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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Dec. 3, 1964
ASC Disillusionment
I suppose we are accustomed by now to the periodic Daily Kansan editorials taking to task the All Student Council. We've seen one already this fall. A year ago I reported campus politics for the Kansan, and as an idealistic sophomore who thought himself rather well informed on what was "going on" in and about the ASC, I was contemptuous of such editorial volleys. I felt then that the council was being criticized because 1) the writers were not informed of what the ASC was accomplishing, 2) the writers had personal axes to grind, and 3) it was chic to jump the back of a campus politician.
READING ACCOUNTS of recent ASC meetings, I am forced to review these conclusions. What a sorry spectacle it is to see the council make the same inept mistakes year after year. Not quite 14 months ago, it was discovered that many ASC bills dating back to 1962 had never been signed by the chancellor, as is required to place them in effect. John Stuckey, then chairman of the council, said then that since there was no time limit on securing the chancellor's signature, the bills would be sent to his office immediately. That was done, with fervent promises that such mistakes would never occur again.
But they did—and it appears that basically the same ASC members who discovered and helped correct the boo-boo last fall failed to send little, if any, legislation to the chancellor the remainder of the school year.
So does the ASC leadership gather up the dusty, unsigned bills and carry them to the chancellor's office for approval? No, that would have been too easy. Instead, the council-if the Kansan account of the meeting several weeks ago is correct-argued itself into a state of exhaustion over what procedure to use in repassing the bills. A recess was called, and when the ASC reconvened shortly afterward, not even a quorum was present.
THAT THE UNSIGNED bills passed last year need to be approved again is debatable. Such was not the case last year, and nobody seemed to mind. The administration might have requested that the complete procedure be followed again as an example to the council of what confusion can result from its own negilence.
Another case in point is last spring's ASC and student body president election. It made the Nov. 3 general election look like a campaign for grade school cheerleader. The personal lives of the candidates were the subject of vicious gossip. Several campus politicians were invited to a fraternity one night under false pretense, and the subsequent tape recording created such a furor that the leader of the party whose members circulated the recording had to denounce it.
Hardly anyone gives a damn about the All Student Council. Rather than blame it on a fundamental lack of authority to deal with significant matters—because the ASC can and has been very effective in many areas—why not admit that the student body has little respect for the council? Campus politics can be fun if you're in the thick of it. But to those who watch from the balcony, the sight of mud going through the air during campaigns and the council knocking itself into a legislative paralysis while trying to govern can be disgusting.
THE POLITICIANS are always with us. The late William Allen White, the famous editor of the Emporia Gazette for whom KU's journalism school is named, participated in an even worse rough-and-tumble variety of campus politics while here in the 1880s.
So I doubt that the ASC and its political apparatus have been altered much since last fall. It must have been me. Add my name to the list of the disillusioned.
— Fred Frailey
The Red Thread Runs Through
Although the war in South Viet Nam is still raging and Americans are being killed there everyday, the spread of communism is not so violent in other parts of the world.
Although American foreign policy demands that communism be arrested in Southeast Asia it should be noticed that the spread in this part of the world is minor compared to sections little mentioned in the news.
Instead of violent tactics, as in Viet Nam, communism is sifting through the culture and taking over at a terrifying rate . . . and in a most unconventional manner. Unconventional to communism, that is.
IN ITALY, for example, there is no guerrilla warfare, or American intervention. There are no murdered Americans, bombs, or insurgents. But there is a definite growth of communism.
It is in southern Italy and Sicily that communism flourishes. In these areas the poverty-ridden villages are usually hidden in the forgotten splendor of Naples and Rome. And it is in these villages that the communist doctrine seems to have the most appeal.
IN THE village of Grottle the peasants consistently elect the communist leaders. Many of the people in the village will admit to the advantages of a democratic republic but still they put the communists back in power.
The reasoning behind the political choice in Grottle is simple and uncluttered with the usual ideological theories. They vote for the communists because they receive what they want and need from the party.
They receive clothes, food, education, seed and farm equipment from the party. They are
able to stay alive because of the party.
The Christian Democrats may have a better argument behind their ideas but they cannot seem to produce the results that the people demand.
IN RETURN for all the bounty the party provides the villages the people must give a little. But what they give is their time and mind. The people are asked to attend classes four times a week that are provided by the party. The classes are obviously meant to lead the people in the direction of the party.
The unique aspect of the takeover in Italy is that it has been gradual. There have been upheavals in the government that rule the country but not in the Party itself.
In the national elections of 1958 in Naples, Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Communist Party again received the overwhelming majority of the popular vote and was elected. The reason for his election, as one observer said at the time, was that people voted from the heart and not the mind.
IN TUSCANY the communists also reign. A priest in the area observed the reasons by saying "communism in Tuscany is less a matter of ideology than just plain superior organization. The Commies really understand patronage."
Probably the chief way communism is spreading in Italy is through the community centers that are located in the center of each small town. From the centers, the communists disperse patronage, show movies and hold dances for the peasants in the village. Lectures are offered and libraries are established in these centers.
So, instead of forming an army to take over the southern part of Italy, as the Viet Cong are successfully doing in Viet Nam, the Communists in Italy are going to the very heart of the country for results.
THE PROBLEM with this area of the country is that the rank and file have developed an intense sense of participation in the organization. The people do not necessarily feel convinced about the communist doctrine but want to keep it as a way of life and survival in a rather cruel world.
Any political persuasion that would appeal to the practical side of life would succeed in certain areas of Italy. Whether it were communism or democracy if it fed and clothed the people it would succeed.
The competition for power in Italy is mainly between the Christian Democrats and the Communists but there are also eleven other parties on the ballot at each election day. The Socialists are the third most powerful faction in the country. The other groups that command a respectable portion of votes in each election but have little power are: Sociol Democrats, Liberals, Republicans, Monarchists, Independent Right, Independent Socialists, Independent Left, Republican Alliance, Neo-Fascists and Comunita.
THE COMUNITA center in each village has been called a valuable cultural addition to the villages but as a political philosophy it holds no water in Italy. It is merely a way of getting the immediate wants in life and not the means to a permanently better existence.
— Linda Ellis
Preface To A Massacre
A Forgotten Life
One of the finest teachers of life and its meaning is, sadly enough, on its way "out," on the road to extinction by way of sleek jet planes and smooth, straight turnpikes and streamlined cars.
THAT GREAT TEACHER is, of course, travel. I don't mean the kind of travel most of us know today-not the business trip to Washington or Chicago that begins and ends in the same 24 hours, or the dull but necessary treks to homes of friends and relatives for dull but necessary visits, or the vacation sprees to Florida and Nassau, where we wear ourselves out spending the money we've had to save for years.
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THOSE six-week family trips through historical New England, when people traveled at leisure from day to day, seeing what they wanted to and receiving a maximum of pleasure from just being together? And there was a day when we packed a lunch for everybody and drove into the state capital just to SEE it, or saved up the pennies for three days of Broadway shows and Rockefeller Center in New York.
Nowadays it's always too hot, or too cold, or too far, or not exciting enough, or just plain too much trouble. And when by some freak coincidence we do find ourselves on a trip of some interest and enticement, it usually turns into just one more opportunity for people to see US, our clothes, our money, our manners, our degree of sophistication.
We seem to have lost our incentive for the curious, imaginative, fearless travel our nation popularized at the beginning of this century. Travel merely for appreciation of the beauty and inspiration so abundant in America; travel merely to widen one's horizon, to open the channels of the mind to new and fresh sights and ideas; travel to absorb and reflect upon the traditions of other peoples and regions, to rid oneself of small thoughts and deeds.
But all that's behind us. Jet planes are to get places, not to see things. There's simply not enough time to go any other way.
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It might be well for us to spend a few minutes thinking about a few travel rules laid down by essayist Wilfred Peterson, who not only knows how to enjoy the world, but how to make others enjoy it.
"Travel expectantly, as if each place you visit is a surprise package to be opened.
"TRAVEL WITH IMAGINATION. As the Old Spanish proverb puts it: 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.'"
"Travel with curiosity. It is not how far you go, but how deeply you go that mines the gold of experience. Thoreau wrote a big book about tiny Walden Pond.
"ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON once wrote, 'To travel hopefully is better than to arrive.'
Get out the roadmaps and have a go at it. Corinne Newberry
- Corinne Newberry
Dailij'Hänsan
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Jim Langford and Rick Mabbutt Co-Editorial Editors