gg Editorial

A choice not an echo

Intentions and appearance are many times at variance.
Such seems to be the case in the recent constitution of a
“shadow cabinet“ in SGA by the now-empowered president,
Will Collins.

Without any public notification, positions in the student
co-ordinator‘s office, the auditor’s office, and the SGA
secretary have been filled. The positions are properly ap-

ointed by the SGA president with the approval of the Joint
hoard. Their appointment, however, does not necessitate
their individual recruitment and selection by that president.

Collins publicly lent his presidential support to the can-
didacy of Joe Ferrell for SGA vice-president. The thrust of
that ill-fated campaign was that cohesiveness necessitated
the election of a person friendly to the ideas of Collins. The
argument suffers from the idea that unity requires unifor-
mit .

Cbllins explained his support of Ferrell as his first attempt
as SGA president to exercise some guidance With the student
body. Ferrell now has been appointed student co-ordinator
by Collins, bringing to his side somebody he could not elect.
Our objection is not with Ferrell, who brought many con-
structive ideas to his campaign. Our objection is to the style
of leadership displayed so far by Collins, of which Ferrell's
case is illustrative. ‘

Thus far, Collins has attempted to designate every smgle
leadership position in the student government other than his
own, which the students gave him. Where an organization
such as SGA is particularly susceptible to claims of elitism,
Collins has admittedly appointed persons that he is per-
sonally familiar with. We are not concerned that these
persons would become President’s men, but the appearance
of an open government to which there is access for the
students at large has received a substantial blow. Student
government, in our opinion, is government by the interested,
but in this instance the interested need not apply, for they
were not to be considered.

If the intent is to involve interested and qualified students
in student government, representing various segments of the
campus community, it is seriously undermined if limited to
the names that a single individual can call to mind. In his
campaign, Collins described the presidency of SGA as an
honest commitment to be the voice of student discontent.
This narrow selection process, we feel, is counter to this.

The leadership expected by the student body is different
from the type of guidance the president has exerted both in
the election of a vicevpresident and in the selection of a
cabinet. This guidance might be appropriate in matters of
policy, but not in constituting a body politic that purports to
be the student’s voice.

We feel that the Joint Board should not approve the SGA
cabinet selections, or any future appointmen s that are not
filled by campus-wide applications and interviews. The
current lame-duck Joint Board will not act on the present
appointments, not having met since a week before break,
though the “shadow" cabinet has met. A new Joint Board
will not be selected until after room draw and subsequent
hall elections, at least three weeks hence. Collins should
withdraw his current appointments in favor of campuswide
applications, to which those persons currently in the cabinet
would be eligible to apply. It may be that in the final
analysis, they will be the only ones to apply, but an op-
portunity will have been afforded to the remainder of the
student body.

Collins’ comment concerning the election of Kathy Kramer
as SGA vice»president is perhaps applicable to himself.
“(Hel was elected for better or worse, let‘s make it for the'
better.”

Simpson

Movies are dangerous. They give
us ideas oi love that we willingly
enslave oursleves to. They make
lhings so easy we believe them.
Let’s agree; we emulate. Kids
watch James Dean die and go out
driving for lhe same ecstasy,
We’re never satisfied with our
wives because their sagging thighs
don‘t look like Julie Christie’s.
Movies give us our dreams, our
ideals, our most perfected visions,
but more than that, they ﬂow in our
veins. Part of our brain is labeled
“Disneyland!" Sometimes, when
you turn your head like that and
die light falls on you just right, you
look like Joan Crawiord. Gary
Cooper is a name we will
drunkenly invoke to name our
selves in bars and parties
throughout our lives. We learn our
looks from the movies, and as we
grow up willr them, we come to
rcsemhlclllem like [husbands and

Grinnell
nowhere?

To the Editor:

We are here in Grinnell—the
Middle of nowhere but the country
name USA.

1 Suppose that almost everybody
has an experience of fighting with
his own brothers or sisters. But
when someone else harms his
brother, almost naturally he
protects his brother. We always
say “our family”. Iowa Smie and
U. of Iowa compete in the football
fields, but everyone cheers ior the
victory of ”our state" when the
winner compete with Michigan
State. In Olympics Games,
everybody cheers for “our coun-
try”. li one‘s countryman is no! on
the field, he may cheer for his
continent or his race. But when are
we going to Cheer for “our World”?
Maybe when Mars challenge to
“as”? .

MHIL

Adam and Eve could think only
about themselves. Might be in a
primitive society, they could lhink
only about their own clan or own
society. But now, we have to send
ambassadors to other countries.
We can’t just live by ourselves. We
need each other.

America is United States. All
Americans are the owners of this
country, U.S.A. But everybody’s
grandfather or great grandfather
was an alien. People from all over
the world get together and live
together in this land under the
name of USA. “I’m a Chinese”,
“I‘m a Jewish", “I’m a Black”.
Who’s going to be a listener, and
who’s going to be a speaker? “We”
have to listen to one another.

, We are usually too busy to think
about our own affairs. We have to
struggle to live. We have a job ior
living, and we have enough things
which have to be taken care of. But
it. will be meaningful to have a
momentofacting as a citizen of the

world since we are here in the
world.

I’m volunteering to be one of the
organizers of the World Un-
derstanding Weekend which is
scheduled on the last weekend of
April. This is not a kind of thing
which can be done by just a person
or group. This should be an ”our"
business. We are generally told
that all of us are too busy here in
Grinnell in some reason. But it
may not be that harmful to feel
ourselves as a member of the
world community just for a days.

The World Understanding
Weekend is scheduled for us. Let‘s
have a chance to know more about
one another. Let’s make up some
programs which will tell about
“us.” Any individual or
organization is encouraged to take
a part in the weekend. Especially
following personnel are expected
to help ”us" to understand “us":
SGA, the iacully members, KDIC,
5 ﬁt B, SAGA, Foreign Student
Board, css, Ass. Jewish srudenls,
collegerowned special project
houses, Third World Group, iolk
dancers, square dancers, ISPlRG,
Circle K, SRC, each residence
hall, Women’s Group.

Let‘s cheer for “our world" here
in Grinnell Grinnell—the middle of
nowhere but the world FOR SURE.

Want to do something, but don’t
know what to do or want to
volunteer lo be an organizer,
Contact me, box 435 or ext. 353.
You kyong Kim

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moaning.

Nomination
appreCIated

To the Editor:

I would like to thank Ronald
Yang and Richard McLaughlin for
submitting lhe name oi Chilean
economist Fernando Flores as a
candidate for an honorary degree.
And to those members of the
faculty and executive council who
voted down their proposal: 1 hope
you know that when you have the
vpportuniiy to protest Flores’
imprisonment, and you fail to
make use oi this opportunity, it
becomes difficult for many of us to

regard you as morally- decenl
human beings. Adam Levine

'Dead '

The Scarlet and Black regrets to
report the death of P. Scott Stan-
field, a junior at Grinnell. Scott,
who has never been notable for
strong physical presence, had been
declining in molecular solidity in a
most distressing way during his
final weeks on earth. Many of his
closest friends now remark that he
had become almost completely
transparent in the final stages of
his physical demise.

The end came for Scott during
his 10 :00 class on Monday morning.
A dazzlingly bright and glowing
aura oi light enveloped his body,
and he leapl. onio the professor's
desk, exclaiming, “Everything is
mine, there's nothing left to hide,
and there’s more!" With this, he
vanished, much to the astonishr
men! of Studean and professor.

P. Scott is survived by his
parents, his White cello, his rock
band ”Shit on a Stick”, the Rolling
Stones (barely), Todd Rundgren,
and the Velvet Underground.
Memorial services will be held this
Salurday evening or B pm, in New
York's Madison Square Garden.
The public is invited to attend, and
tickets are on sale at $3.50, $4.50,
$5.50, and $6.50.

The following obiiuary was
purchased at [he KDIC auction.

Maysles: Just a shot away

is a Selective chronology of
Levine’s day, intending to be as
interesting and as dramatic as an
interesting man's day is, including
a testimonial dinner and the

wives after long marriages.

Before the Renaissance people
seem to have believed that a
picture of God was God; tribal
Africans make a wooden model of
a dead twin that receives identical
treatment with the living child.
Movies probably do the same for
us. Our movies beslow upon us the
illusion of major and minor
characters, beginnings, middles,
ends, apocalypses. In life oulsidc
movies, nothing ever stops,
nothing ever ends, and you can
never grasp anything. Movies
provide the illusion that life has
neatly sliced, internally cohereni,
autonomous segments that have
specific single significance. From
a single Shot to an entire film, a
movie is not merely a represenr
ioiion oi life, but an image; not a
collection of paris, but a gestalt
whole that presents itself as a
truth. They get pretty weird, but
they stick with us.

Now let's define our terms,
Fiction is some sort of path in
reality, Reality, we are iold, is
stranger than fiction, though
looked at another way it simply
weighs more. Truth is also seen as
a path in reality.

So much for that-Albert Maysles
does the camera work and his
brother David does the Sound and
production, making movies that
the scholars call cinema vcrile. buf
the brothers prefer to call “direct
cinema,” Their movies are con»
sidered different from others
because they don’t pretend that life
can stop, that ii has climaxes
followed by denouements, that one
fellow symbolizes Christ any more
than another fellow. They don't

pretend a movie time outside of the
world's time, But the cinema
veritc moviemakers make no
pretense at social responsibility.
They dispose of all these illusions,
not to arrive at a lruer iruih, but
because they are obstructive io
their interests,

The source material for their
images comes from unsiaged life,
reality bits arranged according to
the ﬂexible formalism of direct
cinema, producing images oi
iasc’ ation unique to film.
Sceming closer to our lives ihan
iicllonal films, they approach us
without illusions in a dream
medium. Somewhere in this for
mula, power is amplified, We leave
Maysles movies ieeling exr
perienced rather than entertained.
They have lhe typical image-
charisma, but they don‘t teach us a
lesson. They don’t sell us salvation,

The Maysles' technique is,
essentially, to decide on a subject
imosi commonly, a per-
sonality; the Beatles, Joseph E.
Levine, Marlon Brando, old), then
go and follow the person or event
around, aiming a camera at it.
Sometimes the person is conscious
of lhc camera, sometimes henshe
ignores ii (there is no more or less
truth in the fact that Paul Mc-
Cartney mugs at. lhecamera thanif
he were to ignore it). When
they’ve gotten enough interesting
footage, may put together a movie
of what they‘ve seen,

Showman, their cinematic
portrait of Producer and Bigshol.
Joseph E. Levine, was [he first
modern movre to forgo con»
venlional character dcvclopmcnl.
through plol progression. The iilm

presentation of an “Oscar” lo
Sophia Loren. ln Salesman. there
is greater arrangement Por-
iraying the lives of four Bible
salesmen, the filmakers
discovered a focus of interest, and
selected lllm segments which
represent the increasing
resignniion of one failing
salesman. Nevertheless, the film is
consirucicd without actors, from
raw reality.

The murder sequence in Gimme
Shelter, the brothers' most popular
movie, was introduced in court in
the trial oi the accused Hell’s
Angel, serving lo acquit him when
a slowing down of the film revealed
a previously-unseen gun in the
hand ofthe victim. An image sits in
judgment of reality.

Al. first Maysles films seem
unusual, bul soon may become
simply logical, while fictional
films, in which rich actors spend
lots of money pretending to be
somebody else, come to appear odd
and silly. By now Maysles fllms
and Maysles techniques have
tremendously influenced
cinematic reality in the minds of
directors and audiences. Their
movies are no less dangerous than
any olhers; in fact, they may have
channeled the power toward a
deeper sting,

Hear Albert Maysles speak on
his films in the South Lounge on
Wednesday April Bat 31) in. He will
also show clips from “Gimme
Shelter."

 

