KANSAN COMMENT
A cheap analogy
Perhaps the publicity and the humor of the left-handed students' demands has helped relieve campus tension a little.
Certainly, the well-intentioned demonstration should be met with a smile, even by those who were being parodied.
But we must take a strong look at some of the implications beneath the left-handed students' burlesque performance of KU's blacks' association with the administration.
If there are any persons left in America who actually believe that the plight of the American black is in any way parallel to the plight of other "minority" groups, they had better take a step backward and look again.
For left handers, red headers or blue-eyed persons are not really minorities in any "suffering" sense of the word. Joseph C. Hough, Jr., in Black Power and White Protestants, says, "The terms 'minority' and 'majority' refer to a power relation between the groups within a particular society, and a minority is weaker and hence suffers some kinds of disabilities at the hands of the stronger group . . . Second, a minority is to be distinguished from other depressed groups within a society, because the disabilities under which they suffer are related to special characteristics which the minority shares and of which the majority (and often the minority itself) disapproves in some degree."
Assimilation or even acceptance is much easier for a left hander simply because he can't be spotted as a left hander from his appearance.
The black man is recognized as black and, as much as many Americans hate to admit it, it is his blackness itself which many of us too-whites have come to detest.
To jest about the black man's plight, or to compare it with the plight of a group which has only been shortchanged superficially (i.e. books
being bound on the left, etc.) seems a gross misunderstanding of the hardships the black man has suffered.
Furthermore, the left handed students' promising to give themselves "hernias laughing at the other inane demands of other campus groups," as their witty leader put it, does little to show that they have any concern whatsoever about America's hostility toward nonconformity even when that nonconformity is inherited as skin color.
Yes, the black students' demands were more than could have been accomplished by September, but the pressure which the blacks have been maintaining on campus can only serve to stimulate the administration and the various schools to accomplish what COULD be accomplished.
And since the black man has always been given far less than 100 pennies for his dollar bill, why shouldn't he ask for 105 pennies when he knows he will get less?
"The day of partial payment in this country is drawing to a close," says Dick Gregory. "For a hundred years America has been changing the Negro's dollar for 32 cents. Now she wants to begin to make up for that injustice by offering 64 cents. We are out in the streets saying to our country, 'A full dollar's change for a dollar spent. We are going to stop this country from cheating or the American cash register will ring no more."
If there is any such thing as compassion and concern, KU's left handers must know how very little they have in common with blacks.
If there is any such thing as humor, KU's blacks will understand that KU's left handers were really not making as racial a statement as it might have appeared.
—Mike Shearer
"AND ON MY LEFT THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT IS DEMONSTRATING THE SELF DETERMINATION WE'RE FIGHTING FOR!"
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hearing voices—
Israel and obscenity
To the editor:
I would like to make a few comments about Professor Fawwaz T. Ulaby's letter to the editor (UDK Feb. 26).
(1) . It would be less than accurate to say that the military confrontation in the Middle-East is between Palestinian commandos and the Israeli Army. From the front page of any newspaper, and even from the UDK's "News Roundup" one can learn that the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi armies play the major role in this military confrontation. I really wonder if the goal of the Iraqi dictators, the Jordanian king Hussein, the military regime in Syria and President Nasser is a democratic state in Palestine. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq have a very long way to go until they come anywhere near democracy in their own countries. The fact that they make the Palestinian problem their main problem might indicate that they don't want to deal with their own real problems. Somehow Professor Ulaby ignores the major part of the neighboring Arab countries in the Palestinian problem.
(2) . The openly declared intention of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq is the destruction of Israel and its population. The Egyptian ambassador to the UN told a T.V. reporter last week that phrases like "throwing the Jews into the sea" are plain fabrication. If so
it was fabricated by the Egyptian and Syrian broadcasting systems. During May of 1967 I heard exactly this phrase and many more of that type on the Hebrew programs of Cairo's and Damascus' radio stations.
(3) . The basic principles for lasting peace in the Middle-East, as Professor Ulaby described, certainly are a move in the right direction. Statements like "Acceptance of the right of Jews to Palestinian citizenship," "guarantee the rights of Jews as individuals" were never made publicly by Arab leaders (except Borgiba of Tunisia) before the war of 1967. The Palestinian resistance as it is known today, has been formed during the last five or six years. Never before had an Arab leader spoken about the "right of Jews to Palestinian citizenship" and this is surely a step in the right direction. One step more, namely, accepting the rights of Jews to a national presence in Israel, next to a Palestinian national presence, might solve the Palestinian problem. The Middle-East is big enough to hold a Palestinian democratic state and an Israeli democratic state. The Jews have national, historical, religious, and political rights as a group in Israel. This fact was accepted by the UN in November of 1947 by more than a two-third majority. So let each one care for democracy in his own country.
(4) . Since Professor Ulaby's letter referred to Professor Kahane's letter to the UDK, allow me to say that one does not have to be a professor of philosophy in order to interpret "abolition of the Zionist in Palestine," "rejection of any right of the Jews to a national presence," and "Jews have no real historical, religious, or political right as a group in Palestine" as an open proclamation to destroy Israel. That is exactly what it means. Israel is a state of its people and Israelis will never allow the destruction of their state.
Its'hak Dinstein Haifa, Israel Graduate student
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To the editor:
Mr. Shearer, I read with interest your article from the Daily Kansan which appeared in tonite's Star on the controversy at KU over obscenity.
First, let me say that I am largely in accord with most of the principles set forth. However, I strongly dissent from what seems to me to be your complete failure to apply the principles you yourself enunciated.
Take, for example, your statement "Every man should have a right to decide for himself what is obscene and every group should have that same right."
OK, let's see how your principle would apply: the printers are men, and they constitute a group; therefore, they should be allowed to decide for themselves what is to obscure for them to print, and that's that, period.
The radical youth of today prattle an infinite deal about "individual freedom," but upon close examination it is often apparent that they think it applies only to themselves!
Jerry Flynn Warrensburg, Mo.
★ ★ ★
To the editor:
In an article on obscurity in the University Daily Kansan, as reprinted in the Kansas City Star, Saturday, February 28, you (Mike Shearer) quote J. A. Hadfield, with approval, as saying: "There is no such thing as an evil in itself. Evil is not a thing, but a wrong function; it is the use of good impulse at the wrong time, in the wrong place, toward a wrong end, that constitutes an evil function."
As far as real good and evil is concerned this doesn't have much meaning. One might just as well say: "There is no such thing as good in itself. Good is not a thing, but a right function; it is the use of an impulse at the right time, in the right place, toward a right end."
Of course, in many cases, the motive or intent determines the character of an act. But if an individual has malice in his heart, which causes him to commit an evil act, the malice which led to the evil act is an evil thing in itself.
Although I do not have all that was involved in your discussion, I feel there is a lack of a clear-cut distinction between that which is an expediency and that which involves a moral principle. Expediencies are not wrong in themselves, but may become wrong by their incidental effects. What is inexpedient at one time may not be at another, or what is inexpedient in one place, or with regard to certain people may not be in another place or with other people. This is never so with moral principles. It is never right to have malice or to exercise it at any time, in any place, or toward any person. God has written the moral law upon all our hearts (Rom. 1:14,15) and it is the same with all races. The basic moral law is as fixed as the law of gravitation. The greatest sin possible and the one from which all other sins stem is rebellion against God's sovereignty (see Rom. 1:18-32). This is real and a sin in itself.
Sincerely,
Wade K. Ramsey
Shawnee Mission