PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1969
by Mickey Brazeal
Doing George in
(Uiminraifbiw
Pledge to progress
When the Interfraternity Council meets tonight
It can shape up the sad state of pledge training.
The Greek representatives, by approving the
revised pledge education construction, can speed
progressive pledge training.
They can. But will they?
SOME HOUSES will have difficulty accepting
the new contract, even though it is basically the
lame as last year's. They realize that the revisions
are aimed at making the contract enforceable and
at eliminating loopholes.
Any fraternity voting afe'ainst the contract
no matter what grandiose excuses are made
will actually be admitting to the humiliating
and degrading nature of its pledge program.
And if the IFC defeats the contract it will
be discrediting and shaming the entire Greek
system.
The IFC representatives must no longer
sanctify mental and physical hazing; they must
halt the entrenchment of the archaic institution
that has no place on the campus.
AND THIS MUST be done immediately: the
college men of today are realizing? that such ac
tivities have no place in modern education.
The fraternities, likewise, will have no place
unless they are ready to progress and contribute
to the education of their members.
Fraternity association can be and should be
valuable. The pledge education contract will be
a strong first step in insuring this value.
Ed Icenogle
Want to go
to a bar?
Casey's, Myron's and the Grill won't be the
same when Gov. Tiemann signs LB167, making
20 the majority age.
And, hopefully, Nebraska won't be the same,
either.
Perhaps, the state's sage citizenry will now
realize that adulthood is not a matter of age,
but of maturity. And they may even extend the
suffrage to 20-year-olds.
If all the 20-year-olds are nice, then maybe
ven the 19-year-olds will be given their rights,
too.
And before you know it, all young adults will
be treated just like real, full-fledged human beings.
Thank you, Unicameral. Maybe if you don't
call us immature, we won't call you senile.
Ed Icenogle
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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PublUlwd Monday Wadnaaday Thuraday and frlday during tha aclwol
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Editorial Staff
Editor! Ed loannglti Manajtlna Gdltoi Lynn Oottachalki Nawi editor
Jim Evttuan Night Nw Kdltoi Keal roraaoni Editorial Aaaiaunt
Juna Wuunari Aaalatam Navra Kdlloi and) Wood; Hporta Editor Mark
Gurdoa. Nrlxaakaa Sufi Wntara John Dvorak, Jim fadarwn, Omnia
WmaJar, Suaai JanHna Hill Smlthorman. 4ut Sohllrhlrmelar Sin
rattn, Bon lalcoti, Joanalla Arkrrman. Harhlttar Slnah. Photoarauhora
Uan LacMy. Linda Konnady Mika Haymani Seportt-Photora
um nnmin. jonn oiianooriat v-opy B.aitora j.l acnmicn. loan
taw, Payilii Adklaaioo. Dava ruipl. Sara 8ctiwwdar, Suaaa alaaid.
THE SILENT MMORITY
Plight of the cynical idealist
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Phara
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Business Staff
BualnMa Manaaar u(M.fll i.w.ai aa
Production Manaaar Randy Irayi Hookkaapar Ron Bowllni
Managar Joal Davlai
Nvi HimkkiMtnM Run tnwlln. Cju.Mar
Jan) Boatman t Claaaifiad Ada Iran Raan Kunacrlptlon Manaaar
Linda (Uriel). Cliculallor Manaaara R-n Havelka. Hlrk Doran, Jainaa
ttaUert Advartlilna R'praaratatlvaa Mra Browa. Qtn) Qrahnquiat,
Linda Rlblnaon, i, L Sctuault. Char lot ta VValaar.
One of the strangest paradoxes of our genera
tion of students is our penchant for both high
idealism and extreme cynicism. But a simple
analysis of our situation demonstrates that such
a paradox is virtually inevitable.
We get our Ideals from our "elders," those
In command who, after bestowing us with a grab
bag of platitudes (contrary to popular opinion, a
platitude is NOT a hairy duck) not only refuse
to help realize those ideals, but actually oppose
efforts to do so.
The pain is enhanced whenever there is real
hope of any Ideals being achieved; Invariably, it
seems, the highest hopes are plummeted to the
lowest depths of despair. For example, think back
a year, to March, 19C8. Our hopes were never
higher, life was beautiful, a struggle to be sure,
but a worthy one.
A YOUNG MAN named Ben Braddock - "The
Graduate" came to town, and suddenly we had
a myth to plead our case. Students became the
"in" group, with a monopoly on morality, and
the "Establishment" showed signs of being jolted.
Tuesday, March 12, laid the foundation of realizing
an impossible dream: Eugene McCarthy's showing
in New Hampshire breathed a new spirit into the
most complaisant of students.
The following day, Malcolm Boyd visited NU
(already a flood of McCarthy buttons had hit the
campus) and passionately championed the exorcism
of such demons as war, poverty, and racism. And
he was optimistic: rumor had it Robert Kennedy
would run for President!
On Thursday, March 28, Kennedy himself came
to NU, looking like a cross between Christ and
Ringo Starr, saying nothing new but emitting a
beautiful vitality that defied all cynicism. And
finally, on Sunday, March 31, old Lyndon Baines
threw in the towel and the aroma of power was
in our nostrils.
Our hopes were short-lived. Within a week of
LBJ's announcement Martin Luther King, the
personification of charltas, was murdered. By the
end of summer, Robert Kennedy, too, was safely
stowed in Arlington, inspiring great eulogies and
little action, while Eugene McCarthy was
disgracefully hounded out of the political arena by
those who claimed to be his friends.
THE CAMPAIGN, as James Thomas Jackson
so aptly noted, was left to "an anti-hero, a nonentity
and an unknowledgeable bastard . . ." and it really
didn't matter any more.
We had almost made it to the top of the hill
with our Sisyphus' stone; no wonder cynicism set
in when, as usual, the stone rolled back down
over us. Solutions? We can try dynamiting the
hill and take ourselves with it. Or we can keep
pushing, remembering that each time the stone
rolls back it wears away a little of the hill. But,
despite our valid cynicism, we must not continue
as we have the past few months, contented to
sit at the base of the hill, using the stone as
shade from the sun.
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The Daily Nebraskan is solely a stu-
I dent-operated newspaper independent
of editorial control by student govern-
I ment, administration and faculty. The
I opinion expressed on this page is that
of the Nebraskan's editorial page staff.
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Campus opinion... a ROTC case, a compliment
Dear Edit r
Recent criticisms of ROTC
programs on university
campuses and the
discrediting of ROTC at
some major universities has
moved me to reflect about
these programs and their
meanings and Implications
for higher education in
general, and our University
in particular.
Thsre are, I believe,
several reasons why the
m ultipurpose universities
uch as Nebraska should
continue and even strengthen
their programs of officer
training for all breaches of
the armed services.
I believe that this nation
will be required for many
years to maintain large
military forces. They will
consist mostly of civilians
serving short terms as
draftees unless the current
move to "professionalize"
the forces takes form and
solves the problem rather
quickly.
I AM against this move
because I believe we should
all share equally as citizens
In the planned defense of our
country. I don't believe In
creating another massive
bureaucracy. Already,
seasoned Congressmen and
Senators are warning us on
this Issue. Current
bureaucracies are self-seeking,
self-perpetuating and
Ti?ie!d altogether too much
power over us. They even
overwhelm the Congress and
President at times.
Therefore, I believe In a
selective service system
based on a lottery that
places each of us at some
point of time in training and
responsibility in the armed
forces regardless of educa
tion, birth, or economic
status. Most of the men In
the armed forces will be
civilians being trained for 2
or 3 years and then returning
to civilian status.
I should like to think that
the leaders of these men
could continue to come from
our universities as voluntary
men who took the time and
pains to learn some basic
military training and com
mltted themselves to such
leadership while they were
undergraduates in our
universities.
These officers, with the
exception of those who
choose to continue, are
primarily oriented to civilian
society with Its freedoms,
rights to criticize, and
personal commitments to
privacy of thought, religion,
family life, and community.
I PREFER to have this
type of military leader work
with my son, my grandson,
and my students when they
enter the armed forces. They
are far less likely to injure
the dignity, the personality,
or threa'en jto harm a
draftee than are some of. the
professional!! hav
known.
The leaders from
universities will not sur.
render their own
personalities to "the
system;" In fact, as I lived
through it In World War II, l
had Lie feeling that I was ac
tually fighting the Navy
system at times in order to
do my job. As a civilian, and
a former ROTC student, and
later as Navy Officer, I felt
that I was more com.
passionate and considerate
of the men I commanded
than were some of the
"trade school crowd" from
Annapolis.
I did not feel that the Navy
was threatened when an
enlisted man criticized me or
the system, because I fully
expected to return to the
civilian life.
So, I believe In getting
future officers from our
multi-purpose universities in
a voluntary manner, because ,
I believe they are more
democratic, less system,
oriented, more adaptable,
and as the evidence bore out
in World War II, more apt to
accept technical and
military change.
THERE IS still another
reason whv I believe in re
taining ROTC on our cam
pus. I like the obvious pride
of our young men who are in
officer training. They are
just as committed as is the
athlete, the musician, or the
drama student all of
whom surrender to discipline
Sml order for group
achievement.
They are more self-reliant
and more inner-directed, I
believe, than some who
criticize them. I have never
met one who liked war,
believed In killing, or
threatened to kill or destroy
that which he could not ra
tionally change. Some of us
developed guilt feeling
about the killing we had to
do to preserve this nation In
the last World War. None
that I know ever want to
repeat the experience.
Yet, some of the critics of
ROTC believe that we who
went through it actually
were motivated to approve
of, and even to like, death
and destruction.
a a
IT SEEMS to me that
those who now have grown
beards and long hair could
be accused of losing their
Identity and selfhood
because they want to be like
others. I don't believe this,
but it makes as much sense
as believing that a man loses
his Identity when he puts on
the uniform of his country
and says he will risk his life
to defend the nation In time
of war.
As I see it, Harvard and
Yale have actually "copped
out" because they do not
want to participate In the
education of future military
leaders. They are delimiting
the scope of their services
and duties to the nation.
However, I don't think they
will turn back any federal
money for research that
might have Implications for
radar, atomic weaponry,
etc.
There are other
reasons that I believe we
should offer ROTC on our
campus. The nation needs
more officers than the
Academies can produce.
Moreover, for same who wish
to make a career In the
armed forces, it is another
professional choice. I dislike
the idea of our University's
limiting the opportunities for
future leadership In our na
tion. a
THE RECORD is clear,
too, that many blacks and
other minority students gala
opportunities for military
leadership as a result of
ROTC training In public
University programs. The
selective Ivy League colleges
and service Academies have
never produced sufficient
minority groups officers to
work with minority groups In
the armed services.
We will not settle the Issue
of ROTC on the University of
Nebraska campus by
demonstrations, debates, or
arguments. I believe we
should make suggestions for
its Improvement and
development in line with the
nation's developments and
our current problems.
Our Professors In Officer
Training would probably
welcome any suggestions
from serious people on how
to make their programs
better and make the can
didates better citizens and
officers. Some of the critics
might be surprised at the
changes they could make if
they tried it that way. And
we must always remember
the program is voluntary. No
one Is forced to be a military
leader.
Royce Knapp
Professor of History and
Philosophy of Education
. Oh, let's write another Perversion Play - half
" pathos and half ioub'eenfenire and a" tie
ladies clubs from neighboring villages will charter
buses to come in and commune.
One of the girls can smoke a big cigar, so
the audience will know which is which. And if
things get unGodly dull, she can make the other
girl . . . who plays with dolls . . .eat the big
cigar. Nobody could miss that.
But we ought to have a Socially Significant
Message. Something we can be bitter and cynical
about to keep people talking when the characters
get thin. I mean, eating one anither's cigars, and
drinking one-another's bath water, and twisting the
heads off of one another's dollies are entertainment
enough for anybody and God knows they're
easy enough to think up.
.
BUT IF we leave out Social Significance, then
there's no excuse for introducing the third member
(Get it, "member"?) of the little twisted triangle.
And you can't have a Perversion Play without
one of those.
One thing more. When the leers on the leads
get a little strained, we'll Introduce some totally
irrelevant, Oscar Wilde-type jokes. Like:
"Of course we shoot people we don't like! You
send them to the H o u s e of Lords w h t a t s
the differences."
Maybe we'll even put in a totally irrelevant
character, to deliver them. Oh, it can't miss.
It has. It does. Gay Gibson is Mercy Croft,
a character and a caricature, and one of them
well done. The caricature is silly-ass social con
sciousness, as manifest in a drab "Dear Abby"
kind of broadcaster. (Get it? "Broad caster"?)
She's having the soap opera sob-Sister George
run down by a ten ton truck, to publicize Road
Safety Week (and because the ratings were slipp
ing). She gets lines like ". . . we simply cannot
tolerate this kind of behavior. It's things like this
which make people resent paying more for their
wireless licenses." And she tries to say "It's still
In the planning stage," three times in two acts
you know the type.
BUT THE meat of the role is the ruthless
lady lesbian, also in Mercy Croft, bartering bodies '
from above for the sheer joy of handling them.
And here, Miss Gibson has a problem.
She's a bit too much the lady to be the lesbian
she's got the voice down but she hasn't got
the moves. The caresses she steals in Act II are
ibout as erotic as a rheumatic pushing pennies
in a parking meter.
Laura Ursdevenkz, as Sister George, is almost
too good at the manly mechanics of lesbianism
so skilled in the devices of the role that one
attends to her performance rather than to her
character, though that may be the fault of the
play.
Miss Bowman, as, I swear to you, "Childie
McNaught", is every bit as real as she's allowed
to be. And Madame- Xenia (Fran DeGeorge) is
every bit as unreal as she's required to be.
THE HARSHEST critics of any production at
Howells are its light crew, at the curtain calls.
They bring up the lights and fade them out, trying
to get in the traditional three exposures before
the audience stops applauding and meanders away.
Saturday's curtain call was almost a strobe
light; two flashes for maybe twenty seconds. And
It didn't leave many people clapping in the dark.
Campus opinion
Academic freedom
and the program
Dear Sir:
May I respond to Ed Icenogle's tirade opposing
the study of ROTC subjects on our campus?
If it is unsuitable to utilize college campuses
for the study of the tools of the defense of our
nation (namely ROTC), how long will you permit
on campus the study of the tools of the defense
of our streets and homes (namely criminology and
law enforcement techniques):
Is there really much difference?
Would you prohibit the 60-odd Lincoln policemen
from receiving credit for the Instruction they are
now receiving in the interests of law enforcement
on a community scale?
If you are really "hung up" on academic
freedom, whatever that is, wouldn't it be more
appropriate for you to "thump the tub" for any
courses which might help preserve society?
Is ROTC less academic than football, or
perhaps fiy-tying?
It Is difficult for me to accept you as aa
honest proponent of any "freedom" while you are
so vehemently eager to prohibit someone else's
pursuits.
It Scvms to me that we could h
preciatlve of the efforts of those who are preparing
to defend, if need be, the freedoms which allow
eaiwrs to engage in such bellicose
newspaper
verbosity,
Thank you,
M. L Potter
1 vx. jiff h M$
"Well, there goes the neighhorhood . . .1"
I
