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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, January 8, 1968
Divided Center falling?
Have you heard the one about the two ministers of God's message of peace who were fired because they couldn't stop fighting?
The recent news that Rev. John Simmons and Rev. Maynard Strothmann, campus ministers for the Westminster UCCF Center, have been fired because of unsolvable disagreement over their duties, is an ironic reflection on today's church.
A trend in the last few years in which ministers have stepped down from hypocritical pedestals of the "pious perfects" and joined the ranks of us "miserable sinners," has been a step into reality which in itself may have warded off the death of organized religion. Yet, that two clergymen were such peacemaking failures they had to forfeit their jobs, perhaps reflects too much humanization. The situation hints depressingly of the blind leading the blind into the ditch.
Perhaps the ministers were not entirely responsible for their failure, however. If one accepts the premise of the mortal minister, he would expect the position to be subject to most of the pitfalls of the common job. And when, as in this case, two men must work together without guidelines for their duties, only the most compatible could succeed.
The studentless committee which fired the campus ministers might try to put its own house in order. Not only does evidence reveal a sad sloppiness in the handling of personnel, but the minister crisis has pointed out a bad lack of communication between the ministers, the committee and students belonging to the United Christian Campus Fellowship Center.
Perhaps the campus fellowship group would manage to keep the faith a little better if it substituted for hasty dismissals a plan Isaiah learned from LBJ: "Come now and let us reason together." Betsy Wright
Editorial Editor
Parking fee needs change
By Robert Entriken Jr.
How would you react if you were told you had to pay ten dollars for a permit to park in your own driveway? This, essentially, is the situation in which those living in KU's residence halls and Stouffer Place find themselves.
Supposedly having a car at KU is a privilege, but the only people who have to pay for that privilege are those living in dorms and married couples in Stouffer Place. Live in an apartment and you can park free. Own your own home and you can park free. But if KU owns your "home," it's ten bucks, Charlie.
The policy needs change, and, although only the Board of Regents can make the decision, Chancellor Wescoe and Chief Moomau of Traffic
and Security can, and should make this recommendation to the Regents. Parking should be free for those making their "home" in KU-owned buildings, although their residents should still have stickers to guarantee a parking place
Considering that parking fees are intended to support the Traffic and Security department, it seems unjust to assess only a portion of the automobile owners on campus to support handlers of all KU's traffic—including that of students and staff who do not have parking stickers.
The state requires all cars to be licensed, and charges owners a fee for the plates. KU also requires all student cars to be registered, and likewise, should charge a registration fee.
Letters to the Editor
Oracles attacked
To the Editor:
Barry Goldwater predicted the other day the Vietnam war will end in eleven months (November). I suppose that means he thinks our illustrious leader will have to stop feeding the war industry in eleven months and start feeding the general populace some you-know-what to get re-elected. If Goldwater is right (the man who accused the administration of plagerizing his platform) it means five thousand men are yet to be fed into the Johnson mow.
A lot of soldiers are in Vietnam because they want to be. I don't have anything to say about them. I do know that a lot more are there because they were told to be. They didn't believe in the war, or didn't care, when they were called from home or they wouldn't have been there. They believe in it now. I am not blaming them. That's part of their training, their margin of survival, to believe in what they are doing. Nobody in the military is going to lift a finger to stop the war. They will take hills and troubles and incoming rounds like the good soldiers they are and they will take them with the right attitude because that's the way it's done. When they are dead some stupid officer will put their combat boots out on a shell blasted土 (Life, Dec. 8, 1967) and order all of their buddies to stand around and look at them. All that can be said in the end is that their blood was ill spent.
One might hope for some ignoble, post mortum doom for those responsible, but I'm afraid the only judgment that is going
to count for anything is the judgment of this people, American people. I hope we have the sense to make it this year instead of waiting for the historians to make it.
Joel Gunn
Syracuse senior
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10 une édition:
In the Kansan editorial of Jan. 4, 1968, "World predictions, 1938." Mr. Northcutt's predictions all seem relatively safe, the fact is that these predictions are almost history now. Perhaps Mr. Northcutt's article would have been better entitled "Current History in Future Tense" or "How to Fill a Page in the UDK."
The editorial shows a good knowledge of current events, but Mr. Northcutt does not show the insight into history to relate these current events to future happenings. Mr. Northcutt says that this year will "undoubtedly contain a crucial test of South Vietnam's new government." The comment is so naive that it borders on humor. The last two or three years has contained many crucial tests of their government. With the present administration in leadership in South Vietnam it is safe to say that this year will also contain a "crucial test" of South Vietnam's government. Mr. Northcutt's prediction might have been of interest had he predicted an end to the Vietnam war and settlements not agreeing with American terms; or something of this nature.
Michael J. Spencer Wichita junior
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Kansan book review
Bond successor heroless
By Scott Nunley
Kingsley Amis' new work of espionage, "The Anti-Death League," is a fine novel more in the tradition of Graham Greene than of Ian Fleming. "The Anti-Death League" has been called a comic novel, but its tragicomedy is certainly very black.
From such a cast of non-heroic characters, Amis has drawn a performance that is bitterly realistic. The Danger-That-Threatens-Mankind has been replaced by the little dangers that destroy individual human beings. Detachment is impossible for the reader, and the book's momentary laughs only intensify the building tension.
Amis' interest in the thriller has been evident in recent years by his preparation of the factual "James Bond Dossier" and by his acceptance of the task of continuing the 007 novels. In his own spy novel, however, there are not only no dashing superagents but no heroes at all.
The Army's counter-espionage man is the book's prize fool. The psychiatrist-mastermind is only a raving paranoic. The saintly chaplain is a conscious hypocrite. The man who is decorated for stopping the Chinese spy is a homosexual. And the young officer upon whom the novel focuses is suffering an increasing breakdown.
Like Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis is primarily concerned with religion and death—or the death of religion, or the religion of death, or as the title indicates with the religion of antideath. Here, unfortunately, Amis proves to be a less-important thinker than Greene and this failure creates the impression that Amis intends a comic novel.
Nothing could be less accurate. There is nothing comical—in either the common or classical meanings—in the issues which dominate "The Anti-Death League." Men in training to inflict a most horrible death upon millions are
shredding under the pressures. Except for those few insulated by ignorance or obedience, they are realizing that official justifications for their jobs are monstrously absurd.
Ultimately, Amis shows that even their worries had been the results of illusions, illusions passed down with inhuman skill by the invisible masters of British intelligence. The entire world of the novel becomes the artificial one of the gaming table, upon which many pawns believe they are conducting games of their own. There is no lasting humor, and finally little hope of regeneration, to be found in such a black situation.
Amis' failure lies in his lack of pursuit of their absurdities. One by one the major characters offer their solutions to this bleak world, but one by one they are undercut and ridiculed. If Amis perceives any lasting answer, it only lies in withdrawal, in retreat. If confrontation with your life upsets you, then you are obviously not suited for that life. Try another.
When the greater world proves cruel, Amis' characters find peace by turning to more and more enclosed relationships. From the world, to the local group, to a circle of intimates, to a close friend or a lover, and ultimately into oneself.
At this point, the novel is in danger of returning to its beginning when withdrawal and introspection had meant madness to one character. Love interrupts the cycle and extricates the young officer. But the reader who is reassured by this salavation is ignorant of Amis' vision of the world where the lover is already beset by cancer.
The fact that every direction seems a blind end for the characters of "The Anti-Death League" does not mean that the novel is not an exciting and entertaining and satisfying one for the reader. As a thriller, it stands in direct and powerful opposition to the current gadget-happy field. As a novel, it can hold a respectable place in the modern British tradition.