E9 Editorial
F armmg

Fifth Avenue

Many students that come to Grinnell are from major
urban areas and their departure to Grinnell initially is
agonized over as the severance of an umbilical cord from all
the intellectual, cultural, and social aspects that an urban
area affords, Many members of the faculty, despite their
permanent residency in Grinnell, are not unknown to take off
for Chicago for a weekend or leave Grinnell when school is
not in session for the attractions of the East or travel aborad.

We are a college community that is urban in its orien-
tation. As graduates or alumni of the school, few of us will
reside in town in towns like Grinnell, but will migrate to the
metropolitian areas of the nation. Grinnell, is sometimes
referred to as the “college in the cornfields.” The phrase,
however, only notes the college's physical location and
suggests nothing about our understanding of the environs.

After having spent his first day in Iowa, Richard
Holbrooke (managing editor of Foreign Policy) made a
rather astute comment as aparticipant on the Iowa Per-
spective Panel during the recent food conference.

“Since I understand that only 10-12 per cent of the
students at Grinnell are from Iowa, you could do very little
that would be more useful during your four years here (or
less if you wish) than learning about Iowa’s problems.

‘ Probably most of you will go on to other parts of the country
where the kind of understanding that are instinctive in this
part of the country don’t even exist. The more you could
learn about it and take with you the better.”

An understanding of farming in many regards is lacking
among those persons involved in Washington. Anthony
Lake and Leslie Gelb, both conference participants, wrote an
article for Foreign Policy called ”Washington Dateline: Less
Food, More Politics.” At one point the talk about the corn
crop had “began to be harvested in late June" Corn is
harvested in August and early September and the
Washington Dateline should be underlined in the title of
their article.

It was stressed during the conference that Iowa's
problems are those of the world. Its vast agricultural
productivity weighs heavily in the feeding of a starving
world One farmer stated that farmers were not
“inhumanitarian'f but deserve a reasonable profit for their
managing of land, labor, and capital. It is this understanding
which allows us to appreciate why land would be held from
production when mouths go unfed.

We as residents of Iowa for varying lengths of time,
should attempt to familiarize ourselves with the most
prominent feature of the state~its farming This does not
require individual occupancy of a farm, but suggests at least
a casual reading of the farming section of The Des Moines
Register—an exclusive that is not found in either The New
York Times or The Washington Post.

Sexuality
is private

To the Editor:

Iwish to make a comment on the
recent “poll” taken by the Grinnell
College Gay Community. The
“Poll" was, as it was taken, ob-
viously just a front by which the
GCGC attempted to force their
opinions into the public awareness.

A person's sexuality is his (or
her) own business. The Gay
Community have the right to do
whatever they wish in that area as
long as they don’t force anything
on anybody else. However, when
they attempt to force their opinions
on me or try to intimidate me into
taking or not taking some action,
then they have made it my
business.

I don’t parade my sexuality (or
thelack ofit as the case may bel in
front of the public because that is
my private affair. I feel that it is a
grave invasion of my space ior
them to, in a sense, attempt to
force me to recognize their type of
sexuality (or again the lack of it)
through such ridiculous
exhibitionism.

They should consider other
people's rights before they try
another foolish stunt such as this
one.

Daniel Kusnctzky

grand time

To the Editor: .

In planning to attend the Loose
Hall Ball the other evening, I sat
for the longest time while trying to
decide on the correct costume.
There were so many possibilities
that I had a great deal of difficulty
in choosing.

I had an idea that i should jury»
rig a plastic nose and go as “Dario
the Clown." I decided that it would
tit my personality quite well The
nose that I constructed out of a
plastic ping-pong ball wouldn’t
stay on and' it smelled a little
funny. In other words, Iwould have
been a little funny if i had worn it
much longer!

The next idea that I had was that
i should come in to the party
carrying a camera, a reporter’s
notebook, and a tape recorder. i
could come disguised as a good
friend of mine, John Wylie. If I did
that, I though, John might kick me
off of the KDIC news Staff. So, I
guess that the John Wylie idea was
shot down alsoi

Another idea that came to me
was to paste a piece ofcarpetto my
chin, carry a friesbee in one hand,
‘and say “for sure, for sure". That
way I could pretend to be Dick Vos.
I heard some rumors about how I
was going to be forced to swallow a
frisbee . . . so I rejected that idea
also.

The fourth idea that came to
mind was to make a coat out of a
piece of carpet, carry a chess
board strapped to my chest, dollar
bills falling out of my pockets, and
chanting “6 years to cosmic
consciousness . , . 5 years 364 days
23 hours 55 minutes 33 seconds to
cosmic consciousness . . . 5 years
364 days 23 hours 55 minutes 10
seconds to cosmic consciousness . .
, ” just like Jon Kulber. The only
trouble with this idea is the fact
that Jon is standing behind me as I
write this. He just challenged me . .

he gave me my choice of
weapons . , . chess or ping-pong i
agreed just as long as we fight it
out on the fifth level of con-
sciousness. We called it a standoff
of Beings}

Or I could make a coat of com-
puter paper and carry a punched
card between my teeth. Wouldn't I
look good as Jim McDonald of the

. . e is grading me nus semester,
maybe I should think of another
costume.

Then I thought of punting . . .
maybe i can rip off a whole column
in the StizB . i . I can go as President
Turner. I really don't know him
well enough yet to Satirize him.
though.

Finally, 1 came up with the idea
that I liked the most. I thought that
I would come as myself: No one
would recognize me . . . if I
prepared myself correctly. So, i
washed my clothes, my hair, and
my face. After that, even my
father Wouldn't recognize me. That
is how I was dressed at the ball.

All seriousness aside, many
thanks to the people behind, the
Loose Hall Ball. I had a great time.

Daniel Kusnetzky

Liked Food
Survey

To the Editor:

Regarding your article “Meet
the friendly grocer”, by Ted
Price—Feb, 7. 19757being a
married Student who has been in
Grinnell for four years I found this
to be of unusual relevance to my
particular situation. Aside from
that, however, despite the survey’s
obvious deficiencies, I feel similar
articles would be of Value in the
future—if only for the economic
and social implications.

Aiter switching from store to
store, buying at stores with
coupons or sales, etc., I have
become a permanent shopper at
McN ly’s for a variety of reasons
. , . i ally for the same reasons
inherent in your articleiwhich is
that on an overall basis, the store’s
prices for the total bill'arcrcom
parableewith the possible ex-
ception of Jerry’s, due to its size.

Finally, ior whatever interest or
non-interest this may provide~I
have continued at McNally's
because their store is always clean
(no eaten food, etc. stuck here and
there among the shelves, the best
quality meat, the most courteous
servictklhey call me by name, not
with a trite, phraselikewwf'hank-
you for shopping l-ly-Veel) and ms
knowledge that they will smilingly
assist me if I am displeased with
any purchase.

For what it's worth—I, for one,
would enjoy more such articles.

DIP.

With our head out of the sand

Open, Space

Grinnell College is sick. Its
health has been deteriorating for
some time now and shows no real
signs of improvement. In the last
week, two additional symptoms
have appeared which have caused
me to write this, not with the ex-
pectation of achieving any radical
changes, but rather in the hope
that we will stop and think for a
minute what is happening here.

The past week saw a symposium
on what is referred to as the “food
crisis", a pressing international
problem. in spite ofits importance,
an average of perhaps only 40 per
cent of the audience was students
on any one evening. In the same
week it was announced, that a
committee had been formed to ” . .
. consider requests from the
community for studentrinitiated
hall improvements, to make
recommendations on such requests
to the Physical Plant . . . and to
work , , . on allrcampu aesthetic
improvement. The physical plant
director was made responsible to
the committee for explaining the
impracticality of denied
requests.” The committee is to
have three students atrlarge on it,

and to date only one position has
been applied for.

“Too much work to do" is the
general reason given for students‘
nonparticipation in these events.
There are some students who did
have too much work to do during
the week of the food symposium
and unfortunately had to miss the
sessions. However I believe that
oftentimesinot always, but
sometimesi‘ncademic pressure”
becomes a flippant excuse for
burying one’s head in the sand.
Regulations on student life are
largely controlled by the students
themselves, as evidenced by total
domination of studenHife com-
mittees by students The newly
established Residence Hall Im»
provement Committee is a chance
for students to determine the
constitution of their own living
environment, yet it seems as
though no oneis interested because
of “too much work.”

The sickness I refer to is the
Ain't it Awful syndrome which I
would characterize as basically a
lookrout-for-yourself attitude
which assumes that someone else
will do what needs to he done

because you can't afford the time
away from studying , . . grad
schools and all, you know. Hall
Improvements Committee? Well
we know that someone else will
volunteer and besides, committees
never do anything anyway. And if
I’d volunteer I’d look like a foul—I
gotta studyibut someone else will
do it and I wish someone would do
something about these in
stitutionalized white walls! Ain't it
awful.

Somehow we have come to the,
point where we not only assume
that these jobs are someone else‘s
responsibility, but that there is
actually a RISK in going to symr
posia or getting involved in a
committee since’ we would be
losing precious studying time.

The fight for the establishment of
the women‘s gynecological service
to Des Moines provides another
example of these assumptions and
also illustrates a contradiction in
students’ attitudes. We proclaim
that the doctrine of in loco
parcnlis is no longer valid, we are
adults and the college should not
dictate our life styles, eg, “you
must be in your dorm by mid

night." At the same time, some
demanded that the college had the

-ubligation to provide any health

care at all, just as it has no right to
tell you when you must be in your
dorm.

Ido not mean to suggest that we
should not have a gynecological
servicewn the contrary, it is a
program fulfilling the needs of a
segment of our community. The
point is that most people thought
the risk to their grade~point was
too great to get involved in
establishing the service. Too often
we say “somebody should do
something . . . i can’t, l have to
study."

i guess what I'm trying to say is
that there is a certain community
responsibility, for lack of a better
term, which has been neglected in
the recent past, Perhaps it is an
unwillingness to realize that the
freedom to paint one's room or to
be driven to the gynecologist costs
somebody else time and effort, and
that we owe it to ourselves and
each other to try in some way to
make this community of ours a
more livable place.

3

 

