Page 4A
The REd and Black, Thursday. August 7, 1175
THE OPINIONS OF THE RED AND BLACK
Words of wisdom
for our newcomers
MARION MONTGOMERY
On weeding the garden
To My Son. Going away to School
Dear Marion:
Is it possible? A week ago we sat on the
tailgate of our truck, eating the first
cantaloupe from the garden Now we are
separated by ah ocean and several
countries, and you are struggling with
what must seem a barbarous language A
long way from crab grass and coffee
weed and bull nettle in Oglethorpe
County. And so I encourage you to
believe that your wide change will be
worth the shock. And I suggest that our
summer garden work is closer to you still
than you suppose and will hold us
together.
You will be returning sooner than you
think for college and a new shock. Very
quickly you will find yourself moved out
o( our high school climate, which a
British critic describes as “organized
amnesia,” into one where mind is widely
assumed an instrument to be callibrated
for its technical service to a machine
called society. I put it starkly, but only to
assure you that, given its worst, you will
survive the educational factory our age
has devised If you learn to discriminate,
to distinguish Hence an advantage of
this radical experience abroad.
I don't think you'll hear as many of
your classmates there ask. “What use is
history, philosophy, algebra, literature?"
It is a common question here, as you
know. For how does one explain the
"use" of a cantaloupe to those who have,
been given a stone for bread? The
question of the "use" of humanistic
studies is asked most destructively, not
by the questioning student in whom it is
proper, but by our political and intellec
tual leaders, who assume the question
rhetorical, its answer “NONE" Unless,
of course, those ripening disciplines
called the humanities may be convincing
ly shown to keep us ahead of the
Russians in some technological way. or
help multiply gross national product.
It was difficult enough to distinguish
pea vine and coffee weed without getting
some distance, remember We leaned
back a little to look at leaves and
blossom And it is no doubt early for you
to worry about fighting back rank jungle
growth that closes upon the campus But
you ought to be aware of it What I mean
is that I hope you will resist the
predominant assumption in American
higher education that the primary justifi
cation for training the young mind ti e.,
spending tax money on education) is that
it assures a supply of better * 1 air
conditioners or cheaper cantaloupe, or
more intricately engineered social and
political structures to impose upon that
beast "society.”
There is a distinction to be made
between social and economic mechanics
and community life. Hence the necessity
of my answer to that indiscriminating
rhetorical question, which intends to
negate the human dimension whatever
pretty words deny the intent. Because
man is what he is. it is better to know
than not to know. There are many
lifetimes of thought in those words. One’s
particular life, even its “useful”-
dimension. flows best from this educa
tional principle and bears with it all
manner of healthful, helpful, and pleasing
things, visible and invisible. Let the
"uses" of knowledge wait then, at least
the duration of your educational retreat.
When you are a "rising junior" (which
locally means when you pass sixth grade
grammar), we will talk of uses.
Not "What use is history?”
but "What is history?" That question
first. Thoughtful, you will find history an
active part of your continuing present. As
one knowingly participates in it, he bears
lively witness to the best of the past, as
aid to the present and hope for the future.
That is to say, one becomes a patron of
civilization Your mind informed by
active discrimination, you become a
substantial support of a community
larger than that touched by the present
date on your calendar or on my letter.
History is not simply an aggregate of
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M. LOUISE McBEE
Opportunity offered here
Since today’s edition of The
Red and Black is being mailed
out to all incoming freshmen, we
designed our editorial pages, and
a good portion of the rest of the
paper, to provide something of
an introduction to what many-
wili initially find a huge, com
plex, and bewildering University.
In the final analysis, newcom
ers will just have to be around
awhile before they can master
the campus, but we hope they
will enter a little less cold as a
result of the information and
commentary in today’s Red and
Black. But enough of this; let us
introduce our guest columnists.
Our lead column is by Marion
Montgomery, a professor of Eng
lish who for a number of years
has been one of the more
intrepid critics of the University
administration and its policies.
In today’s column, Montgomery
admonishes his son to resist the
cluttered and confused mental
habits which he is likely to
encounter in a modern univer
sity.
Also on this page, M. Louise
McBee challenges new students
to make the most of the oppor
tunities the University offers.
Currently assistant vice presi
dent for instruction, McBee last:
week left the position of dean of
student affairs, where she has
been in the thick of student-ad
ministration relations during re
cent years.
Robert Friedman, a graduate
student in political science and a
former editor of The Red and
Black, portrays campus life for
ROBERT FRIEDMAN
I've been asked to comment on the
state of the University for the benefit of
this fall's incoming freshmen.
Frankly, this is not my cup of meat.
I'm content to leave that kind of work to
Athens’ daily news
papers, which not
only gear their writ
ing to grammar-
school dropouts but
also endorse them
for governor
Beyond this. I’ve
been on this campus
longer than anyone
except Dean Tate, and everything about
this place has long since ceased being
worth writing about The Ked and Black
makes a valiant effort, but let’s face it —
it's written by. for and about turkeys A
staff meeting looks like a Thanksgiving
feast for the Prussian army.
And this year’s freshman class pro
mises to be every bit as much Tom
Turkeys and Honeysuckle Whites as their
predecessors — a legion of pimply-faced
prospective lawyers and pimply-faced
prospective lawyers' wives They won't
know which way is up all fall quarter,
and by spring you'd swear they'd lived
here since Effie was born
God. what drudgery writing this pap!
The stomach fairly lurches at the thought
of another fall, but, like Evel Knievel,
I'm a man of my word, and I'll stick it
out until I've composed a column of
reasonable length
What to say? What to say?
Well, I suppose I could fill you in on the
CIA-funded LSD experiments being car
ried out by the agriculture school.
They've been administering massive
doses to unsuspecting students and cattle
and analyzing the results
The most unusual effects noted so far
can be seen during registration, when the
students huddle up and chew grass in the
stalls outside the Coliseum while the
cattle go through the registration proce
dure. "Far out!” one hereford told me
after signing up for Chaucer, two
chemistry courses and ballroom dancing
Some other interesting government-
funded work is taking place in the
psychology department, where research
ers are releasing groups of mice and
students on the building’s top floor and
determining which group of animals can
moat quickly negotiate the maze to the
snack bar.
Sc far. the students are holding their
own. thanks to a sparkling performance
by the school's 440-yard relay team, but
us from the world-weary point of
view of a longtime resident. One
warning: Friedman is exagger
ating when he says he has been
here longer than anyone except
Dean Tate..
On the opposite page, a couple
of active campus politicians of
contrasting persuasions have
their say. Ed Green, a member
of the Student Senate and of the
left-wing political party Coali
tion, excoriates the University
administration for its “paternal
istic" attitude toward students.
Meanwhile Ed Parker, who be
longs to the conservative Union
of American People party, con
tends that the “majority element
student” is not taken seriously
enough at the University. Green
and Parker are both Journalism
students.
On page five, Jimmy Waller
takes a stab at the administra
tion and its candor, or lack of
same, in a cartoon which the
newcomer may not appreciate
until he is no longer a newcomer.
On this page, veteran Red and
Black cartoonist and campus
institution Brad McColl makes
yet another contribution. All we
nave to say about this particular
caUoon is, “Who, us?”
And last, but far from least,
we hear from our readers in the
letters section on page five.
So to those who will be
entering the University this fall
we extend our greetings. We
hope they will profit from read
ing our humble offering, and we
also hope they know what
they’re getting into.
no longer
if the mice can stay close until fall
quarter, the influx of freshmen should
catapult them into the lead.
Another highlight awaiting the incom
ing freshmen will be the annual Dean
Rusk Memorial Henry Kissinger Speak-
Alike Contest, sponsored by the Univer
sity Union Several members of the
University administration have left them
rolling in the aisle in this competition in
past years
Among other events you freshmen will
be certain to witness during the next four
years (assuming you master the grueling
curriculum well enough to stay here that
long):
—At least three concert appearances
by the Fifth Dimension
—The formation of a half-dozen new
campus political parties per year, with at
least one person you loathed in high
school running for one or another of the
mickey-mouse offices up for grabs
—Attendance at, on the average, 711
keg parties
—A ceremonial burning of every Pan
dora the irate student body can get its
hands on
—The mysterious burning to the ground
of a local night spot, and the untimely
closing of six others
—At least one student per class who
believes that his professor and class
mates exist for the sole purpose of
listening to him make an ass of himself
—The printing in The Red and Black of
at least one column per day as bad as or
worse than this one
A sobering outlook, no? But I’ll bet you
freshmen are still looking forward to it as
much as you did your first Junior-Senior
Prom. After all. it beats four more years
in Hazlehurst or Sylvania. right?
So be it. One final word of caution — be
sure to pick up a rat cap that fits.
Spending all your waking and sleeping
hours in a beanie that's too tight or too
loose can be uncomfortable and embar
rassing
Okey-dokey. that’s it Be seeing you in
the fall.
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor should:
tBe typed, double spaced, on a
60-space line
(Be brief, to the poini
(Include name, address and
phone number of conli ibutor
I would like to extend greetings to our
returning students and a warm welcome
to our new students We look forward to
the return of familiar faces and antici
pate a finer universi
contributions of the
new students For
some of you, four
years of college
stretch before you
and fears and ques
tions are intermin
gled with feelings of
hope and certainty.
In addition to the
concerns for getting settled, meeting new
friends, registering, buying books, finding
your way around, there are broader
concerns: Will I make it? Will I find a
group that is for me? Will I be prepared
for something four years from now?
What kind of a person do I really want to
become’’
Someone once asked Robert Hutchins
what a university was He gave this
reply: "It is not a kindergarten, it is not
a club, it is not a reform school, it is net
a political party, it is not an agency for
propaganda A university is a community
of scholars " We welcome you into the
association that this definition implies.
People have labored for almost 200 years
to build and strengthen this University
for one primary purpose — to provide the
best education for its students You have
engaged in some labors of your own or
you would not have qualified for admis
sion We hope that you will have
sufficient wisdom to use your talents to
profit from this opportunity for a good
education. For opportunity is all that you
will find here We cannot give you an
education as much as we would like to do
so. nor can you buy it by paying the
tuition Opportunity is all you can
purchase and all we can offer
The University of Georgia, like all
colleges and universities, is first and
foremost an intellectual agency Our
admissions office has done its best to
admit only those students who have the
ability to succeed in our academic
programs Nevertheless, some ef you
despite your ability will let your mental
engine remain in neutral most of the lime
and coast. Some of you will coast out!
Some of you, despite anything that
happens, are headed for high success,
surpassing by your accomplishments all
of us who are here as teachers and
administrators, solving more problems
for mankind than you create and leaving
the world and this institution grateful
because you have been a part of it.
But for most of you the die is not yet
cast You will experience the pull in both
directions — to be here for a joyride on
the one hand and on the other to respond
to the exciting challenge of using your
mind to its capacity. I hope you will ask
yourselves from time to time why you
are here I especially hope you will ask_
yourselves that question as you ariT
beginning a new year
In addition to ^eing a "think commu-.
nity," a university is also a social
community In the social setting which a
university affords you can learn to live in
harmony with other human beings. If we
are unable to achieve that harmony on a
campus of 20.000. how can we really
believe there is hope for achieving it in
the whole nation or the whole world
Many of you will get involved in student
government and in various clubs and
organizations In these and in other ways
you will. I hope, change this university
community and make it a better place to
live and study
College years are years in which you
make many of the major decisions of
your life: your decision about a career,
your choice of a mate, and the like Your
university days will present a variety of
smaller choices including what friends
you will make, what religious and moral
values w ill be right for you. the degree of
academic integrity you will maintain
These choices, big and small, are all ones
which set the direction and quality of
your development and consequently your
life.
So. September will mean for you not
only summer's end but a new beginning
1 wish the best for each of you and hope
you will have a good time achieving it. I
welcome you to the University of Georgia
with all of its opportunities and chal
lenges.
the past, anymore than philosophy is a
catalogue of ideas. To become educated
through the humanities is to enjoy the #
company of faithful minds. And it is to
bring to that company your own private
times and places and things, into that
timeless place your mind, wherethrough m
you are sustained in the world and the
world through you. Let me give example
of what I mean. You will hear Shake
speare’s Hotspur say in a heated mo
ment, in Henry IV, "Out of this nettle
danger we pluck this flower safety." Now
last week we weeded butterbeans by
hand, you and I, and you learned first
hand, you might say, what bull nettle is.
Action and knowledge seemingly far
removed from any attempt to overthrow
a king. Still, you know the shock of
encounter with that prickly, poisonous *
weed. How quickly you learned caution,
digging down a bit to grasp a smooth
root.
Remembering all this, you will know *
Hotspur alive in his bravado and compare
him to his cautious, wily Uncle Worces
ter. You will value a difference between
Hospur's pluck and its distortion of the *
heroic and your first innocent grabbing of
a Georgia weed. You will no doubt
conclude that Hotspur's character leaves
something to be desired, even as you *
learn that words reveal not only actions
in nature, but the character of the mind
that acts in nature.
You will begin to discover that all •
labors go together where there is a
discriminating mind to govern them. Any
practical use of such knowledge is
implicit, the largesse of knowing. As for •
instance when you listen next year to
political rhetoric your first voting year,
or when you encounter patent medicine
or deodorant ads on television •
I have much more to say. but naming
"labor" reminds me that those potatoes
down by the lake are now ready to dig,
before Dog Day rain rots them. You arc •
not here to help — and yet you are. Next
letter I'll say something about a phrase
out of St. Paul — "each in his nature " So
then you will have: It is better to know <
than not to know , rach in his own nature
Through which guide we become mem
bers one of another, parts of a body, not
of a machine. «
I remind you once more to remember
that, whether the word be German.
English, algebraic. "To use the wrong
word is to bear false witness.” Distin- .
guish. Discriminate You recall th»
newspaper story we read, the murdered
man called an “alleged victim" by a
cautious reporter? Last night's paper „
bore a headline, “Zoning Loopholes
Glare." Enough to put even surrealist
poets out of business. One might smile at
such, if "higher education" were less the .
source of such contamination of the
instrument of education, language Here,
from an official publication of your state
university, very seriously put: “It is true
that, in general, air space is coming to a *
screeching halt in this country.” You
must remember that such home-grown
and disseminated weed is the great
enemy of the mind's garden, out of heads *
gone to seed. They’re blown constantly
into our minds and take root when we
don’t think.
Welcome, then, to the labor of weeding *
the mind. But be careful not to mistake
pea vine for coffee weed and pull it. You
know the difference between the coffee
weed quoted above and the careful *
garden we talked about last week, eating
our cantaloupe at dusk. We were dirty,
hot, tired of fighting the army of the
encroaching weeds Looking over the ‘
garden, trying words in tribute to the
bounty we shared, even before full
harvest — shared not only with each
other, but with the soil and seed and, as <
always, the weeds The beginning of Dog
Days, between old and new seasons for
you and me.
I
So we talked the garden's promise. The
watermelon vines had grown so fast
they'd dragged most of the little melons
off. and the corn ears were threatening to ,
run out the shuck ends We knew whaT we
were saying. If you must sometime speak
of space coming to a screching halt,
know what you are saying in the light of
Ptolomy, Newton, Einstein, of Dante,
Shakespeare. Milton Not just in the light
of Walt Disney. Words defend them
selves; a man's metaphors are a judge-,
ment upon him, whether he knows or
cares or nbt. Don't put your foot in your
mouth without good cause. And above all,
remember that I and a host of those you
know and do not as yet know send you
and yours our love and encouragement.
THE RED AND BLACK
Victor Hall, editor
Rick Ricks, Mike Millions,
Executive editor Business manager
John Habich and Pat McGee, news editors; Joyia Anthony, assistant news
editor; Helen Hege, copy editor, Raad Cawthon, feature editor; Carol Costen
associate feature editor, Hoke Carter, photography editor; Rick Franzman,
sports editor; Brad McColl, art director; Michele Stevens, production
manager; Louise West, production equipment operator.
The Ked mid Black student newt paper af Um
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ACC Mid elate postage it paid at Ike Athens Real
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i>pinters expressed kt The Red aad Black,
other than the unsigned editorials. are the
opinions af the writer* af signed roiomnt ar
»artomUti and are net neceaaarily (hate af the
t nKertM> administration. the Board af Re
gents or The Red aad Black, state national aad
internatieaal news la The Red aad Black Is
from the wkes of tatted Press International
News contributions will he accepted by
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Campus is
worth writing about
