4
Thursday, October 22, 1970
University Daily Kansan
Indication of Things to Come?
Predicting future trends of social behavior based on patterns established in the past is risky and probably not looked upon favorably by historians or pragmatists.
But the sequence of bombings that shook Rochester, N.Y., last week moves me to make, if not predictions, at least some observations on the nature of my hometown. It has a tendency to be at the forefront of certain historical and social trends.
Making a foolproof case for Rochester as an avant-garde indicator of the social climate of the country is impossible. Nestled on the shore of Lake Ontario in upstate New York, the Flower City is probably as well known for its iliace bushes and the Erie Canal as anything else. In many ways its history, its political squabbling and its quiet avenues give an impression of a much smaller, sleepier town.
Rochester's development in the early 1800's signaled the opening of the frontier. The city grew as a trade center between the abundant west and New York City's busy harbors. It is the home of Susan B. Anthony, an early force in the women's liberation movement that occurred in the beginning of this century. Power, supplied by the flow of the Genessee River, led to the relatively early development of industry.
The city was the first in the country to adopt the city manager form of government, an event which had profound influence on municipal government everywhere in the United States.
George Eastman started a little operation shortly before the turn of the century which has grown into a technological giant, the Eastman Kodak Company. And in more recent years the
city has seen the mushrooming growth Xerox. The city abounds with examples of highly specialized organizations. rochester has been on the front line of the technological post-industrial revolution, which—good or bad—is producing a new kind of society in America.
It is from the last decade, however, that the case for Rochester as a barometer of social change draws its strongest evidence.
Shortly after the Harlem riots in the summer of 1964, Rochester was torn by racial riots that were a prelude to the turmoil and the struggle of urban blacks that ensued during the rest of the '60s. In the aftermath of that late July holocaust, Rochester and the rest of the country slowly became aware of just how bad things were in the ghetto of metropolitan America.
After the riots of 1964, radical organizer Saul Alinsky was hired by the Council of Churches in Rochester to "do something" to help the city with its overwhelming problems. The activist, black organization spawned by Alinsky's yearlong stay in Rochester is a group called FIGHT. White liberals soon formed a group called Friends of FIGHT, and the rejection of white "sympathy" by the blacks in the next few years set an almost classic pattern that was repeated throughout the nation.
Last in this list of trend-setters was Rochester's involvement in the ill-fated Model Cities program. Burdened with a wide variety of urban problems, the city invested immeasurable amounts of time, energy and especially hope in the program, only to have it drag on endlessly with much planning but little substantive change and finally grind to a halt because of lack of government financial support.
This same pattern—hopes dashed
because of scarcity of financial commitment—has occurred in many other cities in the last four years.
And now the bombings.
One of Rochester's most prominent citizens noted after the blasts that, "If it can happen in Rochester, it can happen anywhere."
Certainly Rochester cannot be said to be on the leading edge of this latest form of social behavior in our society. But there may be some significance in the Rochester bombings.
It may be that because it has happened in Rochester, it will soon be happening just about everywhere.
Craig Parker
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By Sokoloff
The kidnapping of James Cross, British
Theatre Man, and a group of Liberation
Liberation of Quebec. A shame, an anomaly.
The government will not bargain. No
$400,000" prisoners will be released,
no $400,000."
Rene Levesque, leader of the separatist party that gained only seven seats in the legislature despite almost 25 per cent of the popular vote, first signs a statement suggesting that the federal government acceded to terrorist demands, then changes his mind and repudiates his earlier stand and the action. Claude Ryan, owner of the presided by the New Jersey Journal another of the ten French notables to sign the letter.
The War Measures Act had been invoked on Thursday and, while debate continued on Parliament Hill, civil liberties were no longer in existence within the borders of Canada.
The kidnapping of Pierre Laporte, Quebec Cabinet Minister and Bourassa's second in command. Shock and consternation. Government intrusionse wavers, barely. Five of the prisoners will be paroled and they may be held at Algue or Cuba. Just hand over the victims.
On Saturday, October 17, 1970, they were an imposition
"Copyright 1970, University Daily Kansan"
The army convoy travels at less than 50 miles an hour. Most of the cars want to pass. They're stopping people at the border. Just don't get lost. No, both ways now, I heard it on the radio.
Trees fresh by, pulsing hues from a background of green firs and the darker denuded trees and branches. Trees of one color, of many colors, the occasional birch, bare thin and thin. Both sides of the tree have with colors and the drab green in the middle.
"Not the sharp twist of panic and fear but . . a feeling of futility."
The ache in the stomach when things are sorrowful is feeling of sadness. Not school twirl of tears, but heavy feeling that settles and stays, a feeling of failure. There are troops moving into
Pull up behind a truck; it is filled with soldiers. They are young; teenagers, early years. They are standing, two fingers in up the universe "V." Smiles and waves in return. The next truck the same but the peace sign returned. Only one group gloomy, sullen, not talking, not smiling.
★ ★ ★
The road to Montreal is pretty on Saturday.
Except for some fuzzy, black-lined clouds on
the sky, it's pretty blue.
The colors are charismatic; they cannot exist
outside of oils on canvas. Not just yellows
and brows and reeds but deep, full primary
colors — yellow, green, and red. The
yellows so heavy they are all but orange.
Canada: Futility, Shame
Indian Summer in eastern Canada is something to behold. The air is crisp and clean and its inhalation, in the city, makes the lungs feel the vigor of a bygone era. It also produces a variety of tree and fading fields of pale brown, yellow and almost-white green. The bursts of color along Highway 17, the winding road running Montreal to Ottawa, are so vivid and so extreme that they impose themselves most the enjaged traveler of that street.
By FRANK SLOVER
Kansan Staff Writer
Alfred, Ontario, half way to the Quebec border, home of a boys training school, no room to pass here. The boys in the khakid box in front are waving to some little kids on the ground. They stand and look at me stands out. A clean looking boy; sharp, nice features, a dance hall scraper and woeer of young womanhood. The others look to him in lead in boisterous activity; it is written in his cooky grim, the movable stone! No likely great concern for the rights and sensitivities of those goddamn frogs or kikes or worms. Will he be lying in the town—tomorrow, next nose and mouth and intestines dripping from his nose and mouth and intestines through his fingers, staining the asphalt.
★★★
The debate is continuing in Parliament. Radio broadcasters describe the criticisms hurled at the Liberal invocation of the War Measures Act—don't ever before in peacetime—by the Labour government, Democratic Party. Only Real Coalition, head of the Creditors, supports the government's action and he is talking about the firing squad. Why did the government not push for the changes that would seem to be no need to glamorize and maybe, legitimize a ragged band of kidnappers. Why use such extreme measures now? Well, there is "apprehended induction," and whose last stage is "selected assassinations" and some details that cannot be divulged.
Why not? For anybody but Trudeau that question could be an insurmountable problem. Thank God he's French. He must hate to call upon them all much of the time, since spent crucible liberties. Perhaps this isn't a time for partisan politics. Any power is bad if it it's abused. Let's wait and see what happens. But still, the party can break down your door in the middle of the day without indictment, 90 days without bail. The mere suspicion of FLQ support can cause confinement, maybe up to five years' imprisonment. Freedom of speech will disappear; a newspaper editor can't even feel safe in Paris or New York without stance. Let's wait and see what happens.
The provincial police car that is leading the convoy is not happy at having a car between
himself and the lead army truck. He signals impatiently. The khaki collider appears in the rear view mirror like the vertebrae of a snake widing for miles back along the highway. How many of them, a hundred? Who can count?
The debate in Parliament continues. But what is this "apprehended insurrection"? How much support does the terrorist organization have from the man in the street, the workers, the unemployed? The separatist vote in the last election may have included
"... the police can break down your door in the middle of the night and throw you in jail for 21 days without indictment, 90 days without bail."
some expression of general discontent instead of just being a demand for separation. Unrest certainly exists in the city of Montreal, but it is not year's police strike bore witness to that.
Do the people of Quebec want separation? The success of Robert Bourassa and the other leaders at the FAIQ is a sentiment. If they want separation, do they want to attain it through the methods now used by the FAIQ? Initial reactions suggest that the FAIQ leader is not sympathetic to their tactics.
French Canadians live a more traditional existence than many of their countrymen. Often the most impressive building in a small town is the church. Will the clergy be sympathetic to this tradition and adhere to a philosophy that singles out religion as the opiate of the masses? Will they support a movement that may destroy the customs now honoured, perhaps even religious tax hawks? The priests wield power over all aspects of life and are protected. The censorship in that province allows literature and film of all sorts to be distributed; all sorts except that which denigates religion. Home, family and the Good Lord are cornerstones of the French culture. They are often broken by an attack on religion thereby by prudent activities on a screen.
★★
No cars stopped at the Quebec border, coming or going. A provincial trooper is standing in the middle of the highway slowing down a car approaching their cars on the highway apron. Wave as the car passes. His head turns, face grim and the immobile expression gases through purple hair. He stops for a moment throughway. No cops on traffic duty; let's get into the city and see what happens.
Some demonstrators on Parliament Hill objecting to the powers assumed by the government, echoes of the FLQ support found in Mr. Lowe's book, "Students who want revolution and object to everything? Well, they have the time. They don't work eight hours a day, don't have a computer," he said. "It's its the universities' job to encourage questioning of government, morals and any
"Why is it always the students who want revolution and object to everything? They . . . have little to lose . . ."
accepted pattern of behavior. But what do they want? A better deal for the common man, perhaps; a more equitable distribution of resources; a more reasonable there that these people will be reasonable leaders, that they will be able to better the lot of the masses, that their regime will grant increased civil liberties? What about the lack of opportunities? Who will work for these processes?
Montreal is not much different. Downtown is crowded with shoppers and cars. One jeepload of soldiers drives down Sherbrook Street and the police stations and embassies are guarded military presence is not obstructive. In some circles, not acknowledged.
★ ★ ★
The people in the church are happy. The bride is beautiful, smiling in white. The voices whisper the trot, the organ plays, the long lines of stained glass fill the speeches made, the glasses tinkled, the laughed发出. Saturday night at the 737 at the Martie is always festive with music and drapes.
Pierre Laperre was found dead, shot in the head, covered with blood, in the trunk of a green Chevrolet. Reports have been heard from Gaza and Israel, about 38 miles out of Montreal. Shock and disbelief. Even the Palestinians kept their hostages alive through a civil war. The Algerians may have defeated the FLQ terrorists into their country we never committed that sort of atrocity.
★★
The drive back to Ottawa is dark. The road is almost empty at 3 a.m. The voices of Trudeau and the other political leaders come solemnly or trockenly by the speakers. Nearwa the khalil serpent winds its way along the river, then turns across a high, narrow orbs. The trees stand unseen by the roadside, the blood of a nation stain the leaves before they die.