Playing at Revolution
Today I'm going to let people say a few things on this page. You may notice that some of the views are slanted perhaps, even, the make-up of this page is slanted.
Too bad. But that is what this page is for.
Since this is one of the last papers, I thought it would be appropriate to let some students say a few things on more than the usual amount of space they are allowed.
Right under this introduction you should pay careful attention to what Prof. Day has to say. Perhaps the scope of his "poem" is general, but it points to a basic problem of America's quasi-revolutionary student protester.
It is easy to play at revolution in this affluent society. And what is more frightening seems to be that these protesters and their playmates have run to the end of their legitimacy and may well create a conservative backlash that we have never before dreamed of.
Let's hope not. For, as a former Kansan editor wrote: "Democracy gone awry is not fun to contemplate, much less watch." (JTM)
I know a joke.
Four dedicated, long
haired haters of
society's sham
Were on the Memorial
Stadium field at
3 p.m. Friday.
They were loading
beer and potato chips
into a Brand New Yellow GTO
at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
I laughed and laughed.
-J. Laurence Day Assistant Professor
The real hypocrites
By WILL HARDESTY
Rick Atkinson and Bill Berkowitz are no longer fit to be the recognized leaders of the Left at KU.
They are the two biggest hypocrites on the campus. Imagine how fast they would have gone to the Chancellor's office to protest and to DEMAND police protection if someone would let it be known the next SDS meeting would not happen, or, if it did, only after violence. They would scream the very loudest that their rights to have a meeting was being violated. Yet they led a group of 150-200 which denied the constitutional right of freedom of peaceful assembly to the ROTC cadets at KU.
Then there is the violence thing. I would suppose most of the males who demonstrated Friday are of draft age. I would imagine most of them would, if asked, say they would refuse to be inducted because they do not believe in killing other human beings or the use of violence. Yet there were a goodly number of those males-Atkinson included—who were carrying clubs and were ready to use them—a very peaceful and non-violence-loving bunch of hypocrites they were.
What Atkinson and his band perhaps did not realize was the fact there were enough police in or around Lawrence Friday to give every one of the demonstrators their very own club-swinging, Mace-spraying, gun-toting, handcuffing policeman. Perhaps the radical pack did know of the policemen. Perhaps they were interested in becoming martyrs.
However, they should be grateful to Chancellor Wescoe for living by the ideals the pack claims to hold dear. The pack might have found out, if Dr. Wescoe were not the gentle person he is, that the human body is a sturdy thing, capable of taking more than one club-blow, more than one bit of Mace mist in the eyes or more than one ring-studded fist driven forcibly into a peace-shouting mouth. Dr. Wescoe showed Friday who the real peace-loving person is on this campus.
But considering those who did show their true colors, one must not over-look Clarence Reynolds and his few cronies from the Black
Student Union who showed. Here is another of the real hypocrites of KU. Clarence Reynolds does not, almost without exception, like white persons.
His organization, while I don't believe they have ever stated so publicly, has the membership requirements worked out so there are no whites in the BSU. (Which in and of itself presents the interesting question, "Why does the University officially recognize an organization which blatantly rejects all of the civil rights laws in the state and nation and the University's own announced policy of helping foster total and real integration?")
Anyway, there was Clarence, flanked by his cronies, de facto segregated and segregating themselves from a group which claims it is not racial. There was Clarence carrying his club, ready to use and be used by the whites as long as they both had the same goal—violence.
While I have not agreed with them at times in the past, I would have to salute Adrian Clark, Darryl Bright, Phyllis Jones and the other members of the BSU who had the courage of their convictions not to go onto the field even though Reynolds, their leader was there and, I suppose it is fair to assume, had asked the BSU to be there, too.
While speaking of hypocrites at KU, one should really mention Marilyn Bowman, our newly elected Student Body Vice-President. She only-so-recently an oath to protect, abide by and promote the rules and laws of the University, state and nation. Friday afternoon she demonstrated her contempt for these rules and laws, her unwillingness to work within the system and the disdain she has for the oath she recently took. It is time for the Student Senate to show its maturity in the face of crisis by washing its own dirty linen in immediate impeachment proceedings of Bowman.
I also saw Don Jenkins there Friday but did not see him on the field. I have heard he is particularly turned on by honesty and sincerity in those he meets. Therefore, I will say to him that, while I have very much disagreed with his actions in the past, if he really did not go onto the field, I commend him for his restraint.
Atkinson and Berkowitz and their ilk did more in one afternoon to destroy the few feelings which
exist at KU of real sympathy towards the general goals of the Left than anything I can think of in my four years here.
Friday afternoon definitely showed there are two groups of left-wingers at KU-the radicals and the responsibles. The responsible group stayed in the stands ready to show their disagreement with ROTC and ROTC-on-campus in whatever way they peacefully could within the legal methods.
It is this responsible group which must now work to undo the harm done by the band of persons on the field Friday. No only at KU, but in the United States in general, the responsibles must work to undo the backlash reaction which is forming in response to the violent method of the radicals.
At KU, this is a time for new leadership in the Left. Two logical persons to take the leadership are Dave Awbrey and Bill Hansen.
It is time for these two, and other responsible leftist persons to step forward and show KU and the nation not all leftists are violent fanatics. It is time to demonstrate to KU and the nation that the great majority of leftists are dedicated to their ideals but conscious of reality, aware that changes are often made through compromise and that radical change does not usually come in one giant step just because a small vocal minority is noisy.
It is time for the responsible Left to assert itself, to show the campus and the nation there is no need for politics to be conducted in smoky rooms, no need for graft and corruption to exist in government, no need to spend half the national budget on the military, no need for war and killing, no need for hate and hunger and, finally, absolutely no ason why the campus, nation and the world cannot begin to heed the astrologers and enter into the age of love and peace—the Age of Acquarius.
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The Hill With It by john hill
The master of ceremonies stood at the podium and cleared his throat several times, hoping the vast dinner party would stop eating and pay attention. They didn't.
"I think we had better get started now," he said,lamely,his voice cracking. The hungry crowd just kept rapidly shoveling food into their heads.
"As you may or may not care, we are here to honor the conclusion of that University Daily Kansan column, 'The Hill With It' which has been written once a week for the last five semesters by John Hill, a modest, unassuming senior who will very soon be graduating. By the way, I want to thank Mr. Hill for the idea for this dinner, for sponsoring the entire event, for inviting all the guests, and for buying all the honors and awards which he will present himself later."
"So because the column now, finally, at long last, comes to an end —"
The M.C. paused here and tried
to ignore the scattered applause that rippled across the gathering, thankful that most were too busy eating.
"But before I introduce Mr. Hill, let me give you an interesting statistic. If all the words that have appeared in 'The Hill With It' were laid end to end across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,—"
"— they would have been a lot better off," said a voice from the back of the room.
The M.C. started to ask Berkowitz to keep his comments to himself, but he was already on his way out the door, hurrying to join his cronies in disrupting a Boy Scout meeting by holding hands in a circle, forming another veritable chain of missing links.
"And now," continued the M.C., "for the high point of a low evening, I present to you a man who has brought us a fresh new approach through his keen grasp of the obvious, rather than the trite over-use of insight so often found in newspaper columns, a man who
Two people clapped furiously while everyone else kept eating as the Walley Coxesque figure approached the podium.
as a columnist has all the depth of Hal Boyle and the light breezy style of William F. Buckley, Jr., a man who certainly needs an introduction, John Hill."
"Thanks Mom, Dad." He paused a moment, then said, "You're all probably wondering why I called this meeting. . ."
"I wanted to thank all the people who have read, cared about, or have allowed me to print my column during the last five semesters."
"I have a prepared speech," Hill said, reaching into his coat pocket, taking out some folded sheets of blank paper, and tearing them up, "but I would rather speak from the heart."
"All seriousness aside, I really do feel a great debt to both the people on the Kansan over the years who have either let or encouraged me to write my column, and to the readers, many of whom I didn't
know, who would favorably remark on some particular column. Two that people mentioned were about an enchanted toad and a gullible freshman girl, and another was satire on "The Ode to Billy Joe."
But the crowd just kept eating their frog legs and black-eyed peas,
"I have gained tremendous personal satisfaction from this column over the semesters, and it is my sincere hope that other columnists-to-be can get the same support that I did."
Hill then eyed the crowd defensively.
"Of course, you characters that used it to wrap fish with or throw the garbage out, and especially you graffiti smart alecks who kept writing 'the hill with it isn't well, just remember that I can take criticism, just as long as I never hear it. Well, thanks again."
Hill stepped down and then hurried over to the buffet table and grabbed a plate but the food was all gone, which he decided, might make a good column. . . .