WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1969
AGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Campus protests
as a seat of power
As the campus moratorium to protest Vietnam
Oct. 15 was adopted this weekend by a number
of Congressmen from both houses, campus protest
gained new dignity as well as national stature.
Bat, far more Important, campus protest gained
the knowledge that it can be effective at high
echelons where it counts.
During the last five years protests have had
", a drastic effect for reform on local campuses.
, . Anti-ROTC protests are among the most
widespread and visible examples of effective local
action. Two big-name schools, Harvard and Dart
mouth, completely dropped ROTC this year, action
triggered by spring protests. When the present
enrollees graduate, ROTC wUl cease to exist on
these campuses.
At Nebraska, though there have been only one
or two very small demonstrations, ROTC enroll
ment is down dramatically. Thus protests are ef
fective in carrying spirit from campus to campus,
affecting even quiet campuses such as Nebraska.
That they also have reached the high schools is
evidenced by a similar drop in freshman ROTC
enrollment.
But recognition by government officials,
favorable recognition, is a new dawn.
Tacit recognition has been stirring for several
years as officials have jumped on the bandwagon
to end involvement in Vietnam, but the spirit of
acting together with campus protesters has never
been evident. It will be as these senators and
representatives attempt to spend the day
spotlighting war protest on the floors of both houses
and to introduce resolutions limiting and reducing
the war.
Moreover, Congress is an arm of government
that can do something about the problem, much
more than the standard administrative sop of a
study committee. The Vietnam war is so big and
so tied up in bureaucracy that support at high
levels must be won if the course of American
policy is to be changed.
Years of protest In all but a few cases
peaceful and constructive have culminated In
just that kind of support.
For the collegians and professors long involved
in protesting the war and seeking official recogni
tion of the legitimacy of their protests, years of
disappointment and disapproval have been vin
dicated. They have the added satisfaction that they
originated what may soon come to be a new direc
tion in national policy.
They are, and should be, proud. Now that the
campus has seen what it can do, it may become
a still more portent force in influencing the direc
tion of the nation.
Holly Rosenberger, editorial page assistant
Chicago,
ive come in peace
The Chicago Eight, dissenters Indicted on a
flimsy conspiracy charge of plotting to incite riots
during last August's dismal Democratic National
Convention, came back to the city last week.
The flimsiness of the supposed conspiracy is
far from being the most significant issue in a
landmark case. The trial stands in a good position
to test the new Federal antiriot law as well as
Attorney General John Mitchell's decision that wire
tapping is legal "in the interests of national secur
ity." This can be a worthy test of controversial
procedures, and the defendants are well aware
of Us possibilities.
However, such a test can best be taken in
an atmosphere of calm and thought. Several
statements made by defendants in a mass rally
at Grant Park may encourage disastrous disregard
for that atmosphere.
Ronnie Davis, an organizer of the National
Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam,
told some 2,(XX) sympathizers, "The pigs are trying
us in a courtroom, but the real determination of
tills fight will come in the streets of this city
and across the country."
lie was followed by Ylppie leader Abble Hof
fman, whose pledge to breed a conspiracy of love
ended with, "We have come to Chicago to fight
. . . victory or death."
Hoffman's words were met with upraised fists
as followers shouted "Fight on."
These men, some of them leaders of the
thousands of young people who came to Chicago
last summer to protest in peace, who came to
a city girded for violence, and either found it,
met with it or provoked it, with fault on both
sides, understandably returned with bitterness in
their hearts.
But their cause is too important to let bitterness
override reason, and it Is hoped that they won't,
that they will try every other avenue first.
The eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth philosophy was
the law code of Hammurabai, and can best be
laid to rest with that long-dead king.
HR
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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by J. L. Schmidt
Lorin Hollander Is balding, bearded and twenty,
five years old. Lorin Hollander is an artist, a
musician specifically. He has a gripe concerning
his profession and he is currently trying to right
the wrong in his work.
At the age of four, Hollander took up the violin.
At five he started playing the piano. He played
Carnegie Hall at 11 and pinch-hit for Van Cliburn
at 14. He enrolled in Julliard and played many
concerts, even a world tour for the Department
of State.
At the end of his tour he began to change.
The artist began replacing the robot and he realized
that there was more to music than just polishing
notes eight hours a day. He was labeled as the
freak of the classical establishment.
On Febr. 23 this year he played a new electronic
piano in a concert at Fillmore East. Angel Records
was there and the result is an album of cuts
from this concert.
Philosopher-musician
Back to Hollander's gripe. He told the audience
he was at Fillmore because, "Fillmore is com
munication." Sounding more like a philosopher than
a musician, he continued:
"... A cold, impersonal attitude permeates
the communication and interaction between men.
A veil of games and lies distorts the original vision
and intent of many of man's institutions. The
deepest meanings behind even the more sensual
of man's explorations into himself artistic crea
tion or religious wonder have been lost in a
tangle of dogma ar.J politics.
"Classical music is a sad example. Here is
an art soaring with emotion and screaming with
urgency, able to satisfy the deepest intellectual
longings, yet rejected by many as being archaic
and effete."
A tocatta, a free form composition displaying
the artist's virtuosity, called "Up Against the Wall,"
Is probably one of the finer cuts of the album.
Hollander said about this piece; "I think I can
put Vietnam, the ghetto, Blafra, etc. etc. in my
own way, into music."
This he does with a hard, driving beat which
is at times vicious, almost enough to make one
crawl the walls. But then, the situations in Vietnam,
the ghetto and Biafra. etc. etc. are much like
that, too. The song builds up frustration and there
is absolutely no relief in store for the listener
a very vivid song which makes its point.
' Other works by Bach, Partita No. 6 in E Minor;
Debussy, Fireworks and Prokofiev's Sonata No.
7 in B Flat round out the album with two bands
devoted to spoken Introduction and interpretation
by Hollander.
First electronic piano
An electronic piano, engineered by Baldwin and
officially called the Baldwin Electronic Concert
Grand made its first public appearance at this
concert. , . . . ..
It sounds like a regular piano but has the
advantage of a self contained amplification system
and volume control without tonal distortion.
The sounding board is replaced by ferroelec
tric cantilever transducers which channel the sound
through speakers in the body of the instrument.
Additional pedals allow the pianist to achieve a
crescendo or diminuendo effect on a given note
or chord. .
Designed for use at places like the Hollywood
Bowl or Tanglcwood, the piano was also found
to be very effective at Fillmore East because It
lacks good acoustics.
Hollander might be the freak of the classical
establishment, but the likes of him are going to
keep classical music alive. An artist with the
dedication and talent of Hollander is a good man
to have on one's side, and when the establishment
realizes that, classical music will live again and
take its true place in our culture.
Nebraskan editorial page
and then
there were
None
Open forum
Dear Editor:
I expect to catch all kinds
of hell from all sorts of peo
ple about the article in
Wed nesday's Nebraskan
concerning second semester
freshman English classes
"for frosh Greeks." I think it
is necessary to clarify our
position.
There may be those who
gained from your article the
impression that the English
Department desires to have
its instructors rub elbows
with the elite and serve up T.
S. Eliot with tea and
crumpets or Hemingway
with beer and pretzels In
posh surroundings. We have
no such desire.
There will be no
freshman Englsh classes in
fratenity or sorority houses
or any place other than An
drews Hall; there will be no
"special" classes designed
for fraternities or any other
groups; there will be no spe
cial teachers hired for or as
signed to any such classes.
We do have considerable
Interest, however, in a
general program Involving
the grouping of students from
the same living units and
placement in the same fresh
man English classes to a
very limited extent, limited
primarily by the tremendous
complexities of registration
and scheduling.
We are not so naive as to
think that the entire process
of education, or even perhaps
its most significant part,
takes place within the four
walls of the classroom. It is
our Intention In our freshman
English classes, and our
hope, to stimulate intellec
tual activity, to generate
serious discussion, and to
foster an atmosphere of
freedom in Inquiry and ex
pression. If the students in a
particular class also
associate closely with one
another in living units, we
would expect some con
tinuation of discussion
originally generated in class,
and vice versa, and we would
thus expect significant im
provement in the quality of
the students' educational ex
perience both in and out of
the classroom.
For the past two years, the
Department of English has
participated In such a pro
gram; and, though the
results have not been sub
jected to any intensive or
extensive evaluation, we
have felt that the classes
have proved to be of suffi
cient benefit to warrant our
continuing participation. In
fact, a nmn'ier of the persons
most instrumental in Uie
development of the Centenn
ial Education Program, both
faculty and students, have
been involved in our previous
experiments.
The basic philosophies
underlying the Centennial
Program and our ex
periments are the same.
Thus, we wish to continue
to cooperate in a program of
cluster grouping students from
living units into freshman
Engtish classes. We care not
at all whether the living units
are "Greek," or Roman, or
Mayan, or Independent, or
whatever, Indeed, in terms of
the supposed benefits of such
a program Greek living units
stand to gain the least. One
of the side benefits we would
expect from a cluster group
Ing program would be that
new students could gain
some sense of group Identity
and "belonging" that they
might not otherwise gain so
quickly. New students In
Greek" organizations have
little need of that.
Then, too, we find It
generally desirable to have
as many different "kinds" of
student li classes as possi
ble students with various
educational and socio,
economic backgrounds,
rrorvsenllng ari:!t sub
cultures. This sort of variety
is particularly desirable lu
literature classes, sine
students learn perhaps more
from one another than from
either the Instructor or the
material under discussion.
It is our observation (ac
curate or Inaccurate) that
students associated with
particular f ralernal
organizations tend to be "of a
kind" with similar
backgrounds, similar at
titudes, and similar value
systems. If that observation
is true, students in classes
made up of only such
students may find their
education experience Im
poverished rather than
enriched.
But just as we have no in
tent ion of discriminating In
favor of fraternities and
sororities, we have no inten
tion of discriminating against
them. We wish to schedule as
many cluster grouping clas
ses for living units as Uie
difficulties of scheduling and
registration will allow; hut
wa have not chosen, and
have no Intention of choosing,
which specific living units
will participate. That task of
selection, as far as we are
concerned, rests entirely in
the office of Student Af
fatrs. Ned S. Hedges
Director of F r e s h in a u
English
.'. . Kelly Baker
"Whatever you read about Midnight Cowboy
Is true" sounds like a promotion for Denmark's
latest sexport. No so, for this is the advertising
copy for a movie which does not need such em
bellishment to stir up curiosity seekers.
This powerful, sometimes brutal film follows
the Journey of Joe Buck to New York and Miami
and eventually to a realistic outlook on life.
Played superbly by Jon Voight, Joe leaves the
fertile fields of Texas with the vision of setting
up his personal stud farm In New York City, where
"there's women just beggin' for it."
In New York Joe meets Enrico Salvitore
(Ratso) Rizzo, who first takes him for twenty
dollars and later becomes his only friend. Dustln
Hoffman in an excellent performance as Ratso
is living a hand-to-mouth existence on what ho
can steal and his fantasies of a life in Florida.
Director John Schlesinger uses flashbacks of
Joe's youth and his relationship with Crazy Annie,
the town simpleton, to establish the lack of personal
Involvement in Joe's life which later underscores
the importance of his friendship with Ratso and ex
plains an act of almost sadistic cruelly. These
monologues in which Joe takes no verbal part
emphasize his inability to form meaningful personal
relationships and his ability to use people as
he intends to use the women of New York.
Whereas he employs factual memories to ex
plain the character of Joe the Dreamer, Schlesinger
uses Ratso's (originally the realist of the two)
fantasies to help in defining him. The movie traces
the movement of Joe from dreamer to realist and
Ratso from realist into fantasy delirium and even
tually release from reality.
Midnight Cowboy is a very powerful motion
picture and it Is a testament to Schleslngor's ex
pertise and artistry that the brute force of the
movie Is never out of control . . , that our sym.
puthles condone Joe In his brutality and stay with
him and Ratso afterwards.
Schlesinger directs an excellent supporting cast
rather coldly, generating little audience empathy
for these characters. Joe develops a symbiotic
relationship with each of these people the pro
stitute, the homosexual, the religious fanatic and
the society matron in which he intends to use
each of them and ends up being used by them.
And just when he is finally free of the emotional
poverty that condemns them, Joe is freed from
the person who has kept him in this poverty, but
at the same time has helped him grow out of
his fantasy adolesence.
Transit troubles cities
by Whitney M. Young, Jr.
It seems strange that a nation that caa
transport men to the moon can't get people to
work on time In the cities. Public transportation
s the lifeline of America's cities, but It's usually
inefficient and too expensive.
Part of the reason is the obsession with road
building that's gripped the country. Since World
Var 11. $50 has been spent on roads for every
$1 spent on mass transit.
One reason why roadbullding has been so
popular is that there is a limitless supply of federal
funds for it. The federal government puts up 90
percent of the cost of highways, so It's difficult
for cities and states to resist the temptation to
build road just to get some of that bankroll.
There s always plenty of cash around for
highways because Ihey're financed by a trust fund
made up of earmarked gasoline taxes. So whether
they re needed or no!, highways are built.
It's necessary to get transportation policy back
on the right track after years of neglect. There
ought to be a freeze on unneeded highway con
struction and the billions saved spent to improve
public transportation.
i j.0 fa".urfS 1,1 transportation are Just another
Indication of how this affluent nation Ignores publio
needs in favor of private privileges.
Low fares, new equipment, and experiments
with ghetto-to-factory public transport can help to
revitalize cities - all (or the cost of unwanted
and unnecessary highways.
