THE SUN, Thursday, October 15, 1981, page 5

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Last Tuesday, I once again found myself in front of my television watching a world leader fall victim to yet an- other act of senseless violence. The question to ask is: When will this gangster attitude ‘we so readily accept as a part of our daily life end?

‘ ’ Over the-past seven months the world has witnessed either the . attempted killing or, more recently, the agonizing death» of a .v . public figure. President Reagan, Pope John Paul, and now President Anwar‘ Sadat have found -' selves in the firing line ' of some mentally deficient person or persons: The hardest thing'to accept about these attacks is , not that they happened, but, the never—ending \- ' re-occurrence of theSe ‘ tragedies. Each time we read a paper Or watch the news a story of death and destruction in the name of peace or ‘ political change can be readily found. ~ The logic behind these events fails 'me. Why do six men, ;‘"” armed to the teeth, chargég into a crowd. of innocent people, shooting and blowing up anybody? Why bomb a church in Vienna? Why starve yourself to death in a prison? If someone can give me a logical answer to murder, please do. -

Could it be that the answer lies within our- selves? Many .of’us show our concern with a Simple

"That's too bad", or "Isn't it awful"; but in many instances the, reaction is onw of non- concern, the ever present "Who cares" prevails. - Being honest, I must confess to usually being a. "who cares" person. “No more! “After seeing the film of the a Cairo assassination, the ‘ ~slow deliberate mbvement of killers with no. regard for human. life, and the

mangled bodies ’ of , innocent

people; my eyes and mind have opened to, r‘ealize this is wrong and must stop. _ " ‘ Perhaps by living in Canada we feel safe from such displays of terrorism. This is f

nothing more than a feeling

of false security. . Remember James Crossan Pier-re LaPorte from the "October CrisiS" _of 1970? Scaring people is not the purpose of this article, the point is ‘to try and have more people realize what a violent and

‘ troubled world we live in.

We, as individuals cannot stopzssudgs'mindless acts.

""‘*People wi‘ﬂl»montinue_ to

~ hurt each other for whatever reason {they can find; personal or political: but, is freedom actually worth

the ultimate price of life

taken by fanatics?

Wake up folks- News

reports from Washington,

Rome and Cairo can quite '- easily centre on Ottawa ' . next.

By Larry IeBlanc

, ,, * . Professors

‘ heard a nasty rumour today that the Promotions

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‘ HOW LONG? ,6 weeks

_ SPEAK

A SHORT, COURSE ON EFFECTIVE SPEAKING FOR U_.P.E.l. STUDENTS

Please pre-‘register at :

EASY; j

WHEN; Monday, October 19‘, 1981 _ 2:30 p.m. — lHOO ‘p.m.

PLACE: » Audio Visual- Studio,/1Robertson Library

Dept. Of Student Services .1st floor_ Main Building "

small one. The former connotes power, the latter , diligence. The former can be divided into

, holding seminars, and so forth, thereby suggesting ,

, obvious message here.

Friday: It occurs to me today that the office decor should followﬂthe same principle as office

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Monday: Still worried about my promotion. I

Committee is changing its terms of reference, and . from now on promotiengmillghe on merit. Apparently, just being;aroundwforsmearsnandnyears is to have nothing towdo with it. This is most distressing. Tuesday:r,v;'-Ihe essence ofiappearing to be well read, and therefore worthy of meritorious promotion, lies not in reading a lot of books but in having a lot of books. The essence of appearing to have a lot of becks is to have more books than one‘s—shelves can hold. This. is:why‘, the offices of professors with a formidable gepgtation for scholarships are always messy? K’céﬁ’rding’ly, today I tOOk the unheard of but fiendishly clever step of having one of my bookcases actually removed. The books it used to hold are now scattered in impressive confusion on chairs, windowsill and floor. ' -

wednesday: The idea of improving my professorial image for promotion increasingly preoccupies me. Hence, further thoughts today on the art of shelf- manship. When a student sits in the usual seat

in front of nnels desk, his or her eye naturally falls on a certain shelf before any other. Hence the books that fill this shelf must be chosen with great care. 'In my view they should notabe books on one's special subject. Rather theymshould show unexpected breadth or hidden depth. A humourless mathematician presumed monolingual should display a complete set of Asterix le Gaulois. A jolly French professor, on the other hand, should invest in a shelf of second-hand textbooks onstatisticsperhaps buying these fnmn ‘students, well thumbed. Perhaps I should buy a set.of Penthouse. , ..,, ,

Thursday: The size of one's office is surely a fuﬁjier aspect of image. After much reflection, I have decided. today that mine is the wrong size. It is merely average. A successful professor would have either aver big office or a very

separate areas for working, meeting guests,

a gracious command over a multi—‘faceted career. The latter should be big enough for only two hard chairs and a desk. The guest's chair should rock unevenly. Devotion to pure scholarship is the

size., .To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, one 's walls should hold either everything or nothing.’ The problem with mine is that they hold merely something. If one cannot display a hastily tacked—up sheet from one's latest computer print—out, combined with a facsimile of the Bayeux Tapestry, a salacious print by Rowlandson, and a skiing poster from Innsbruck, one should display vacancy. Asoeticism, after all, is a saleable commodity. Look at Trudeau