Amerika: love it or leave it
by GEORGE KAUFMAN
(Editor's Note: George Kauf
man is a former University of
Nebraska student and former
Nebraskan writer and colum
nist. He recently moved to
Canada from the U.S. Army.)
Never used to think I'd take
advice of all the Yankee
rednecks, but then a lot of
things have changed, both in
side me and to your country.
Also, that was before I had to
face the real Amerika; it is so
easy to be against, easy to sell
cut. Once drafted, I was faced
with two alternatives run or
stay to be part of the Army of
the Empire. ?
Joe College 'alive and well '
by PAUL WICKS
Re-printed from the
Williams Campus Newspaper
After ZYi years at Williams
College and at least that many
years of reading articles in
New York Times and magazines
from Harpers to Look, I be
lieved that I knew what was go
ing on in American higher edu
cation. A Williams student who goes
home is always asked to ex
plain, interpret and defend
what college students are all
about.
I was sure that I knew the
answers. Anyone from my
grandfather to someone next to
me on the airplane would get
the same prepared speech ex
plaining students on the war,
on drugs, on the draft, on sex.
I BELIEVED that college
students, whatever mistakes
they were making in rhetoric
or in method, were much the
same everywhere, that their
heads at least had tendencies in
the right direction. I was
wrong.
I have just spent the better
part of a week at the Universi
ty of Missouri at Columbia.
I have seen a world that Is
different from what we have
come to accept as college life.
ANYONE WHO has not
visited someplace like Missouri
can not imagine how isolated
and different is the experience
we are having at Williams from
what I now believe must be the
more typical college experience
in the country.
There is a large architecture
school, and at night the Aggies
drive around in green pick-up
trucks and beat up people with
long hair.
One student that I met ex
plained that the ones with long
hair are generally freshmen
who don't know how to use
'freedom."
BY THE TIME they become
upperclassmen and learn
responsibility they get haircuts.
Many get trims sooner, when
they hear that their hair may
be a barrier to fraternity
membership.
Almost everyone wants to
Join a fraternity or sorority,
although they "want" rather in
the way one wants to eat each
day. Not to join is a social
NEVER THOUGHT I'd be a
Nazi soldier, either, but I'm
sad to say that I again opted
for selling out, going along with
it, protecting some vague sort
of future "security" for my
wife and I. It's also easy to sell
yourself on the idea that you
can be against it while being a
part of it, "fight it from the in
side." But, once they've taken your
hair, your clothes and your
constitutional rights, you
realize they've also taken the
only thing that really means a
damn to you your self
respect. I was part of the machine
malady roughly equivalent to
never brushing one's teeth.
One is suspect if he shows
evidence of being "anti
Greek." Fraternity membership
enables one to live on Greek
Street, and subjects one to
rules and regulations.
: FOR EXAMPLE, the more
senior brothers decide how
much time the pledges must
spend in the library, and how to '
help underclassmen mature
socially.
In one fraternity, the up
perclassmen decide which
pledges are probably virgins.
One night their names are read
out and they are instructed to
remain after dinner.
Without being told why they
have been selected or w h e r e
they are going, they are loaded
into cars and driven half way
to Kansas City to a black
brothel where they are initiated
into the rites of manhood.
The student who related this
story proudly indicated that his
fraternity was "typical" in this
respect.
GIRLS WHO JOIN sororities
have much the same regula
tions as the requirements (but
not, presumably, the visits to
the brothels.)
Despite the fact that Missouri
is fully coeducational and has
several different types of
housing, relations between the
sexes are not good at all.
, One fraternity house adjoins
a field that gets muddy when it
rains, most of the spring. When
the mud is at least two inches
deep, any female who walks
past the house is captured and
dragged through the mud.
If the supply of walkers Is
low, a street is blocked and
girls are pulled from passing
cars.
SOME GIRLS consider this
one of the most effective ways
to meet boys, particularly since
the house is one of the more
socially desirable fraternities.
The "typical" Missouri male
student seems to be the product
of a strict upbringing, one who
arrives at the university having
heard glorious tales of wild sex
in college.
When he arrives and finds
that it's not that easy, he is
frustrated and resentful.
The naturalness and ease
which coeducation Is supoosed
just long enough to hear
"gook", "Charlie" and "slant
eyed bastard" enough times to
realize that Amerika's war is a
racial one and not the anti
Communist crusade Nixon
talks about.
WE'RE NOT really worried
about a bunch of San-pans
sailing into San Francisco
harbor and unfurling the ham
mer and sickle; we're worried
about what's going to happen to
all those overseas investments
when the gooks figure out what
the Great White Hunters have
clone to their fathers.
Contrary to what we were
taught in what passes for
to inspire
evidence.
is simply not in
A COUNSELING-
psychologist told me that the
university's counseling services
are terribly busy.
To see a psychologist or
psychiatrist, one fills out an
application by checking little
boxes marked "Academic,"
"Social (too much or too lit
tle)". In the spring, panty raids
occur regularly.
The mob marches from
Greek Street to a large
quadrangle of high-rise girls'
dorms, and remains there for
hours.
Sporadically the crowd takes
up a chant, something like: "If
you're a virgin, blink your
lights."
Any girl whose light is on or
is seen looking out from behind
her drawn shades is liable to
disciplinary action, but often a
brave one throws a crumpled
paper bag out of a window.
Lights blink in a ocuple of
rooms. Everyone laughs.
In one class I visited there
was a major disruption because
I disrupted the seating chart.
The professor spent 10 minutes
taking attendance and making
sure everyone was in the pro
per seat.
Editor:
In a tax-supported institution
how can you explain why you
bring such characters to speak
to our students as Rep. Powell?
Are your student leaders ig
norant of his Crimes? Fraud?
Falsely-taking lax money? De
fying courts and leaving the
country to avoid punishment?
Aren't many students,
particularly Blacks, receiving
free tuition and housing plus,
yet they use that money to help
pay the enormous price Powell
demands to yell his praise of
Black Panthers and sub
versives and denounce his
country. Almost $2,000 for a
Public Crook.
Your youth shout loudly of
your superior intellect, yet can
Bu prove it by your actions?
ave you brought in one
laudable speaker in the past
two or three years? Speakers to
mold public opinion of youth
American History in public
schools, the U.S. is not unique
in all the world, is not a great
force of freedom in a world
beset by meanies, is not even a
very . nice place to live
anymore.
Listen to Steppenwolf, they're
telling you where you are
Amerika. You're a "Monster".
You're getting dirty,
overcrowded, polarized and
special-committeed to death.
IF YOU THINK only
deserters and dodgers are
"forced" away from the great
light of democracy and are
leaving the country, think
again. Those who seek what we
AT THE UNIVERSITY of
Missouri, students view college
not as a way to learn about
themselves or their world, but
as a means of upward social
mobility.
"Relevance" at M i s s o u
means accounting; "disad
vantaged" means you didn't
make it to Miami to the Orange
Bowl; the "Establishment" is a
goal; an "urban crisis" means
closing the brothels in St.
Louis.
There is a certain amount of
separate housing for black
students, but that is primarily
because the fraternities don't
want them.
MISSOU STUDENTS are, by
and large, for the war and they
support their local police.
Grass is replacing beer at
parties, apparently because it
is believed to be a more potent
aphrodisiac.
Anyone who believes that this
country is going to change as
the present generation moves
from college into citizenship is
in for a rude surprise.
Students at Missouri, and
presumably other large
universities, are not very dif
ferent from the generations
before them.
Joe College is alive and well
in the Midwest.
RAPPING
who are to rule our fair nation
in a few years?
Are you naive or are you all
addicts of drugs or completely
indoctrinated in Communism?
Do you think you are having
fun arousing your parents and
instructors? If so you are in
deed adolescents. Don't you
think at ell?
Prove that you are capable,
qualified, to graduate and to
vote at 21. Surely not at 18 or
19. You show so little
responsibility, common sense,
will you ever be an adult, a
worthy citizen. Just read one of
your late issues. Could you
have written it in Russia?
Traitors! Front page for a
public Crook! Almost $2,000 for
a Hot Crook!
H. R. Everett
Editor:
I congratulate you on the re
cent foresight shown by
yourself and your colleagues. I
once thought you had to offer
are leaving of free will.
AND MOST of those of us
who were "forced" to leave
have no desire to return. You
can talk of amnesty all you
want I don't give a damn
what you decide.
The one good thing the Army
did for me was to "force" me
to do something I should have
done a long time ago. Amerika,
you're on a bum trip, with no
light at the end of the tunnel.
No hope for a nation that sees
My Lai as an unavoidable part
of war, no hope for people that
don't care that its government
is supporting corrupt dic
tatorships while destroying
others because of economics,
no hope for an electorate which
enthrones a man who is proud
that a democracy is dominated
by a "silent majority."
THAT A MAJORITY of
friends and teachers and
friends' parents and old Boy
Scout leaders and ministers are
silent in Amerika today is not a
source of pride for me it is a
cause of shame.
You can go to all the love
rock festivals in the country,
and you can do your thing, and
you can even go all the way
and carry signs and "be
against it".
But, sooner or later, you have
to face the fact that your
country is killing people. And
then you know that all the sign
carrying and moratoriurning
and card-burning in the world
is not going to stop it.
IF THAT were true, the war
would have ended a long time
ago. The man in the White
House simply is not listening
this one isn't even pretending
to.
And he's sending out Spiro
the Facist Mouth to tell you
what's coming; listen to Spiro,
man, he Is the voice of the
future William Fulbright is a
Commie. And its easy to listen
to the simple answer: Amerika
is falling apart because of the
Commies.
Don't laugh at Spiro; just
know he's telling you the truth.
And then decide whether or
not you can be a part of it.
Because you're not going to
change it.
refer to your preface of an
article written by Brent Skin
ner in the February 16 Daily
Nebraskan with the statement:
This column reflects the views
of the author, and not
necessarily tios f the Daily
Nebraskan.
It would certainly not be in
good taste for the Daily
Nebraskan to hold any views
that might cause personal in
trospection on the part of its
editors and readers.
Possibly the national media
might have avoided their con
frontation with Spiro T., had
they prefaced their comments
with similar remarks.
Right On, baby ... with
Silent Majority morality. Don't
become controversial, because
controversy Invariably leads to
change, and aren't we living in
a society that has no need of
change.
Robert Klrwin, Jr.
PAGE 5
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1970
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
