WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1969
PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
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Freedom's train
Editor's note: This is a personal sketch of a figure
1n history. It is taken from the book International
Library of Negro Life and History and is offered
toy the Nebraskan editorial staff In conjunction with
Negro History Week.
M
Harriet Tubman (1823-1913), daring woman
ponductor on the Underground Railroad, escaped
from slavery and then dared to return to her
former master's plantation to help others escape
to freedom. One of 11 children, she was born in
Dorchester County, Maryland. In 1857, at great
personal risk, she helped three of her brothers
and sisters escape from slavery. Later, she
berated her mother and father.
Harriet's early life on the slave-breeding plan
tation in Maryland was a typical one, with the
exception of an incident which made her incapabie
hi being a "breeder." As a young girl, when she
Jlad been hired out as a fieldhand, she received
a severe blow on the head from a weight that
Bad been thrown at another slave by an enraged
overseer. The damage from the blow caused her
to suffer from "sleeping seizures."
AROUND 1844, she married a free Negro named
John Tubman, but she remained a slave. When
the master of her plantation died in 1949, the rumor
spread among the slaves that they were to be
sold in the Deep South. Harriet and two of her
brothers decided to escape.
Two years later, having escaped to Philadelphia,
she returned to Maryland for her husband, but he
had married another woman. This disappointing
news gave her increased determination to help oth
ers to escape bondage. She had already rescued a
sister and brother in December 1950, and in Decem
ber 1851, she had successfully led a party of 11 into
Canada.
By now, Harriet had developed the hard and
dauntless characteristics of a "trail boss." If the
fugitive became faint-hearted and wanted to return,
she did not hesitate to level her pistol at the
victim, saying, "You go on or die." Her reputation
as a conductor on the Underground Railroad it
best expressed in her own words:" ... I nebber
run my train off de track and I nebber los' a
passenger."
- IT WAS in 1857 that she b r o u g h t her aged
parents to freedom and settled them in Auburn,
New York, where she purchased a modest home
from William H. Seward. The antislavery workers
of New England and New York helped her raise
the funds for the home, which she turned into
a home for elderly Negroes after the War. She
Temarried and some authorities speak of ber as
"Harriet Tubman Davis.
'' ' " at1 " sSwa!" is- '' '
Harriet Tubman
Campus opinion . . .
Operating table
: Dear Editor:
Today's American society is on the operating
table, dying. Dying from a disease which has prov
ed to be eventually fatal to every great empire
cr nation that man has ever founded. This disease
originates and breeds ignorance and is accompanied
-by prejudice, bigotry and hatred.
It will gnaw away at the insides until only
a thin hollow shell is left A shell easily crushed
from any adverse force from without.
EDUCATION, TRUTH and understanding are
the cures. Today's young Americans are now
demanding these cures.
- Here at the University of Nebraska, the cures
are slowly being made available. Among these,
the Negro History course now being offered is
of great import But it is only the first step and
consequently a small one. Even so, many comments
are being made.
- One such comment is the mistaken idea that
a Clack History course is about blacks and
therefore must be attended by a large number
-of black students. This is woefully untrue.
IN THE FIRST instance, it was not
the black students here who asked for this
particular Black History course; it was the white
students. And in doing so, they are to be con
gratulated for wanting to find the truth about why
black Americans feel and act the way they do.
Therefore, this particular Black History course
is not aimed at teaching the black student as
much as it is at giving the non-black an insight
Into how's and why's of America's race problem.
In short, the course is being taught from a
traditional white point of view.
SECONDLY, MANY young black Americans
are interested not in what happened three or four
hundred years ago, but in what has happened in
the past ten i.e., the growing civil rights move
ment and how he can increase its growth to get
for himself the rights and dignity bis forefather
paid for many times over in tears, sweat and
blood.
Thirdly, purely as a point of observation, it
is interesting to note that the percentage of black
Odents enrolled in the Black History course is
'equal to, if sot greater than, the percentage of
luck students found in other University courses. '
TEE BLACK MAN is using the tools vbici
tsve proved most effective in getting his equality
end civil rights, and will continue to do so until
Le is indeed a free man or until this country
America is dying. The cures are known. Will
t5ey be made more available in lime, or will
they prove to be too little and too late?
Z Afro-American Collegiate Society
Claude Boltea, Jr.
If
aynouse
Editor's Note: The following is a review of The
Quare Fellow, a play now being presented ai he
Lincoln Community Playhouse. The Nehraskan's
reviewer is Dennis Calandra, an English instructor
at the University. Mr. Calandra has appeared on
the Howell stage as Jean-Paul Marat in Marat Sacie,
Pvt. Leslie Williams in The Hostage, and Teddy
In The Homecoming.
The Quare Fellow, the play Brendan Behan
play
considered his best, is presently appearing at the
Community Playhouse in Lincoln. It is a , comedy,
vaudevillean and grotesque by turns, which ex-.
amines the effects an execution has on the inmates
and wardens of an Irish prison, and which fornrs
a rather strong Indictment of the hypocrisy at
the heart of a society which tolerates capital
punishment.
The appropriate epilogue to the play shows
several of the prisoners on burial detail bickering
i 'P ..A-t.Wt ZJ.ST
First, I'd like to point out the advantages of THIS
system . .
Relevant life and ASUN reason
Dear Editor:
A reflective person will find it necessary, sooner
or later, to ask himself the question: "What is
it that's really worth doing in life?" Somehow
one gets the impression that there should be more
than grades, degrees, position, money, etc.
It took an atheist-orientation last Thursday at
Hyde Park, but at least the essence of personal
"priorities" was being dealt with to some extent
FOR THOSE who find it necessary to avoid
controversy, Thursday's Hyde Park was a
landmark experience for the University o f
Nebraska. Much to our unexpected delight, the
attending students gave religion a long-needed
boost Jn response to the provoked-theme of
religious-relevance, the mood of the audience, and
more importantly, those desiring to put themselves
on the line, reflected a need and want for religion.
Surprising? Ask yourself why it need be surpris
ing. If the reaction there to "something sacred"
in life was any indication of the overall feeling
of the campus, one could imagine that the pursuit
for "relevance" is as urgent here as any other
campus.
It seems that the identification with Religion
reflected at Hyde Park would pan all el a trend
on college campuses throughout the country. The
trend being a genuine concern for people. A trend
which emphasizes individual character, the
development of personal integrity, and a sincere
self -search for truth.
FOB THOSE of you seeking meaningfulness
amidst the obviously unfortunate void, I suggest
we constantly question and analyze education end
the direction in which it presently places us. (For
one thing, that even means that you professors
should take a stand once in a while.)
Actually, the road should be quite simple: Be
incessantly critical of all that is now offered
by which we can be put in a situation to shape
nr lives. More importantly, we must be possibility
oriented, imagining what "could be" can many
times lead to just that
A real, living person, ought to exist as more
than just a response to present procedures. You
really are free to develop a happy, humane life,
(honest). " " ,
Congratulations to those of you Thursday' and
to all who have ever dared to put themselves
before the world as a distinctly unique person,
who desires to develop a meaningful existence.
(Unlike the inability of animals, machines and
vegetables to do so.)
Ray Vavak, Jr.
Dear Editor:
The current panacea on campus is the rush
toward reapportionment of the student senate.
Although I agree that the present system of
rerpesentation by colleges has little merit, the ef
fectiveness of student senate cannot be altered
much by any other system of representation unless
we find the answer to a more basic question.
The real issue is whether or not we actually
need a student government. Are there viable stu
dent interests that can only be represented and
acted upon by a student government? If the answer
is yes, then and only then should we be concerned
with the best method to represent these interests.
IF THE answer is no, then maybe we should
just let the ASUIJ die gracefully when the current
term expires and save us all a lot of worry.
But to date the question has not been asked,
let alone answered satisfactorily, either by our
ASUN constitution or by the present senators. Untfl
It is, and the answers acted upon, we are stuck
with an ailing student senate.
Sincerely,
Timothy J. Etncald
California Democratic party collapse
by Rowland Evans
and Robert Novak
Washington The col
lapse of a routine rebuilding
effort by the shattered
California Democratic party
Indicates that the destructive
fires of party factionalism
there still burn fiercely.
The continuing strife
aborted a mission to
Washington of California
Democratic politicians to
plan for the critical 1970
election. That, in itself, is no
Irrevocable failure. But it
chows that California
Democrats remember only
their ancient enmities and
ceBvenieotly forget their
succession of disastrous
defeats.
WHAT MAKES the pro
spect of another defeat so
critical is that California will
gain at least four Con
gressional seats in the 1970
census. If the State
Legislature again goes
Republican in 1970, it will re
map the state's Con
gressional districts to
Republican advantage and a
possible 12 -seat gain.
Consequently, worried
Democrats in the rival wings
of the party, one associated
with state Rep. Jesse Unruh
and the other with former
Gov. Edmund G. Brown
began an unusual collabora
tion to prepare for 1970.
Their program, called
"Project 70," was to begin
with a scouting mission to
Washington.
Bernard Teitlebaum, a
political pro associated with
the Brown wing, assembled
a 10-man delegation of
legislative leaders and party
pros with a varied
representation of factional
and geographical interests.
Unruh gave his blessing.
Appointments were arranged
in Washington for Jan. 29
with Sen. Fred Harris of
Oklahoma, the new
Democratic chairman, Sen.
Alan Cranston of California,
and California's Democratir
Congressmen.
BUT, INEXPLICABLY,
Teitlebaum failed to contact
Carmen Warschaw,
California's fiery
Democratic National Com
mitteewoman. When she got
wind of the trip, Mrs.
Warschaw telephoned state
Rep. George Zenovkft, a
state legislative leader and a
sponsor of "Project 70."
While expressing support
for "Project 70," Mrs.'
Warschaw was furionr that
neither she nor National
Committeeman Steve
Reinhard had been informed.
She specifically objected that
one of her arch-enemies
Charles Winner, a political
pro in the Brown wing of the
party was making the
Washington trip.
To appease Mrs.
Warschaw, Teitlebaum on
Jan. 25 cancelled the
meeting with Harris so that
she would not suspect an end
run was being made around
her to the National
Chairman. But Mrs.
Warschaw was not ap
peaseable. So on Jan. 27,
Teitlebaum called off the
whole trip.
"PROJECT 70" has not
been abandoned. But now
there is talk of splitting the
effort wiih the State
Dim ocrattc Committee,
allied with Mrs.. Warschaw,
and the state legislative
leaders making separate ef
forts. Thus continues the
fragmentation so disastrous
to the party in recent years.
U) UM. ruhiiatun-lUil tratkmMU
over who is to get possession of the freshly execuied
"quare fellow's" personal effects, for it seems an
Irish version of Parade Magazine is willing to
pay dearly for them.
'-;'
ALTHOUGH the prisoners had shortly before
expressed their righteous indignation at the
brutality of the hanging, they realize, as Dunlavin
says earlier in the play, that they're all basically
selfish anyway, so with a buck to be made, indigna
tion softens and the boys can jolly well leap into
the grave to steal a few letters.
The "quare fellows" mates, it turns out, are
as crass as his keepers, and their attitudes toward
the execution freely skip from righteous to cavalier.
Behan's method is to portray contradictory at
titudes in his characters, which an audience can
quickly perceive and condemn, and at the same
time to force the audience to become aware of
similar contradictions in their own thinking.
THIS IS clearly the purpose when Behan follows
a lengthy description of the murder the "quare
fellow" committed, putting his expert knowledge
as a pig butcher to use "by killing his brother
and dismembering the body", with an account of
a hanging, equally as gruesome.
The blood lust which cries out for vengeance
on the demon-butcher should be satisfied by the
execution, but the hanging is just as repulsive
an act as the original crime and where do we
seek retribution for it? Warder Regan, the closest
thing to a raissoneaur in the play, lays
responsibility on "every man or woman that pays
taxes or votes in elections: If they don't like it
(hanging), they needn't have it."
The hypocrisy of the government, which
reprieves one murderer while executing another
because the first had the good taste to kill his
wife with a silver-topped cane, is only a function
of the people who elect that government.
THE ABSURDITY of people's attitudes toward
the criminality of various acts is portrayed in
the prisoner Dunlavin, who doesn't mind having
old "Silver Top" (the reprieved man) for a cell
block mate, but who becomes highly indignant when
he learns that another sort of "quare fellow' is
also moving in. "Killing your wife is a natural
class of a thing, could happen to the best of us,"
says Dunlavin, "But this other dirty animal on
me left ..."
This "other dirty animal", who is variously
referred to as a certain "article" of "that
persuasion" and, as Dunlavin says,,"a: sexual
mechanic," leads me to a critique of the Communi
ty Playhouse's production of Behan's play.
All of the expectation in the play is built to
have this "other fellow", as he is called, come
mincing through the door as Dame Edith Sitwell
disguised as a convict for a drag ball. The first
thing "other fellow" does is express his horror
at having to mix with murderers and thieves and
God knows what, and then he quotes Carlisle on
sell destruction. Prisoner A. notes that he sounds
like a bit of an intellectual, and Dunlavin chimes
in with "Is that what they call it now?"
The broad humor of the whole scene is undercut
by playing the "other fellow" straight, and things
are made worse when the actor appreciates the
humor of the whole scene by snickering at his
" own jokes. -
" ' '.. THIS IS an error in direction I think-, and
a flaw in the acting. But with the exception of
a few other dandies, easily remedied, like using
a taped voice stage left for the voice ot a man
in solitary, when all the actors communicate with
him by shouting stage right or forcing some lame
vaudevillean tricks with canes and brooms Into' -'
the action to "liven things up," the production
is enjoyable.
The antics by Neighbor (James Lindsay) when
he is trying to steal a few drops of rubbing alcohol
to drink from the "methylated martyr" Dunlavin,
and the expert clowning by Skip Lundby in the
last act prove that broad comic effects can be
appropriately used in the Quare Fellow.
Tom Parks adequately captures Warder
Regan's personal dilemma, as the man who loathes
the very idea of executions and yet has to admit
that his is a soft job between hangings.
- I HAVE saved the character of Dunlavin for
last, for it is he who gives the show its sparkle.
Vaughn Border plays the role with just the right
touch of the sprightly stock Irishman a la Bary
Fitzgerald in a character realistic enough to poke
fun at his own as well as society's hypocrisy.
Border's hanisg of & IrUh dialect is an added
Joy.
Behan's plays art usually good entertainment,
and the Community Playhouse's production is no
exception. If you decide to set it, be sure to ask
for a student discount
The Dally Nebraskan is solely a student
publication, independent of the
University of Nebraska'- administra
tion, faculty and student government
Opinion expressed on the editorial
page is that only of the Nebraskan'f
editorial staff.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
, Editorial Staff
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Business Staff
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