Laird and the cobra
A swami, sitting in the marketplace, slowly seduces the cobra with the sounds of the wailing flute until the shy reptile emerges swaying from his straw basket.
The swami looks vaguely and recently familiar. His flute is piped with facts, hereto unknown by the cobra but sinuously like something the snake has heard all his life.
Washington (AP)—"Melvin R. Laird, secretary of defense, said yesterday the Soviet Union is testing a triple warhead nose cone for the big SS-9 rocket he considers a threat to U.S. missiles."
The snake would rather stay in the basket. He's afraid of the sun for it can burn and scorch, perhaps eventually destroy him. His basket is safe and cool and the swami with his cold, calculating eyes frightens him.
"Laird, who has been criticized for taking a hard-line view of Soviet developments, spoke of Soviet advances while explaining the administration's reasons for wanting to defend the U.S. missile force with the Safeguard antimissile system."
Dread fills the cobra's heart because he's felt the angry sun before. He knows that once he's risen out of the basket, he'll have no choice but to stay swaying in the hot sun until the flute stops. Even if he burns fiercely in the hot rays, there'll be no turning back after he's accepted the charm of the flute's music.
" 'One has to look at this capability that is being developed and certainly one would have to assume it is being developed in
order to knock out our Minuteman missile system,' Laird told a group of foreign journalists visiting the Pentagon. "
The cobra doesn't really trust the swami. His credibility stops at the point of entering into the scorching air. But the swami has the flute and the music of the flute is all the cobra has ever known and he can't decide whether he can trust himself to disbelieve the music.
After all, if the swami has this music, the hard facts of the music, he must be right, he must be telling the truth. For the swami is an expert on the subject of the flute music, reasons the cobra.
"I've always made it clear that I do not believe the Soviet Union would be foolish enough . . . to go forward with a first-strike,' Laird said."
Of course, he cobra knows that if he dared he could end his fear and hatred of the swami very quickly. All he'd have to do would be to strike at the swami with his deadly ivory fangs and the seducer would crumble to the ground.
But the cobra's salvation would also be his destruction. For he knows that if he killed the swami, he himself would be doomed to death.
So the cobra rises slowly into the burning, frightening sun, hating its rays but mesmerized by the haunting sound of the flute. And somewhere in the back of his dim and tortured mind, he knows someday it will all be over. Someday the basket will tip or the flute will be off-key and he'll strike . . . and then the world will be over. (AMS)
Letters to the editor
BSU critic responds
To the Editor:
Most readers will recall that this time last year there was an uproar over the absence of a black student on the pom-pon squad. It would seem that time has not changed anything; the same crisis has occurred this year. Where were the black leaders between last year's tryouts and this year's? What was Mr. Reynolds doing a month before tryouts when the UDK announced the beginning of the tryout clinic? Was he recruiting black candidates to try out?, or was he organizing "black power tactics" for the day when the tryouts were over and no black girls were selected?, or was he doing nothing? The answer is obviously not the first. Why,
That's life
DETROIT (UPI) - The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame, Tuesday discussed student unrest on the nation's campuses in a speech to the 66th annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association.
"I heard a joke the other day," he said, "about a university president who died and went to Hell and was there four days before he noticed the difference."
Ron Sutton
Goodland senior
Engineering
any black students running for the new Student Senate? Are ther going to be cries about misrepresentation after the senate is elected and the black student is not represented? If no complaints arise, I will be convinced that the black leaders are not willing to work from within but are set on disrupting from without! Properly channelled black power will win more for black people in the long run than crisis orientated black power.
I fully agree that the "illy white" image of the pom-pon squad is a thing of the past and that the squad should be representative of the students who participate in athletic events as well as those who spectate. But, the black student should get organized and work for her position as the 100 plus white girls who failed.
when he organized his own squad,he easily found eight or nine girls who would like to be pom-pon members. Why not organize them one month earlier and let them try out?
As a future thought, are there
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Another Time, Another Cross
Readers' Write
To the Editor:
The two editorials in yesterday's paper regarding the pom-pon squads is very indicative of the micro-cosmic world in which I find many white middle class students living. A more appropriate title for Miss Diebolts editorial would be Something's Missing, the missing part then being a lot of knowledge on the part of Miss Diebolt, wisdom being a lost art, it is fruitless to mention its absence.
She finds nothing strange in the first hundred years of this University's existence that blacks have not been represented in any aspect, but have been 'allowed' to be students. If she is really worried about that 'extra' team spirit she might take into consideration the fact that at least twenty-percent of the teams spring turnout is black, and the black pom-pon girls just could be that extra spirit. Hers is a useless, emotional argument quite void of thought.
Robert Enriken Jr. has chosen an appropriate title for his editorial, and asks is this fair representation. Of course it isn't because where is the black man fairly represented in this society. In job opportunities, in education, in income, even in Viet-Nam you whites have managed to represent us unfairly there. Ten percent of the population and forty-percent of the soldiers. One-half of one percent of the officers. It seems you only speak of fairness when it assures you of more than your share.
You may indeed call the administration 'jellyfish' but what it shows is the void in your life and mind of the application of wisdom, integrity, and justice.
Injustice itself is a cause of violence.
Thelma Rucker Graduate Student
To the Editor:
I should like to correct some things in your story on "Art Instructor Resigns," on page 3 of your issue of 27 March. I do not know Mr. Beckley, the instructor in question, or his circumstances; I speak of general matters.
First, the American Association of University Professors issued a statement (not a regulation) in 1964 advising that in his first year at a school a man should be given 3 months' notice of non-reappointment, in his second year 6 months' notice, and in his third and later years 12 months' notice. The Kansas State Board of Regents has adopted the practice, as the Faculty Handbook mentions on its page 25. If Mr. Beckley received his notice of non-reappointment before 1 March, the situation is regular.
Second, all men who accept appointments here, except full professors, begin their local careers on probation. For associate professors the probationary period lasts for two years, for assistant professors it lasts for five years; these facts are stated in the Faculty Handbook on its page 24. For instructors there is no explicit limit to the probationary period, but by the AAUP 1940 Statement of Principles it cannot last for more than seven years. It is particularly important to note that, during a man's probationary period, he may be sent a notice of non-reappointment without any reason for the school's decision. According to the standards of the AAUP, the school is under no obligation to give a reason for a decision not to reappoint, during a teacher's probationary period. If Mr. Beckley has not been told why he will not be reappointed, the situation is not unusual.
Third, you quote Mr. Beckley as saying "he came here last September with the understanding that he would receive an assistant professorship." There seems to be something wrong here, for as you may discover on page 23 of the Faculty Handbook, The Regents have ruled, and the administration conforms to the rule, that "The precise terms and conditions of every appointment should be stated in writing and be in the possession of both institution and teacher before the appointment is consummated"—i.e., before the teacher begins his work. It may be that Mr. Beckley was told he would receive an assistant professorship at some time in the future, if his work was satisfactory; but it is improbable that he was promised such a rank for 1968/9, or without qualification.
W. D. Paden Professor of English