4
Tuesday, September 18, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Readers Respond
tutorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
KANSAN
Western Civ (YAWN)
Care for a bromide? You have two readily available sources: a teenagers' talk show broadcast weekly by a certain Kansas City radio station or KU's Western Education Program. The latter is more reliable.
Why not make the program more suitable for seniors instead of sohumores?
One of the stated goals of the program is to encourage sophomores to talk discussion with peers like telling bowler to practice in a china shop.
If the program was aimed at
females, it would such an
organism of fired clichés.
The usual Western Civilization class (I or II) has the same ingredients: seven or eight sophomores, a graduate student instructor who will bristle at any sign of insincerity and an overhanging cloud of naive idealism.
Even the individual students are predictable. At least two of them are Gropers; very scrubbed and fresh-looking girls who do a lot of verbal stumbling. A sample: "Well, you know, like, Mussolini was .. well, like, a criminal, ya know what I mean?" Not quite.
Lurking somewhere in the class will be the Dummy, a pleasant empty-eyed person who won't know why. This person won't say anything.
Types—most often guys who will smoke heavily and say nothing, because they couldn't afford the TV videos and haven't read the books.
Finally there will be the Dogmatist. This person will casually—and eloquently—disagree with anything said. That is very amusing, as the Dogmatist often doesn't know much.
No one could reasonably expect a group like this to produce atypical observations, and it doesn't. More samples: Utopia won't work on the computer but Machiavelli was a fink; Marx was a Communist; and so forth.
What profundity!
Is all of this really necessary? Why can't the program be aimed at seniors? Presumably this University-enforced bansality is intended for sophomores with malleable minds. Namely, students who haven't formed their own overview of the universe yet. Surely they still can be guided by great thinkers.
Great. Let's delay the program until one's senior year, so a person can have time to prepare. It takes some mental discipline to steel oneself for Great's little nuggets of Great Thought dispensed in the program.
Like, sophomores aren't quite ready for that, ya know?
-Chuck Potter Campus Editor
I am replying to a letter (published in the Kansan Sept. 10) from Vic Miller, ASG President at Kansas State Teachers College. I have read a story appearing in the Kansan Aug. 30.
To the Editor:
The story was accurate in expressing my opinions. Jeff Stinson's quotes and interpretations were correct as written. More could have been printed to better explain my position; however, realizing your space is important, I understand. I understand why this was not the case.
1. FROM THE KANSAN: "The organization would hire a lobbyist to express student opinion on such issues as funding of higher education in the state."
Reply from Miller: "Where in the statement of purpose and objectives of the report is there even mention of lobbying for higher education of higher education or lower tuition."
In regard to specific questions raised by Mills, we will try to respond more thoroughly.
Miller's statement is correct but misleading. The statement of objectives on his own page also makes no reference to any specific example of work that might be done by Associated Students of Kansas (ASK). As general philosophy or purpose, only general philosophy is discussed.
I quote: "ASK would serve as a voice for the students of the member schools before agencies (e.g., the state board of regents) and judicial tribunals. In short, it would serve as a channel for student input into the governmental decision-making process."
Examples regarding lobbying for funds are found throughout the report. It was my understanding these were included as suggested projects for ASK.
"So when the Ohio legislature threatened to cut funds for the state colleges, they united and lobbied against the cuts," the report says (D.6).
Student Lobbying at Local Level Effective
sport says (p.8).
"The University of California Student
Lobby secured $1.6 million in additional student financial aid, blocked action by the board of regents to increase tuition for the U.C.Medical School, obtained a $23 million increase in the U.C.budget, and helped pass legislation that would allow students of the University of California from taxation, saving $15,000 at Berkeley campus alone." (p. 10)
I do not oppose student lobbying for more funding toward higher education. I support it vigorously. I only prefer to do it at the local level (e.g., Students Concerned About Higher Education). I cite these quotes because I believe them to be examples of good advocacy and want for Evidently, Miller does not see this as a goal for the program.
2. FROM THE KANSAN: "He (Buckley) said that he didn't like the idea of paying one man in Topeka to represent seven schools."
Miller concurs with this statement, but to better explain the proposal he also notes the chain of command that will direct the lobster's activities.
I have two objections to the structure. One is the high degree of bureaucracy involved—campus director, legislative vice president, adaids, district coordinators, executive director. The other is salary. I believe this work should be entirely voluntary as is Students Concerned About Higher Education. These objections appeared in the story.
3. MILLER SAYS, "Mert states that he doesn't think that ASK can develop a singular opinion of things students want to lobby on."
True. Few issues will receive total Student consensus and justify lobbying in the name of 70,000 Kansas students. Those issues we felt safe to believe would represent the burden of all students at national funding can be lobbed effectively at the local level.
This letter is in no way an attack on Vic Miller. He has the highest degree of interest in the betterment of university and student life. We only differ in the manner in which
'If You've Seen One Mandate...
By ALICE KUTZIN
"Gee, Mr. President, I'm sorry you lost it."
"What are you looking for, Mr. President?"
"My mandate. It's gone."
when was the last time you saw it?" "Last spring, when I took it out to polish. It was starting to tarnish around the edges back in March. I put it back here behind Tricia's wedding picture, and now it's gone."
"Are you sure, Mr. President?"
"You don't know what it's like to lose a candidate, Mel. I lost one in 1968 and it took me years."
"I'm positive, Mel. I've looked everywhere."
"Not a chance, Mel. The landlief's in a safe box in Florida in Bebra's bank."
"Have you looked in the Executive Office Building?"
"Could you have locked it up with the landslide victory?"
"That's the first place I tried, Mel. I
we believe we can reach these goals. This letter intends to better explain and clarify
Student Body President
want it might have been thrown out with the buuging equipment, but the trash man did.
"They probably don't even know what a mandate looks like."
"That's what worries me, Mel. Not many people have seen a presidential mandate, and it could have been crushed to bits along with the seven-inch reels. I feel sick."
"I really doubt it. Mel. It was made to look like the plane," he said of go air armor that Nixon's old mandate"
"Could it have been stolen, Mr. President?"
I have other reservations, I now limit myself to reply to those questions he was asking.
"Yes, but they say it's not their job to safeguard presidential mandates. They make a routine sweep of the beach at San Clemente, but it didn't turn up."
"I could think of a number of people, Mr.
"Sorry, Mr. President, Have you checked with the Secret Service?"
"Mel, don't say things like that. You're making me sweat."
"Maybe somebody shredded it, Mr. Pineapple, maybe they slipped it into a burn but not theirs."
"Mel, this is no joking matter!"
"I know how bad you must feel, Mr. President."
President. Percy, Baker, Rockefeller, Reagan ...
"Oh, it's terrible, terrible. Pat will kill me when she finds out it lost. It she's wanted a toy."
'Fuzzv' Ethics
"Maybe they took it back."
"Who gave it to you in the first place, Mr. President?"
Obviously, this is a two-eided sword. Nixon can't occupy two positions at once any more than the press can. But this letter is not intended to justify Nixon, the press or Mr. Willet's so-called Privileged Information Movement.
"The Committee to Re-elect the President."
It does demonstrate that as long as the press is perceived as being ethically "fuzzy," they are faced with a dilemma: Bow to the ethical codes believed to be good by certain sections of the public and lose trust in them. In some call "fuzzy" ethics by being barred from certain information sources and, again, lose effectiveness.
"Don't be ridiculous, Mel. Why would they do a thing like that?"
"But you can't hook a mandate, for God's sake!"
"Well, Mr. President, they may need money. They have these lawsuits to settle, after all, and Phase IV is putting the squeeze on everybody."
"No, but they could keep it on ice till 1976,
then auction it off to the highest bidder."
To the Editor:
Perhaps Mr. Bill Willets ("Privileged Info" editorial, Thursday's Kansas) can look to his own house to find the reasons why he doesn't release information to journalists.
"They'll never get away with it, Mel. I'll call out the National Guard. I'll call up the Army."
On the other hand, when grand juries began indicting journalists for keeping their sources (the tapes, if you will) secret, journalists reacted almost universally by calling them "psychopathic press." It seems they believe revealing sources will "dry up" their sources.
..."
"Don't take it so hard, Mr. President."
"The mandate was so good for my image."
"Maybe you could buy another one, Mr President."
Negative perception is intensified by the apparent contradiction in the press' attitudes on the shield law controversy and the White House Tapes. While I am far from being a supporter of Richard Nixon, I see the press' position as untenable.
I am not implying that Willett himself is to blame for the way the press is perceived. However, it does appear to some authorities that the journalistic community is operating in an ethical vacuum. Whether journalists actually are immaterial; the fact that they are perceived to be unethical is enough to prove that Willett's Privileged Information Movement.
"Not a chance, Mel. A third term would be political suicide."
On one hand, many journalists perceive as specious Nixon's contention that release of the tapes would irreparably damage the executive by "driving up" his idea, pool.
"Well, Mr. President, you have to be prepared to about it. It's better than improvement."
"I know, Mel, but I was all tied in with the New Nikon."
"The way I look at it is this, Mr. Powell, you see me, seen one mandate, you've seen them all."
"I guess you're right. Mel. Now that I heard about it, there's a political advantage to the Republican side."
"What's that, Mr. President?"
to kick around anytime. (C) 1973. By Alice Kutzin, M.D.
"The press won't have Nixon's mandate to kick around anymore."
“former high official of the Nixon administration.” While statements of this kind carry little weight, people all to often allow “sources who do not want to be identified” sources to know about him, and sort decides that his opinion as to the meaning of “high official” and his opinion of what is trustworthy enough to put in place a plan or action. To some, this is less news than rumor.
Jim Payne
(C) 1973, By Alice Kutzin, M.D.
The writer is a physician turned housewife-humorist. Her first book, "The Blind Date That Made It," was published in late 1971.
Soltzhenitsyn has been driven, against his inclination, to have a "public" life beyond
Another issue that contributes to negative perception is to be found in an AP release on Page one of the Kansas the same day as Wille's editorial. In this story, several damning comments about U.S. foreign policy regarding Chile are attributed to a
Mailer v. Solzhenitsyn
The Writer as Creative Whiner
By GEORGE F. WILL
Special to the Washington Post
One obvious contributing cause to the negative perception of the press concerns purpose. When so many in the public believe that the press is unreliable reporting, it is hard to convince the public of the validity of evaluative reporting. Whether warranted or not, reporters are inheriting the manoeuvre of the columnists who report on issues based on questionable ethical grounds.
Everything Solzentheny writes enriches our civilization. Mailer is a one-shot wonder by Bo Bellinski, the miscreant who pitched a no-hitter in his first game and made the rest of his career a study in self-esteem, and buoyed offroader for achievement. Mailer's "M. T." Naked and the Dead" (1948), was superb. Other than that, however, he has not produced a scrap of high caliber fiction in a quarter of a century.
Alexander Solizenstyn is the greatest living Russian writer, a giant in the tradition of Tolstoy. Norman Mailer works hard to be the most publicized American author, a money-gruuber in the Bobby Riggs tradition, but he lacks Riggs' cheerful self-knowledge.
Consider the sickening contrast between the situation of two writers much in the past.
Mailer's latest work is a sleazy, slovenly, dishonest exploitation of Marilyn Monroe. It is in a nip-and-tuck battle with Jacqueline Susann's latest epic for the reading public's
One of Solzhenityns's most recent publications is his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture. It is among the most eloquent political statements of the century. If it is one of the best-known and intended audience—the Western public—is preoccupied with trivialities like Mailer.
MAILER HANGS AROUND prize-fighters, brawn on the Dick Cavett show with Gore Vidal and fancies himself very brave. He has raised hair-chestedness to a metaphysical principle: I sweat, therefore I am.
his art. He is fighting a deadly serious war of nerves, words and gestures against Soviet tyranny. His running battle against the tyrants is an example of a bravery that can barely be understood by those of us who were born free.
Mailer is not bashful. His writings, now a degenerate form of "journalism," celebrate the tribulations of the Author as Drunk, the Boss, the Duck, the Mad, Solving the "Murder" of the Movie Star.
Although Solzhentzki's fiction bears the mark of his hideous experiences with a sadistic regime, he is almost badful about it. The only other others who suffered more cannot testify.
There is a constant white in Mailer's omnipresent voice. He says Time magazine's cover made him look ridiculous. He says the critics should stop using the word "white." And he borrows from other books about Monroe. For Mailer, life is real, it is earned.
Griff and the Unicorn
money. Mailer's book will make him a million dollars.
In his Nobel lecture Solzenhteny said, "Archaeologists have uncovers no early stages of human existence so primitive that they were without art." Yes, but Mailer, America's primitive, is doing his best in that direction.
Jim Payne
Graduate Student
Lawrence
ALIMONY LAWS MAKE the costs of serial monogamy steep, so Mailer wrote "Marilyn" with an eye cocked on his former wives' lawyers. He conjuined some lurid lies about a dead Kennedy and a CIA plot to "explain" the Monroe suicide as murder
There is no whine from Solizhenytz, risen from the living dead of Soviet prisones: "To reach this chair from which the Nobel lecture is delivered. . . I have mounted not only our chair but also our feet or even thousands, fixed, steep, covered with ice, out of the dark and cold where I was fated to survive, but others, perhaps more talented, stronger than I perished." Solizhenytz, devoid of self-pity has prisen to worry about, not Time magazine covers.
It might be nice if, as a kind of cultural exchange, we could trade Mailer and a soldier to the Soviets for Solzhenitsyn. That would get even for the grain deal
Solizhentsyn said literature is "the living memory of a nation."
devil his due, candidly—committed to using his skills, such as they are, to line his pockets. As Mailer said in justifying "Marcyn" he needs the money.
Mailer would not leave the United States because he is passionately—and, to give the
BUT SOLZHENITSYN would not leave Russia. His art is rooted in a palpable love of country, a contagious inspiring love that causes fear and trembling in the regime now in its 80th year of tormenting that Solzhensyyn would not leave Russia because he is committed to using his art to defend the dignity of the Russian people.
Mailer, having long ago abandoned literature, hawks his wounded ego on talk shows while promoting a book about a tawdry Hollywood episode that should be trivial in the nation's memory but, alas, is not.
in "The First Circle" Solzenhtyn sayd:
"Aren't writers supposed to teach, to guide... And for a country to have a great writer-don't be shocked, I will advise you to keep your government. That's why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones."
MAILER, WHO CONSIDERS himself a radical and a threat to the established order, is, in fact, like most food for base appetites, an enervating opiate. He raises no awkward questions about the state. He asserts some American regime will give him the Medal of Freedom.
Solenzhentany's cry is, "Woe to the nation whose literature is cut off by the interposition of power." And woe to the nation whose literary lions, strutting and grubbing on television, are nothing more than servants of commercial publishing powers.
To give the devils their due, the Soviet tyrants, their regime based on the denial of human dignity, are correct in considering Solzhenityn subversive. Mailer, his dignity invested in "Marilyn," is simply irrelevant to the course of American society.
(The writer is Washington Editor of the National Review.)
Mailer, who lusts to be the most public of writers, has no public-spirited purpose, only a frivolous public persona. Solzenitny, who knows there is an inherent tension between the private nature of creation and the demands of any public role, is compelled against his artist's nature to play a public role of breathtaking grandeur.
Isn't it ironic?
Are people seeking an emerging leader? A community organizer in New England; "i stopped looking for a leader some time back."
By MALCOLM BOYD Special to the Washington Post
(The following extracts conclude writer Boyd's report of conversations about Watergate with people across the country this summer.)
A college instructor, puffing his pipe, says, "Me, of all people, I'm going to a monastery for a week. I just want to be quiet and walk around and think. I intend to keep fighting for what I believe, but I have to replainish my energies."
A TV producer in San Francisco: "I want a leader who's honest. Period. To hell with Democrat or Republican. I don't care what label a guy wears."
A mechanic: "Any President, however he may be, has so much power that he can do what he wants. I think the Constitution has to be changed so that when the government loses public confidence, we can get rid of them."
A former Catholic priest, living with his wife and children in Minneapolis, says "I'm hanging in. But if there's no reinforcement, if it doesn't really matter whether you make an effort or not, then I'm going to become a bartender and drop out of the fight."
A nutritionist in a Detroit over hospital speaks of "having no control" over events. "I'm trying not to think about fear," she says. "What are we going to do? The whole society seems that it's just bobbling. Everything is unstable. We don't know who's lying. You get tired of hearing the living and don't know who's telling the truth. But that we're not getting anyplace. I'm wring out mentally and spiritually."
"I feel both fear and pity for this country," he says. "Some people are morally tired out and don't know how fragmented their individual rights already are. I understand that my freedom is at stake. The movement and surveillance mechanism is awesome."
A black psychiatrist speaks of moral fatigue.
More Talking About Watergate: Citizens Speak for Themselves
"Worst of all, there is no moral leadership
But a black college official is far less optimistic.
A Philadelphia librarian anticipates
would generate alternative styles of life.
"I think there's the genesis of a whole new American Dream," she remarks. "The original American potential was freedom and independence, but we think we have a chance now to find it again."
in the White House," he says. "There is no sense of a President's caring strongly, loving deeply, or trying to turn around a near-hopeless racial situation. The president is impotent, caring only about his own skin or expensive palaces."
A California nun who teaches in a parochial school: "Underneath the surface, people are saying, 'You don't really care about me. You can't actually understand me.'" In order to care, one has to have some deep empathy. In order to love, one must hold oneself wide open to other people. Yet people merely pretend to communicate. Instead, they are insensitive, deeply troubled, searching for answers, selfless. Insecurity is the great overtone."
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