KANSAN COMMENT
Evening the odds
Washington has escaped damage. The State Capitol Building still stands in Topeka. Democracy has been saved from the Harambee.
The BSU newspaper is seditious, Attorney General Frizzell said. It will no longer be printed by the Kansas University Printing Service, since there is a Kansas statute which prohibits publication of materials urging violence. And the theme of Harambee, Frizzell said, is that blacks must arm themselves.
So that is sedition. In Kansas, a black can have a gun if he's in the National Guard. A student can have a gun as long as he's in ROTC. A man can be armed, you see, if the government can be sure that he's on the right side.
Basically, Harambee was calling for its readers to even up the odds. The events of last week proved that an entire community can be placed at the mercy of the government within a matter of hours. An unarmed community has no choice but to follow the orders of the military.
What happened to freedom in Lawrence last week? Freedom vanished when the National Guard and Highway Patrol entered the town, bearing guns. Freedom proved to be only an illusion. The government displayed the strength that enables it to turn a town into a prison
whenever it desires. The people of Lawrence had no power to resist.
Just exactly what is this democracy that Frizzell is trying to defend? Is it a democracy in which people are free as long as they are not doing anything? When the people begin to act, their rights are nullified and troops are sent in to make sure there is no reaction.
Yes, it makes a big difference who's holding the gun. It even makes a difference who's talking about it.
Speaking about campus violence recently, the governor of California said, "If it takes a blood bath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement." Gov. Reagan later explained that "blood bath" was a figure of speech.
When Reagan calls for a blood bath, it's a figure of speech. But when the Harambee calls for self-defense, for an equalization of power, it's sedition.
Last week's curfew enforcement showed that Harambee's plea was extremely relevant. It is possible that Frizzell may silence Harambee. But if it survives, Frizzell's actions will only serve to give it more force.
Joe Naas
Others on issues
This column is made available periodically for campus leaders to discuss current issues
By GUS diZEREGA
By GUS diZEREGA (Ed. note—diZerega is a former student senator, still active in campus politics.)
Last week the revolution came to Lawrence. The nightly crunch of military boots on abandoned pavement shattered our quiet oasis from reality. This week the students of Berkeley demonstrate on our behalf. Dave Awbrey and other students face six months in jail for the henious crime of curfew violation. Yes, even in Kansas.
And it has only just begun.
The corruption and illegitimacy of "our" government have reached the point where some prefer the risks of insurrection to the continuing of the status quo. Before you attack the violent bombing of the Kansas Union (which, I agree, was exceptionally stupid) and before you condemn the violence of those who fought in the streets last week, think of the many times you have acquiesced during the Vietnam War and think of those now dead from it on both sides. Think of those now threatened by the draft while you complacently enjoy your 2-S, high lottery number, or sex. Think of the red, black, brown, and yellow people who have been on the receiving end of establishment violence while many of you talked of "patriotism" and "niggers." Think of the violence of a system which can blow the world up several times over, is spending billions in order to do it better and regards a few million dollars more for HEW as "inflationary."
Compare this "legal" violence to our illegal violence. Then don't talk to me of the threat of student violence, hippie violence, or left violence. Compared to Richard Nixon, Senator Dole, or Herr Shultz the most violent revolutionary is nearly a pacifist.
The war has come home. It has come home because reason and facts and good intentions have proven unable to end the Vietnam War, to end racism, to end the exploitation of all Americans by a tiny wealthy elite. If reason cannot shake up the chauvinist who defends the rape of Vietnam because "we must preserve our national image" then something else will.
Even if the Vietnam War were to end tomorrow there would still be only a rise in military spending. Between 1965 and 1969 $338 billion was spent on national "defense." Nixon's figures indicate that in the first six years of the 70s, $415 billion in 1969 prices will be spent on "defense." There will be no war's end bonus—it will go to the Pentagon.
The poor pay out more in taxes than they get in welfare aid yet the middle class has been tricked into blaming them for higher taxes. Simillarly, various groups have been conned into attacking one another to the benefit only of our elite controlled government in which the rich get richer and the poor . . . well the average standard of living has gone down in recent years.
There is no longer a good reason for the continued existence of the present system. Government services are dwarfed by its disservices. Political avenues are presently closed to us because only the parasitic fat cats have the bread to participate in the political arena. They will let us have a voice in governing KU because they don't feel we can threaten their vital interests here. On vital issues, however, the streets are increasingly the only realistic alternative to principled impotence.
Last week we took to the streets. We will do it again and again all across the country until we get either major reform or revolution. The real issue is not Vietnam, the real issue is a military-industrial society which makes Vietnams possible.
Most KU students detest violence (as do most radicals for that matter) and say "Please work within the system. We agree with your goals but your methods are wrong." Many of us have seen years of peaceful agitation accomplish substantially nothing on vital issues, but more importantly, most of those students who urge peaceful activism have never done any activism of any kind. They seem to be saying "Please don't do anything to force us to make a choice, our inertia is so much more comfortable." Those of us who do not rule out violence a priori can only answer "First you get involved peacefully and then talk to us about peaceful tactics. Until then, are you sure you know what you're talking about?"
© David Sokoloff 1970
'The theory is that what you don't know won't hurt us.'
hearing voices—
To the editor:
The recent decision by the state's Attorney General Frizell is simply another crystal clear example of overt racism. At first he wouldn't make any statements about why he stopped the printing of "Harambee." Now he has clearly stated the paper "advocates crime, criminal syndicalism, sabotage, violence, etc." (Thurs. April 16th Lawrence Journal World) By doing this he has drawn a clear line of demarcation between Black People in general and the contributors of "Harambee" in specific.
Frizell probably feels he has paralized the black liberation struggle here at KU greatly by denying us "freedom of the press." But we will continue to communicate and get the truth to the people "by whatever means necessary" via handbills, newsletters and the black owned and operated "Grapevine." The recent wave of vicious, brutal police attacks on black women and children has caused us to "table" plans of attack on the recent ruling on Harambee.
Frizell has jumped on the political platform of Schultz of getting tough with people who don't endorse his means of accomplishing the American dream.
By denying black people "freedom of the press" he has denied all people "freedom to read." We can't have our paper printed through the state owned and operated printing service. Therefore we need funds to have our paper printed by a private firm. Let's not let any politician dictate to us what we can read and what we can't read.
Monty "Fats" Beckwith Chicago, Ill., freshman
To the editor:
Reading Mr. Schaefer's letter to the editor in Thursday's Daily Kansan I felt compelled to relate a similar and appalling incident. I was seated in my morning class Tuesday and overheard remarks pertaining to the Union fire as well as current Lawrence school system incidents. The remarks between the two girls were overtly racist in nature, inherently ignorant of the crux of racial problems in the schools, and most shocking of all, from the mouths of student teachers in one of the local elementary schools. As future teachers we are constantly reminded of the unconscious effect we have on our students. We often transmit values without ever being aware of it. I am sickened to imagine such ideas as these "teachers" were discussing to be even-so-lightly hinted at in the classroom. If the greatest path to freedom from injustice and prejudice is through the minds of the young, we need take a closer look into the minds of the teachers and administrators. What possible hope can this nation have for survival if more educators are unconsciously passing on similar bias to their students?
Janice Wittmeyer Ottawa senior
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