Page 29 - TheGoldBug1969-70

THE GOLD BUG NOVEMBER 7,1969 PAGE S Humanity: ut Feature Comment Always lost on in' the shuffle Environment by Michael Basile College Dedicated to you and your friend: a namelesssquirel- -. MAY. YOUR SOULS REST IN PEACE beautiful light in the Elderdlce parking light _ It-s so have heard encouraging rumors, though-c if tuUtion Is homey and small college looking.) Well, I guess \\,'e must raised $400 next year; they will not only turn off the air also allow for the shortage of workmen on campus since conditioning in the cafeteria, but also some _semblance of we have all this other renovation In progress. Did you heat will ~ provided during the cooler months of the year. Just ten minutes ago, while returning with my laundry ever notice how all the walks and stairs are recemant- Our small college atmosphere has become even smaller from the Iaundr-amat , I saw one of the cruelest actions ed the day before Homecoming or Parents' Day? It now that the cafeteria facilities are a "httle cramped-- any person could perform. A squirrel, seemingly very must be more important for my mother (the rich old we're all squeezed together a little more. Also note that compacently searching for the acorns that would have alumna) to have mended steps in the daylightthan for me the minority (B. Rice) has once again overtecen the maj- nourished him during the barreness of winter ,was struck to see to get back to the dorm from the library at curfew. ority: only one entree at dinner, a lot more hot dog, cold on the head by a stone thrownbya Western Maryland stu- Another factor in our dream-world \VMC environment cut, and tunansn salad meals and only one ice cream dent. As the squirrel frantically jumped and gasped is the dorm situation. They're either too empty or too scoop of beef-a-roni per starving student. And there will there seemed to beasmileofsaUsfactionon the student's full. The whole system protects us from the "outside be no more of this ridiculous pledge singing in the cafe- face as well there should have. It was truly a "job well world." 1. Contrary to popular administration opinion, teria. How dare they interrupt the in-depth conversat- done" for the.equir-r e l afte r a tew painful minutes dropped the majority is supposed to rule. The only time this dem- ions ?eing carried on with this change of pace. Foolish- to the ground dead, a hole in its head where the r'cck.had ocratic ideal wasputintousewasthechanging of women's nessv-tnat's about as stupid as expecting the change mac- pierced its skull. residence halls backto the seniority system of room draw. hines to be o-perable. 2. "In loco parentis" means the college acts in our par-, Well it's a small college with all its advantages, the ents' place, and here too, I must admit the college acts brochure reads ..• but as more and more students are On first reading my initi al paragraph a sympathetic in, my parent's place -- I have the same curfew, rules, packed in the same small facilities .•;; we are fast be- person may well have felt my horror at what I had seen, etc. that I had at home when 1was 14. 3. Paradox; Sch- coming the small college with mainly disadvantages. but to many the emphasis I put on the mere killing of an ool refuses to discriminate tetween uorms-can have same Our main one being a paranoid administration par-ttcu- animal may seem unimportantwhencomparedtothemany prices for a room, but school is so high priced it auto- larly when the word "change" is suggested. human lives that are lost on our highways, by disease, matically discriminates in its admissions. Hard as it We've finally gotten decent lighting in Memorial (a and in our Inevitable wars. I agree with those people may seem to take, money isthekeyto a good many doors boon to the evening and night studier-s}, and now there's emphatically. The mere physical loss of an animal in in our society. But here onthe hill we are safely shield- a rumor that "they" plan to lock it at night. Who's to say no way deserves as much attention as the loss of human ed from this cruel fact of life •. , I pay the same amount how these little environmental discomforts affect students. life, but it is not only what was lost In this case I have mentioned but rather why this act of meanness and sadism to use the antique facilities in Blanche Ward as other Probably not milch. Forthepricewe'repaylnghow can we girls do to use the modern, spacious Whiteford. expect anything more than a good classroom education. was done at all. Within man there is an inborn desire to Nourishment should also be considered part of our Contrast a Harlem school with a Bethesda scnoot-cno eonquer-, to vanquish, and to kill. There Is, however, also environment. In fact as soon as I finish this article r drrrerences except physical envtronmane-van the kids turn the quality of reason and the outlets of emotion within man that distinguish him from all other creations. Whether wlll don 6 or 7 coats and go to partake of dinner. r out the one believes that some supreme force has given men this superiority is irrelevant, the fact remains that he does possess it. The sad thing is that he seldom uses it. This , Although the nickel thrower and the coffee spiller can be tamed, and Patti Wade probably got her IS¢ ~tb~~~S~~t:nt~r~~:~ef::: ~~dc~;~:~~:h~~u~:n h~:I~:;':euil_ is not the point. The point is that the people or unknowing animals. While men' appear certainly more for the machines don't have the sensitivity barbaric than do animals they are not as Ignorant and rea- that however good a solution they may seem lize this Internal force as a powerful one that, when culti- an economic standpoint, they are a shabby af- vated, ~an be channeled into any program of violence. Gov- and can not take the place of the once friendly ernments are comprised of these "wise" people for is it I ,As our environment becomes increasingly clutter- not governments that train men to kill and slaughter? The over the world is qualtty of man that gives him superiority i I absurd aggravations, one wonders who is being eradicated, his power to reason and to love is trampled [servecc-macmm "0' people? under the feet of a million khaki trousers. In truth, what Mr. Chapman said in the last issue ofthe GOLD BUG was Although Western Maryland is in many respects a correct, but nevertheless it is sad. On referring to the place to be a student, senseless changes such as moral issue of thts present war in Vietnam, Mr. Chapman semi-functional machines that require an said, "Whether or notwe are morally right cannot be jud- I assume from the context of his article that - to protect the students from their II ged by us." refers to the fighting soldiers in Vietnam and the "us" can only detract from this feeling, this, as easily seen, proves my point. The soldier sees his duty as only a job, the army only as an employer, and is taught never to look beyond the psychological make-up the army so masterfully induces and to as-khimseU If, in truth, he is not doing more than following the orders of his lieutenant. It has always been easier to dismiss re- sponsibility to someone else. In many modes of life this refusal to question authority and assume personal obli- gation can be accepted, fiut when the lives of people !Ie in the balance it is immoral and cowardly to remain com- placent. Subject to Change? In efforts to hide the glaring truth people refuse to acrntt that soldiering is killing. The unadulteratedmurderingof those eight nurses in Chicago two years ago shocked any by Susan Baker and every person in the United States who had even the There Is a changing, new trend in education. Students iculum usetr. A small college can offer a good, basic slightest traces of love for life. wnenpoltttctans are bru- are dissatisfied with thetradUlona,llecture-notes-memo- departmental education, hut it cannot compete with the tally assassinated 'a cry of horror echoes in every Am- rtsatton-tese process. They are becoming more interest- diversity of subjects offered by a university. Giving erican household and a demand for punishment and re- ed in learning. How can Western Mar-yland College meet Western Maryland a broader subject range is possible venge comes shortly after. Even when a squirrel, an the challenge to serve this new group of students? through student involvement. If ten students are in- animal, is found bloodied and limp upon the ground no one terested in a specialized field of study u.e., studying can imagine the sickness that prompted the slayer to co- First, we must dispense with the traditional worship of the Degree. There is enough intellectual room at this Chaucer's works in the original Middle English), they mmit' such an atrocity. MyfeeUngsofdisbelief and anger college for both degree emphasis and learningemphasis. should be able to form-their own course with a faculty are analogous; however, I am not affected by these much ,There 'is no need to make every student's primary goal the adviser or instructor and receive academic credit. publicized crimes alone but by every violent act committ- earning of a degree. An increase in seminar and dtscusstcn classes would ed against every living creature, Whether the man Is also benefit student learning. For twelve pre-college yellow, black or white, whether the cause is communism, An extension of the pass/fail system would be an years, students are trained to sit in silence and Umit or bigotry or democracy, I feel no less saddenned, no improvement. There isn't any need for freshmen and their questioning. College easily became a continuation less sickened when his blood flows out upon the earth, sophomores to struggle through courses which have no of this pattern. Students sit, take notes, remain sUent. already too drenched in red. Life is lost, never to be meaning to them except for meeting general degree re- Discussion, on the other hand, encourages thinking. Think- born again, life that no mortafhas aright to take for any qutrements. Nor is there any need for juniors and sen- ing stimulates growth. reason. There Is no such thing as a justified killing, no iors to be limited to only one pass/fall course per se- College isn't merely a four year box with narrow sides, such thing as a just war, and as long as man attempts to mester. It would be more advantageous to learning if It is a time of growth of character, and It should be a time retain that, which granted to him, gives him the power to a student were able to take all courses (except possibly of growth of mind as well. Iwould like to see WMC open love and cherish life and repudiates any effort by some his, major ones) pass/fail. this box and let the students out-i-to think, to grow, to other to revert him back to the ignorance and blindness Sometimes student Interest is cut short by the curr- learn. of a savage animal there Is hope amid this world of hate,