,
say, 3.63 centimeters above the upper
edge of the patella while standing at
parade rest.
The reason invariably given is that
hemlines more than, say, 3.63 centimeters
above the knee "distract other students
from their studies."
Distract! That's a euphemism. All too
vividly I remember how it was in my
day. Of course, in my day skirts were
a little longer, say about 3.63 centimeters
below the knee. You can imagine how it
was that unforgettable morning when
Miss Flossie Pettibone showed up in mi
crobiology 1-A wearing a skirt clearly
only 3.62 centimeters below her knee.
I and several other straight-A students
were gathered at the time around the
little cyclotron we'd made in shop, doing
our best to unlock the secrets of the
atom.
"Heavenly days!" cried Bill, suddenly
turning pale and clutching his throat
And with that ha collapsed unconscious to
the floor.
"Careful, gang," I said coolly, fidd
ling with the dials of our cyclotron, "we
sssy hsvs unlocked a poisonous secret"
'Sk-sk-gklrt'
"No," gasped Al, pointing behind me.
"It's Flossie's sk-sk-sklrt." And with a
Shudder he bid his face to the walL
Just as we turned, as ill-luck would
I
so, columnist says: "You are people, not
rabbits. At least try to be people." But
you shake your furry heads: "No, no, we
are rabbits."
II
What has been snatched away reader
is your peoplehood. What has been raped
is your human soul. Websters New Col
legiate comes on strong: "Snatch v.t. 1)
to grasp abruptly or hastily; to seize
before it passes, to seize or grab suddenly
without permission, ceremony or right
, , . slang VS. to kidnap."
Most of us don't realize what's being
snatched away from us, of course, be
cause we're too busy grabbing and snatch
ing what we can for ourselves oh
peacefully, peacefully and vicariously to
be sure but snatching nevertheless.
What would our spiritual portrait be?
Giant Spider
I shut my eyes and I see ... a
giant spider with eight arms reaching
out, each arm gracefully weaving a white
silken web. I see the spider take Betty
Charm courses and use Ban Spray Deo
dorant under each arm (frightfully well
mannered spider.)
Outside we are timid fluffy rabbits;
Inside we art seething black spiders.
Crazy! And now let us pray: "Now I
lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord
my spider keep. If I should wake before
I die, oh Lord, protect me from the horror
of psychedelic images; protect me from
the horror of my own schizophrenic self.
Ill
On the third day we saw all the
practical consequences of our many acts
and non-acts. We realized that fog per
petrated from the System ccuid not last
forever. We further realized that the split
between our bunny-selves and spider
selves had come to an end.
The wolves, those who had engineered
Hie Peaceful Snatch, revealed themselves.
They were fewer in number and also
skinnier than we had supposed. Still,
they were wolves, so we waited.
Rabbit Creed
On the last minute of the final hour,
each of us was given a little black stick.
We were told that from now on the
Fourth of July, would be a perpetual
Holiday. Pretty firewords for everybody
as the wolves began to crawl back into
their holes, holes having pretty cement
covers, we all began to sing the Rabbits
Creed. The Creed went as follows:
"I believe that at the instigation of
Sen. Fulbright, the Secretary of Defence
was crucified, died, and was buried with
fan mail. On the 3rd day, he assended
into the White House, sitteth at the right
hand of LBJ from whence he shall come
to judge the living and the dead. I be
lieve in the Holy Spider, the Holy United
States, the communion of rabbits, the
forgiveness of paid murderers, and in the
necessity of war everlasting amen."
Arthur Hoppe
have It, Miss Pettibone flounced Into her
seat. It was George, always a steady
man in an emergency, who saw it.
"I saw it," he said in a zombie-like
voice, his eyes glassy, the chords stand
ing out on his neck.
Tefl Us
"Saw what, George" we beseeched
him as we slapped his cheeks and chafed
bis wrists. "Tell us, man."
"Her," George said, "knee."
We stood there stunned. It was little
Edwin, an unworldly child, who broke
the silence. "What's a knee"? he said.
Mortal Soul
I struggled for my mortal soul. I
lost. "George," I said, licking my lips,
"what did it look like?"
"Well," said George, regaining con
trol with a tremendous effort, "it was
sort of round and kind of knobby and
it was (here he paused for effect) dim
pled!" "Dimpled? Aaaggghhh!" someone
screamed in the confusion. Chairs were
overturned, the atom smasher smashed.
Nor will I ever forget the shrieks of our
Principal, poor Miss Heffelwaite, when
the Boys' Forensic Society discovered her
hiding in the broom closet.
Since then, of course, it has ben
steadily downhill for us once-proud youth.
From voyeurism it is but a step to opium
addiction and felonious mopery. Yet still
hemlines creep upward.
How odd it is, I sometimes think in
my degraded dreams, that every time
an embattled school board yields a centi
meter, young ladies demand an i, -h.
"Fight on, embattled school boards,"
I can only croak encouragingly, "the end
Is not yet in sight"
mw
m
If
TWC Escauktois To Success
PLAY REVIEW:
'Godot' Proves Interesting
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Kenneth Pellow,
English Instructor and Ph.D. candidate,
write the following review of University
Theatre's "Waiting for Godot." Pcllow
acted in, and student-directed several
plays while an undergraduate at Northern
Michigan University, where he majored
tn both English anil Theatre. Last week
he reviewed "Scapin" for the Daily Ne
braskan.) O.K., scholars. Now that you have
seen "Waiting for Godot," you should be
prepared to take the following examina
tion, consisting of one question:
Five Answers
The meaning of this play can best
be stated as which of the following?
a. God is dead.
b. od is lost.
c. God is hiding out in Ogallala.
d. We cannot really know whether
God exists.
e. We cannot really know whether
we exist.
Those of you who are sufficiently
rational and of course none of us are
know that the answer is "f. All and
or none of the above." You protest?
"That wasn't one of the choices," you
say? Of course not. But if you've seen or
read the play, that should not surprise
you.
"Waiting for Godot" opened Friday
night as the second of this semester's
plays in University Theatre's repertory
system. Before the evening was over, it
had become clear that this is going to
be a semester that drama-lovers on this
campus will long remember, for Samuel
Beckett's "tragicomedy in two acts" (the
designation is his) serves as an extreme
ly interesting complement to Moliere's
"Scapin" with which it will alternate.
Not Clear
The one thing which had not become
clear at least to that part of the au
dience which I had opportunity to ob
serve was the play itself. However, if
you are one of those who attended a
performance of "Godot" this week-end and
have eagerly come to today's Nebraskan
in the hope that some sagacious reviewer
will provide an explanation of the "real
meaning" of the play forget it! This
is not a difficult play to understand; it
is an impossible play to understand.
That is, it is impossible if by "under
stand" we refer to a process whereby
one's reasoning faculties arrive at total
comprehension of something. One might
"sense" or "feel" the meaning of this
play, but I doubt if one ever fully "under
stands" it. If I thought I did, I might
begin to worry.
The reason that we cannot propose
any answers about the "message" of this
play is that Beckett is not trying to pro
vide answers. Indeed, we can perhaps
feel some sense of accomplishment if we
can isolate some of the questions.
Gertrude Stein
There is a story, perhaps sheer leg
end, which tends to be circulated in Eng
lish department coffee lounges (this seems
to assure its being sheer legend) that
on her death-bed, Gertrude Stein raised
herself up feebly, looked about the room
and asked, of no one in particular, "What
is the answer?" Receiving no response,
she lay back down; a moment later, how
ever, she bolted up and asked, much more
strongly, "What is the question?"
This is close to the attitude with which
one comes away from a performance of
"Godot". But in retrospect wa can come
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Rights
up with at least a couple of questions
which Beckett raises. His designation of
the play as "tragicomedy" provides us
with some direction, perhaps. (Beckett
has frequently confided that "perhaps" is
his favorite word; it has to be used to
qualify almost any statement made about
the intent of his plays.)
It has been often observed that trag
edy (Hamlet is generally pointed out as
the classic English-language exemple) tra
ditionally asks the question "What does
it mean to exist?" Beckett's tragicomedy
goes at least one step further and asks,
in addition: "What does it mean to ask
what it means." Beckett wastes no time
in having his two Chaplin-like tramps
(the "heroes" of the piece) give rise to
such questions. The play's first entrance
speech ends with one of them (Vladimir,
or "Didi") saying to the other (Estragon,
or "Gogo"), "So there you are again."
And the answer comes back, "Am I?"
Hamlet Fashion
Later, Didi, in Hamlet fashion, intro
duces the question which must follow
from any awareness that we are indeed
here: "What are we doing here, that is
the question." But he is able to find
contentment of sorts in the assurance that
he knows the answer: "Yes, in this im
mense confusion one thing alone is clear.
We are waiting for Godot . . ."
Granted, this may not be much, but
how much certainty have we of anything
more? If there is any possibility of more
than this, Didi suggests it albeit un
knowingly in the play's first act, when
he observes that "Hope deferred maketh
the something sick ..." The full line
is from "Proverbs" (13:12): "Hope de
ferred maketh the heart sick: but when
the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."
Didi's omission is a significant one; ob
viously, in an absurd universe where
reason is constantly confounded, "heart"
is no small commodity nor is deferred
hope.
Not everything is uncertain in regard
to this play. There are some things which,
after one has seen the University Theatre
production, can be definitely affirmed.
Among these things is the fact that Di
rector William Morgan, who previously
directed what was probably this Univer
sity's all-time best show, "Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?", has assembled an
other of the best casts ever to work to
gether in Howell Theatre. This cast not
only has three graduate students with
worlds of theatric experience David
Clark as Gogo, Clint Jakeman as Didi,
and Stephen Gaines as Pozzo but also a
wonderful sophomore "find" in Gary Hili
as Lucky and a very talented eighth
grader, Daniel Weymouth, who ought to
be tabbed as a "future" on University
Theatre's recruiting list
Highly Polished
The result of bringing together all
this talent is a highly polished, very pro
fessional performance. Given expert cos
tuming by AUeena Castelani and another
excellent, functional set by Charles How
ard, this cast provides a very worthy
running mate for "Scapin". They are
very different kinds of entertainment, by
the way. "Scapin" is fast and funny;
"Godot" is slow, tedious, repetitious, and
annoying intentionally!
A final reminder: Do not throw away
your answers to our multiple-choice exam;
those answers and many others will be
questioned for you when you attend the
next performance of "Waiting for Godot"
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I Campus Opinion I
The 'Radical' Viewpoint
Dear Editor: ,
I read, with interest the editorials in the March 8
issue of the Daily Nebraskan, and I was struck by one
point, It is your contention that change in present policy
is what the students are now seeking in their debate with the
administration over housing policy.
Decide For Ourselves
With this I agree most fully. We all want to be able
to decide for ourselves, In most cases with parental
consent, where we shall live. Those of us who wish to
reside in University dormitories should be free to do so.
as those who do not feel the need of these facilities should
be allowed to seek residence elsewhere.
We are agreed that change is what we are after,
but what, I ask you, is the motive behind this change?
In light of our own personal lives there may be quite
an advantage in living off campus.
Financially, it might make a difference as to whether
some of us go to school at all. Some might find the need
for more privacy than can be found in a dorm. And
after several months one finds that he can learn to pre
pare better food than is served in the usual dormitory.
In terms of personal interests we can find many justifi
cations for seeking change in the present housing regula
tions. Larger Perspective
But for a moment let us look at the housing problem
in a larger perspective. Some of us, notably the radical
element, see this controversy in a different light than
do most students. We see the regulations themselves as
unnecessary strictures on our personal freedom.
It is not so much the regulations themselves that
we are attacking, as it is the idea that some group."
the Regents or the State of Nebraska in this case, feels
that they have the right to restrict the personal free
dom of a segment of society.
When seen in this way, the housing controversy is
similar to other issues, such as civil rights. The whole
issue of civil rights is concerned as much with a deep
inspection of the ideas behind discrimination and ways
of implimenting a change of thinking for the whole so
ciety as it is in actually bringing about change.
The society must take a look at itself and decide if
its previous actions were morally correct. Is it morally
wrong for a southern Negro to be denied voting privi
leges, or is it simply illegal because of certain civil
rights legislation?
I hope that the analogy between civil rights and
student rights does not escape you. The radical element
views the housing regulations as symptomatic of a great
er moral evil inherent in certain factions of society.
Indeed, is this not the case with Jim Crow laws?
If the housing regulations are only symptomatic of a
greater wrong within our society, we must be as dedi
cated to changing the whole viewpoint of society as we
are to changing the rules.
Ultimate Goal
We refuse to compromise our ideals to the vague
epithets of political expedience, propriety and the like.
Political expedience is fine, provided that ona never
loses sight of his ultimate goal.
ASUN refusal to demand something of the adminis
tration may not seem significant to many of our student
senators, and I well imagine that they would be most
horrified by any act of protest toward the system. They
speak of working within the existing structure as if the
existing structure contained some absolute value which
would be lost if the system would be rejected. But it
is precisely the system we object to.
I hope that by now you are beginning to realize
the depth of our commitment to this dispute. Even if
the student body were to reject Article V of the pro
posed Bill of Rights, this would still not defeat us. We
feel that we must help defend that element of the stu
dent body which believes in personal liberty.
Individual Concern
Housing is an individual concern; it is in the realm
of one's private life. We want the right to live where
we wish, but equally important, we want the general
public to realize that it is morally wrong to try to legislate
our privacy.
This position seems to be being forgotten amidst the
ploys of politics, undue humility and lack of understand
ing of the conflict itself. We are committed to changing
the system as well as its symptoms. Please bear this
in mind and try to apply it as you are confronted with this
and similar problems. Who knows! Perhaps you yourself
might be found to have taken a RADICAL position one day.
George Olivarri
Not Respectfully Yours
Dear Editor:
Just who are you trying to kid! So the Nebraskan
feels that the "results" and "success" of the housing
committee proves that the Administration is trying to
work "with" the students in changing present housing
policy.
Are you sure about that word "with". Maybe
"against" is a better preposition maybe the adminis
tration is just pussy-footing-around in "hopes of water
ing down the student requests or delaying them until
students lose interest. What do you think Wayne? Are
you afraid to think Wrayne?
When it comes down to the real nitty gritty about
1970 by present rate and the administration finallv
makes clear what it has been hinting by the naive and
stupid statements of Deans Snyder and Ross who are
you going to be for (hypothetically speaking since you'll
obviously be long gone by then)?
When SDS stages student strikes and demonstrations
are you going to be standing in line or are you going
to continue to suck crums out of Administrative hands?
Not respectively yours
David Bunnell
Daily Nebraskan
Vol. W No. 71
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