FRIDAY APRIL 18, 1969
Editorials commentary
. THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
ia ! J
grave
is dug
Student Court dug a grave for political
parties.
By refusing to order election commissioner
John McColIister to place party affiliation on the
'ballot, the Court recognized the fact that parties
are useless in ASUN student government.
Those who band together for the party label,
merely attempt to raise Greek-independent pre
judices and irrelevant issue?. Then, after election,
they all go their own, ineffectual ways.
But, the time has come for parties here to
go their own, ineffectual ways, too.
Now that the Court has dug the grave, the
""student voters should shove the parties into it by
marking ballots this spring without attention to
party affiliation.
Perhaps next year, then, an effective Senate
(hopefully elected on individual merit) can be a
fitting epitaph.
Ed Icenogle
I Thoughts and work
Wayne Williams, the articulate leader of this
- week's demonstrations for a New Deal for blacks,
Z has given a useful goal for the activity: that real
i progress will be visible by June.
Z And, if the University administrators stand by
- their words, some constructive and valid programs
Z may be achieved through the recent efforts.
But, to suggest that this campus is going to
Z "blow up" next fall if the situation is not satisfac-
tory to the black community is too extreme. It
sounds too much like a threat.
Z Threads are not needed. They only produce
- resentment. Thoughts, and hard work, are what's
- needed.
- Ed Icenogle
Standing Head
. . . by George Kaufman
Ours (or perhaps, now that I'm graduating,
Theirs) has been labeled the "Disillusioned
Generation." Now, the rampant illusions embodied
in that label notwithstanding, there seems to be
much basis for the term, and much during the
recent years has made this more true than ever.
The hope of youth is a champion, and too many
champions have been murdered, physically or
politically.
The Ted Kennedy's and Julian Bond's are get
ting fewer and seemingly more Impotent in leading
change. But, since we must believe in something,
I have drawn up a list of what has been and
what's left:
You can no longer safely believe in
Political conventions and primaries
"Nice" Eastern universities.
.' Light at the end of the tunnel.
Martha Raye.
CO status.
Hubert Humphrey.
California.
Television as a public medium.
"Quiet" University of Nebraska.
Camelot.
If you still rare (if you're careful) you may
continue to believe In
Julian Bond.
John Lennon.
Paul McCartney or Eugene McCarthy (Pick
one).
-Hair.
The Last Kennedy.
Dr. Spock.
Steve Abbott, etc.
Peanut Butter sandwiches.
Smother Things.
Ramsey Clark.
The Vanishing American.
Four-letter wierds.
Old Friends.
A and B.
Not of the above.
'
jf .n,
Landmark
Problems the veterans will bring home
By Flora Lewis
Saigon The war hasn't really begun to end.
But some grave political trouble which the veterans
will bring home when it's over can be foreseen
here in the field.
There are two kinds of trouble ahead, from
veterans and though it is a drastic exaggeration,
it helps to outline them by comparing them to
France's agony with the O.A.S. and the F.L.N,
arising from the Algerian war.
ONE KIND of trouble looms from military pro
fessionals. They have fought hard and on the whole
they feel they have fought well. They learned totally
new ideas about how to fight guerrillas, how to
fight in jungles, how to orchestrate air, land and
sea power. They feel America's might at their
fingertips and they are confident of their ability
to use it.
Already many officers rumble at "having one
hand tied behing our backs' They chorus disgust
at the strategy of "limited response" and "escala
tion." It only gave the enemy a chance to catch
iup, they say. If you get into a fight, the only
sensible thing is to use all the strength you have
to knock the enemy out right away.
There are military examples to support the
argument. The best is the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia. If the Russians had started
cautiously, the Czech army might well have
resisted. It didn't move because the Russians ac
tually used overwhelming force from the start.
So a good many American officers feel that
If the U.S. writes off the Vietnam war as less
than a success, it won't be their fault at all. And
they smart at the wide, sharp criticism they must
take from an American public whose interests they
believe they have served.
They don't speak loudly now because the
war goes on. When it is over, many of them will.
And they will look for people on whom to put
the blame for failure which they feel unfairly
heaped on them. The more U.S. armed forces are
reduced, the more vocal, angry men there will
be because promotions will become much scarcer,
early retirements more unavoidable. This will be
especially true if President Nixon puts through
bis plan to abolish the draft and cut back to an
all volunteer army.
The Joe McCarthy hunt for scapegoats and
traitors in the wake of Korea may seem a picnic
in comparison because Vietnam has aroused far
more bitterness.
The other kind of trouble may come from black
veterans. Unlike the gangs of Watts and Harlem
and Detroit, they know how to make an ambush,
how to handle complex weapons, how to organize
force, how guerrilla war is fought.
The black soldiers here, officers and enlisted
men, aren't going home to fight. But they know
what fighting is really like, what the risks are
and how elusive the gains, what superior firepower
means.
ABOVE ALL, they are keenly aware that they
are Americans. In the field, they have found they
can get on easily with whites. Under fire, it's
a matter of blood and guts and everybody's blood
and guts are the same color. In the bases and
on leave, skin color gets noticeable again, but
still the comradeship of survival leaves its mark
on men's minds.
"I am disillusioned with the army," Capt. Clyde
Counts of West Middlesex, Pa., told me, "but I
am still, would you believe it. a liberal Negro."
lie's impatient and .sometimes angry, but he wants
to live in his own country, not to burn it. Ills
attitude is widespread.
It could change drastically if he found himself
caught up in an "us and them" turmoil of unex
pected violence when he gets home. He wants
another career outside the Army, but he doubts
that white America is ready to accept him "simply
as a person, with whatever Intelligence I have."
And if sides have to be chosen, "I know who
I am Black."
Comfortable America which never tasted the
war needs to prepare wisely for both sets of
veterans. The unhappy professionals did their best
with policies not of their making, which should
be acknowledged. The blacks here have been at
the least equal in effort and sacrifice, and need
to feel they have an equal chance for civilian
success at home.
WHEN THE war finally does end, the new
peril for America will be to lapse in self-indulgent
relief and forget the feelings of the men who fought
The student rebellion, quite unlike the revolt
in the cities or the desperate strike of Cesar
Chavez's people in California, is like a page from
the American rococo novel. White student? indulge
in rebellion with the macabre glee of the Marquis
de Sade dreaming up an exquisite new torture.
Though black students at Nebraska have not
yet picked up the fine edge of cynicism that comes
of being committeed to death by this administra
tion it is assumed that the failure of their excursion
into confrontation politics, within a year or two,
will destroy thoir idealism as thoroughly as it has
destroyed ours.
Any attempt at radical or reform politics in
Nebraska takes on the character of the theatre
' of the absurd. After watching Bruce Hamilton's
New Party campaign, the squelching of Govern
ment Bill 24, the SAF document, and the death
of SDS, one can only conclude that the hand of
Eugene Ionesco is at work, carefully constructing
plots beginning in reality and ending somewhere
between pop art and the cosmos, in a void where
rhinoceroses gambol in the state capitol and
headless leaders march to the cheers of their peo
ple. The nature of the latest rebellion is idealistic
enough (one is tempted to say imaginary.) Black
students are trying to achieve some very mean
ingful, tangible goals which would benefit, not them
personally, but their cause and their people. What '
they have not taken into account is the basic lm
mobility of institutions and large bureaucracies.
The script Joe Soshnik is writing Is obvious
enough offer them a committee and talk the
situation over until all those damn trouble-makers
either graduate or become too cynical to walk
out of the Union. Wayne Williams will go along,
will probably even serve on the committee himself
until his ears are filled with so many reasons
why not that he can't remember the reasons why.
Perhaps the Afro-American society, the most
tightly-knit and committed group to lock horns :
with the administration yet, can succeed where
SDS and ASUN failed so miserably. Perhaps. But
only if they learn to use their power while it
is there, to avoid the committee and the endless
dialogue while the sweating bodies are still willing
to line up in the hall of the administration building,
to keep asking for freedom while everyone still
remembers what it's all about.
One thing the Afro-American society must
understand. As long as they avoid being trapped
into a useless commi"ee, as long as they keep
up the fight, the white students who have suffered
through so many bitter disappointments will sit
through the long hours in the administration
building with them, will march each day if
necessary, will keep their mouths shut and follow
Williams' lead.
If the blacks are outfoxed as the whites have
been outfoxed before, however, the entire coalition
will dissolve into a group of coffee-drinking
cynics. '
And then the play will have its usual end.
The University will turn into a giant Campbell's
tomato soup can being carried on Addie Bundren's
wagon, pulled by a rhinoceros riding a tricycle.
In other words, the reign of the absurd will begin
anew among the rolling plains and cottonwood
t haded rivers of Nebraska.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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Campus Opinion . .
M
ini-skirts: serious threats to education and economics?
Dear Editor:
I ran into my old friend the Professor of Libido
Economics in the Union the other day and by
chdnce succeeded in forcing the conversation to
fall upon ladies skirts. "This is a matter of the
gravest import to our society and nation." he
warned.
"You mean we must abandon the dress in
favor of the veil and the sari?" 1 asked fearfully.
"Not at all. The skirt is Justified by history
as the most practical compromise between protec
tion and enticement. However, escalation of the
bemline threatens the foundations of education as
well as undermining our economic system.
a
"I SPEAK." continued the Professor, "Of the
' present menace to the grading system. How can
we maintain the validity of grades based on ex
aminations when we bring in three graduate
assistants to help monitor and, as soon as the
first coed In her intellectual agony contorts herself
to reveal the quatity of her Munsingwenr. we find
all three along with the professor supervising her
while the other 239 In the section go unwatched?"
"You've got a point there. But about the
economics?"
"Simple. When a skirt can come out of a couple
of BMixll sheets w are only a half-step away
from making them disposable and vending them
In Kleenex boxes. Then what of support for cotton,
or of textile mill employment, or of the laundry
business, and so forth?
"NOR IS the more distant prospect less terri
fying," continued my friend, his tone still more
" urgent "Exposure of all that epidermis to our
E resent glacial climate creates selection pressure
I favor of hereditary insulation. Imagine a campus
full of hirsute legs!"
"Professor, count oa me, I'll enlist in your
campaign. But wouldn't the extra electric shaver
business tend to counteract the depressed cotton
Igd textila activities In the overall picture?"
"You amateur economists ail try to simplify
problems with untested assumptions. Actually, pro
babilities are the barbers would wreck things by
performing this service for nothing."
"1 see what you mean. Are these then your
only causes for concern in this matter?"
"There is the sociological aspect. It is brutaliz
ing the way we Ignore the spiritual havoc wreaked
on others by the miniskirt. The competition is
driving them right up the wall."
"YOU MEAN the walls they are writing on?"
I asked doubtfully.
"Strictly figurative. Then there Is also the angle
of conservation. Resources of scenery are limited
and should be conserved. I mean that over-exposure
cheapens things look at the Smothers Brothers.
I remember when an ankle affected the pulse
and a knee was a threat to sanity." explained
the Professor. "For most of this century a fellow
had to wait until a lady fell downstairs to make
observations on comparative anatomy and it called
for a certain quickness. Now the slowest oaf has
the same opportunity hundreds of times daily at
the foot of any staircase.
As I said. I deplore this depreciation of values
on the visual scale," he concluded as we parted.
"After all, how much else is there?"
T. H. Stevenson
Dear Editor:
The English Department has succeeded In win
ning the "Bungling Boob" prize for the year. (This
prize is annually awarded to the English Depart
ment.) The prize Is awarded on the basis of: 1.
Teaching material not pertinent to the education
of students, 2. The success of the department in
molding ideas and opinions in the instructor's mold,
and 3. Upholding the tradition: "Those, who can,
do; those, who can't, teach."
No one, absolutely no one, Is qualified to judge
writing but members of th English Department.
Not only are they qualified to judge TnUcg, but
their Judgments are correct
ANY STUDENT who wishes to differ with his
instructor had best be hypocritical when writing
papers; he should be careful not to write what
he thinks, but what the Instructor thinks. One may
say that this is a harsh statement; well, it is.
It Is also true. (Of course, I'm speaking in
generalities.)
English teachers have more opportunity to
Judge a student on what he thinks I mean
how can the math teacher grade on the students'
opinion? Math deals with facts.
The only fact in English Is the fact that the
teacher believes one way, and no matter how hard
he may try, he will be more Inclined to be kinder
to the grade of a student who believes similarly,
(Or pretends to believe similarly.)
A friend told me that in order to become a
writer, one must be well-read, and then it follows
"as the day the night," one must take numerous
English courses. (I never even knew English was
literature until I had read more than half the
books on the suggested reading lists!)
"WELL," HE said, "You must take English
courses to acquire an ability to appreciate and
realize good literature." He may have a point
there; the only thing I have learned In English
Is that good literature Is what is not taught in
English courses.
English teachers are frustrated writers; they
can't write profitably so the next best thing is
teaching how to write. (Being well-rea4, they are
able to teach students how to write.) That is,
the students learn to write only critical papers
which cannot contain terrible things like: the use
of anything but third person.
In critical papers, this may be fine, but a
friend once asked his English teacher to criticize
an article he had written. The student wrote:
"Without electricity, there would be no radios. Have
you ever turned on a radio and heard a bunch
of nothing?" Quickly the instructor crossed out
"you" with orders that It be replaced with "one."
"Has one ever turned on a radio and heard a
bunch of nothing?" Oddly enough the whole passage
loses any effect it ever might have had.
IT SEEMS that English teachers (again I am
speaking in generalities) are terribly interested
In writers' lives. I'll agree that the author's life
has everything to do with the way he writes, but
remarking that Walt Whitman was a homosexual,
and that Shakespeare's wedding took place
drastically less than nine months before bis first
child was born seems Irrelevant to the study of
their works. Edgar Allen Poe was expelled from
his college. So what? It's his writings, not his
life, that are transferring his message to us.
These very English Instructors also announce
on the first day of class, "If you provide sound
arguments, I will not degrade your papers because
you have disagreed with my opinions Really they
mean, as long as one provides sound opinions,
they will not degrade him for bad arguments. (The
sound opinions mean opinions that coincide with
the instructor's, of course.)
Again. 1 will remind you that in order to qualify
for the "Bungling Boob" award you must pick
up an ettry blank at the Student Union; but, don't
bother, the English Department has already showa
signs of repeating as the "Bungling Boob" of the '
year for at least the next decade.
Joy Trier
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