editorial "

PUTTING YOUR REALITY WHERE YOUR RHETORIC IS

I’ve heard a lot of bitching about the lack of news coverage in the first two issues, and I’m sick and tired of it.

Too many people on this campus are con- tent to be arm-chair quarterbacks and “out- side observors,” instead of getting up and out and doing something. Even if it’s only going to a meeting.

We don’t lack ideas, believe it or not, (although they are welcome too). What we chiefly lack is bodies, people to suggest and do stories and photography. We also need a functioning photo club so that we can get pic- tures developed as well as taken.

Anyone wishing to put your reality where your rhetoric is, come to any of the regular Sunday night meetings at the office, either with a story written, or with an interest in doing one, and/or see Jim Hornby or Dennis MacKay.

If you’re not going to contribute any- thing, (even constructive criticism), don’t complain about the results.

This paper belongs to the reporters. Who- ever they may be.

“THE REALITY OF HAPPINESS IS THE REALITY OF FREEDOM AS THE SELF- DETERMINATION OF LIBERATED HU- MANITY IN ITS COMMON STRUGGLE WITH NATURE.”

—Herbert Marcuse, Negations

Th e Ca cl re

' TheCadre is the student newspaper of the University of Prince Edward Island. The opinions herein expressed are those of the writers. Not really a member of the Can- adian University Press (yet). Main office: first floor, the Student Union building, 285 Kent St. Phone 894-4913. Our first year of existence.

Editor-in-chief ................................. Hornby Managing Editor .......................... ..Dave MacLeod News Editor .................................... ..Dennis MacKay Sports Editor .................................. ..Vic Renfro Arts Editor ...................................... ..Rick Hancox Circulation Manager ...................... ..Martin Kenny Advertising Manager .................... ..Benny Smith Reporters ........................................ .. Marjorie Stevenson Lynn Savage

Mike McGauthey

Carolyn Hortie

Karen Lloyd

Cathy Drew

Karen Lloyd

to name but a few

Photographers ................................ ..John Anderson Carolyn Horite

Graphics .......................................... .. —

no news is good news retaliated homby in a very reac- tionary cadre of mind besides who could be sad in the com- pany of eric clapton, winwood baker grech winter bemstem carlos paxton ochs n other mary makers including ubiquitous dave m vic rick 2 artists at least 4 girls from the other Side of nowhere and the news dept which dropped by to say hello. steven and carolyn were also in. the bear party it must be rembered will remain underground until our forces are in readiness. dont be surprised to see a surprise candi- date in the student council elections: ie any one. Winnie- the-pooh makes sense at leased.

OCToBER 24',"

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LETTERS To THE EDITOR“

Feedback, Part II

“The university is not, has never been, and never will be a leader of anything.” So ends Mr. Stephen Foster’s first assertion in his article, “For I’ve Been Dead since my Conception”, (Cadre, Oct. 3), an article consistent only in its use of absurdl generalities and blatant falsehoods.

“Universities for centuries have been maintainers of the status quo. . .” This is a pat- ent misrepresentation of the facts. Plato’s Academy, for example, was often politically at odds with the community. The University of Paris gain- ed prominence in the thir- teenth century because it counted among its faculty young Abelard, who, if any- thing, is- to be characterized as a radical. In the seven- teenth century, it was the same University of Paris, now overwhelmingly Jansen- ist in sympathy, which was to spearhead opp o s it i on against Catholic orthodoxy. Many more illustrations could be cited. It is more to the point .to ask whether opposi- tion; to the status quo should be in fact one of the guiding principles of the academy. It seems that in Mr. Foster’s eyes, right and the establish- ment never go hand in hands.

“. . .The French are cow- ards, blacks are stupid, the Irish are drunkards, the As— ians are cruel, communists are dangerous,” the implica- tion of course is that com- munists are not dangerous. Yes they are,.Mr. Foster. Yes they are. We are now involv- ed with them in a multi-di- men-sional global war in which psycho—political weapons con- stitute the main portion of the communist arsenal. It is a life and death struggle; at stake is Western Civilization as we know it. Ironically, only we iii the West, as Mr] James Burnlham constantly reminds us, seem to be unaware of the war we are in.

“Vietnam . . . an obvious blunder.” The blunder, Mr.

Foster, is not American inter- Vention but the ineffective-

ness of that intervention. Sir

Robert Thompson, architect of the British victory over communist insurgency in Malaya, in his book No Exit from Vietnam questions the massive military presence of the Unite-d States in that area of the Far East. “. . .utilizing police operations with strong local roots, with only a secondary emphasis on regular military engagement” would be a much more effec- tive modus operandi. Thas is Sir Robert Thompson’s ans- wer as summarized by Wilt liam Cshneider Jr. in his re- view of No Exit from Viet- nam in National Review, Oct. 7, 1969.

Mr. Foster also condemns the United States “aggres- sive. . .mission” against Cuba. Once again, the Bay of Pigs’ invasion was justified. Un- justifiedn was President Ken- nedy’s wholehearted commit- ment to the invasion but only halfhearted support of it. Now Cuba is inviolable terri- tory, and the Castroite re- gime can engage unmolested in the wholesale exportation of revolution and subversion to the rest of Latin America.

What was Che Guevara doing

in Bolivia? I can almost hear the answer: “Why, fighting a ‘war of liberation’.” Sim- ultaneously, smiles come to the lips of those who know better in Havana, Moscow and Peking.

Mr. Foster also has a pen- V

chant for grouping into triads the most startling incompati- bles: Christ, Gandhi, Malcolm X really.

As for Gandhi not having learned “about racial preju- dice in Africa and» in India while he was at school in

England,” would Mr. Foster

suggest the universities es- tablish racist situations in green-house settings so as to familiarize the ignorant with racism?

Mr. Foster mOurns“ the

death of the university and academics as saviors of the world” (note the unpardon- able solecism). I grieve that there are too many people both inside and outside the academy determined! to Save the world. There are still too many of Neibuhr’s “stu-

'pid- children of light” who,

while forever extolling man as wholly innocent and all- good, leave the barbarians: to . fully .exploit man’s very real

capacity for evil. Thoughtful academics are engaged in a ‘ much more modest task than.

the salvation of the world— the - seeking of truth. And truth becomes highly elusive for those in “the thick of

, things”. When in the midlst

of the current, it is indeed difficult to lower anchor, to resist the flow, to look around and evaluation. Even if it were possible the mind would be distracted from contem- plation by the tumultuous roar of the waves. If truth is to be found, one must rise, above events, not so high up that they no longer can be r perceived, but up high enough

so that the mend may assess ‘ undisturbed. Yes, Mr. Foster,

the academy should be an

Ivory Tower.

In the October 3 issue of The Cadre, the editor declar- ed, “We will print anything that is not a violation 01" civil law.” Having printed Mr. Foster’s article, I see that Mr. Hornby is certainly true to his word. The editor might have shown better judgment had he taken Mr. Foster’s brain-child to the hills and in. Spartan fashion left it there quietly toidie. Mr. Foster’s effort is the stronges argu- ment for intellectual euthan- asia I have yet run I, can only end with the sin- cerely felt expectation that a few more years at the aca- demy will provide Mr. Foster with the wisdom necessary to resist the temptation to write

‘ another inane article.

Manuel Prutschi' Hunter, River