KANSAN Comment
The one among thousands
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.—Henry David Thoreau, 1858.
There were thousands of students in the weary army shuffling down Jayhawk Boulevard Wednesday afternoon. All kinds of students—the newsmakers often interviewed and quoted, the grey unwashed, liberals, New Leftists anarchists, the anonymous faces emerging from the collars of button-down shirts, the crazies and the conservatives.
Walking wearily together, mixing despair and rage and frustration.
"We want peace now!" they chanted, and sang,
"We Shall Overcome."
They wore black armbands and they were sick of war.
At Berkeley, at Harvard, at Amherst, at Columbia, at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas—the students wore black armbands and were sick of war.
Everyone is sick of the Vietnam war, for it has continued its pedestrian progress for such a very long time that it has ceased to hold any glamour, even for the war-mongers themselves.
The students' frustration—engendered partly by knowledge that either themselves or one of their friends have a good chance of taking a personal part in the war—was evinced nationally Oct. 15 in parades, rallies, speeches and other forms of pacific protest.
An equal frustration has jed suen men as Kepp. G. Sebelius (R-Norton) and Rep. Larry Winn, (R-Leawood) to sign a letter asking Nixon to end a "dirty little war with a third-rate power" by a "sudden and major escalation of the war with one aim in mind-victory."
My friend who distributed red, white and blue ribbons to the Moratorium marchers urged them to appreciate the fact that Nixon was trying to end the
war. She did not ask them to consider that the war continue.
There are thousands—millions of people in America who would like to see the war end-by one means or another.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." Thoreau said in 1858. The branches of evil are being attacked furiously as Americans lash out against continuance of the Vietnam war, but so few strike at the root of this evil—the selfish, greedy nature of man which causes him to spawn wars to replace the wars with which he is fed up. Who is so naively idealistic as to believe that if we can end the Vietnam war, men will no longer bear arms against each other?
Where is the historical evidence to prove that Americans may some day cease to fight? We have always been a bloody band. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is their natural manure." In 1969 the Weathermen flock to Chicago in provoke the "pigs" into drawing more blood. They are upholding a long-standing tradition.
How can we strike at the root of this evil and end conflict forever? The very nature of man must be changed.
We must not be satisfied with a mere change of wars.
Whether such deep-seated changes in humanity
John W. Aldridge wrote in the October, 1969, issue of Harper's, "One is struck, in short, by how philistine the young are in their idealism, how often their notions of reform ore reducible to merely administrative and legislative action, the more equitable distribution of wealth, power, and opportunity, and how rarely they embrace measures which might be taken to establish in this country the social and aesthetic basis for a truly civilized society."
can ever be achieved, and by what means, is the subject for an entirely different debate. We should have explored the causes for the greed which leads America to attempt to establish an empire, the self-admiration which leads this country to assume the condescending role of Big Brother in its relationship with many countries. We should have to investigate the greed of the war barons whose wealth comes from defense contracts.
A vaunted, often chauvinistic, pride in capitalism, and democracy and the American way of life is another cause of conflict which we should have to look at.
Roots of these displays of greed and selfishness flourish within all of us.
Thousands of students hit at a few branches of the war when they marched and sang and gave speeches Oct.15. How many of those wearing black armbands are ready to begin an exploration of the roots of the evil?
Only a few, of course. Dove Day over, most of us will go home satisfied with the expression of our frustration and despair.
Thoreau was no fool.
Joanna K. Wiebe
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN An All-American college newspaper
Kansan Telephone Numbers
Newsroom- UN 4-3646 Business Office- UN 4-4358
Published at the telephone during the academic year except holidays and examination periods.
Mail subscription rates: $6 a semester, $10 a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 66044. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised offered in Kansas. Mail delivery is by origin. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents.
GRIFF AND THE UNICORN
by DAVE SOKOLOFF
Griff & the Unicorn, Copyright, 1969,
University Daily Kansan.