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Cluster Forum
My First Riot
THE MF.KCKR C LUSTER INTERVIEW
IS REGULARLY CONDUCTED BY
POLITICAL EDITOR
Sam Halpert is a South
American student, bam and
raised in the coffee growing
plantation area around Medel
lin, Colombia. Educated in
South America, a graduate of
South Broward High School in
Hollywood, Florida, Sam hat
come to Mercer to study at a
pre-med student.
CLUSTER: Coming to
Mercer must mean quite a
change for you, Sam. How
does our campus compare with
the system of higher education
in Colombia?
SAM HALPERT: In Colom
bia, the schools, especially the
high schools, are very strict.
Therefore you are obligated to
do much more studying. Some
people say that if you finish
high school in Colombia it’s
like finishing your first year of
college hen in the United
States. Most of the high
schools in Colombia don’t have
a student government - there
fore the faculty is the one that
seta the rules and they are al
ways very strict. And if I
would go beck to Colombia, I
would be spoiled by the system
of the United States.
CLUSTER: When you say
spoiled, do you mean your ed
ucation wouldn’t be as good or
do you mean to say that the
discipline would be too harsh?
SAM HALPERT: First of
all, I must say that the educa
tion here in the United States
is far superior to Colombia’s.
Insofar as the discipline is con
cerned, I have learned to think
completely different here in
the United States. If I were to
go back to Colombia now I
would not be able to stay there
long ... because I like the
United States that much more.
CLUSTER: You speak with
respecf of the discipline in
Larry Finklestein and Sam Halpert discusss the differences of
colleges and univenities in the United States and South America.
150 years ago,
a new idea came to
the college campus.
In 1819, at what is now Norwich
University, military instruction w as first
offered in a civilian college.
It tvas a natural development of our
Country’s traditional concept of the citizen-
soldier and of civilian control over our
Defense Forces-
Today, 150 years later, Army ROTC
is carrying on that tradition and
has become an important resource of
leadership, not only for national defense,
but for civilian enterprise as well.
Army ROTC enables the college
student to earn an officer’s commission as
he earns his degree. It offers both 3-and
2-year scholarships to outstanding students.
And it provides leadership experience
that gives ROTC graduates an edge in
any career they choose.
When you add it all up, Army ROTC
is vital to our American way of life.
!■_"!
' ARMY ROTC
150th yoor of offkor training
on ft* coMogo campus.
Col. Jones
Colombian school*, yet every
week something is written
•bout student riots in South
American schools? Have you
ever seen or participated in any
student rebellions?
SAM HALPERT: Yes, I did
I have seen a lot And I did a
lot.
CLUSTER: Why did they
start, how did they start, what
did you do in them, how did
they end, and what did they
accomplish?
SAM HALPERT: My first
riot was just an accident. I was
•bout 15 years old at the time.
I was walking around in down
town Medellin at about 6
o’clock in the evening when I
heard a loud noise behind me
— and there was a large^group
of people coming at me. They
were running towards me. At
that moment I was the most
scared man tn the whole world
— Each of them were carrying
a stick and running around
breaking windows. The owner
of a shop came out with a shot
gun and started aiming it at
me. I still couldn’t believe what
was happening, but after the
first bullet went by my head —
missing by inches — I realized
that things were getting worse
and worfte. Immediately after
this brilliant deduction, a de
tachment of special army
forces appeared a block and a
half ahead of me. Rioters be
hind me, a shopkeeper with a
shot gun across the street from
me, and a detachment of
special combat forces directly
in front of me. I was in real
fine shape. Yes sir! At that
moment I remembered some
thing that an experienced
friend had instructed me to do
on such occasions as this.
CLUSTER: And what was
that?
SAM HALPERT. if you
New Choir
Performs
The new faculty choir en
semble gave their first perfor
mance of the year on Sept. 19
during the Faculty Worship
Service. The group was origin
ally conceived at the worship
service in the fall of ’67 hut
dissipated shortly after due to
lack of interest.
There has now been a strong
response however to keep the
18 member group active. Ac
cording to John Van Cura,
musical director, some of the
members of the ensemble are
very talented and show great
promise of future success.
The group has plans to
someday possibly form a choir
guild or some type of perman
ent choral society. Van Cura
said that such a group would
greatly benefit the relations of
Mercer to the Macon com
munity by helping people to
know the Mercer staff and
faculty.
The faculty group plans to
perform selected choral pieces
and powibly even some com
positions of the masters.
can’t fight them, join them. So
I joined the rioters.
CLUSTER: Did you ever
find out what? they were rioting
about?
SAM HALPERT: Not
really. It was something about
a University, but everyone
seemed to have different idea
about the exact cause. I had a
lot of fun though.
CLUSTER: What did you
do that was so enjoyable?
SAM HALPERT: You can’t
begin to imagine. We ran circle
around the soldiers, kicking
them, throwing rocks at them.
A soldier got me and was going
to throw me in jail, but five or
six rioters jumped on him, and
I was free again. But the thing
was getting serious when the
soldiers sent for reinforce
ments, so I got out of there. It
was quite a crowd, one or two
thousand people. The day after
that I heard that four people
got shot, and a policeman got
killed. Other than that, it was a
simple riot *
CLUSTER: How do the
riots in your country differ
from those at American univer
sities. Would you participate in
a student rebellion here in the
United States?
SAM HALPERT: In Colom
bia, the riots are more violent.
Exchange Corner
Nixon Passes
On His Lessons
By RICK FITCH
There were no sit-ins, walk outs, or microphone takeovers at
the Association of Student Governments (ASG) conference held
in Washington September 19-22.
the
In fact, contrasting sharpiy
with last month’s National Stu
dent Association (NSA) con
gress at which black students
seized the podium to demand
reparations from the whites,
the ASG gathering was calm,
untroubled, the picture of
complacency.
Five-hundred delegates re
presenting nearly 300 colleges
and universities, most of them
small, were allowed to sit in
the East Room of the White
House and hear President
Nixon voice concern.
Urging the students — term
ed “moderate student leaders"
by the commercial press — to
be tolerant, Nixon said his
administration was "concerned
about the same problems
you’re concerned about, and
we want to find the answers
with you.”
The President, who brought
his daughter Tncia along to
help greet the guests, noted he
had been student body presi
dent at Whittier College and
the Duke University Law
School in his day, but remark
ed, “StudenLs today are more
in tune with the problems of
the world than we were.
“We didn’t have nuclear
weapons, but we did have the
great depression,” he said.
“Our problem was whether we
could get a job. We tried to
seek the answers, but not in as
aggressive a way as the genera
tion today.”
Nixon passed on three
lessons to the delegates which
he said he had learned during
his years as a politician: (1.)
You learn more by listening
than talking. (2.) The man who
talks loudest usually has the
least worthwhile message, and
The leaders believe less in dis
cussion; riot now and talk
about it later is their philoso
phy. Also, they do not remain
at the university, they go into
the city to have their riots.
Here, rebellions are usually at
the university itsplf. In Colom
bia, there is always something
to riot for; the schools are
poorly run. The students’
wishes are ignored. Student dis
sent is suppressed. Here things
are different. Here there is no
reason to riot. Here there is
freedom. Here I would never
think of doing such a thing.
Those students who wish to re
bel here in this country should
be made to stay in Colombia
for a week. I am sure that
would cure them. Enough
about riots. Let’s talk now
about something else.
•f CLUSTER: American High
Schools was the first major ad
justment you had to make.
Hdw did you do there?
SAM HALPERT: My first
year, I didn’t speak a word of
English. By the end of the
year. I was just barely manag
ing to get along. I was invited
to do so many things, that I
was too confused to do any
thing. So for the first year 1 did
nothing. My second year, I
joined the swim team to get
the sense of competition that
everyone kept talking about.
CLUSTER: Did you find a
sense of competition to your
liking?
SAM HALPERT: No, unfor
tunately, it was not the kind of
competition I was searching
for. So I decided to run for
vice president of the SGA.
(3.) One must respect
opinions of others.
Some of the others possess
ing opinions at the conference
were blacks who complained
about the lack of federal aid
for black colleges. They
brought their pleas to Nixon,
who referred them to White
House staff members and to
Health, Education, and Welfare
Secretary Robert Finch. Finch,
acknowledging their "very
severe problem," said. “1 don't
have the answer to that; I'm
very troubled bv it.”
After Finch finished his pre
sentation at the conference
banquet, several black students
loudly challenged the relevance
of the proceedings. Student
Body President Leonard Tate
(Continued on Page 7)
CLUSTER: Did you win?
SAM HALPERT: Yes, I
won . . . because it was the
kind of competition I wanted.
It was something new for me.
Something that we had not had
in Colombia.
CLUSTER How do you
like Mercer so far"'
SAM HALPERT: 1 consider
Mercer one of the finest univer
sities in the United States. I
think I will enjoy myself here
very much I intend to do well
here and will w ork my hardest
to do it.
CLUSTER: I w ish you good
luck in the forthcoming year,
and hope you do as well as you
are planning on. Vaya con
Dios, amigo mio.
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THE MERCER CLUSTER • Octobei 7. I<R,9 • 3