Page Two ELON >S EY E November, 1968 EDITORIAL At the present time, there are a number of students on our campus not represented in the Student Government Association. This is due to the rushed and haphazard system of petitioning during the first few days of school. At the beginning of Orientation, before students even registered, they were informed that anyone wishing to become a councilman should write a statement explaining why he wished the post, and then collect twenty-five signa- tures. What most people failed to realize was that upon signing a petition, the individual became a constituent of the councilman-to-be. Of course, many members of the student body signed more than one petition. It was not until the petitions were in full circulation, some of them filled, that the system was explained fully. Because some people signed more than once, some petitions had to be disqualified. Also, because students were all strangers to each other during Orientation, many declined to sign a petition at all. These are the people ~ who are not represented now. It’s not too late to rectify the situation. Perhaps the present councilmen will be permitted to accept extra con- stituents. Or perhaps those who have no representatives in council will be allowed to petition among themselves for a councilman. Whatever the outcome of this year’s representative council, we suggest that next year the petitioning pro- cedure be explained fully during Orientation and that it not take place until at least one week after registration. PL The Black People’s Proclamation Black people must be re-born— they must lift themselves into a real Black thing. Black people must express their own innermost individual thoughts. Black people must destroy within themselves white-oriented philosophy, traditions, customs, beliefs, vocabulary, expressions, concepts of living, spending of money, dress and education. Black people must recultivate their Black minds, seek self iden- tity and the sensation of Black- ness. Black people must re-eduecate themselves into Blackness—phys- ically, mentally, spiritually, cul- turally, logically and academic- ally. : Black people must think Black, talk Black, act Black, dress Black, buy from Black, eat with Black originality and with traditions from the old country; they must play Black, sing Black, vote Black and support their Black brothers and sisters. Black people must stop continu- ing all nonsense, nothingness, inactivity, undoingness, sitting back and mumbling and proceed with Black action and accomplish Black unity. Black people must stop killing each other, crapping each other, keeping each other down. They must seek to be a link towards unity and togetherness in order to bring about Black change. Black people should stop get- ting hung-up in the white man’s western Christian religion and seek their true religion, Islam. Black people must begin to re- spect each other, love each other, protect each other, teach each other the accomplishment of Black goals which are Freedom, Equality and Justice. Black people must start to own, operate, supervise, control, promote and support Black busi- ness ownership, property and spending money for their own benefit and satisfaction, not for the Devil. Black families must constantly, continually, daily emphasize the plight of their Black brothers and sisters at home and abroad. Black people must demand in all public institutions that a Black program be established. Black people must recognize that they are Black, that they are Beautiful and they should be Proud, cleansing themselves into Blackness. Black people must stop project- ing a false image which says either I'm not like you people or I'm better or Blacker than you are. Black people should lock arms, defend, and cling together at times of conflict, bloodshed, war and revolution. Black people should not be afraid to die in the name of the Black people’s struggle. Black people ‘should cooperate, be loyal and dedicated to all Black events. Black people must sit down and d-i-g each other. Black people should shine with radiance, honor, integrity, pride ‘and uniqueness. Black people must stop feeling sorry for themselves. Black people must be mentally stable and physically sound be- cause the weak don’t survive. Black people must stop believ- ing fully what white people pro- claim, promise and write. Black people must establish their own means of communica- tion, economic structure and gov- ernment. Black people should be working daily to achieve nationhood. Black people must realize that they are a nation within a nation. Slave Name Reginald Middleton LETTER POLICY The LION’S EYE will print as many Letters to the Editor as space allows. Letters should be addressed to Mr. J. Biscontini, Room 105A. Names will be with- held upon request but all letters must be signed to be considered for publication. Guest columns should be signed, double-spaced and typewritten and should not exceed 500 words. COERCIVE DRAFT NEEDS REVISION -- - IND FAST! By Joseph S. Bacanskas By initiating a system of “Se- lective Service,” the government is unlawfully infringing on the individual’s right to his own life. It -is establishing a moral code which all must follow. The ‘question is, “Where does the government get the right to do this, if, indeed, it has the right at all.” I believe the individual, not the government, must make his own moral code. If a government can say what is moral and what is not, it can say which war is moral and get involved, and which one is not, and stay aloof. Thus, an ‘“‘unpopular” war can be waged in the cause of “justice” and what is “morally right.” If, however, the individual makes the decision as to what is moral and what is not, an “unpopular” war cannot be waged. Our present system coerces in- dividuals to fight and die for a cause they don’t necessarily judge as moral. Therefore, the govern- ment is forcing its moral judg- ment on the individual. “Involuntary Servitude” Even our constitution has some- thing to say in condemning coer- cion in every form: “Neither slavery, nor INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE . . . shall exist in the United States” . . . (13th amend- ment, section 1). “Involuntary Servitude,” to paraphrase Web- ster, means work imposed against one’s free will. This certainly describes the draft. Such diverse political figures as Robert Taft, Ronald Reagan, Adlai Stevenson and Barry Gold- water saw this discrepancy in the draft and violently opposed it. The whole justification for the draft is defense. But is a system worth defending if its individuals are forced to defend it? I think that our government could very easily raise an army to defend our country without needing a “selective service” system. Volunteer Army Finally, the feasibility of a vol- untary army must be dealt with. Raising the pay to be comparable to a civilian career would natur- ally attract men willing to fight. Though some people who are not acquainted with the facts say the cost would be too great, authori- ties on the subject say otherwise. Brig. Gen. Lynn O. Smith, head of an armed services committee, for example, says that we have to train between 600,000 and 700, 000 new draftees yearly while under a voluntary army we would only have to train 50,000 to 60,000 new volunteers. The savings in training costs alone would more than make up for the rise in pay. Certainly this cannot be changed overnight but if the government is willing to end its coercion, the draft could be abolished quickly. Is the government willing to end its coercion? ’ PAPER PRESENTED Mrs. Rusty Ritchie, assistant professor of speech, recently pre- sented a talk on student protests to the Pennsylvania Speech Asso- ciation. The paper focused on the ‘communication gap’ between gen- erations and the importance of rhetoric in establishing communi- cations channels. Hello From . .. WHERE IT’S AT By David Berger Last year several of our super- concerned students took it upon themselves to see what they could do to alleviate one of our more pressing national problems. You might try to guess which problem they tackled. Civil Rights? No. Political corruption? No. Poverty? No. Viet Nam? No. It was a problem far more dangerous to our nation than any of these. Our students chose to wage a noble program against the most malicious, conspiring, and evil fiends in the U. S. No, not the mafia. Even worse. The hippies. "Our small band of concerned students inaugurated the famous “HATE HIPPIE WEEK.” Their stated doctrine (tailor- made for bathroom walls) preached that hippies were dirty rotten cowards and shouldn’t be allowed to live in our spotless middle-class society. Since they (the hippies) were cowards, our small band of con- cerned students felt brave enough to advocate the smashing of the flower people. After all, if hippies are really non-violent, then they wouldn’t hit back. Furthermore, our concerned stu- dents knew that hippies were traitors because they dodged the draft. And if our President feels that it is vital to our country for our young men to go to Viet Nam, burn villages and kill women and children, then every red-blooded patriotic American boy should go without thinking about it. And that’s probably what our little band will do when their time comes. Go without thinking. To quote their mild mannered, intelligent, and well-spoken leader “If dey don’t like it, let ’em get the hell out a duh country.” As expected “HATE HIPPIE WEEK” was a limited success, encountering a few minor prob- lems. Our crusaders, being clean cut American boys, hadn’t had too much personal contact with hip- pies and didn’t know exactly what their dreaded enemies looked like But after several hours of intelli- gent deliberation they decided to smash everyone with long hair. This, however, didn’t go as well as planned. After all, you couldn’t go around smashing girls. Another plan of attack was to prosecute everyone who was against the glorious war in Viet Nam. Surely anyone who didn’t have the guts to fight for his country must be a cowardly hip- pie. You couldn’t go around prosecut- ing 75% of the administration and staff at the campus. The only real success of “HATE HIPPIE WEEK” was that it showed the entire student body just where our far-sighted and broadminded student leaders are. And they ain’t “where it’s at.” SIMONI OUTLINES HISTORY OF SGA On September 20, 1967, the Delaware County Campus opened its doors to an initial enrollment of 236 students. Realizing a need for student-faculty communication, the Student Government Associa- tion was initiated and a constitu- tion was approved. A statement by Edward Linder, dean of student affairs, might help explain the SGA’s purposes: “The purpose of the SGA is to give considered judgment to the needs and desires of students, and to see that those needs are con- structively brought to the atten- tion of a college community so that some action is taken by the college to meet them.” The SGA this year has initiated its own form of representation whereby one councilman repre- sents 25 members of the student body. These councilmen must sub- mit petitions signed by the 25 students they are representing. (See Editorial—Ed.) The Executive Board is selected at the end of each school year by popular vote, and takes office the following academic year. The work of the SGA, as many would be led to believe, does not start at the beginning of the school year, but continuous and careful planning throughout the summer months enables the SGA to start the year off efficiently. During this past summer, the SGA was represented at a summer regional conference where Harry Triolo, a member of the student body, was elected regional -co- ordinator for the Piedmont Re- gion. The SGA has also been repre- sented at a hearing of the Penn- sylvania Higher Education com- mittee. The SGA expressed the views of the entire student body in sharp criticism of the Heald- Hobson Report which had sug- gested the combination of the Ogontz and Delaware County Campuses. Closer to home, the SGA has recently selected Mr. Robert Spickler, head of the Department of Physical Education, to be its advisor for the academic year of 1968-69. The SGA hopes to plan and provide for its student body to its fullest capacity under the pro- visions of the University. It in- tends to establish for Delaware County Campus a strong tradition of student government which has long existed in the Penn State system. 2 Vincent Simoni SGA President LINDER BLAMES "DEGREE MANIA FOR POOR GRADES By Joan Scanlon The “communicating genera- tion,” or the students of today are basically the same persons as the students of ten years ago, accord- ing to Dean Edward F. Linder of the Delaware County Campus. The only difference might be that today there are more tensions from the outside and fewer ways of releasing them, Dean Linder feels that people now have too much “Degree Ma- nia” which is actually hindering the learning in many students. The pressures students have in all directions, including the pres- (Continued on Page 4) But this didn’t work either.
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