Friday October 3i. i967 EDITORIALS *’ FBI Cooperation llnwise This week President Glenn Leggett announced that the college “would no longer act in an intermediary capacity" between the FBI and Grinnell Students. The college will continue to offer stu- dents advice concerning their legal rights. This policy is to be commended. Although we recognize the college's “sincere concern" for the wellare of students that prompted them to call students and relay information (mm the FBI. the college must not become involved in those situations that are essentially matters between students and legal authorities. Such involvement jeopardizes the college and may easily become detrimental to the student If Grinnell is to truly develop “mature. thinking individuals," students must neither expect nor receive the well-intentioned pro- tection oi the college. The new policy of the college in this area recognizes the dis- tinctions between “in loco parentis” and the legitimate counsel- ing function of the institution. This distinction must be main- tained. Abolish Comps Now On Monday the iarulty is expected to come to a vote on the question or abolishing the senior comprehensive examination. The scope of arguments on both sides prevents repetition here. The present comprehensive examination, an archaic and meaningless requirement in its present form. should be abolished immediately. SCARLET AND BLACK Page Three LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Find Common Ideals To the Editor: Our generation has proclaimed the noble ambition of world tiar- mony; unity among races. na- tions and neighborhoods. But somehow we have failed to re cognize the unity among our» selves. Actually. we spring train a common background. Most of us are the children of parents who have seen the rav- ages of an economic depression and a world war, and who have consequently tried to protect us from the horror of those realities, We have been given material comforts, economic wellrbeing. and an excellent 09' portunity to improve our situa tion still turther through edu- cation. The result. nevertheless. has otten been a nonchalant ac, ceptanco of what is offered. an impatience for every gratin- cation. and then a shocked dis- may at. our belated confronta- tion with the politico-econDr sooio-personal reality of things. it this strikes a familiar chord, it should. it is a common disil- lusionment, although our rents tions to it Vary from protest to adaption to withdrawal. We are faced. moreover. with The Scarlet & Black Student Newspaper of Grinneli. College. Grinneli. lows it An independenr ‘1 “We news apcr p u be a lishc weekly, ex- 3 =cePt during holis : Efi *5 days and leéammbar ,non pcno s. v Igflmowmsefi“ the minnui corn. mittee on Student Publications. Subscriouon ratc ssoa per school year. Editor Micnani 1. Brandon Associate Editor . Torn 'rhomns ouslncsi Manngcr . Lynn Adams Lnyour Edltor Diana Saluri chlgi Photographer Ron Stelnhoru Sports Editor sieve Wells circulation Manager Kay Cartsan kcportcrs ion Gudemc. Suc slcgcl. Henry sehetl. Alice kogolt. Molly McGuire. John Gardner. Mark oraesci, koocn Gcrsten. Jon Stetni L. Anzeto mystcrioso Photographers Jett Gwllltnm. Dave snydei i-runuctlon som Andrew. Kenn Yedcrsen, turn a common challenge for the in- ture: to accept the fact that the world is not an ideal dwelling place; and to work to bring it closer to the ideal which we must establish for the next generation. as our parents have done before us, Certainly those who have been hrandcd conser- vatives can see our link with the past; likewise. those who are named liberals can see our connection with the tuture, 1t wc can perceive continuity be tween generations. then why have wc so failed to recognize the similarities with n our own generation? Why, even among coitege students. is there so much resentment and apparent disagreement? The answer :les in our self evasion. We are surrounded so closely by so many people who, alter all. are so like us. that we feel the need to individualize— if not individually, then in groups. In other words. we want to be different from our— selves. The result is several clusters of people. grouped around {also images. which have become cults or teiishes. Each or us is classified according to the length or his hair, or by the arm band that he wears, or refuses to wear, The image identifies the person as a mem. ber of a particular faction. and tends to alienate others who do not look or act as he does, We have thus individualizcd ourselves ‘ albeit in groups 7 almost to the point or forget ting our common heritage. itself paradoxically the cause or our separation. What is to be done? How are wcto putinto practice the harmony that we preach in theory? Perhaps we should abandon all attiliations Indeed. a recent article in the Des Moincs Register has suggested that the principal stimulus ror war is man’s mass devotion to various causcs. Yet. a universal rcnnneiat on of human devotion. even it it were possible. would scvci- all tics among us. leaving only chaos and greater aliena- tion. We would be fighting a cold war or apathy among indi- viduals, rather than a hot war oi interests among factions. and no one would be the winner. We must therefore. find ideals that we can share, as universally as possible. instead of joining a group to find a ready-made identity. we must search ourselves individually. to discern what it is we really believe. Only then can we do. clare ourselves according to the origins that have tormed us. and the needs which call us iorward Because of the simi- larities among us. we would probably find that we agree with each other more than we had realized. Hopefully. then. we would understand that it is not our various costumes and political labels that are of ultir mate importance; but rather the common sympathies which lie beneath them. Let me say that i realize the issue has been oversimplified here; otherwise, i could not have discussed it so brieily. What I would lke to know is: do you agree with what i have said? Do you disagree? Why? I'm not looking to start a tight _neccssarily~lust some com- munication. Without it. there is no cure for the isolation which i have described. and which 1 suspect many ot us reel. M iam Smith "10 Figures Corrected To the Editor: I would like to correct the figures on the Cost. of the pre- sent counseling system as I re- ported them to the student body on Tuesday. Oct. 14. The cost of the entire program in eluding the cost of RA’S. SA’s, an assistant Dean and the oper- ational budget mounts to $70.7 being $32,000, the'ngurc as Please excuse the error. Michael Penzner '70 "Hurrah for Nixon!" To the Editor: President Nixon asks for our support for his Vietnam policy. He assures us, based on past pertormnnce averages, that at. ter 22,509 more G.I.'s get killed. 135.000 more of our South Vietnamese allies. military and civilian, are killed. wounded and made homeless. and 100 billion G.l. Reporter Robert Hodierne Takes a lab at the U.S. Army DANANG, Vietnam (LNS)7 Bob Hodierne. a reporter in Vietnam for the Pacific Stars 8: Stripes has charged that “the military will cling to the war for as long as they can. sapping it for every drop of money. every silver star. ev» ery new machine gun." in an article sent recently to a U.S. underground paper tor publi- cation. Hodierne predicted that the Army will keep “running happy young boys up scabby hills, and calling it victory and glorying in the black. swollen piles of bodies. their monu- mentl" Hodierne does not pretend to be a radical, just a reporter who wants to tell the truth as he sees it. but the war is go- ing so badly tor the US. that the Army cannot even control its own “unofficial" official newspaper (the Pentagon pays Stars 8: Stripes bills). Hodierne. a Grinnell gradur ate who edited the 5&3 in 1965. dollars more of our taxes are wasted in three more years of national agony, the war will be at an end. What's all this racket about a mi‘atorium? Hurrah! Hurrah! Hul‘rah‘ for Nixon. Benj. Redmond 520 East 77th St. New York, N. Y. Not Fit for a Queen To the Grinnell student Body: We noted that your home» coming weekend tuiictioned without a QUEEN. Evidently your election last year of a gangling male brought home how ridiculous this business is, Popularity and beauty contests are artiticicl and degrading Homecoming can be exciting without them. 5, Wiesenfeld Women Liberation Front Cedar Falls, rowa recently caught hell (mm the brass {or a story he wrote that actually told the truth about casualties. fatigue, cowardice. and general demoralization among U.S. troops in Vietnam. (See 5&3, Oct. 7.) Col. James Campbell, chief Army spokesman in Vietnam. called the story “treason,” though nobody denies that the facts in the story were accu~ rate. In his article. written for the Pterodactyl, 0i Grinnell, Iowa, Hodierne reports that the Army intends to keep 8 force of about 200.000 men in. Viet» nam tor a long time to come. ”The U.S. has been rapidly training the Vietnamese in many military fields." he wrote. “but not in direct sup- port activities. such as artil- lery. and close airr It will take at least a decade or constant work to bring the Vietnamese to a level of expertise to handle these chores v chores that in the meantime the U.S. seems intent upon having the US. GI's handle. “There's already a lot of talk about ‘post war development’.” he added, “and the U.S. Em- bassy people will drive you through Saigon slums in air- conditioned cars (‘It's not the cool air 1 like so much. but this way you can roll the wins dows up and shut out the noise'). They will confidently tell you what must be done to straighten these people out once the problem at ‘security' has been taken care of. Smil- ing young American otticials reel off more statistics than a computer — and with about as much warmth. None of these people will understand why the Vietnamese won't love them once our Army leaves."