KANSAN COMMENT
Ah, Fashion!
Fashion designers must be among the most egotistical people in the world—and possibly with good reason. The merest hint of a 'new look' or a change in the fashion scene sends literally millions of women to department stores and clothing shops in search of the latest in fashionable apparel.
But this time the high echelon of designers have gone too far. Behold their latest creation—the midiskirt.
Now we are faced with the grim prospect of seeing millions of women walking the streets of America looking like holdovers from the preMcCarthy era, and that's Joe, not Eugene. After more than a decade of extolling youth and the natural look (sometimes going as au naturel as possible), the designers have decided to make women look like dowdy old ladies. What do we call this? The "mature look?"
But the fact that the midi-skirt is exceptionally ugly is not so much at issue as is the attitude of its promoters toward the public.
Department stores, bending to pressure from designers, have stocked racks of mid-calf skirts and
have had to resort to special employee training to sell the things.
Has this obvious rejection of the new length prompted designers to relent and admit their mistake? Hardly. The kings of clothes have made their annual proclamation, and their unwilling subjects are naturally expected to fall in line.
Women's Wear Daily, the "must" newspaper for the would-be fashion elite, has decreed this the year of the midi, and that policy extends even to the point of ignoring the showing of those few designers who haven't included a generous supply of the abominations in their new line and of panning well-known women who appear in public with their knees showing.
Consequently, many women have evaded the issue by seeking solace in slacks. No doubt the next decision by the midi moguls will declare slacks "out" as well as the mini.
Cass Peterson Assistant Editor
LETTERS
Goldberg's Removal Justified
To the Editor:
Recently there has been much controversy over the case of Sam Goldberg. We, as captains of the KU track team, would like to take this opportunity to make our position as a track team clear.
First of all, it must be emphasized that we speak as individual students and track team members under no coercion or pressure from our coaches or the athletic department. With this premise in mind, we state that we are clearly displeased and often embarrassed at the recent behavior of Sam Goldberg. On June 4, 1970, 30 of 34 members signed a petition opposing the reinstatement of Sam Goldberg and supporting the decision of Coach Timmons. Our position has never altered since that time.
In addition, we feel that Sam Goldberg's removal was completely justified and, moreover, that disciplinary infractions were the sole reason for his dismissal. Sam's political beliefs never entered the question.
Recently, Sam and his sympathizers have portrayed and often disparaged the student athlete. We would like to speak out against his outrageous contentions. First, a track athlete at KU is not a victim of exploitation and repression as some "pseudo-sociologists" maintain. He is first a student at the University of Kansas with his own personal beliefs and convictions. His position as an athlete does not impinge upon his freedom as a student. In the past, the track team has even maintained relatively high academic standards. The varsity cross country team of 1969-70 had an overall average grade point average of 2.38 on a 3-point scale, which is not bad for "dumb, repressed jocks." The track team as a whole had 1.83 for the spring semester.
Although time often prevents an athlete from full participation in the varied extracurricular activities of the University, the track athlete is never prevented from such participation because of pressure from the Athletic Department.
Sam Goldberg and his sympathizers have also continually referred to the autocratic nature of the track program and have said that no constructive change is possible. Perhaps Goldberg has reached this conclusion from his rather limited exposure to the nature of the KU track team, as his practice attendance record indicates. But a more thorough investigation reveals that change is possible. At the present time, the team and Coach Timmons are
restructuring the rules in an attempt to make them more realistic and at the same time to maintain discipline on the team.
In conclusion, we urge the students, faculty, and administration to examine the case of Sam Goldberg thoroughly. We, as spokesmen for the track team have chosen to oppose Sam Goldberg's reinstatement.
Jan Johnson 1970-71 KU Track Jay Mason and Field Captains Bill Penny
Story Was Overblown
To the editor:
The resident staff of Fred Ellsworth Hall is highly indignant over the article that appeared in Monday's Kansan concerning the so-called "racial fighting" last weekend. Aside from misrepresenting the facts, the article tended to create an aura of drama far beyond what actually occurred. If it is true that the University Printing Service is responsible for editing the article written by Miss Haugh, then it appears that the printers should be made editors and the editors might look for some other form of work.
The staff at Ellsworth Hall is working to create an atmosphere conducive to the personal growth of its residents; an atmosphere in which all residents might have the freedom to live out their own life styles. What we do not need is the pressure that touches us from outside the hall, the kind of pressure that predicts disruption and violence at some given time; the kind of pressure that filters in through the generation of rumors and ridiculous stories, the kind of pressure exerted by your front page article reporting the events of Friday night. This type of irresponsible journalism (or editing) can do nothing to help those of us involved in attempting to create a dormitory in which people can have the freedom to grow in their personal and academic lives.
It is indeed disheartening that a university organization such as the Kansas, by its inexcable inaccuracy and desire for the spectacular, should hinder in any way the opportunity for its University readers to grow as persons and students.
Dale Olen Ron Mizener
Men's Resident Director Linda L. Denton
Ellen Hanson Emma Jean Billierry
Women's Resident Director Terrie Webb
Charlie Masner Lynne A. Haggarty
Viola Stafford Doug Tilghman
Jeanie Stevenson Carolyn Smythe
Bob Jevons Steven Kamp
Romalyn Eisenstark Keith A. Jorgensen
Ed Lewis Dick Phillips
David E. Ballard
Resident Assistants
(Editor's note: The story to which the above letter refers was edited by Kansan staff members at the Printing Service and not by Printing Service employees.)
Griff & the Unicorn
BY SOKOLOFF
"Copyright 1970, University Daily Kansan"
RICHARD LOUV COLUMN
(This is about a friend, the first of two parts about a guy named Ray who faced in a peculiar way what most draft-age males have to face, at least those who got their hand caught in the lottery cookie jar. This thing about Ray was written some time ago, and things have happened to him since, but here is the first part:)
Ray ran in as if his head was on fire, which it might have been the way his red hair spiraled out. He stood there shaking all over with excitement, long arms hanging longer than his old felt coat sleeves, eyes wide and, as usual, not dilated, but intense and fiery and excited;
"Listen, man," he was grinning. "Listen, I'll tell you, I've finally decided what I'm going to do, and it's the greatest feeling in the world."
Let me tell you about Ray.
Ray loved his parents. He held no bitterness toward them, which lately is unusual, nor they toward him, except perhaps for rushing off so many times, the way he rushed off without telling anyone where he was going, which he himself seldom knew. Beyond that, he never hurt them, and their tolerance weighed much more than their money.
When Ray began to sell his "Dime Dailies," one-sheet thought collections, he sent them home to his parents, and they saved them in a folder, which they put next to the television.
He wrote these things to sell; I remember these things better than any others:
PEOPLE WITH OPEN MINDS SHOULD CARRY UMBRELLAS
He didn't try to be cool at all. Maybe you remember him.
Picture a bright-eyed, fast-talking scarecrow with a dandelion head, putting down his favorite line about his very own newspaper, standing on a street corner, smiling like mad, and all the people smiling back, buying his personal thoughts, communicating without strict form, inverted paramid, thesis sentence or scholarly scent, just communicating.
"If I asked them for a quarter they'd pay it. But if I gave it away they wouldn't read it." He turned. "Dime Dailies, one dime, you've got time! There's room in the world to read!" he grinned and passed out another. "Take this brother, may it serve you well," he shouted, dandelion hair
zapping in the wind, clothes fluttering, standing alone in the warm field of people.
Then he left and no one knew where he went, which wasn't unusual. He was gone for two months. One day he had brought in a stack of information from the Peace Center on the draft, dropped it on my desk, and said he was trying for a CO.
"I can't kill a soul." he said, and left.
So this was when he'd come back home, finally, standing out of breath, with this: his greatest feeling in the world.
"I'm going on the lam. I'm going underground. No jail, no Canada cop-out, and no army. I can't kill a soul. To get a CO would be too costly. It's too late for me to try now. I should have done it a long time ago, but now it would take a lawyer, and I can't ask my parents to shell out the money it would take for a good lawyer. I can't ask that of them."
So he left then. He said something about how it would be necessary to get false identification, and evade taxes, and then he grinned and was gone again. This time for good, too rushed to wait for tomorrow's sorrow. They're looking for him now, out there in the field of people.
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