THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1969
:PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
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Save a vote
The losing list -- Schmidt piles it on
Some students and most faculty have the
chance to vote next week in an election of con
siderably greater import than ASUN.
Voters registered in Lincoln can participate
In the City Council election next Wednesday. From
the University community, hundreds can express
their choice for three vacant Council seats.
One of these seats should be filled by Harry
"Pete" Peterson.
Mr. Peterson, as his record of service to the
community indicates, is probably the best of the
six candidates. For 10 years a respected member
of the Lincoln Police department, Pete is on the
boards of directors of YMCA, Goodwill Ind., and
on and on.
But, even more important than his contributions
is the man himself. He has displayed to many
Lincoln voters a sense of fairness and knowledge
of city government that make it crucial he be
elected.
Use your other two votes as you will, but
save one for Pete.
Ed Icenogle
Music: "This is the End" by the Doors . . .
(Up and under)
This is the end,
Beautiful friend,
This is the end,
My only friend,
Alas, this is my last chance to take stabs
at music and culture as it affects the lives and
times of students at the University of Nebraska,
in the heart of the conservative Midwest.
A word of appreciation to the East Campus
for booking Little Anthony and the Imperials.
Absolutely one of the best shows I have seen on
this campus. They showed a tremendous versatility
with everything from his turn of the decade soul
right up to contemporary cuts from "Hair."
Also, my hat's off to the Beach Boys for their
new album, 20-20. It is probably their best since
"Pet Sounds," my all time favorite of theirs. "I
Can Hear Music" and "Cotton Fields" are the
most notable cuts along with several instrumental
done in the inimitable Beach Boy style.
This album is billed as being for visionarians.
Does that fit you? If so, pick up on this album
and rediscover the Beach Boys.
Now, buckle down and read it like it really
is . . . This is THE SCHMIDT LIST. (Name oi
artist and reason follows.) These aren't a few of
my favorite things.
Vying for the top spot were three real biggies
... The Ohio Express for "Yummy, Yummy."
The 1910 Fruitgum Co. for "Indian Giver.;' The
Archies for "Bang Shangalang."
The next three are variable, some people like
'em, some people don't. The Supremes for their
upteenth appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. The
Buckinghami . for not sticking with radio com
mercials. The Box Tops ... let Dylan do It.
SPYDER AND THE Crabs, you ain't what you
used to be, by any means. The Midwest Sound
let cream uo u. "as" " iis . ,
sing it, don't philosophize about it.
Rounding out the groups are, Tommy James
and the Shondells . . . "Sweet Cherry Wine." Archie
Bell and the Drells for "Showdown." The Cowsiiu
for "Hair." Jay and the Americans for anything.
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap for "Don't Give
In to Him." The Foundations for "Eulld Me Up
." The Classics Four for sounding alike in
everything they do.
Now we get down to the nitty -jritty with solo
artists. Heading the list is Tommy Roe for "Dizzy."
Followed by Ray Stevens for "Guitarzan" in spite
of the good stuff you did. Next, the old-timer Perry
Como for "Here Come the Brides." Glenn Campbell
. . when are you gonna' run out of towns?
and last, but certainly least, Bing Crosby for, hold
on now, "Hey Jude." Honest, I heard it.
Music: (Up and out.)
This Is the end.
Beautiful friend,
This Is the end,
My only friend, the end.
PEACE.
Great
complex vending machine, its
kick
It's been Just a year since the Spring Revolution
at Columbia, and many of us who were Involved
as activists, observers, and reporters are
now able to look back at the eruptions with a
peacetime perspective.
During those months of April and May, 1968,
many people were enraged because formal educa
tional activities of much of the university had come
to a halt. But some of us learned more in those
six weeks than we would have if the demonstrations
had never taken place.
There was a special dimension to our education
last spring. It had little to do with textbooks or
traditional academic subjects: It dealt with politics,
with power, with the way Real Life works. Through
elementary and high school, we had grown up
with the traditional fables: that major American
institutions the government, the university
"are delicately balanced structures designed to pro
vide the greatest good for the greatest number,
that they contain mechanisms to correct any major
flaws that might develop.
1
FOR MANY of us, that myth had begun to
crumble even before we came to Columbia; the
Vietnam war, perhaps more than any other factor,
Editor'! note: In Its May 13 Issue, LOOK magazine
featured a guest editorial by Jerry L. Avron. Avron
is the former editor of the Columbia University
Daily Spectator and principal author oi "Up Against
the Ivy Wall: A History of the Columbia Crisis."
His insight Into campus unrest is outstanding.
had made it clear how perverted American policy
could become, how the safeguards and corrective
mechanisms didn't always work.
The war was not the only event that shaped
our Ideology of mistrust. We looked at the history
of blacks In this country and saw that real change
began to take place only after Martin Luther King
was thrown into jail for leading "Illegal" sit-ins.
We looked at the way American cities had been
left to rot and noticed that those In power beoame
concerned enough to change tilings only after
several summers of bloody rioting.
Against this historical background, spring came
to Columbia last year. Earlier, students had
"presented President Kirk with a petition calling
tor the university to disaffiliate from a think tank
doing weapons research for the Vietnam war. Kirk
had never answered the petition. Construction con
tinued on a gymnasium in nearby Harlem parkland,
even though many people argued that Columbia
had no right to gobble up the open space surroun
ding it without consulting the community.
BUT THESE ISSUES were only symbols of
larger problems that underlay them: the
university's growing bondage to Government and
mjlltary-related research, and its often heartless
expansion Into the surrounding black community.
On a deeper level lay the broadest issues we were
fighting: the Government's commitment to an evil
and senseless war, and the racial prejudice that
pollutes American life.
Soon after the occupation of the buildings at
Columbia, I spoke to middle-aged business ex
ecutive about the revolt on campus. "I agree with
;;what you kids want," he assured me, "but why
can't you go about getting It In a socially acceptable
way?A
". Leaders of the student movement have called
this objection the Liberal Hang-up.
It appears again and again In the report of
the Cox Commission, the blue-ribbon panel set up
;jast spring by the faculty to Investigate the causes
of the Columbia demonstrations. The reforms the
.students demanded were for the most part
flecewary and long overdue, the report conceded,
.'.and It was clear that they had little chance of
accomplishing anything through ossified "legitimate
.Channels." But, the report insisted, the students
"tlll should not have resorted to extralegal action
'.lo win their demands.
ZA great many young people today are Infuriated
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by the priorities and values that govern American
life. We'd like to believe that rational discourse
is all that is necessary to right wrongs. But the
world we see around us just doesn't bear that
out. I was a big fan of the America that I found
in my high school textbooks any kid can become
President, justice triumphs in the end and I
was bitterly disappointed when I saw how poorly
it measured up to the truth.
SOMETHING HAS GONE wrong; one need only
to walk through Harlem or read the daily casualty
statistics to be aware of that. And to judge from
some of the good and healthy changes that have
come from the "illegitimate" protests of the early
civil rights movement, the Northern ghetto riots
and the Columbia demonstrations, many of us
wonder whether the best way to improve things
is necessarily the most respectable.
The university, like the nation, seems to be
like a great, complex vending machine that has
become rusted with age: the only way to make
It work right la to kick It hard.
Some people argue that radical tactics are evil.
I, too, am bothered by the violence and abrogation
of free speech that have begun to tinge the leftmost
edgns of the student movement. And I am worried
that civil disobedience is becoming the tactic of
choice on many campuses when it should be used
only as a last resort I reject the notion of tome
ultra-Leftist students that one goal of campus pro.
test should be the destruction of tiie university.
But I confess that I'm more worried about
the kind of damage done to a university by trustees
who involve It institutionally in war research than
I am about the damage done to it by students
who take over its buildings for several days. So
I cannot share the righteous Indignation many of
my elders feel about campus protest. The anti-war
movement faced the same problem: Americans
become more upset over burnt draft cards than
over burnt babies.
It is interesting to see what has happened in
the year since the Spring Revolution to the
"unrealistic" demands that formed the backbone
of the Columbia sit-ins. The students demanded
that the university halt construction of its gym
in Mornlngslde Park. In March of 1909, Acting
President Andrew Cordier and the trustees concur,
red that it would be inappropriate to build a gym
there if the community did not want one'
THE RADICALS HAD argued that the
disciplinary structure of the university was
authoritarian and unjust. That structure has, in
response, been revamped. Discipline is no longer
administered unilaterally by a dean; the accused
student may appeal to a tribunal of students, pro
lessors and administrators. Even the most un
thinkable demand of all amnesty has been
all but granted, with the university belatedly drop,
ping most criminal- and disciplinary punishment
pending against demonstrators.
There has been another direct by-product of
last spring's turmoil the creation of a university
senate, domlnted by faculty and students, to make
university policy. I know of no one familiar with
Columbia who would maintain that these reforms
would now be realities if the events of last spring
had not happened.
Few of us saw last spring as the staunchest
SDS Ideologues did as the opening shot in a
national revolution. But it did serve the quasi,
revolutionary function of shaking up the status
quo so thoroughly that a wave of relatively peaceful
change could take place.
Maybe this is the greatest contribution of the
radical and black militant movements: to act as
a catalyst of social change by scaring the hell
out of those who are so sure that things are good
enough as they are.
OF COURSE, the possibility remains that all
of these "reforms" will, in the end, merely gloss
over the basic problems that brought about the
revolt. If "reform" turns out to be a veneer, then
the future looks pretty dismal.
Those of us In my generation who are dwplv
committed to creaUve, constructive change (ace
an existential choice between radical tactics and
withln-the-system reform. Some might stiil be will-
lng to work through the accepted political channels
- within 1,18 universities and In the world at
large.
But those who control that system of channels
must first convince us that, if we do, genuine
change Is possible. Their record has not been good
and shows little promise that It will change. If
some of the most Idealistic and capable members
of my generation end up on the barricades instead
of changing things from positions of legitimate
power, n W1u because of the Grayson Kirks
of this world, not because of its Mark Rudds.
p1erhnPs l the real lesson of last spring
at Columbia. '
By George Kaufman
What's ahead next year at NU
Parting shots from a
retiring senior with an
average trying to sell out on
a bum market:
Mutuel misunderstanding
may la id to an ugly situation
on this campus by next
fall.
FIRST, IT SEEMS that
(but hopefully not) the ad
ministration does not realize
the nature of Its opponent
this time In facing the Afro
American Collegiate Socie
ty This time it Is not a bunch
of Nebraska schoolboys
crying Save-The-Tree or one
ef NU's pale revolutionaries
who wid fade Into the
woodwork if you hold your
breath.
Most of the A-ACS leaders
are nut from Wausa or
Scottsbluff. Moet are from
The City and they are hip
and hard. Where It would
never really occur to a Cor
nhusker to "take the
building," the Blacks are
serious.
The Blacks are keeping
score closely and they won't
be committed to death.
It'i unfortunate that a list
of actions which would
elevate the Blacks on cam
pus to equality must be
called "demands", and
equally unfortunate that
Wayne Williams Is 10 in
telligent, so articulate, so . . .
well, se Nice. To think that
Nebraska had to wait 100
years for an intelligent,
articulate Black to rise up
and "demand" equality.
But. that it the way It Is.
and a Wayne Williams Is the
only hope for success In the
Black effort here.
THIS BRINGS US to the
I e c o n d misunderstanding.
Because most of the leaders
are from out-of-state, they
may not fully realize the
nature of the environment.
This Is Nebraska, where a
clown like Terry Carpenter
dominates the llgeslature . . .
Nebraska, where sex educa
tion in the schools Is attacked
because It Is part of the Inter
national Communist Con
spiracy ... Nebraska,
where civic leaders wake up
each morning, bow to the
South and say in unison "We
have no problem here."
By now, the A-ACS should
be aware of the gross over
reaction to the first Innocent
demonstration of support
they received on campus. It
prompted (right here In
Nebraska) a legislative bill
to cover campus
distrubances and several
state senators yowled. So
they should be aware of what
further actions they will trla
ger. 8
It's too bad, but the Wayne
Williams way Is the only way
but ride the adminlstra.
Hon hard, don't letup.
The only recourse and
everyone knows this Is fop
the Society to call In the
brothers and Tlemann to call
In the National Guard, and
we both know who wins those
games. Bad odds.
S. WAYNE IS leaving
this spring. If the A-ACS
picks another Wayne
Williams, there is a good
chance of success. The
Society has already gotten
concessions from the ad
poople which many thought
Impossible. Gee, someday
even whites may be able to
participate In choosing their
administrators and Instructors.
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nowspaper Independent
of editorial control by student govern
ment, administration and faculty. The
opinion expressed on this pa?e is that
of the Nehraskan's editorial page staff.
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