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The End of the Beginning
For three years Capitol Campus has operated without a
permanent newspaper. We have limped along on a series of
transitory efforts; Angst, Vox, The Capitol Cap, etc., which
have reflected the tentative period of gestation of this cam
pus.
Last June, Capitol had its first regular graduating class,
marking a change in stature of the campus with which this
school found its individual meaning, its soul, and became an
entity unto itself. No longer were we a poor relationship of
main campus, for we had won the right to award the
Bachelor’s degree. It was the first such Penn State degree
not awarded at University Park.
Granted that we had attained this new status, there was
a void in the new being known as the Capitol Campus. It is
this void which The Capitolist is designed to fill. We intend
to represent the independent Capitol Campus as an indepen
dent news organ, promoting communications among students,
faculty, and administration.
As a free-standing newspaper, The Capitolist will not bend
to the views of any one particular group, but will serve as a
marketplace of ideas in which all interested groups may ex
press themselves. Contributions, in the form of letters and
articles, are therefore welcome from any group or individual
on campus or from the Middletown area. They may be left in
the newspaper’s mailbox in the Student Affairs Office. It is
the policy of The Capitolist that all such contributions be
signed in order to insure responsibility in communication.
This is the first issue of The Capitolist, which will appear
bi-weekly hereafter. It is our intention to serve as the official
newspaper of the college and in doing so, to bring together
the disparate elements of Capitol into a true community—
unique, independent, and proud. Together, we will mark the
“end of the beginning”.
Student Government
Any student with a suggestion
about Student Government is
urged to contact:
Business Manager
COLLEEN BRETT
Associate Editors
RO SCANLON
CHERYL JOHNSONBAUGH
PETER KANE
Contributors
ANITA HEMPHILL
BARBARA MATECKI
ANN NEFF
RICHARD DONAHOE
PAULA DILLON
GERALD BRENNAN
LINDA DeCAROLIS
WILLIAM HEBDEN
Photographer
RICHARD MARX
X 1
Barry Kimmel
Humanities Senator
849 A Kirtland Ave.
944-7997
THE CAPITOLIST
October 31, 1969
War
IS
Outmoded...
by Gerald Brennan
Both economically and political
ly.
Certainly war once had its
place. But that was a long time
ago. A very long time ago. It
does nothing now. Except anger.
And kill. And brutalize. Forget
about morality? Although one
must admit hate and violence do
tend to be moral issues. But for
get about morality? Intelligence
says it’s useless. Or at least the
emotions should say it’s unnatural.
You know it’s really very funny.
I mean if people believe that hu
man life is so valuable, and that
just one person is worth more
than all the objects and all the
land in the world. . .well, it’s just
really very funny. That’s all.
There is something else that
should be said about war. It’s
wrong. That’s where the morality
comes in. I was always taught
that wrong should be avoided.
Granted, that’s not quite so easy.
But who ever said it was? Who
ever said it was?
You call the argument emotion
al. Satiric cartoons and an ad
mittedly melodramatic picture of
a girl with her body multilated
(napalmed). We’re sorry. When
one is angry—and we are very
angry—one has a tendency to be
come emotional. Thank God we
still have emotions left. And a
small sense of what is right and
what is terribly wrong.
War is a moral issue, simply be
cause it profoundly affects the
morality of a man. If you are
made to slaughter cattle every day
in a meat factory, your adhorrence
of the act will eventually subside
into indifference, and you will
quickly become anesthetized to it
all.
Now everybody knows we need
meat (and that all Communists-
Yiet Cong must be killed because
they’re not people—they’re ani
mals, or something else, but cer
tainly not people. And besides,
they’re going to take over the
world). So the slaughter-house
routine is justified, and the man,
who now does his work diligently
(and sometimes even wins medals
for it), is self-satisfied in the
morality of what he is doing.
You see the analogy. Granted,
Vietnam is one meat factory where
the cattle fight back, and many
times more savagely. But regard
less of how you view it, this war
has served to dehumanize the
American soldier and the people
at home whom he is purportedly
fighting for. Violence is accepted
as a part of life, both intellectually
and emotionally. And what may
have once shocked, now is received
with new understanding—that un
fortunately, this is the way things
are, and there is nothing anyone
can do about it (except, of course,
drop the legendary Bomb and put
an end to violence once and for
all).
We even go as far as to laud
violence, and fashion heroes out
of those who administer it. A
movie like The Dirty Dozen serves
it up a la carte to the average
American who has sat and watched
the six o’clock news on television,
replete with bleeding children
maimed women, and dead soldiers
who died for real and not for
camera take. After that, ficticious
terror is mere pablum.
Personal and Confidental
Dear R.H.H.
Plans are being formulated for
the second fertility day.