University of Wisconsin Stevens Point - Horizon / Iris Yearbook (Stevens Point, WI)

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I CAN REMEMBER A DAY BY MARC VOLLRATH Reflective thought is encouraged by trying and unpleasant situations. The following piece exemplifies this. It is emotion put into words, and an attempt for a silent voice to be heard by deal ears. I CAN REMEMBER A DAY was written as a protest against ignorance, forced conscription, and senseless harassment. Its mood reflects the past while being firmly anchored, unwillingly, in the present which the United States Army had forced upon the writer. Its specific target was militarism and the master to which every soldier is a slave — the Army. After it was written, however, it could be seen quite clearly that it reflected our entire society as well. I can remember a day when I had clothes — my own and a personality and a character What I wore told what I might be but now I have only clothes and I’m hidden by them I can’t be me but only what these clothes make me and I’m a fake they may be my size but they don’t fit I can’t put my heart into them I can remember a day When I had a mind — my own I used to think but now that could only get me into trouble I used to ask questions but now there’s no one to answer them or even to listen and besides a question shows you think and now that could only get me into trouble I can remember a day when I had a smile but that frowned away when they took my hair and gave me these clothes but, really — is a smile that important? I can remember a day when I had hair A soldier is forced to wear the uniform of his country: a businessman, however, must wear the conventional suit and tie—the uniform his sphere of society dictates. While the voice of a soldier is only as loud as the rank he wears, likewise our society will not tolerate waves to be created by subordinates on the totem pole of civilian life. The military boasts generals and privates, while our society has rich and poor. Just as generals won’t listen to privates, the rich of our social structure have no time for the poor. While generals control the war from behind a desk, the privates are dying on the battlefields, and while the rich men start the wars, and continue them, the poor men are forced to fight them. The comparisons could go on and on. Hopefully, someday they won't have to. If they do. we'll all have to pay for it. and didn’t think about it nor did anyone else Then it was important to develop what was inside my head instead of worrying about what was on top of it I’m glad that’s all changed because it’s so easy to have your hair cut and so difficult to think now and besides that could only get me into trouble I can remember a day when I used to question things not to harm them but to help them not just to change things but improve them if I could it’s a relief knowing I can’t because others do it for me without thinking or questioning but they’ve worn these clothes for so many years they don’t have to think and have probably forgotten how to I can remember a day when I could think and ask questions and be myself without worry because I wasn’t bad then only myself and now I’m a fake. 2

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WAR AND PEACE - - - THE OPINIONS OF TWO VETERANS BY BRIAN SHUMWAY In war and in peace everyone has his opinion about the military and war. Many have never been in the military service and some never ask a veteran of the military how he feels, cither because he knows of no one in the military but mainly perhaps because people feel that a military person has fixed ideas about the military and war. Mike Bahn and Tom Van Drasek are students of WSU and both veterans. Here are some of the things they had to say about war and peace. Tom and Mike both enlisted, and for the most part they felt that they did not get a raw deal from the recruiter, although Tom felt that the recruiter told them nothing in terms of what to expect as far as military life. Tom termed the recruiter as being ambiguous about what to expect.” Both veterans were members of the Air Force. They felt that the basic training they went through was more of a mental discipline than physical. These vets were quick to point out that such was not the case of combat oriented branches of the service such as the Army or Marines, where emphasis is on action derived by direct order and to obey instantly. Basic training, the vets found, was more inconvenient than anything else. Basic training is more of a common denominator according to Mike Bahn, where everyone, by means of haircuts, uniform, and control of their lives, is placed on an equal basis. Both vets felt that the schooling once they got out of basic training was adequate to very good. Mike was a Vietnamese translator-interpreter and spent over a year training in the field. Tom Van Drasek felt that in a democratic manner there must be some relexation of the strict discipline. Mike felt that strict discipline is a necessity for some people in the service, but for most this discipline is unnecessary. Both Tom and Mike felt that the best experience they got out of the service was the chance to travel abroad. Mike was in Viet Nam and enjoyed talking to the Vietnamese peasants. Tom was stationed in Korea and enjoyed the chance to travel in that country. Tom said you may not see the best places or people at their best, but you do see new things. Tom and Mike could not think of a really bad experience in the service, but Mike related some-tiling that one of his friends said to him about their flying duty in the service. It's hours of sheer boredom, moments of sheer terror.” I remember a friend of mine who was in Viet Nam and in the first 12 days of his stay he was rocketed and bombed 8 of those 12 days. What about the war in Viet Nam? Tom felt that right now we should not be there and that the war in Southeast Asia is ridiculous. Tom also felt that in 1961 and in the present there were times when we could have helped in a limited way. Mike had the gung-ho spirit at first, but he said this changed to a more mature insight of what was happening.” Mike felt he didn't come back with many questions answered. He said that on a tactical level the war is a gross insidious thing; neither side is right. We could have ended it long ago. I asked both Tom and 'Mike if they had any trouble readjusting to civilian life once they were discharged. Tom had little trouble readjusting but Mike said he had some trouble. Mike said that the time span from Viet Nam to California was only a matter of hours and that the changing of primary groups, that is, military life to civilian life, was so abrupt that it took some readjustment. 1

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DROP OUTS OR COP OUTS? BY MARC VOLLRATH With nary the sound of a single gunshot the cultural revolution began. It started as quietly as the sound of a growing hair follicle and a questioning thought. Bloodless in its conception, the growing pains are now being felt on the battlegrounds of our nation’s campuses as educated individuals question the values of the uneducated and blind conservatives. Today, anyone who questions may be stereotyped a radical, and if his hair is long — a communist. We are a society of communists. Why? Simply because many identify with this steretotyped individual — and because the “American Dream of a status quo society is a nightmare. Some consider anything deviating from the “norm” as communist inspired. Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia even envisioned sex education in our schools as a “communist plot” to corrupt the morals of our youth. Had the American revolution of 1776 occurred two hundred years later it, too, would probably have been blamed on communists. Today, millions of people flock to church to worship perhaps the greatest radical and revolutionary of all time — Jesus Christ, who, in his time was considered a visionary, operating under the aliases of “King of the Jews,” “Son of God,” and a few others. Today, His radical teachings of yesteryear are completely acceptable. That same man, however, would have a hard time landing a teaching job in Stevens Point without His name to fall back on, because of His shoulder length hair and beard. Certainly no self respecting parent would want their son or daughter attending a school with a freak like that teaching their kids! It is, indeed, surprising that the shoulder length locks of Christ weren't sheared off the wooden replicas of Him that bedeck our present day churches in order to make Him “fit in” with present day standards. Long hair was “in” when Christ taught His radical ideas. The world wasn’t ready for Him — it crucified Him; but only for His ideas. Today, people are crucified, figuratively speaking, for both. At Stevens Point, basically conservative place that it was, hair was short enough so as not to offend anyone driving a Ford four door sedan with a “Love it or Leave it” bumper sticker. Two years ago, though, something started to happen. The “jock” image, and the short hair that goes along with that “all American” look, was no longer the desired image to flaunt. The Vietnam fiasco and the billions of dollars being poured into it caused the educated American student to question the misdirected sense of values being employed by our government. The student saw billions of dollars sent to the moon, while back here on earth our own people were starving, and no black man was really free. He also saw that no man was really free as long as he was forced to fight in a war he believed to be wrong. He saw cigarettes proven to be the cause of cancer and heart disease, yet remain on the market, while at the same time marijuana, never having been proven harmful, remained illegal. He smoked it anyway, and was a criminal for it whether caught or not. The law no longer was his friend — to be respected, but his enemy — to resent. He even questioned the existence of God. Wanting no part of the old American scene, he dropped out. Long hair was a good way to isolate himself from a straight society and, with it, he could identify as a member of the new one. He could raise the eyebrows of the older generation. He didn’t look like them, and because of it was called a faggot. His ideas were new. and because they were not understood, feared. Campus unrest became a normal occurrence. At first, peaceful demonstrations were the only occurrences. Like the “Freedom Riders” of the pre-Civil Rights era, however, they accomplished little but create a public awareness of “weirdos” protesting. To the conservative public it was regarded as “juvenile.” Violence seemed the only answer. Soon the National Guard was on campus so frequently it probably could have audited classes had it wished to. The “cause” of the questioning American student was greater in its interim than in its conception. The following had grown from handfuls to hordes. Its ideas, seemingly radical, were nothing more than the strugggle to regain lost rights — the basis of our constitution, a document that has become idealistic in fact, rather than realistic. All across the country students fought for their beliefs — some even died. These were, briefly, some of the reasons for long hair — to rebel against a society of misguided politicians who value a buck more than a human life; who think it’s more important to discover the moon isn’t really made of green cheese after all, when we still can’t even communicate with our neighbors. To this cause people dropped out and grew their hair long. Sincerity started it; now conformity may ruin it. Why? Because long hair is the “in” look and some people identify with the look rather than with the cause. Many actually oppose it. Unfortunately, the “new” society is just becoming the old one with a new look. Many who “drop out” of the old one by growing long hair still march off to “unholy wars” when their number comes up. Apathy can’t be covered by long hair — only masked. A braless woman’s chest may sag a few more inches, but if her mind isn’t free she’s still the same girl who wore the twelve dollar Playtex long line. Rejecting a two hundred dollar Hart-Schaftner Marx suit for Grundy bell bottoms is only a start. If the person that wears them isn’t doing it for any other purpose than identification, he’s still, in reality, wearing that suit. A long haired, money hungry freak playing the role of a social drop out can fool a great many people. Rock Fest promoters, for example, grasped for the fast buck by pushing “bread” hungry rock groups at an unsuspecting or uncaring public. Who are the real people under that long hair? There are no programs — so we can’t tell who are the actors. The truth is only inside of us — each of us. If we are real we know it, and if we’re fakes, we’re only kidding ourselves. 3