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University Daily Kansan Thursday, May 9, 1963
Cynics Say No
The big day approaches. June 3 - parents beam with pride and relief; students face the future with firm confidence. It is graduation day.
More than 1,000 worshippers of enlightenment will make the final pilgrimage to Memorial Stadium. The speaker will remind the graduates that the challenge of their lives remains before them. Their lives are just beginning. And from that point the graduates will leave the ivory tower atmosphere of the University and head into this world which many say is cold and cruel.
But they have taken this patience-withthings-as-they-are too far. No one in his right mind would deny that there is room for improvement in every field.
BY NOW all graduates have a file full of anecdotes about eager worthies bent on changing the world. These bits always end with the neophyte being subdued by reality. Everyone knows that dreams of improving the world will quickly wither when the facts of life become graphically apparent through experience.
In a way this is good. It would be a chaotic mess if the world would, by some miracle, change and conform completely with the dreams and wishes of youth.
BUT TOO often they seem to think that wisdom is totally and completely the property of the older generations. This is as ridiculous as equating wisdom with youth.
So what does the eager young graduate do? He must make a living in a world which progressively pays less homage to principle.
But that is the way things are, and it is likely to remain that way.
It would be nice to be able to say that the graduate will retain his razor edge of enthusiasm in the face of blunting tradition and trial-and-failure.
"Do You Think I'm Being Too Daring?"
BUT THAT doesn't square with the facts. The most bitter cynics are college graduates who have been out in the world. The drudgery of everyday
One man can't change the world, they say. You will quickly find out that you are just one little pebble on a very large beach. That is what they will say.
living has sapped their reserve strength to fight for change. They tried it once and it just did not work.
So in a few years, the college graduate is just another ant crawling through the urban traffic jams on his way to and from a job which he tackles with perseverance but little enthusiasm or vigor.
WHAT THE hell, they say, the pay is the same whether you fight or ride with the punches. You can't fight city hall; the cards are stacked against you.
The trouble with these sad people is that they expected immediate success. They must have expected the world to acknowledge them as Messiahs.
The disillusioned must have thought it would be easy to put their ideas across. Well, they had no reason to believe it would be so.
THERE LIES the dividing line. If you want to find a cozy little nook in the world where the pay is not bad and the hours are good, give up your dreams.
Bright ideas are a dime a dozen. The catalyst which will bring them to life is sweat and determination.
But the trouble with that is that it looks too much like work, and they went to college so they could avoid hard work.
But watch your step. There are so many cynics on the loose you will face a fierce propaganda barrage. There is only one guy who can tell you can make it—yourself.
But if hard work does not scare you, your dreams and fresh new ideas may be rewarded. There is no guarantee, but you have a fighting chance.
Plenty will tell you it will not work.
- Terry Murphy
Week in Review
Today's Politics Previews '64
It was a colorful week for Americans in the news.
A band of American adventurers trekked to the top of the world's highest mountain, an American presidential possibility for 1964 risked his political success for love, and a defeated presidential candidate brushed off his record and quietly changed political stamping grounds.
THE UNIDENTIFIED American who climbed to the top of Mt. Everest to plant the stars and stripes was reportedly accompanied by a Sherpa guide. The American will be the third to conquer Mt. Everest. He was preceded by the British in 1953 and the Swiss in 1956.
In New York Nelson Rockefeller, New York governor and oft mentioned Republican presidential nominee in 1964, jeopardized his political future in the eyes of some Americans when he said "I do" to Mrs. Margaretta Murphy, New York socialite and a divorcee.
Former Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon chose New York as the state in which he could bury the past and begin life anew.
The West Coast politician who retired from political life after his defeat in the gubernatorial race with Pat Brown (Democrat) last year announced he would hang on his shingle in New York.
NIXON SEEMINGLY gave up his position as titular head of the GOF after the defeat. Few Republicans considered the move an attempt to get back in the political spotlight. Michigan's George Romney, another GOP possibility, insisted he would not run in 1964.
The Supreme Court of the United States handed down another decision on individual rights. The court held that it is unlawful to compel racial segregation in the court room. The decision grew out of a Virginia case in which Ford T. Johnson was fined $10 in contempt of court for sitting in the "white" section of the traffic court. The 21-year-old Johnson is now a Peace Corps worker in Ghana.
In St. Louis police quelled a Negro riot with night sticks and dogs. Negroes threw bricks and cursed after police arrested a 21-year-old Negro during a dice game.
A BIRMINGHAM, Ala., judge resolved to curb the anti-segregation drive in the South by arresting several hundred teenagers and school children who participated in a demonstration march by 600-700 persons. It was part of a chain of Negro protest demonstrations
In a lighter vein a California housewife made a Pacific flight to Hawaii with a thermos of boiling water and a rubber doll. The woman, Mrs. Betty Miller, flew her Piper Apache over the same course that Amelia Earlhart chose in 1937.
On hand to witness the celebration was Fidel Castro. Cuban prime minister. While the Cuban played revolutionary hero in Moscow, brother Raul stirred up a similar rally in Cuba.
The Southern judge announced he would send bail at the $500 mark for first offenders. Negro youths who had appeared before juvenile court before would have no opportunity to be released on bond.
Flowery speeches promising peace and a 10-minute military weapon review characterized the Communist May Day celebration in Red square last week.
ABSENT FROM the Russian celebration was Frol Kozlov, once
An accident on the Nile killed 185 persons. The drownings occurred when an Egyptian ferry loaded with 200 Moslem pilgrims sank. Authorities arrested both the captain and the owner. They said the ferry was equipped to handle about 80 persons.
mentioned as Khrushchev's possible successor. Kozlov was reported suffering from a blood clot or thrombosis.
The Japanese government received a report that a Communist Chinese freighter was torpedoed and sunk in Japanese waters. Japanese authorities expressed doubt about the alleged torpedoing but conceded that an old mine may have sunk the ship.
A TIFF WITH Haiti brought charges of U.S. partiality which prompted the United States to decline representation on a five-nation Organization of American States (OAS) fact-finding board sent to Haiti. The U.S. and Brazil had registered complaints with Haiti because of the country's abuse of diplomatic privileges. Nations on the fact-finding mission to Haiti are Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Bolivia.
The Dominican Republic charged that President Francois Duvalier had offered Castro military bases in Haiti. Juan Borsh, Dominican Republic president, called Duvalier a madman and said that if "any move is made against us we will attack."
In Washington the administration was caught with its hand in the press' cookie jar again. This time freedom of the press was involved. A subcommittee of the House is now examining a document which reportedly instructed an ambassador in Saigon to keep American reporters away from areas where the fighting is being done almost entirely by American troops or where the pro-West government has failed to gain the support of the people.
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, by Henry Bamford Parkes (Vintage, $1.65).
Though the author denies that this book is a history, it must be interpreted as one in the sense of a work by Parrington or Beard. Henry Bamford Parkes calls "The American Experience" an "interpretation" of American civilization and society. But of necessity his interpretation must be hung on the framework of history.
His object was to look at the American past in terms of its meaning rather than merely to repeat what others have said. He treats the founding of America, the growth of religion, the Revolution and Constitution, the clash between capitalism and agrarianism, the development of the frontier, the Civil War, the postwar growth of industrialism, the agrarian revolt, and the coming of age of the United States in world affairs.
Parkes concludes that this country has leaned much on its European past, that it has assumed world leadership reluctantly, that there has been no sense of order in our civilization, that freedom and opportunity too often have been restricted to men of wealth and power. Here is a thoughtful and worthwhile book.
TC
Here is one of Joyce Cary's lesser-known works, a novel dating to World War II. Charley is a boy evacuated from London slums during the blitz, sent to the west country and from there embarking on a series of imaginative—yet funny—crimes that terrorize the countryside.
CHARLEY IS MY DARLING, by Joyce Cary (Signet. 75 cents).
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It is an absorbing and disturbing story of adolescence and delinquency. As in Cary's other novels, character development stands above plot, and in the boy Charley Cary has created a memorable figure.
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THE STRANGER, by Albert Camus (Vintage, $1.25)—"The Stranger" is a short novel, and a simple one. Its hero is an ordinary man who lives quietly in Algiers, and whose life suddenly becomes complicated to the point where he commits a pointless murder, and goes on trial. The novel is naturalistic in mood and theme, as we see fate slowly dog this once unoffending little man. It is a simply and affectingly told story, not as significant as the major novels of Camus but one well worth reading.
THE NEW AMERICAN 5TH CROSSWORD PUZZLE BOOK, by Jack Luzzato and Albert H. Morehead (Signet, 35 cents)—Here are 84 brand-new crosswords for the fans.
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DEATH ON THE NILE, by Agatha Christie (Bantam, 50 cents) one of the famous Hercule Poirot mysteries, involving a cruise in the land of the Pharaohs, a lovely victim, and all kinds of suspects.
Daily Hansan
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