KANSAN COMMENT
The well adjusted
The other GIs in his company have named him "Killer." As he talked to the television newsman, he punctuated his replies with short laughs.
He said he is called "Killer" because that is what he is good at. When he sees a Viet Cong, he lets him have it. He had really ripped one that day.
There is no thought involved; there is no morality involved. It is not good that he is killing a Communist and it is not bad that he is killing a human being. He is just doing a job—doing it so well he has earned himself a nickname.
Killer is in his early twenties. After a few more months in Vietnam or Cambodia, if he is lucky he will return to the United States and leave the Army and his nickname behind him. He will be just another Vietnam veteran—with a year or two of intensified training.
Killer is not necessarily typical of the young soldiers in his platoon. One nineteen year old wears a string of beads around his neck. He talked calmly to the interviewer. He has been in the war about a year now and has not yet shot his rifle. He said he hoped he would never have to shoot it. If he were to come upon a
Viet Cong face to face in the jungle, he said he is not sure what he would do.
Killing still means something to the soldier with the beads. He has not yet adjusted to the war. When he sees a Viet Cong he still sees a person. He has not yet learned all the connotations of the word "enemy."
But his tour of duty is not yet over. He might still adjust. Someday in the jungle he might meet that Viet Cong face to face. It will be kill or be killed and he will have to make a decision. He will probably shoot to kill. It would be self defense but it would still be a step in the right direction. It would be the start of his adjustment.
In his speech to the nation April 30 the President said, "I would rather be a one term President, than a two term President. . ."
If he had stopped there it would have been the first time I really agreed with our leader. But he did not stop there. He added, "... at the cost of seeing America become a second rate power." He added Cambodia.
There will be more young soldiers like Killer—young soldiers with no problems. There will be more young soldiers like the one who wears beads—young soldiers that need to adjust. There will be a lot more.
—Mike Rieke
hearing voices—
To the editor;
As I watched the Kent State memorial march and the confrontation at the flagpole in front of the ROTC building, I was struck by the similarity of the crowd to a herd of sheep following a Judas-goat to slaughter. Emotions and sloganism were the salient modes of behavior in the morass into which the march degenerated; the tunnel-view assessment of the situation and its causes by both the ROTC freaks and the demonstrators, plus the prejudices and dogma of each side, precluded any resolution of the issues. I use "resolution" to mean agreement or compromise, i.e., a position that satisfys both parties, not the imposing of one group's will on the other. Of course, the basic fallacy inherent in this argument is that I'm assuming that people of any and every persuasion are going to live and let live. This is very obviously not the case in this country: every partisan group is complacently self-righteous in the belief that it possesses the essence of that which is best for society and, in parallel to the foreign policy of this country, is going to administer its doctrine whether the subject people(s) like it or not. This "whiteman's burden" syndrome is characteristic of both the establishment and the New Left, as is the tenet that the cure for repression and violence is more repression and violence.
The crowd at the ROTC building echoed this nihilism; the actions and speeches of both were incredibly identical—and wrong. The ROTC students were as scintillating as hell with their caustic, derisive comments about the marchers. The marchers, who had an irreproachable motive in protesting the killing of the four students at Kent State, knew that by lowering the flag they would incite the "fascists" to attack. For each side the symbolism, the emotional involvement, was more important and evident than the reasons behind their respective actions. The result? The consequence was a further exacerbation of tensions at KU, which is exactly what we need in light of the threats to our academic freedom by state politicians.
Requiem aeternam
Gordon Hanson Taiwan freshman
To the editor:
I went to hear what Dr. Ehrlich had to say, and the event brought to my mind a similar experience not long in the past. Dr. Ehrlich painted a very bleak picture of the world's prospects in the not so distant future, and he went on to point out that the problem was a middle class problem—a problem at least partially caused by middle class values and social outlook. At this revelation the whole crowd clapped and cheered, and I just sat in my chair and marvelled at how much the situation resembled the concert of Buffy St.-Marie.
Buffy sang, but she also talked, and what she said wasn't pretty. She charged that her people were oppressed, starving, and suffering second class citizenship at the hands of the white majority, and that audience also clapped and cheered. It amazes and sickens me to see how completely university students have accepted the idea that they are a part of a new, somehow guiltless generation which is more moral and righteous, and more correct in its outlook than previous generations. How nice it is to be able to listen to someone condemn white majority morality and behavior and be able to applaud because majority white people are somebody else. What rubbish! In the words of a Soviet scientist, A. D. Sakharov, "We have found the enemy and they are us."
Oh sure, we do a lot of complaining and challenging while we are safely cloistered within our ivy covered walls, our own ritual of expiation, but what happens when we are thrown into the cold Establishment world? Look at the Senior sweatshirt to find out. We bend, we break, and we conform—gutless wonders that we are. We walk out into the world of "realists" and instead of telling them that their expedient pragmatism is a one way ticket to hell, we toe the line, or we whimper and withdraw. We fail to do what is right for the same reason our fathers have failed to do right: it just costs too much; it's too hard. Perhaps this judgment is rather harsh, but who among us will be the first to give up his air-polluting 350 Camaro or his GTO, or who will get through next year on this year's wardrobe? Who among us will join the struggle to end our country's exploitation of the poor nations by refusing to carry a gun, or by refusing tax money earmarked for war? Who among us is willing to extend a helping hand to our brother races and to work to wipe out racism?
Ecological insanity, war, and racism threaten to undo us, but polluting, wasteful production requires indiscriminate useless consumption; generals are impotent without privates, and racism, whether personal or institutional, feeds on moral support or silent approbation. Sakharov says that any rational creature finding itself on the brink of disaster (as Ehrlich and Sakharov suggest we are) will suspend its normal activities until it has regained safety. Who in this country is willing to suspend his normal easy life and take a step toward sanity? Who will pay the price and get us out of the mess in which we find ourselves? It had better be you and it had better be me because it's going to take us all. It may cost those of us who lead our security and our social acceptability. It may mean jail. What are you willing to pay to see tomorrow?
Gary Taylor Senior
Photo by Steve Fritz
Millions for defense but not one cent...
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