the CAPITOLIST
Vol. 1 No. 1
Campus Participates in Moratorium
The nationwide Moratorium on
October 15 th was the idea of a few
student activists who sent out let
ters to eighteen colleges across the
country, urging them to partici
pate in a peaceful demonstration
against the war in Vietnam. The
idea caught on, and soon students,
educators, business man, and pro
fessional people throughout the
United States abandonned their
schools and offices to join in.
Armed with black bands, buttons,
and literature, these people spent
the day working for the cause of
peace. On October 15th, the flag
flew at half mast over the Capitol
Campus.
At 10:00 a.m., a crowd of an
estimated ninety students gathered
in front of the Administration
Do You Want to Vote?
Eighteen-year-olds will appar
ently have to wait another year
before they find out how soon. . .
if ever . .. they will be allowed to
vote in this state. Pennsylvania’s
General Assembly has performed
the somewhat difficult task of re
taining the 21-year-old vote re
quirement and at least temporarily
disarming the opposition forces.
Last spring two different reform
measures were introduced in Har
risburg; one passed the Senate,
lowering the age to 18, and an
other passed the House of Repre
sentatives, lowering it to 19. There
appeared to be some partisan poli
tics at work, as the Senate is Re
publican controlled and the house
is Democratic.
The problem now rests in a
“conference committee” comprised
of members of both houses. But
legislative leaders claim that fis
cal problems are too pressing now
for any other matters to be con
sidered; so the voting age reform
seems dead for the rest of this
year, while vast majorities in the
legislature supported a change.
The state Constitution requires
that an ammendment (which low-
“All The News That Fits .... We Print”
CAPITOL CAMPUS Middletown, Pa.
Building for a tree planting cere
mony in honor of the War Dead.
Later in the afternoon, students
canvassed Olmsted plaza and Mid
dletown, “pushing this button for
peace.” In spite of some frustrat
ing moments, (“How do you tell
a patriotic woman with two sons
in Vietnam that the war they are
fighting is unjust?”), the students
worked tirelessly handing out leaf
lets and petitions. At 7:00 p.m.,
students from the Capitol Campus
Dickinson, and H.A.C.C. met at
the Forum in Harrisburg to hear
Strom Thurmond speak.
Students at Capitol Campus are
also expected to participate in the
second Moratorium, a March on
Washington in November.
ering the voting age would re
quire) to the Constitution be pass
ed by two successive sessions of
the General Assembly and then be
approved by popular referendum.
Since a session lasts two years,
the earliest the question could
come to the voters is the primary
election of 1971.
XGFs In Action
The XGI Fraternity at Capitol
has been developing a blood bank
with the Highspire Jaycees. On
October 20, the bloodmobile was
on campus. All day students and
faculty members participated in
the activity. The blood bank will
provide a supply of blood to the
college and the residents of High
spire.
The day was successful as it
has been in the past. The campus
would like to extend our thanks
to the XGl’s. We hope the good
work will be continued in the
future.
October 31, 1969
Impact Week
By Paula Dillon.
The Harrisburg Area Commu
nity College Cultural Committee
recently presented a successful
series of controversial lectures to
the area. Titled “Impact Week”,
the series began October 12 and
ended Monday, October 20.
The lectures were arranged and
co-ordinated largely through the
efforts of Corwin Hale, assistant
Professor of Social Science at the
community college.
The expense and difficulty of
securing such sought-after speak
ers and prominent public figures
as Dick Gregory, Strom Thurmond,
and Benjamin Spock seemed well
appreciated in the culturally over
looked Harrisburg area. Capa
city crowds jammed the Forum
to hear Dick Gregory and Senator
Thurmond, while Doctor Spock
spoke to a sell-out audience in
HACC’s less spacious Student
Center function room.
A dynamic speaker and a largely
sympathetic audience got “Impact
Week” off to a running start on
Monday, October 12. Dick Greg
ory, a man who well knows both
the comedy and tragedy of Amer
ica, began his impassioned invec
tive by breaking up the crowd with
his incisive humor.
Throughout his talk, Gregory
both praised and challenged to
day’s youth to organize to revolu
tionize the corrupt, racist system,
which sends its young to slaughter
in a senseless war, which glories
in its tremendous affluence, while
countless children starve within its
boundaries, and which preaches
freedom and equality, while prac
ticing policies of racism.
“The number one problem con
fronting America today,” said
Gregory, “is not air pollution, but
moral pollution.”
According to Gregory, America’s
image is false and hypocritical, for
while she claims to be the world’s
major exponent and guardian of
freedom, she chains America’s for
gotten red men to the degradation
and deprivation of the reservation.
She claims to be the land of op
portunity, while she ignores the
black urban ghettoes, the plight
of the migrant laborer, and the
desperation of Appalachia.
Over and over, Gregory empha
sized the magnitude of the job con
fronting those working for change.
He compared last year’s Chicago
demonstration to the revolution
aries’ struggle in 1776. The
Chicago convention is evidence
that Mayor Daley and those who
profit by the corrupt system wish
to maintain it at all costs.
An American phenomenon which
amazes Gregory is the inevitable
charge of communist agitation
after a riot or demonstration.
“Your moms and dads are stupid
enough to believe that we needed
communists to come over here and
tell me this honky’s had his foot
on my neck for 300 years. This
stinking racist system doesn’t even
give a nigger credit for getting
mad on his own.”
No one from outside has to show
the corruption of a system that
pays Senator Eastland of Missis-
continued on page 4)