Civil disobedience? Students on college campuses across America have been breaking laws with missionary fervor. My peers have trespassed, destroyed state property, disrupted classes, wilfully broken University laws concerning unlawful assembly, and violated the rights of many citizens. At KU, their goals have included cessation of the Vietnam war, liberation of students, curtailing the powers of the administration, removal of ROTC from the University, and many more. Methods have ranged from silent protests, to sit-down strikes to occasional club-swinging, aggressive abuse. When confronted by the "law and order" contingent, many of these students attempt to excuse themselves by saying they are committing acts of civil disobedience. I wonder. Do these demonstrations fit into the rich tradition of civil disobedience established by such figures as Jesus Christ, Thoreau and Gandhi? Law versus morality Inherent in the history of civil disobedience has been a concern about the distinction between legal and moral legislation. When asked by the Pharisees which was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus Christ replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind ... You must love your neighbor as yourself." And when the Pharisees asked him whether Jews should pay taxes to the Roman emperor, Jesus replied, "Pay to the Emperor what belongs to him, and pay to God what belongs to God." His reply left it up to the individual to decide what should belong to the emperor. Sounds like Jesus was an anarchist. A number of centuries later, Henry David Thoreau was stopped on the way to the cobbler's by the local tax collector, who wanted to know where Thoreau's poll tax was. Thoreau had refused to pay the tax, and was promptly placed in the city jail. After his release, Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience," which is the classic document in its field. "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator?" he wrote. "Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right." The document had a profound influence on a young man named Mohandas K. Ghandi, studying at Oxford, who chanced across the essay. A study of Thoreau's work helped spark Gandhi's life-long protest against unjust laws. In recent American history, perhaps the most noticeable practitioners of Thoreau's ideas have been the striking workingmen of the 1930's and the antisegregationists throughout the south in the past decade. Life is too short At KU, most students have had a chance to read "Civil Disobedience" in at least one undergraduate course. Certain impatient scholars respond eagerly to Thoreau's statement, "As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to." A dramatic breaking of the laws occasionally may be the only way to effect change rapidly. A man who believes he should not kill other men is not content to wait for Congress to pass a volunteer army bill. No, he will leave the country, burn his draft card, go to jail. But when white, middle class students break the laws of their schools and their state, are they really followers of Thoreau, Gandhi, Christ? To answer that question, we have to look at four concepts inherent in every act of civil disobedience: 1. There is a higher law than the law of one's land. This "higher law" can be one's conscience, the "voice of God," morality, or whatever you want to call it. 2. When this higher law conflicts with the law of the land—which happens rarely—one should go ahead and disobey his country's law, to be true to the higher law. 3. This is done with the knowledge of and willingness to receive punishment. 4. The acceptance of punishment is viewed as a positive action, for it will let everyone know about the unjust law. The demonstrating students appear to believe in a higher law. I know that some, at least, put their own consciences above the laws of their school and their state. Are we really "niggers"? But usually, a person who practices civil disobedience is concerned about righting a serious wrong. Are the students of KU so persecuted? Are there any laws at KU so prejudiced against students as the laws of Nazi Germany were against the Jews? Although some students maintain that they are the "niggers" of their society, their oppression does not consist of physical slavery, flogging, eternal separation from family and friends. Those who demonstrate against American participation in the war in Vietnam are certainly protesting a grievous crime—but how many are joining demonstrations merely because it is a fad? "The occurrence of civil disobedience can never be a happy phenomenon," said Charles Frankel, writing for the New York Times Magazine in February, 1964. "When it is justified, something is seriously wrong with the society in which it takes place." It our University society so flawed? And we can agree that demonstrating students are remarkably biased against lawful channels for change. They are in a hurry, their life at the University is short, they say. Well, on that point, they are right. Four years is not a very long time. But when they break the law, do the young anarchists express a willingness to be carted off to jail? Not very often. "Amnesty" is their cry. Many of those involved in last spring's ROTC demonstration attempted to cop out of receiving punishment. The law exists But the essence of civil disobedience is a recognition of the law's existence. By crying for amnesty, the protestors are trying to make their school and state say that the laws do not exist. "No society, whether free or tyrannical, can give its citizens the right to break its laws," said Frankel. "To ask it to do so is to ask it to proclaim, as a matter of law, that its laws are not laws." But here is the clincher, I think: in all my readings about civil disobedience, I have never seen anyone use violence offensively. When a person is attacked, he can defend himself. But did Christ, Thoreau or Gandhi tote rifles or billy clubs? The right to break the law is a moral, not a legal right. This is one thing demonstrators often ignore. Civil disobedience has often been referred to as "passive resistance" to government. The student demonstrators at Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia, were not all passive. And at KU, some demonstrators have carried clubs and pointed sticks; some were looking for heads to pound. Right now, I don't think I can call most of these law violators true followers of the tradition of civil disobedience. They don't know what civil disobedience is all about, and if they are using that idea as their reason for breaking the laws, they are all wet. They can only claim to be the followers of a new cult—uncivil obedience. Joanna K. Wiebe R. K. Mitchell the apologist Some students may not have noticed it, but the Memorial Union Corporation, which operates the bookstore, cafeteria, Hawk's Nest and other concessions in the union, recently paid off a mortgage 11 years early. There was a little less than $400,000 dollars outstanding on a 1950 revenue bond issue scheduled for termination in 1980, but the corporation found it had sufficient funds on hand to pay off now and the Board of Regents ordered it to do so. We'd like to think this was the result of hard-work, diligent service and industry, but the fact is that we've had a lot more students—and student fees—in recent years than anyone expected back in 1950. The most interesting thing about all this for students is that, out of the $17 per semester union fee, $4 had been going toward the payment of this bond. One would expect, therefore, that student fees might go down by that amount, but . . . well no. The Board of Regents decided not to commit itself to such a rash action. Very well, then. The extra money that's collected might go toward reducing costs in the union concessions. Hardly. As it turns out, the four bucks will still be collected, but it will now go into what is called the "general operations and maintenance" fund. Half of it is earmarked for "major repair and maintenance." Well, good, we say. That's all useful stuff. The only thing is, the corporation is already getting $4.50 a semester per student for these things. ($7.50 of the fee goes toward the payment of other outstanding bonds and $1 goes into something called "working capital.") With their money nearly doubling this year, we expect to see those janitors hustle. Both the University and the corporation continue to insist that all facilities at the union are operated at no profit. Perhaps this is true, but we sometimes wonder. Like, for instance,-when you can eat more cheaply at the avowedly-commercial Gaslight tavern than you can in the Hawk's Nest there must be something wrong. As for services, when we were an undergraduate, the Hawk's Nest stayed open till 10:45 p.m. When does it close now? And why? And why do machines continue to replace people? And what ever happened to the hot lunch counter? The more we look, the more we see higher prices, fewer services . . . and more money in the corporation kitty. The Memorial Union Corporation is operated by Frank Burge, who is a businessman. His business, in fact, is operating student union concessions. He has a veritable concession-empire built up on Midwestern campuses, Why is he willing to run this one at no profit? And why does it take so much of our money to do it that way? We wonder. THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN An All-American college newspaper Kansan Telephone Numbers Newsroom—UN 4-3464 Business Office—UN 4-4358 Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except for special subscription issues. Published a year. Second class postage paid at Lawton, Missouri 66044. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised offered to all students without prior written notice. 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