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)