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Page Eight - The SKYSCRAPER - April 5, 1968 Editorials Student power hits U.S. primary myth The new object of contemplation by newspaper columnists and television commentators is the evaluation of a student po litical power which does more than sign petitions, demonstrate and get arrested. It gets votes. Somehow or other, this mass mobilization of youth, dis organized and inexperienced as it is, has out-enthusiasmed the political cynics who claimed the inevitability theory of politics was inevitable. It's inevitable, they said, that Lyndon Johnson will be re nominated and re-elected as President of the United States. De cisions are determined at the convention. Primaries are of no importance. But students, impractical as they are, concerned only with the ultimately desirable, canvassed New Hampshire and Wiscon sin anyway. They cut classes, dropped out of college and rallied around their respective candidates. Then the unpredictable hap pened; the inevitability myth shattered: people listened to stu dents. But more important, the tone on college campuses is changed. No longer is the dominant feeling one of disillusionment with the American electoral system or passive indifference. Stu dents have immersed themselves in a cause by which all else in comparison is trivial even students at this mild-mannered metropolitan women's college. Student concern with the 1968 presidential election has developed into an American political phenomenon. Beautiful. Bombing cessation boosts peace hope Since President Johnson's announcement of a limited bombing pause in Vietnam Sunday night, the great game across the coun try has been to speculate on the President's motive. In a sense the motive makes little difference. The important thing is that this bombing cessation is the first positive step toward p e a c e on the part of the United States. Mr. Johnson's move in this direction can only be commended. But this first step must not be the only step. The people of this country and of the world have been given hope for p e a c e in the most questionable war of this century. This hope must not be al lowed to die. The United States must fully commit itself now to a peace in Vietnam through negotiations. The only alternative must not be all-out war. Dual organizations seek identification The creation of the faculty senate marks a step forward for the entire college community. Not only will it give the faculty a much needed voice in the determination of college policy, but it opens the door to increased student participation in the same area. Hopefully, it will set the stage for a community govern ment on campus with students, faculty and administration work ing together on policy making decisions. The creation of the faculty senate is an assertion of the fac ulty's awareness of its present state of impotent separateness and of its need for group identification. Their movement from separateness to oneness will not be an easy one, but it is one that must be made. The desire expressed by the faculty in their senate proposal for student participation, answered by the student proposal for the adaptation of the present MSC structure to the faculty sen ate, is an indication of future cooperation. The students are wise in suggesting, at this time, only paral lel committees. Each group faculty, students and administra tion must establish its own identity before any effective, co operative effort can be made. We congratulate both faculty and students for their initiative. iWmBfrorf'H Sky scrapings OF THE POLITICAL SCENE Like Mushrooms, the com plex social structure of the McCarthy student volunteer juggernaut sprang up over night in New Hampshire, and spread to Wisconsin. If its origins were obscure, its im petus was evident. What drove thousands of students, without so much as a whimper for traumatized individuality, to suffer themselves to be mar shalled and deployed as trans ient steam for the Machine, the fervent rank-and-file, an inspired proletariat marching cherrily to the fife of a van guard of their peers, which deftly juggled the movement's unwieldy Logistics and directed its grass roots outposts from Campaign headquarters in Milwaukee? What impelled the unremunerated zeal of junior high school children and bearded, scruffy collegians, none of whom projected the ap propriate image for canvass ing among the voters, who in stead sat in warehouses and vied for veteran's records in folding McCarthy campaign literature for hours without sleep? What else bnt the Romance of the Impossible quest, the quixotically unfeasible goal of supplanting a stubbornly if not self - righteously incumbent president, the Inevitability and Futility which the tragic hero proverbially sneers at. Then came Johnson's historic throw- away line and the purposeful militants once more found themselves In a very ambigu ous position. Mundelein Revue scriptwriters were faced witn revising some suddenly untopi- cal satire. At the University of Chicago, half-crazed students danced on the lawn and sang Ding, Dong, the Witch is dead. Yes, folks. The bugaboo was undermined. The Pontlfi- cator of the Holy War was having misgivings. Character istically reserved misgivings of course. But what a shock to our Mental Set, the habit of casual Dump LBJ banter we had fallen into, confirmed as we were in the stereotype of Johnson as a good-intentioned but woefully misinformed, a bumbling and fatuously single- minded groundhog. Now he has shown what everyone had doubted, that he is able, to emerge, if diffidently, from the burrow and look around him. And now that Gene Is no longer so Unforeseen? That his only avowed democratic rival differs from him not in kind, hardly in degree, bnt rather in method? What he lost in unfav orable odds, will he not also lose in student support? With victory no longer a vision bat a possibility, he may retain pragmatic politically concerned students who do not defect to the Upstart's camp (and per nicious forces toward this end are even now mastering on this campus.) Bat the crusader types, the tinder and spark of the movement's broshfire ef fect, without the certainty of eventual doom or the challeng ing aura of absurdity to ener gize them, may go back to reading Beowulf. So, LBJ got the jump on the Democratic System (in which we had all so lately regained hope,) by clouding the one-to- one correspondence of Man to Policy and exercising the op tion that was to have been chosen at the Polls. But if his act is merely a different tactic of the old strat egy, if the bend-over-back- wards-to-flagellate-myself tone of remarks like no one knows better than I what a poor com municator I have been to the American people, betokens a Politic play for sympathy and a draft nomination, then, we may settle back comfortably into the climate of mistrust and pessimism from which we were so briefly thrust without a prejudice to stand on. Billiousiv. Tully Sounding Board In reply to Vera Milenko- vich, who blasted Playboy Magazine, the trouble is that so-called well-adjusted Chris tian men and women do not read Playboy. If you ever forced yourself to look beyond the cover and really read arti cles like Playboy Forum and the personal interviews, you would find that they raise im portant issues and present them with an unihibited, tell- it-like-it-is attitude, which most people tend to run from anyway. In fact, Mundelein college would be doing its stu dents a humanitarian service if it had this magazine placed in its library. Sheryl Kynard Editor's Note: The follow- letter is in response to one addressed to Senator Per cy in the March 8, Sky scraper. Constance Cho banian, Sister Mary Jo Mcllhon, Sister Prudence Moylan and Sister Donna M e r w i c k questioned the Senator's endorsement of Senator Dirksen for the Republican p r e s i d e n- tial candidate. Dear Sister Prudence: Thank you for your inquiry concerning my statement in Springfield about Senator Dirksen. I simply commented that Senator Dirksen is Hlinois' fa vorite son. My comment was not intended as an endorse ment of Senator Dirksen for the Presidency, nor was I withdrawing myself from con sideration as favorite son of the Illinois delegation to the Republican National Conven tion. If the delegates choose to support me as a favorite- son candidate, I shall be proud to serve in that capacity. Senator Dirksen has given long and valuable service to both the State of Illinois and the United States. As such I deem it only fitting and proper to call the Senator the fa vorite son of Illinois . Concerning the question of Vietnam, I am enclosing my most recent speech on the subject for your information. Charles H. Percy THE SKYSCRAPER Mundelein College 6363 Sheridan Rd., Chicago, III., 60626
title:
1968-04-05 (8)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College