commentary/pan] carter ”

Impressions of a papal spectacle

Editor’s note: Grinnell student Paul
Carter, who calls himseli a
“non-religious person,” was one of the
millions who personally viewed the
pope's recent visit to America.

On October 4, I considered mysell’ a
papal pilgrim, one who traveled to the
distant lands or the Living History
Farm to witness the mass celebrated
by Pope John Paul II. My reason ior
going was simple: i wanted to see a
pope. He, being the spiritual leader of
700 million people, has always raised
my curiosity. I had to try to iathom
how one man could reap so much emu,
tion in people,

I was not disappointed. The pope ap
peared to be a symbol or laith ior peo»
ple regardless of their religion. There
were Catholics, Lutherans.
Methodists, and Jews dispersed
throughout the crowd. All seemed air
reeled by the simple words oi this
common man.

Yet, that was not the whole answer.
Did people go tor the sense oi adven-
ture’.’ Maybe. Were the people curiosis
ty seekers wanting to see so eone
famous? Possibly. Or, were Ithey true
spiritual believers wanting to see a
personage who exudes their beliets?
Probably.

The answer that makes the most
sense to me was indirectly suggested
by a Grinnell proiessor. Very simply,
the pope's visit was a spectacle.
American Heritage Dictionary defines
a spectacle as “a public performance
or display" and “an object or interest
or marvel," By labeling the pope's
visit a spectacle, one can encompass

Funding for B&S defended;

To the editor: Having had an anar-
chial urge or two in the past, lam
quite amused by Maris Natker's at-
tack lsee letter in 5&8 of Oct, 5) on
the station the B&S. While the identi-
ty or these rabblerousers remains a
mystery to me, they must be doing
something right in order to raise the
condescending backlash of Ms.
Natl-(er.

Joint Board is an “organized
democratic body" (her discription, not
mine) which is funded by a mandatory
extraction irom students. Ms, Natkei‘
and the rest at her cohorts should
become more imaginative in their
squalidering of thousands each year.

While the B&S certainly is not the
epitome oi journalistic excellence, it

,nevertheless could prove to be an

'economical source of distraction. I
would like to see SGA provide ade-
quate narstringsattached funding,
albeit the B&S staff’s attitude may not
be one oi love and respect, let alone

October )2, U) 79

all peoples reasons ior going.

In other words, the aura oi the occa~
sion and the size of the crowds af-
fected the feelings of the people. As a
spectacle, the performance brought a
favorable response for the occasion.
Religion was not the overriding tactor
in the crowd so much as Hie Ieeling of
goodwill and generous thoughts.

Next, we come to the pope's reason
{or coming to iowa. It can be con-
strued that the pope came to broaden
his constituency and speak about
generosity oi the land That is ad
mirable, but empirically speaking, it
shouldn't be possible. Most of Iowa is
noanatholic, so following the

movements of a pope is not expected,

But aiter being amongst the masses
at the Living History Farm, an em»
pirical outlook is hard to defend, Peos
ple ot all faiths appeared to be moved
by the pope‘s words. This leads me to
believe that faith transcends all boun-
daries and a voice of reason can touch
most people,

I have tried to contemplate this
unusual visit to miditmerica. Looking
back, it seems to have been worth the
12 hours I spent waiting for Angel One
to land. Alter all, a Curiosity seeker
will go to all ends to witness a spec»
tacle.

 

 

photo by David George

 

 

gratitude.

Ms Natker s fleeting reference to
the meager iunding allocated to The
Gadlly ot semesters past does not
redeem the professional busybodies
that like to think diey run the show
around here, i would remind all those
involved in the allocation of student

SGA criticized

monies that theirs is a delegation of
power from students to spend funds
provided by all of us.

Helghtened awareness of any and all
significant student desires should be
the deterniner, not the warped discre-
tion of play politicians who take
themselves too seriously. John Werden ;

Figures in draft commentary were correct.

To the editor: In response to Mark
Finkelstein’s letter in your previous
issue, we would like to point out that
our statistics concerning the In-
dividual Ready Reserve were drawn
from a recent General Accounting Oi-
fice study quoted in the Washington
Star on August 8, 1919.

The other facts and statistics we us-
ed are fully documented and are a
matter ot public record. if Mr.
Finkelstein has other information we

would be more than delighted to see it,

We agree with his statement that ac»
tivists are not entitled to their own

facts: we did not fabricate those we
presented, .
Beyond this we must say that while - :
Mr. Finkelstein is entitled to his own
opinion, it is our opinion that thc
peacetime registration for the draft

which he supports represents a gross *‘ '

iniringement oi civil liberties. We felt
strongly that the reinstitution of the -
registration for the draft during

peacetime substantially increases the I '

likelihood oia major war. Sincerely, ‘
Leslie Sobel. Ross Johnson. Gordon
Knight

 

