DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

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the defense of our Freedom; it is the attitude expressed and gener- ated in the last two moratoriums. It was achieved through emotionai stimulation and the use of rituats in an essentially religious experi- ence. This first became apparent to me when Keith Schroerlucke con- ducted the memorial service here, in October. Those who participated witl never forget experiencing a feeling of involvement and deep emotional identity as members of a real community. A conservative friend of mine expressed his con- cern to me over this Hreversion t0 the oEd-time religious appeal. What I suspect really atarmed him was the potential power which the liturgical dialogue displayed in its creation of a strong sense of pur- pose. I experienced this group identity Uagain in November at the Washing- ton Monument. There were weil over hait a million peopie presentea number far beyond the compre- hension abilities of any one individ- ual. Of course E can not explain the emotional charge in hearing10,000 peopte chanting PEACE NOW, or the way that chant IiteraEly echoed off the wails ot the government buliding on Pennsylvania Avenue, but this is only the first stage in achievingself-awareness. In Washington, the crowd was non-vioient. At DuPont circle, they displayed their discipline by self- lnduced commands to ttWALK rather than run when they were gassed. At the Justice Dept. they made an honest effort to be angry, but tailed: a youth in a gas mask was seen giving the peace sign to a policeman in a gas mask. Good 30 humor, similar to that of a llveiy footbatl game. prevailed. The crowd maintained this attitude even after having been heavily gassed on Con- stitution Avenue. They moved into the intersection of 12th and E cas- ually joking with the Army lVlP who was assigned there, and proceeded to block traffic and wait for police. When the police came En force from F, the demonstrators gave ground with littte resistance. The police too were admirable and gave no cause for anger. When attacked with rocks and bottles they retatiated with Tear gas and Pepper gas. but neither side made a serious at- tempt to hurt the other. Both sides were restrained, yet the issue was Arlo Guthrie expressed it clear. most accurately Saturday, when he said, ttYou know, we dldnlt even have to show up today. When they put machine guns around the White House we'd proved 0ler point? Action: What has happened with the Freedom Movement is ditticult to explain. Middle ciass youth are be coming radically alienated trem their social institutions-tar beyond the understanding of our nation's leaders. It is a religious and cul- tural phenomenon which will have a greater tong range impact on the United States than five Viet Nams falling to the Communists. lts po- tential will probably be manifest in one of three possible directions: D

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4 p.m.: The highlight of the October Moratorium was, without a doubt, the Memorial Service held in front of the tibrary. The speaker for the evening failed to appear clue to confusion over transportation, but the service provided a fitting conclusion to the Day's happen- ings. After the ceremonies, involving a crowd of 200, an upperclassmen summed it up by exclaiming: HThis is one of the most meaningful things i've seen in a long time; llm glad to see DePauw students get together on somethingtoronce. Ed. Note-The following article is a partial reaction to a DePauw Viet Namw-View from the left junior's trip to the November march in Washington, DC. The Peace Movement is dead. It died in 1968 the night the Chicago Police charged demonstrators in Lincoln Park. The movement was buried in October 1969, when Judge Julius Hoffman sentenced Bobby Seale to tour years in prison for attemptingto defend himself. Amerika, under the Nixon-Agnew regime is supporting a dictatorship in Viet Nam. At home, with only a pturality of votes and in the name of freedom, our ruler denies us what was granted the Ku Ktux Klan thirty years ago: the right to peace fuily demonstrate past the White House. With its predictions of Viet- ence in Washington the government made a calculated effort to intimiv date our citizens. Vice-Ruler Agnew has made an open attack on free speech, and the news media is being threatened by the FCC. The 'tleaders of the itconspiracy are jailed. labeled communists, or both. The issue is no longer Peace, but Freedom. Power: it the Freedom movement con- tinues to use the tactics it is using now, it wili not succeed in ending the war. Peace marchers and col- iege students tto paraphrase Stewart Alsopi have pieced them- selves into the rote of villians in the Amertkan politicat scene. What they hate Nixon and his policiesl is automatically defended by the tlSilent Majority ; what they want tpeacey is automaticaily rejected as inherently evil. Nixon knows this and in tact plays on it. The Hposi- tive polarization! which Agnew seeks wiEl mean a right-wing reac- tionary destruction of the Hvocal minority. They would not seek po- larization if it was not to their advantage. Nixon's poiicy is Law and Order while Mark Rudd calls for violence to prevent violence; both sides make their appeais to the use of raw power. Thus, neither side can be trusted, for their end result would be either total suppression or total revolution. which negates the personal freedom upon which their arguments are based. The only way to combat these forces is to subvert their influence through appeals to Freedom. This has been part of the nature of the Freedom Movement. Group: Non-violent selteawareness is the strongest instrument available for 29

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Moderate change of cultural and political attitudes of the young; 2i A mass flight from freedom to identity with totalitarian groups: or 3 Total individualization. There is already too much evi- dence negating the first course of action. Unfortunately, moderate change in cultural and political attitudes of our young has not occurred in the United States in over sixty years. Because of the Depression and foreign wars, we have been jolted from one crisis to another. never pausing for 'nor- malcy'. The members of both gen- erations are. therefore, abnormal and idealistic in their attitudes and perspectives. One group can see only war in our future. while the other talks oniy of war and depression in our past. The older generation is ob- sessed with economic and national security. acting toward these in- terests by drafting the young in peace-time and insisting upon rigid notions concerning social conform- ity and material status. This is the hypocritical intolerance which so Exascerbates the young. But the young also have their obsessions: the hippy subculture encourages dropping out of society and start- ing from scratch, seeing escapism through the use of drugs. This is the Freedom Movement, the tech- nological tribalism which is characteristic of the Woodstock Nation. These opposing viewpoints within our borders comprise the crux of our difficulties. They are radical attempts to achieve person- al freedom on the part of both groups. It must be noted here, that while the generations conflict, their behavior is fundamentally the same: mass flight from freedom to identification with totalitarian groups, the second possible alter- native. That groups cannot make you free will never be admitted by their fanatical supporters. Yet his- tory tells us in the notes of our founding fathers twith their suspi- cion 0f factionsi and in the ac- counts of the Third Reich that total allegiance to groups is wrong. The members of such groups as the YlPPIES, the Wheathermen, and the United States Army tend to submerge their consciousness in a mindless allegiance to the group. Freedom is characteristic of in- dividuals-not groups. If groups can stimulate self- awareness, then they are function- ally good. but if they tend to swallow individuals in uhistorical movements then they have lost their concrete purpose: they are totalitarian and inherently self- defeating. This is why the individu- als of The Freedom Movement must avoid at all costs the positive polarization which Nixon seeks. They must come to act in the third stageetotal individualization -as intelligent free men. Viet NameView from the Right Ed. Note-The following article was taken by a Mirage staff member with a DePauw senior. I agree with what they're trying to do . . . but their methods are wrong because if there are any ar- rests at all, it's not as peaceful as it should be. So spoke a DePauw senior in reference to the Moratorium demonstrations that have swept the nation since October. He espec- ially resented the use of names of American war dead by peace demonstrators, because he felt it was disrespectful to speak for men who couldn't speak for them- selves. He did, however, agree theo-g retically with the idea of peaceful dissent. since that right is t'guaran- teed underthe Co nstitution. The senior, a member of a De- Pauw fraternity and Coach Torn Mont's football team, expressed complete support for President Nixon's Viet Nam policy. A one- sided withdrawal wouldn't work at all, he said, adding that having been brought up the way I have been, I've learned it isn't right to justquit. In his view, it would be much more reasonable to pick on North 3l