KANSAN Comment
Those were the days
The times, as they have always been, are "a 'changin'."
As the sixties end perhaps it is best to forget the later years and note the decade's beginning and remember when America was a land of optimism .patriotism .rampaging intellectualism .a place where civil rights and more importantly human rights were the priorities and peace, the necessity.
The year was 1961, the man's name—Kennedy, the place—the White House. For the first time in many years students were motivated, inspired and asking not what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country. Ignoring the carrot dangled before them by job recruiters, they went into the slums of Boston or to another country to improve the lot of mankind . . . that was what being an American was all about.
And then something happened to this optimism,this "vigah."
For some it happened in Rochester N.Y., Detroit, Watts or Newark. For others it happened at Columbia, Cornell, Harvard or MIT. For some it happened at the Chicago Democratic Convention in '68. And for some it happened in death—the death of one man named King and two men named Kennedy.
Wherever . . . however . . .
Today in 1969 it barely resembles the America of the early sixties . . . it is the America of
the apathetic and the frustrated. Its colleges are only an escape from the battlefields of Vietnam for many.
The results of economic prosperity have sickened us to the point that we can no longer realize that this prosperity could cure many of our ills.
In short we can no longer accept America wrong or right because there exists too many wrongs, in too many instances.
The only challenge left in success is the challenge to put ethics behind it; to make intangibles practical.
If we look in terms of science and technology we could call the sixties a success. Men of the decade have given us heart transplants, birth control pills—even the moon—but have we really bettered the lot of mankind.
We've also given Andy Warhol, the Beatles. The moody Blues and the Blood, Sweat and Tears for comic relief.
What will the 70's offer? Cries of liberty and justice instead of law and order? More Bob Dylans and fewer Spiro Agnews? A once silent generation that will remain vocal? If this nation is to get back on the road to greatness the pessimism of its youth must become optimism.
Sleep on that, Mr. Nixon.
Judith K. Diebolt
Off the wire
By United Press International
- * *
WASHINGTON—President Nixon, noting he will announce more troop withdrawals from Vietnam at Christmas time:
"We can see that the Vietnam War will come to a conclusion regardless of what happens at the bargaining table."
***
SPACE CENTER, Houston—Dr. Robin Brett, a geologist quarantined with the crew of Apollo 12, praising the astronauts' investigations of the lunar surface;
"This crew, we all think, would be as competent as any geologist . . . we all decided at the Geological Society of America last month, that if you got three geologists off the street they wouldn't do nearly as good a job as that crew."
- * *
PHILADELPHIA—Dr. Francis Joseph McGarry, an obstetrician for 40 years, who burned his medical school diploma to protest the liberal teachings on abortion at his alma mater, Jefferson Medical College:
WASHINGTON—Sen. Albert E. Gore, D-Tenn., speaking against a proposed $185 million tax break for railroads that would allow them to deduct the costs of tunnels built up to 100 years ago in order to purchase more rolling stock:
"Life begins at the moment of conception. It does not begin when the mother feels the first bump. It does not begin when the baby takes his first breath. It begins with conception, and to take that life is first-degree murder."
***
"Oh, what sins are committed in the name of rolling stock!"
Readers' write
In response to Mr. Robert Findlay's November 17, 1969 letter to the UDK, the following clarifications and comments are necessary.
To the editor;
It is clear from Mr. Findlay's first paragraph that he is in sympathy with the financial difficulties of TAs and AIs at the University of Kansas. We appreciate this sympathy.
Unfortunately, the vehemence of his remarks concerning the faulty argumentation on the part of the UDK reporter, negates to a great extent the sympathy generated in his first paragraph.
Mr. Findlay contends that Mr. A. Wallace, cited in the second UDK article on AI salaries, is not a "typical example of a married graduate student." It is difficult to determine who is typical or not typical. The fact remains, however, that a great many AIs and TAs find themselves in similar situations. Almost all graduate students incur some indebtedness before completing their degrees. (see first UDK article on AI salaries in the November 10.1969 issue.) This is, then, a "typical" predicament.
Secondly, Mr. Findlay was bothered by the illegitimate comparison made between AI and Assistant Professor salaries. He is right. Instead, this point should have been made in the article: If the University had to hire full-time staff to teach courses presently taught by AIs and TAs (40% of the total undergraduate program-UDK figures), it could not bear this financial burden. To be blunt, AIs and TAs are cheap labor.
Certainly, the most disturbing comment in the letter is a statement concerning the commitment of AIs to teaching. The letter says, "His (the AI's) commitment is not to his teaching—we don't expect it to be—but rather to himself and his earning of a degree." Mr. Findlay is in error here. He is stating that the graduate student-teacher is exclusively concerned with the earning of his degree and that he is not expected to have a commitment to his teaching. On the contrary, the role of the graduate student-teacher is a dual one. Every department in the University which employs AIs views it as such. The implications of Mr. Findlay's statement in terms of the quality of undergraduate education at KU are staggering.
Robert M. Asch Assistant Instructor-German Philip W. Weiss Assistant Instructor-Western Civilization
To the editor:
In reply to the letter advising me on the number of legs of certain insects, I can only say that the "bugs" which appear in my comic strip are of a rare and unusual species yet unknown to the insect world.
As for Webster, the spider, he has so much difficulty with only six legs, I can't see how even the most literal-minded entomologist could wish an extra two on him.
Dave Sokoloff
Dave Sokoloff Wilmette, Ill., freshman
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GRIFF AND THE UNICORN
by DAVE SOKOLOFF
Griff & the Unicorn, Copyright, 1969,
University Daily Kansan.