Friday. Nuy N. "bl

SCARLET AND BLACK

Kurtz Calls For Social Awareness

This is a letter of greeting to
colleagues and students, espe-
cially to all those we should
have written and have not, and
to those we haven't written re-
cently enough. i realized today
that your semester is virtually
over and that I would like to
communicate with you beiore
it was all over.

This year in Liberia has gone
well for us, The students and I
could be happier with the re-
sults at my teaching; i believe,
though, utat teaching the so.
cial sciences in the developing
countries is a valuable enter<
prise. l have. done some re-
search and am preparing tor
next year's toll-time research
into cultural change in central
Liberia, a rewarding anthro-
pological activity 1 am looking
forward to Mrs. Kurtz has
been working in the Registrar's
Oiiice this year, but will be
teaching next year. The chil-
dren, Gordon and Jeremy, are
thriving tor the most part.

As always, there is no short-
age oi appalling things in our
world. Some of you have read
or heard about our Christmas
letter, telling ot the awiul pov-
erty of Liberia, Though the
tone of that letter was person-
al, the intention of it was to
point out the folly of our gov-
ernment‘s actions in Vietnam,
when the world so profoundly
cried ier other kinds of efforts
And now, with the candidacies
oi McCarthy and of Kennedy
for the Democrats, the with-
drawal of Johnson, the begin-
nings of peace—talks: now,
when there is again a ray of
hope, let us express some re—
lated thoughts, from the per.
spective of this remote location.

I am appalled at the human
poverty in the developing
countries of parts of Africa;
but I am equally or more ap-
palled at the poverty ot hu-
mane thought and action in the
developed countries. 1 have a
continuing hope that certain
ideals of democratic human-
ism, tolerance, accommodation,
respect for others and their
views. and the necessity of hu-
man rights tor all men, might
prevail in a modernizing world
of potentially universal afflu-
ence. America. though, has
given me little cause to main-
tain that hope. I have seen.
from the perspective of Airica,
my country, excessively proud,
intolerant, and narrowly single-
minded, standing as the World's
greatest threat to world peace.
The real iaults possessed by Ho
and the Viet Cong have ap-
peared insignificant to us, to
the Vietnamese, and to the
world, when compared with
our war eifort. Yet we engaged
In this effort in the name of all
those humanistic principles
which we valued, adding hypoc-
risy and untruth to our errors
of execution. And it is not yet
clear to me with what spirit we
are planning to approach the
peace table.

I have long felt that there
were teasihle peace proposals
— reasonable alternatives to
war; that the only way we
could gain honor was to cease
the war; and that there were
countless other subjects more
worthy of our commitments,

for example, zo million Ameri-
can Negroes, our natural erla
vironment, our cities. the pov-
ertysstricken majority of the
world, the United Nations, all
of which we have neglected
shameiully, Yet, i have not de-
spaired of my country. although
I often despaired totally oi the
present leadership. And I con-
tinue to despair of those deci-
sion making elites, making bad
decision alter bad decision, who
are operating more and more
freely outside the weakening
controls of democratic institu-
tions. Even it you argue that
our involvement in Vietnam is
less an “arrogance oi power"
than the malfunctioning oi a
decision~making process, you
must agree that either imputed
cause a the real arrogance and
the clear maliunction — cannot
be etiectively corrected with
the present political and ad-
ministrative personnel. Even
with Johnson stepping down,
we must insure a real change
in leadership. By a move to-
ward peace in one area, we do
not thereby alter the country's
stated position on waging the
war in the iirst place. Our
toreign aid poiicy, our interna-
tional stance, our entire exter-
nal View must be removed, If
we did so, maybe we could
then do more than simply play
with making over our society
internally,

Dissent on the question or
our war is completely le
mate and urgently desirable,
Even it peace negotiations
break down now, we should re«
sist the war as strongly as we
can; we should support strong-
ly those political candidates
who hold out some hope of in-
troducing a humanistic and
realistic perspective on the
Vietnam conﬂict and the peace
negotiations, as well as on our
position in the world at large
(which includes China). I am
not sure what more can he
done than to work for the man
who can promise, not merely a
way out or Vietnam, but a new
way of looking at the world At
the very minimum we must all

Iillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllll

"I believe the so-called re-
volutionaries on college cam-
poses are small in number. A!
the same time, a far larger
number of students are dis-
enchanted with society and with
education in a very diiiei-ent
way, This latter group is willing
to work for a change within the
system, i believe we are in the
process at finding a way tor
students to express themselves
within the system. it takes
time and patience, and only
a fool thinks he can achieve it
without agony. But i am not
depressed nor cynical about
our longarange chances,”

—Glenn Leggett

become triends and advocates
or social transiormation where-
ever our society demands it.
Should the war continue, 1
would be unable to decide how
tar i could advocate or advise
you to refuse to tight in it. l
think, however, that there
should certainly be multiple
bases for conscientious objec-
tioll in our society.

Finally, those of you who are
already in the intellectual tra-
dition and those or you who
will go into it should consider
whether the scholarly commu-
nity really should have opted
out of the political arena in
the United States. Theodore
Roszak has written an article
called “The Complacencies of
the Academy": “(To the philos-
ophers oi the eighteenth cen—
tury enlightenment) the intel-
lectual was one who intervened
in society for the deiense of
civilized values wherever they
were threatened; one who clar-
iiied reality so that his fellow
citizens could reason toward
the solution of their problems,"
And he goes on to note that the
level oi political dialogue might
be dominated by more than
slogans, cynicism, and “engi-
neered consensus" if intellec-
tuals were established as con-
tinuous and expected partners
to major civic controversy, in-
stead of as lonely, occasional,
and unexpected dissidents, to
he laughed out of court by
Philislines.

Social structurally, of course,
it is much more difficult to do
this in modem industrial so-
ciety than it was during the
Enlightenment; it is difficult
to be creatively dissident with
in a bureaucracy of the dimen-
sions required by industrial so-
ciety. Such an observation
should stand as a challenge to
us and not as an excuse for
despair; a challenge. that is,
to the creative and innovative
among the young leaders to
work out new means, appro-
priate to modern society, for
entering into political dialogue,
of transcending the bureaucra-
cies. There is a unique chance
in the present era to conscious-
ly experiment with the most
effective means of entering in-
to civic controversy. Perhaps
new forms will evolve which
will recall or preserve the
ideals of 18th century intellec-
tnai life — or perhaps the ideal
life of the intellectual at any
time. The evolutionary process
is probably already at work;
it may he that I simply do not
know what the eiiective groups
and movements are. Whatever
the case. i urge that you be«
come a part of them and, as
intellectual leaders of such
groups, help to shape them into
instruments which can effec-
tively defend humanistic values
whenever and wherever they
are threatened.

The right to speak out freely
on questions is a right that
must never be taken for grant-
ed. It must be cherished, de-
fended, and lovingly nourished
by its continuous exercises Best
wishes to all of you from Ll-
heria.

—RONALD Kum'z

Anthropology

 

GRINNELLIANS HELP CLEAN-UP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yhotos by A. J. Bernhardt
Students and iacuhy members joined Grinnell i’awns-
peopio who went to tornado—snicker. northeast Iowa.
The group war led by Rev. Nowell Davis, Congregational

minister. and College Chaplain Dennis Haas.

 

TODAY’S TIMETABLE

8:15 » 9:00 Breakfast Quad and Cowles
8:45 AM.

9:00 A.M.

Honor G Breakfast Country Club

Alumni Association
Board of Directors

Private Dining Rooms
A and B, Forum

10:00 A.M. F acuity-SeniorParent

Coffee Hour South Lounge

10:30 A.M. Barrier Plaza

11:30-12:30

Vietnam Commencement

Lunch

Senior Men and Their Guests
Senior women and Their Guests
Alumni and Other Friends

Cowles
Quad
Quad

Carillon Recital Campus

Commencement: Speaker. Central Campus
Barry Commoner, (Darby Gymnasium, in
"an1 Aiiluence to Survival" Case of rain)

Phi Beta Kappa Tea and Lecture: South
Speaker. Michael P. Goodrich, '58, Lounge
"involvement —— Our New Responsibility"

Dinner

Senior Men and Their Guests
Senior Women and Their Guesu
Alumni and Other Friends

Cowlel
Quad
Quad

Gardner
Lounge

Advisory Council Dinner
and Meeting

Home or Edith Jones
Appleby. '33.
919 Seventh Avenue

Open House.
Class of 1933

Robert:
Theatre

College Musical Production:
“Stop the world _ i want to
Get‘ or "’ (tickets required)

 

