'19. Twolvo

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

i talk 01‘ the town I

(Editor’s note: The following column
was written at the time of the Play-
hoy incident by one of Iha participants
In order to explain the meaning of
her Ictlom. We were unable to pre-
sent this so much needed explanation,
due to the impending legal investiga.
thin. We feel that it is a very honest
appraisal of her actions, which may
shed a new light on the meaning of
the incident and show how unfounded
any charge of "obscenity” must be.)

By FREDRICKA NELSON

the talk of the town for two weeks now
and running is of the demonstrators.
this week’s herald-register has made
trout page news of the a oi us and our
friends, the state investigators. we all
merit a special heavy print black box on
page one of tact and speculation (a mis-
demeanor? or “conspiracy to commit
tin illegal act.”) about the incident that
"happened" at grinnell and has subse-
quently become everyman's alter dinner
conversation piece.

as a participant claiming consider-
able responsibility tor “getting us out of
rhetoric" and originating ACTION. 1
Would like to reply to everymau;

l) stripping in this case was not
purient since for me it meant asking
the person i call myself if i had the
strength of conviction to accept my body
the way it is. lots of words aild people
chatter at you in adolescence and in your
mature lile; “blonds have more fun,"
“she's ugly because she's fat," you
think about looking groovy (sexy) for the
tlrst dance in high school, we worry
about complexioiis (black or white, dap-
pled or smooth). as a matter or fact, you
might miss that second kiss while you
morbidly ease your hair back into place.

i had this subversive thought: first
you have to MAKE yourself believe you
ARE BEAUTIFUL. nobody can say how
averyman Will think if he doesn't ﬁnd
out how he thinks a and that’s what i
call a problem of INTERNALIZATION.
now we have decisiorrtime. can you
think how you would feel if you took on
your clothes for a principle instead of
for a bath or for making love?

2) i took off my clothes, initially, as
an act of faith. faith in ME, for a change,
and faith in my “radical" friends. one
act in exchange for words can serve as
h mover for new commitment in any
area. grinnelliis all over the world need
some today, since people and institutions
like playboy tell us in so many words
that “this old wn rld o1 ours is
going down the tubes in a hundred thous-
and ways, and THERE AIN’T ANYTHIN'
,YOU CAN DO ABOUT KT, BABY—J l
have investigated multiplicity, and 1
find it awesome and part oi the Total,
but i don't want to find it impOSSIble.

3) from Mother Earth, “the kingdom
of heaven is within you.”

4) i don't want to set myself up as
one of these brilliant intellects that our
favorite concrete-man writes about. i
Want to be human and learn to do what
is meaningtul tor me; and at the same
time to accept the human condition of

not doing what is RIGHT each time I
“meaningful opportunity" comes up
grinnell calls itself liberal. but what is
liberal about the fear that “intellect"
will shock the masses? this college does-
n’t relate where it should — grinnell,
lowa. grinnell College talks in sears roe-
huck language to suburbanites on the
fringes of our cities, where the MONEY
IS.

5) now man is in the age that is per-
fectly suited by the media and by his
education to have his values for his
pillow at night. he can think them all
through and prove them on the tube,
meanwhile. running awry of any human
confrontation. i should say that we are
lacing confronted by change at such a
rapid rate that it is easy to assume
that luck or technology wlll iron out our
difficulties. many are confused about
“meaning" today, but there is a vague

possibility that we are in a TRANSIS<
TIONAL phase where the assertion of
human Values is still a useful projecti
projects are things that one does that
have a social impact and offer individual
fulfillment

6) (breakfast though) “methodology is
a farce." Evergreen Review, articles on
the “new left,” NEW issue (cont) dis-
cussions of methodology are iarces since
fear of consequences — “truth or . r ."
prolong any useful discussions of
MEANS.

7) our actions are justiﬁed on three
counts, as far as (i) can see: the initial
action was motivated by a beautiful
sentiment; the consequences for grin-
hell have the appearance at a possible
reevaluation of the institution; and (i)
have found that involvement is the way
education should operate # one shouldn't
“get byuil

8) “REVOLUTION" is simply the word
that has the most currency, which also
describes meaningful action. these eight

TALK—
(Continued Page 5, column 4)

 

CONGRATULATIONS

TO THE

GRADS

From All of Us ell

GRINNELL STATE BANK

3-Day Trial End:

Thursday May 19. I

“Grinnell 8” Are Found Guilty

A jury of four men and eight women
Wednesday found eight Grinnell students
guilty oi indecent exposure in connection
with a Feb. l5 nude protest against Play-
boy magazine in Gates Hall Lounge.

Judge it. 5. Yoder, who presided over
the three day trial in Poweshiek County
District Court, has set June 20 as the
date for sentencing.

The three men and five women were
among a group of ten students who dis-

robed belore some eighty Griiineillans
to protest what they called Playboy’s
exploitation of sex during an explana»
tion of the “Playboy Philosophy" by
Erica Draper, a field representative of
the magazine who was on campus as
part of a college sex education program.

The students who could now be sent»
enced to 6 months in jail or ﬁned $200
are:

Seniors Ftedricka A. Nelson 20, of
Brooklyn, 13.; Mary Malcolm, 21, of
San Diego, chili; Catherine R, Leder,
21, of Allen Park, Mich.; James D. Ru-
dolph, 22, or Elmhurst, 111.; Derrick N.
Exner, 22, of Ames, lowa.; junior
Charles Ar Garman, 21, of East Canton,
Ohio; sophomore Judith s. Grueuberg,
20, of Montebello, cant; and freshman
Freda s. Tepfer, 19, at Brooklyn, N. Y.

immediately after court adjourned
Wednesday alterndon, Miss Malcolm is-
sued the following statement on the be-
half of all eight defendents:

“The decision of the Jury is not un—
expected. We believe it was inevitable in
view of the instructions on the law of
indecent exposure given by the judge.
However, those instructions omitted the
requirement of "open and gross lewd-
ncss" which appears in the statute. Our
contention has been that our conduct
was not lewd.

“Our present teeung is that we will
appeal this (1 ' 'on by the judge, and
seek a new trial with the jury instruct-
ed as to all the requirements of the law
as it is written"

Throughout the trial defense attorney

ADDRESS HERE:

Dan Johnston of Des Moines argued tll
although the defendants had “desig; .'
1y exposed themselves,” they were
guilty of indecent exposure because tin
had done nothing obscene or gm
lewdr

“We obviously do not condemn
nudity in our society.” Johnston told
jury. “I know or no arrests or 1
models in art classes.”

The jury’s verdict apparently hingt
on the following instruction from Jud
Ynder regarding the statute:

“Tile words ‘opeu and indecent or 1
scene exposure’ . . . . mean an cxhi
tioll of those parts of the human in
which instinctive modesty, human deci

 

 

 

ey, or natural self-respect require sh

be customarily kept covered in the pn
ence or view of others 4 . . t A perst
if so inclined, may dress himself or in
self in nothing more substantial th
the innocence of Eden provided he

slle does not “expose" himselt or hi ‘

self in that cond on. An exposure .
crimes ”open and indecent or ohscer
only when a person indulges in sir
practice at a time , , , (when) . .

or her act is open to the observation
others.

After deliberating for three hours,
jury returned to the courtroom to t
the judge that his interpretation was ‘
absolute,” it would apply to persons ii
disrobed before “doctors and nurses
artists and sculptors." Yoder told _

jury that such persons were exceptic ,

but that “persons in attendance at
open meeting" are not.

The jury asked Yodel'. “Is it poss: -

for this jury to recommend to the co
the jury’s attitude toward the save
of the sentence, should the deienda
be found guilty?”

Yoder instructed them that they cc
not, and that it was the court's pram
tive to prescribe the sentence.

The jury then retired for another
minutes oeiore returning with the r
dicta of "guilty as charged."

After the trial, jury ioreman Sh
Lannom of Grinnell criticized Yoder

GUILTY-
(Continued on Page 2, Column 1)

 

