Page Fourteen

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Letters . . .

Crosseti Investigates Complaints
About Unreal Nature of Grinnell

To the Editor:

In the last issue oi the son an»
pedr two expressions of a notion
so common among undergraduates
Hand their parents — as to ha
of some importance. Both writers,
l\1r. Roberts and Miss Brusl, echo
the facile complaint that life on
the Grinnell campus is not “real".
The charge is an easy echo of the
ramiliar phrase, “When you get out
into the real world . .

1 think that the notion needs
looking into. it has both truth
and talsity in it, as do most coin-
inon notions; perhaps analysis will
reveal. if not the percentage ot
each, at least hat the truth and
ialseness are. i easons tor think»
ing such analysis important at this
time are more complex than 1
cm! go into here, where space is,
i am told, at a premium, and so
i siiall hope that perceptive read
cis will be able to deduce the
critical circumstances [hilt Im-
pclled me to such a letter now.

First, one must admit that lite
here is as real as it is anywhere
else uhere people congregate,
whether that place be a club, a Jail,
an asylum, a party, a hospital, a
congress, or any other institution.
The passions exist here — Jealousy,
love, hate, fear; the business of lite
exists here—~Vvurk, plot, caucus,
struggle for power. The stakes are
not generally so high as in “real"
lite, as a role, we do not die when
we tail, nor are we in positions to
lntiict death when we win, But
for this “defect" we may he grate
rul. Anyone who knows anything
about life on a college campus,
among faculty, students, or even
the administration, knows that
melodramas and tragedies as well
as iarces and comedies are to be
round everywhere; and so are the

lotless improvisations that pass
or drama in the modern theater.

Complains, then, about the un-
reality of l at college are inace
curate; living people inhabit and
manage colleges, and that iact a.
lone miarantees the reality or lite
here.

There is, however, some tiuth
to the charge that lira here is un-
real. And for this, too, we may be

ratetut 1r college were exactly
ike socalled ”real" lite. it could
not do its ioh. As it is a real job,
i suppose that it is real life, too.
Yet this real job is to make life
unreal. Unless students cooperate
—for college is a voluntary activia
ty‘the job cannot he done. So
students must be willing. ior four-
years, to engage in lives of deli-
berate and calculated unreality, A»
long with the faculty, and even
the administration, they must fore-

 

go as much of "real" life as they
can; they must delimit their pas-
sions and speak with an honesty
which the so-called ”i‘eal'Y world
cannot hear. Yet we must not con~
temn the “real" world, for it has
built the garden and. tower that we
call a college. It. has enabled stu-
dents and teachers to withdraw
into it for {our years—the four
most formative years of the mind’s
life—so that all of reality, ranging
from fantasy to brutality, can be
examined critically, dispassicllale-
1y, analytically. The “real” World
has stocked this gardell-culn-towel‘
with great libraries and with arms
able and cultivated men, though
on this last point we must allow
for the degree of “real” \vorldliness
present even in faculty members.
Students are supposed to live, at
their own accord. ill the garden
and to abide by the rules of its na-
ture. oiily it tl y do can they ever
ground their pl losophies and their
knowlctlgeo firmly enough to move
into and manage the “realH World
successfully.

If they refuse, if they are off
picketing, ig to topple govern-
ments, bui ing oli-art cards, male
ing snide remarks, engaging in for»
nication, vandalism, di’ugraddictioﬂ,
alcoholism, laziness, they will find,
when they reach the real "real”
World, that they are woefully uur
prepared for it. The college is a
reality in the midst of the “real”
world and it must be met realisti-
cally. Students who snipe at its
unreality siinply railto face up to
reality.

John Crossett
(Classical Languages)

Argonne Institute
Seeks Appliccr nts

Details of the Argonne Semes-
ter, spring or fall, 1966, have been
released by the Argonne National
Laboratory and LaVeme Durkee
(biology), Gi-innell adviser for the
program.

The semester, offered for jun-
lots majoring in biology, chemis-
try or physics, is a six-month ex-
perience combining r e s a a r c h,
seminars and other course work,
experiments and tours. Wages are
received during the two-month
work period, during which stu-
dents serve as research assistants
to Argonne scientists. Full aca-
demic credit is granted by Grin—
nell [or the course work' of the
semester.

Applications for either semester
should be completed before Nov.
15. Further intormation and ap
plication materials may be oh
tained from Durkee.

 

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Sergeant in l Viet Nam Criticizes ,
Student Protest Demonstrations

To the Editor:

Enclosed you will find a reprint
from one of ,the USAF newspap-
ers from Southeast Asia. I believe
this editorial excellently expresses
the attitude or many men serving
in the military. it provides a little
food for thought and i am in hopes
that you might publish it in a
torthcoming edition oi the son.

As a member of the Class of ’62,
i am well aware or many of the
student and iaculty opinions re
garding dis moment, etc. Some
or the more idealistic Griuncllians
were pieketing the Military Ball,
lasting for peace, and mounting
other protests back in 1960, so I
assume there might be suﬂictent
interest, pro and con, to warrant
this article being printed on your
editorial page,

1 shall refrain rrom oditoriallzing,
on my own, though many of the
entrant demonstrations and man
practices we read about every day
both disappoint and disgust us i
will sideuith Sergeant Gianulsos
and hope you will see in in present
it to the student body.

Williur J, Lalhnln, Jr.
First Lieutenant, USAF

THE COLLEGIATE FRINGE

This editorlal was written by
T/Sgt. Peter Gt Gianutsos, editor
of the Advisor, the newspapei of
the Air Force’s Second Air D '
sion at Tan 5011 Nhut Air Field in
Viet Nam.

Time was when a boy went to
college to study law, medicine, en-
gineering, or one of the arts. And
girls went to get' their Mrs. degree,
But lul‘ too many, it is not that Way
any more. Today's crop at college
nut-ups are no longer content to
swallow gold fish, crowd them-
selves into telephone booths or
small foreign cars. They — and we
reler to the minority that makes
the majority of the voice — now
insist on dictating government poli-
cies, and are ready to parade, dem~
onstrate and sitrin at the drop of
a cause.

The latest gimmick among these
intellectual midgets is a campéign
to urge all members of the armed
forces to desert their posts, rather
than serve in Viet Nam.

AS a member of the race that
started this democracy kick,
(Quick. Socrates, the Hemlock) I
have no quarrel with the right of
the individual to voice his opinion,
However, the hysterical babbling
of these bourgeois bores borders
on sedition, if not treason. I leave
that. to the legal eagles in the JusA
tlce Department. It is a sad day in-
deed when the words honor, duty
and country have come to mean so
little. As a member of the military
Iamily, I have spent the better part
of my adult. lite in the Saigons of
the world. it never occurred to me
to disobey an order, or to question
the right of my government to
send me anywhere to protect and
preserve its interests.

_Like a lot of us here in Viet
Nam. I have had occasion to he at
the base theater during one of the
drilly memorial services, and I
have seen the Slow walking and

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heard somber music and soft pray-
er for those to whom rotation dates
are no longer impumnt. l mutte‘-
ed my own prayer, as well as giv-
ing silent: thanks that it was not
me inside that metal box.

As I stood there, I remembered
preachings of mese mentally re-
tarded adulLs. and my compassion
tor a dead man turned to shame,
and then anger that they dared to
ask me to prostitute my profession
ask me to bring dishonor to in
self, to my service and to my coun-
ry.

It is difficult enough to under
stand when the supposed learned
citizenry take the rostrum to rant
and rave against our government,
and thereby feed the propaganda
mills to the north, but to be sub-
jected to the meaningless chatter
of these inlbccilic sloths, whose
idea of bravery is to lead a panty
raid on a gil‘ls‘ barracks, is more
than human dignity can bear.

It has been suggested that they
all be drafted into the service and
brought to Viet Nam. I could not
agree less. To put these morons
in a uniform is to insult the mertr
ory of those who never came back
from Guadalcanal or Pork Chop
Hill, or those who did not survive
the bombing of the Brinks Hotel
or the American Embassy here.

Instead, clean them u , cut their
hair, and take away tieir sweat:

 

shirts and sneakers and bring
them to Viet Nam to live among
the people. Let them expound their
theories about the good, the kind,
the misunderstood Viet Cong a-
mong the villagers whose homes
were destroyed and their meager
rice stolen.

Let them talk about war mon-
gering to the widow of a Vietnanr
ese army private, who earns her
fish and rice as a prostitute, or
with the village woman, who lost
a hand, one finger at a time and
finally the wrist to these kind. nus-
understood Viet Cong because she
dared to stand up for what she bo-
lieved was right.

Draft them into the military?
Never! Ours is a proud organizae
tion, made up of men and women,
who have ideals and principles,
and what’s even more important,
men and women who have the
courage and the will to live up to
those beliefs.

They take great pride in them-
selves, iii their uniforms, and in
their nation, qualities that the
campus “cuties" have yet to ace
quire, Until they do, they will
never “belong," The ~ voice will
he that of the scnlireducated, the
fool who will leave behind only a
legacy of shame, dishonor and EA
noraiice.

t noted from the Navy Times.
Oct. to 1965)

 

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