KANSAN Comment
Yea! CBS
CBS network executives eat "patrioats."
The latest testimonial for the All-American cereal was given last week when network executives cancelled the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour."
Yet everyday Mr. Whipple squeezes toilet paper for millions of Americans. The American public is subjected daily to Katy Winters' sweaty friends, bad breath in dogs and Venus de Milo's left airmpit. But that's not offensive.
Various and sundry reasons for cancellation of the program were given. The overpowering reason for cancellation was Joan Baez' song dedication to her draft-resisting husband who faces imprisonment. Miss Baez appeared on the program two weeks ago.
What is the network protecting the public from? Why is it offensive to dedicate a song to a man willing to face the consequences of imprisonment for his moral beliefs?
It's unfortunate that a program which
provided a meaningful commentary on American society will find a flying nun, a singing dog or a dancing turtle for a replacement.
When a society cannot reflect upon its problems and find humor in them a society is sick. When the voice of dissent is silenced by a "bleep" it becomes a sore that quickly festers and runs through a society.
The Smothers Brothers program made the viewer think. Perhaps that was the need for constant censorship. Obviously today's entertainment programming is not geared to the thinking viewer.
Perhaps the show could be replaced by a weekly extravaganza. Visualize it—an All-American cast, dressed in red, white and blue, waving flags, while singing a medley of George M. Cohen tunes ranging from "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" to "You're a Grand Old Flag."
Maybe the flags should be lowered for another 30 days-for the death of free speech. (JKD)
Letter to the editor
Criticism of BSU
To the Editor:
As students of this university we would like to make a few comments on the subject of the Black Student Unions demands for Negro representation on the pom-pon and cheerleading squads.
1) If the blacks wanted a pom-pon girl as bad as they now seem to why didn't more girls try out. It seems that there were only four Negro girls trying out, where were the rest? In the UDK Wednesday nine girls were shown, apparently five of them didn't have the courage to try out in open competition. The answer as to why no blacks were elected is not discrimination but lack of courage among them and their usage of their color as a scape-goat.
2) If Bob Hartman's statement that quality does not count as much as representation is a valid one then we ask why there aren't more Jewish, English, Scottish, and Italian-American students on the fore-mentioned squads. Also if proportion is to be counted before quality then why not have a larger percentage of white players (as there is still a majority of whites in this school) on all of our athletic teams. This probably would hurt our record for a time but at least it would be a correct proportion.
3) In regard to the demand itself and all previous ones we see them more as black-mail (excuse this pun if anyone is offended) than demand and believe they should be handled as such. We also believe that our integration minded friends ought to look at home first before they claim any manner of segregation. I mean that the BSU sounds and I think is one of the most segregated groups sanctioned by this university.
Finally, we don't think of ourselves as racists or bigots or any other stereotyped group but merely concerned students who see a small band of others dictating and receiving their demands from a lame-duck administration. We believe there is nothing wrong with having one, two, or even eight colored pom-pon girls, but we do see a great deal of injustice in the manner which the blacks don't even try out and then by virtue of their unique racial characteristic expect to get their
way. Equality and integration are great but when they are abused by any group they lose all the respect that we held for them.
Ron Worth
Overland Park
Freshman
Nick LoBurgio Ellinwood, Kans. Sophomore Bill Wilson Atchison, Kans. Freshman
Charmer
The Hill With It by john hill
The perspiration glistened off the old woman's forehead under the hot TV lights as she tried to keep her geese from wandering under the table across from her and pecking at the ankles of the senators that made up the special sub-committee.
"All right, now, Mother Goose," said Senator Philabaster, shuffling his notes to give TV fans a chance to get back from the bathroom after the commercial, "let's continue with the special investigation of the extreme violence and cruelty that is splashed like a bloodbath from one end of your so-called nursery rhymes to the other, which pervert and twist the young minds of—"
"Objection!" cried Mother Goose's defense attorney, F. Lee Baloney, jumping to his feet. "On the grounds that you're leading the witness, prejudicing the issue, and ruining most of the phrasing for my defense statement."
Somebody nudged the presiding chairman who woke up with a start and looked around from his gavel, which was being swallowed by a goose under the table.
"If I may continue with some specific charges," said Senator Philabuster, again referring to some notes, a shopping list his wife had given him, "I have in my hand a list of 57 instances of violence in your nursery rhymes!"
He tried to hold his angered, indignant look and keep his best side to the TV cameras as the flashbulbs popped.
"For example," he said, "this passage about Jack and Jill going up a hill to fetch a pail of water. It says, and I quote 'Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after!'"
"Is this violence needed! Can you justify such writing? Couldn't you have said, instead, something like 'Jack settled gently into the soft grass and Jill followed in a rather hurried, unorthodox manner?' Why this violence?" he screamed, violently.
"Well," said Mother Goose, meekly, "it rhymed . . ."
"Aha!" said the senator, "but a poetic license is not a license to kill!" He had finally found a place to use that quote he had been saving for months, and hoped the columnists got it right.
"And what about 'Hey diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport—' is there any possible reason to expose the youth of this nation to this sadism? And isn't this a racist slur against cows? Perhaps cows are not noted for their speed, but to imply that it shuffles—"
"Objection!" screamed F. Lee Baloney, leaping to his feet, accidently killing a goose under the table that was laving a golden egg.
"and how about Jack and the Beanstalk, where Jack imposes his white, middle-class values upon the giant, a member of a minority group, resulting in further violence which explodes into the sub-conscious minds of our children, and what about the suicidal Humpty-Dumpty, the racism in Bah, Bah, Black Sheep."
"Obiection!"
"and this Jack, who jumps over burning candlesticks! Good Heavens, woman, have you no compassion? And what about the rock-a-bye-baby in the tree-tops! Do you find something amusing in a bough breaking and a child being dashed to the rocky ground, which symbolized the violence that-"
But that was too much for the defense attorney. He leaped over the table, knocking over tables, cameras, senators, and fought with the senator while complete riot broke out.
Amid the fighting, the air filled with goose-feathers, Mother Goose quietly left, hating to see so much violence over violence. . .
To the Editor:
Please let it be known that the RSU is demanding that 2 more positions be created on the Pom-pon squad for redheads. The redheads on this campus are not fairly represented. We are not fighting to be equal, to have rights; we want to be separate and we'll take what we want by coercion. We will not "try out" with the other human beings because we're different! If this demand is not met by the University by Friday at 3:00 p.m., we will elect our own Pom-pon squad.
The RSU
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