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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1969)
PAGE 2 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1969 False prophets in student action? Wednesday's moratorium was a success and exceeded even the organizer's expectations. When compared to the violent action of the Weathermen (the Students for a Democratic Society's militant splinter group) last weekend in Chicago, the right and wrong ways to initiate change are clearly - shown. The moratorium will most likely have at least some effect on the war. If it doesn't, there is always Nov. 15 and Dec. 15. But what if the war ends tomorrow? Such concerted student action, could be the start of a campaign to correct tha more basic evils in society which brought about the mistakes in Vietnam. Such action could open the political system to more closely reflect the will of the people. But students must be careful that such movements are not used by persons with opposing objectives. The Weathermen are associated with all students in the eyes of most Americans. The group is using the causes and carrying the banner of the "student movement" for their own personal gain; certainly not for the creation of a humane and open society. The Weathermen, by their use of indiscriminate violence last weekend, have forsaken the basic norms that Wednesday's moratorium put forth: working peacefully through the system, maintaining a positive approach to change and respecting the individual and human life. "He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart." This Biblical proverb coiJd compare the moratorium and actions of the Weathermen. The Weathermen are alienating the student move ment in the minds of many Americans. The Weathermen are the fools, and perhaps they will "inherit the wind." Such is the prediction of many persons the Weathermen's weekend rampage could mean the end for that militant organizatiin. If this would happen, concerned students can get on with their relevant work without hindrance from these false prophets. Roger Boye niiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiii.'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig Nebraskan editorial page ITimes are changing?) fy Don Stenberg Member, Arts and Sciences Course of Study Committee Next Tuesday (Oct. 21) the Arts and Sciences Course of Study Committee will meet to consider a proposal for a new course Biology 3. This course, rather than a study of trees, bugs or bones. Is intended as a study of the scientist in today's society. It will deal with such questions as how the scientist relates to tho world, the pressures that shape and mold the scientist's ac tivities, and why the scientist chooses a particular matter for study and research. Clearly, for a non-science major, this course would be of far greater value than a study of (the electron affinity of krypton or the life expec tancy of the amoeba. t Why? Because society's very survival depends on the abllity of business and professional men to work effectively with the scientist. To turn an old phrase, an understanding of the scientist might for many be more "relevant" than an understanding of the atom. So, you say to yourself, that sounds hke a good deal. What's the catch? The "catch," my friend, is that It may never be taught. Why again? Because the faculty doesn't think It's a good Idea? No. Because there Isn't anyone to teach It? No. The reasons thus far established (art you ready for this?) are: The course would cross departmental lines (money). It could change the numbers of students nrolling in other lab courses (money). It might necessitate a change In the In terpretation of Group Requirement E (tradition). The student, as yet, seems not to have been considered. Comments, anyone? VIENllDIETnrA "And what did you do in the great Moratorium of 1969? tomorrow's child asks his father. Well, on, I made posters for the Moratorium announcing speakers like Ivan Volgyes and Al Siporin. And 1 wore my best suit to look respectable but I forgot to bring an overcoat." Or at least that would be part of my personal account. I'm the schmuck who misspelled half the words on those posters so who can write and spell at the same? Of course. I also had fun keeping one eye out for the YAF (those gentile Portnoys of the far Right) and the other eye open for big, tough high school athletes. But these are trivial. The Moratorium was a mounmental event. (I'd like to say It was a suc cessful one, but only lime and President Nixon can determine that) It's almost Impossible to believe that Just two years ago only five per cent of NU students voted on Al Spangler's Vietnam Referendum, and that George McGovern and Allard Lowensteln spoke In a near-empty ballroom. 1969 may be remembered cot a the Year of the Moon or of the Mets, but rather as the Year Nebraska (the U., not the state) Awoke. . Recall, first of all. that It rained October 15. Thank God It rained. There were no summer oldlers or sunshine patriots In this group, no one tane along just for a lark. The rala seemed to increase the intensity ( the marchers' determlua- Seeds of discontent at Berkeley need only fertilizer By Rowland Evans and Robert Novak Berkeley, Calif. A principal reason why the troubled University of California campus here begins classes this week with a fatalistic expecta tion of chaos ahead is the presence of thousands of trouble-seeking non-students. The normal contingent of pot-smoking, long haired "street people" on Telegraph Avenue ad Joining the campus was augmented by an inunda tion of some 10,000 youth cultlsts this oast summer. Enough have stayed to put the strength of the street people at an all-time high of perhaps (T.U00. This constitutes a huge permanent cadre of alienated youth, mixing drug usage and radical political doctrine and collaborating with radical student leaders on the campus Itself. It was this alliance of student radicals and street people which provoked last spring's bloody confrontation over the People's Park, energizing much of the student body on their side. Indeed, there is a chronic threat of violence on Telegraph Avenue that can engulf the campus any time. As students registered for classes last week, Berkeley police hunting for heroin pushers tangled twice with the street people the kind of clashes that can quickly escalate. Thus, the street people are the spark that at any time can ignite the Berkeley powder keg. The combustible combination includes an uncertain ad ministration, an ever more militant student body and faculty, and wrathful hostility toward the Berkeley ethos by Gov. Ronald Reagan (who plans meat-axe budget cuts against the university next year). This makes Berkeley permanently impervious to all attempts at either pacification or soothing events such as lowering military draft calls. Indeed, some liberal faculty members who supported the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, which initiated the present perpetual crisis, now admit that con cessions made to student radicals at that time have not bought peace. "I had assumed, logically, that the granting of the demands for free speech by students would stabilize the campus," one such professor ruefully told us. "I was naive." The vast majority of the 28,000 students at Berkeley is still more interested in getting an education than in fostering revolution. When the radical SDS called last week for a demonstration against ROTC military training, only a corporal's guard of languid demonstrators turned up. The autumn campaign by student radicals to bring down rents in Berkeley's slums is generating more yawns so far. But low participation Is deceptive. University administrators fear that radical leaders, lacking mass support, will escalate their tactics to provoke a massive overreaction from the university and a repetition of the People's Park fiasco. Moreover, the student radical leaders have ef fective faculty allies who can push issues to con frontation as in the case of Angela Davis, the black philosophy professor who has admitted membership in the Communist party. The question of whether Miss Davis should be permitted to teach next semester at the university's Los Angeles campus would now be quietly making its way through the courts were it not for Prof. Donald Kalish, head of the philosophy department and a political activist with far left connections. To the consternation of the university administration, Kalish arbitrarily pro voked a crisis by scheduling her for a teaching assignment one semester ahead of time. Ironically, the Angela Davis controversy has excited less agitation at relatively peaceful Los And now if you will glance out your right window you will see the Concrete campus' of the University of Nebraska and its small suburb of Lincoln." Open forum To the Editor: So far it is difficult to predict how much student involvement In politics (that is to say, In their own real lives) there will be in the coming months, but there seem to be signs of change over last year. However, I was reminded by the Oct. 10 article on the new Council on Student Life that some Issues will remain the same. Reading the expectations and apprehensions of the council members, I was struck by how all the com ments seemed to relate to the Thanks to rain by Fml Schmidt tlon to be seen, heard, and counted. Two persons collapsed near me at the Capitol. And no one was comfortable. Yet the scars of St. Crispin's Day could not Instill a deeper sense of brotherhood than wet hair nd soaked clothes did at the Union aftermath. The march In the rain proved our resolve. We went to the Capitol to mourn and the heavens wept with us. It was a communal experience (no, sonny, that's not the same as communist), from the Fay llogan Experiment's superb rendition of "That Good 01 Rock n Roll" to the walk back. And all this should afford some comfort to the marchers, all of whom are now among the most hated people on earth. People who scream about the American Way spit on the First Amend ment, which is the essence of American freedom. And so many of the good Christian citizens find It so easy to hate vehemently. Ask the kid who caught a glob of saliva in the face while canvassing in town. But the marcher's convictions won out over fear. Ivan Volgyes' heartening speech assured that. October IS was only the start. As long as the suffering continues In Vietnam, dissent at home carries only meek consequences. If men hate us, that gives" us a common plight with a lot of great men. including a certain Nazarene. And that makes the road ahead easier. 1 hope we can make it shorter, too. Regents, and to revolve around a question which has been on my own mind for some time: does the forming of the council mean that the Regents are finally taking the students seriously, or Is the sad truth that the Regents will go on treating the students as they treat everyone else around here, 1 n eluding administrators, chairmen, and faculty that is, as children incapable of understanding their own best lnteresst? Last spring I sat at the same table with the Regents and debuted the Issue of coed visitation in the graduate dorms. My group was told that our presentation was so reasonable, and the people we represented so mature, that (he question would be once again open for con- Of course they waited, and In the middle of the summer, when almost no one was on campus, they flatly denied the request. Such tactics, while effective, are hardly subtle: they have been used at less complacent schools, and fool no one. At this time the graduate students of Benton-Fairfield are tiumbly asking to know the reasons for the Regents' refusal of the visitation pro posal. It would seem that these six politicians (they are elected, you know) were so pleased with themselves at having picked the opportune moment to squelch the pro. posal that it slipped their minds to be considerate enough to explain why the denial. Surely they had some ideas for their decision; but then absolute power always finds It most efficient to be totally arbitrarv We are In the Ironic posi tion of being subject to elected officials who do not have to answer to their real constituent. But it's all right, Ma, I'm only bleedin'. No one has yet shown concern over this dishonest trick, and certainly no one will be so uncivilized as to create a disturbance when the Regents refuse (as they will) to provide a ge. nuine rationale for their position. (As a matter of fact, order is maintained on this campus not by the Regents, but by the faculty, the more Intelligent ad minlstrators, and the con cerned students, in spite of the efforts of the Regents.) The elaborate contingency plans (were thew ever a secret?), which would pour hundreds of police on campus to put down any unlawful demonstration, will never be needed. People here realize that revolution Is stupid: but sometimes the progress of evolution i s frustrating. However, it Is up to us to rJay fair, veu if the Regents don't. In any event, I wish luck to the new members of the CSL; they have nothing to lose but their midwestern faith In the rationality and good will of the older generation. Lawrence Wolfley, English Departmeut Angeles than here at radicalized Berkeley. It could trigger disturbances at this campus, where the slender bonds of authority are further weakening in the absence of Chancellor Roger Heyns. Exhausted from the ordeal of four years of presiding over an educational carnival, Heyns left Berkeley during the summer for an extended Euro pean visit and still has not returned. Some university officials doubt he ever will resume his chancellorship. "If Heyns comes back In the same mood as he left, I'd prefer he didn't come back," confided one university official critical of Heyns'a attempt to please all sides. Whether Heyns stays or not, the basic problem of the Berkeley chancellor will be the restoration of order while winning the support of the majority of students. On a campus where tension has degenerated into violence, where arson is becoming commonplace (including two attempts on university buildings in recent weeks), and where the street people of Telegraph Avenue pose a constant threat, this constitutes the most difficult task in American education. Yet, it is different only in size, not in kind, from what many other university ad ministrators confront on other college campuses this autumn. Rapping & random by Ron Alexander The moratorium originated in the 1967, political movement to Dump Johnson. In November '67 Eugene McCarthy and a band of people concerned over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and national priorities set out to express their beliefs in political action. They got results in New Hampsihy;e that brought Robert Kennedy into the race and from that point things began to change. From here it was a rapid development into a national effort of youthful cam paigners. All through the spring of 1968 thousands worked in a movement which produced primary victories for peace in Nebraska, Oregon, California and other less newsworthy places. But in June and August of 1968 the peace movement was laid low. Assassination ended one phase, old politics ended another. And in November of 1968 we elected a minority president who gave us a vague promise to end the war if we would trust him. Almost one year later those who were unsure about that promise have reason for their doubt. Peace seems no closer In 1969 than In March of 1968 when President Johnson said he would work to end the war. We have had a year of inactivity after what could be called our Prague Spring. What was the purpose for our initial demonstrations, campaigns, and participation? Why did students and concerned citizens take action In 1968? Part of the reason for our participation was a belief in the value of plain people expressing their views on national issues. Rarely in America's past have regular citizens felt they could speak their minds on our commitments. But the sixties have produced a generation of young adults exposed to television and radio news since an early age. The mass media have provided the possibilities for a generation of well-informed citizens. Now is the time when we may be well informed with relatively little effort. With the domestic concern for morality In our race relations, our generation has developed a con cern for the morality of America's actions. Often In the past, America has been our main concern and morality was seen in terms of what was good for us. The sixties brought us to see morality as concern for people first. Out of this concern for national morality has developed a strong respect for self determination, self-determination aiming at the most free and most full exlstance for each country. This belie! In self-determination allows that Swedish socialism, Indonesian nationalism, Indian one-statism or Chinese communism might be better for those peo ple; that different national temperaments, characters and problems can best be served through an original political system, not necessarily American democracy. We have endeavored to put our beliefs Into America's value system. We have yet to succeed. But through the moratorium we again have op. portunity to speak our convictions. The war in Vietnam symbolizes antiquated U.S. attitudes of the last decade. The South Vietnamese have never been really allowed to express their political desires. Self-determination has been denied those people. America has embroiled herself In a civil war on the side of a morally bankrupt military government. Because our elected officials have failed to recognize these facts, because they have failed to respond to our concerns, because they have not adjusted to our new set of values, we must take action. Our new awareness not only allows us knowledge, but also compels us to put that knowledge to work. We must march, or speak, or work for those convictions we of the sixties possess. Those who worked for Robert Kennedy In '68 must continue what was his last struggle, a struggle for peace In Vietnam. Those who started with. McCarthy must see his campaign through to suc cess. Those who have Joined afresh must know that single footsteps when added together can aKer the course of most determined men. DAILY NEBRASKAN JMW t!iit KKtiM HM at Lincoln, N.a. Ttjsphon.,, Idllor 4MMa. Ntwl 4tlMf, tlnM ClttH. Suktcnptim r.t., ,ra u pa, Him.Ui ar U par vtar jchool y.ar tc.pl Wr:n vaiatlani an turn Mrwdt m m nZ rami Union. Uncom hak. " ,B,,,",,",, """I 4wcttlMl MvwKtlne . wlnata Halt Naiianal Aa Manaaar Maiara Ann rawni (ootkaaaar Ma eatmani OrtvlaliM Manavar Jama Italian ciatxiiad A4 .?"" """ dvrllliHj ftaaratanfalivaa t. C Tii2!. ' . LiM
