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THE MERCER CLUSTER
APRIL 13# 1t73
What A
Laugh
On Us!
By Evan Torch
I believe that when our period
is viewed by future historians,
they might characterize it as the
Age of Screams and Caffeine.
The people of America have no
way to facn problems any longer.
We make incredible attempts
through distorted religious fervor
and membership in other causes
to overcome the monumental
tasks which seem more and
more prevalent every year. What
we really need, of course, is a
sense of humor.
But we don't have it today.
Certainly this is not to say that
nobody laughs these days. But
the climate of our society is one of
intense conviction about even the
most trivial subjects.'Nothing is
so trifling these days that it fails
to arouse a large portion of
people into really intense
discussion. Instead of becoming a
society of more understanding,
we rarely let mistakes pass, and
criminals are singled out for less
rights and more punishments. It
has gotten to the point that most
girls tell me that they refuse to
have children any more- "I’d
never bring a child into a world
like this.” The world of Candides,
but the balance between what is
truly important and what is not,
between what deserves serious
attention and what will pass, has
been lost somewhere.
v The comedians of yesterday
could not survive today, because
the comedians of today are
almost all monologists. Their
source of humor is the con
temporary scene, which is grim
to say the least. They laugh at
how bad things have become. The
favorite television program is All
In The Family, the favorite
comic strip is Doonesbury. But
the laughs are nervous laughs.
Look at the movements of the late
sixties which last right through
until today. The SDS, SNCC, YIP-
-these were some of the most
austere movements in history.
Can you remember any humor,
even jjony, in these
organizations? No. They never
smiled. They never considered
the possibility that anything
could be less than earthshaking.
Their speeches contained words
such as TOTAL, IMMEDIATE,
FOREVER. I had a very good
friend at another college who was
afflicted with this disease. She
never went out, or read a book, or
listened to music. Her general
activity was the protection of the
world. But there was not thfe
compassion in her you would
expect to find. "Screw them to
the wall” was more likely to
emerge from her lips than was
"Let’s work it out.” When she
found that, despite her best ef
forts, Johnson did not invite her
personally to the White House,
the realization was too much for
her. So she dropped aHt and
showed the world that they
couldn’t push her around.
Perhaps at the tenth floor of the
Marriot she realized that not only
did the world not choose to push
her around, but it also didn’t give
a damn what she did.
I have found that in this world
everyone can be made into a
potential enemy if he is imagined
to be. and that there is also truly
a multitude of people who can
and will go to great lengths to do
great damage at the merest hint
of chance. There are fewer of
these people on the campus than
on the streets, but what they lack
in numbers, they make up for in
theii* intense self-righteousness
and total inability to see a shade
of grey instead of black and
white. The realization that people
are not going to be what you want
them to be, and will usually do
what serves their own interests,
is the hardest lesson to learn of
them all. But everyone does learn
it, hopefully while still in college.
When you come from a home
where everyone has plenty to eat
and enjoys good health and
abides by fcrhat you imagine to be
law and order, it is a shock indeed
to wort in a shospital ward on a
ghetto and realize that people are
kicking the hell out of each other
when they become hungry
enough for food, or something
else. For myself, I have found one
answer to this; and it entails
trying to find some humor
somewhere in the mess. From all
of the pomposity, the hypocritical
concern, the tremendous
bureaucratic waste piles; there
has to be desperate attempt so
seriously, you forget to temper
justice w:th mercy, and in a
world lit* this, you will soon go
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Letters To The Editor
This it: ue of the paper begins a
new volune, and it also marks
exactly one year that I have
written or the Cl niter. I would
like to ihank Weyman Johnson
and Ja j Suffolk for allowing me
to writo for the papa-, which I
consider to have been on the
whole -i great improvement over
previous years. It is my feeling
that I have said pretty much what
I havn always wished to say, and
then twine, without, I might add,
being censored. I wish Suffolk the
best during her next term. As
Fields, or somebody, said, or
sbouid have said:
A man must believe in
something; I believe I’ll go have
a drink.
Grant Received
Macon Mayor Ronnie Thomp
son announced on Wednesday of
this week the receipt of 1.9
million dollars in the form of an
Urban Renewal Grant from the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development. This money
is to be used for the buying and
clearing of acreage adjacent to
the Mercer campus. This land
which presently lies within the
Tindall Heights community is
scheduled to be v cleared for
construction of the proptiSed
Medical School on the Mercer
campus.
This grant which is one further
boost to the yet indefinite plans
for (he Medical School comes at a
time when the Mercer com
munity at large is just beginning
to ask questions about the
logistics of construction and
maintenance of the Medical
School. Were all other plans and
funding finalized, this grant
would underwrite the plans
already made by Vice President
William T. Haywood Aa-It
stands, the grant is : uperflous
until it is certain that the
university can truly afford to
support a medical school.
Dear Editors,
As the physical and observable
advent of Spring and the true new
year is now upon us, let us pause
for a moment to glory, yae, revel
in the ever newness of life!
Witness, the cheery arachnid
spinning, spinning her silk out
her ass, secure in the knowledge
her web will not be'for nought;
the flies are home from the
winter. Witness, my brother hath
received a tax refund. Witness,
innovative professors do innovate
and so hold class upon the grass.
Witness, the pussy willows are in
heat; they peek out, out their
hulls, they fuzz. Witness, yae,
yae, the new mown hay!! (or is
that another season?) Ah, Ec
stasy, this lord, lord is the
Spring!
This is the only season for
which part of a bed is named
(witness: bed-Springs!) this is
the only season incorporated into
the very progency of the rac-:
(witness: off-Spring!): Spring is
a tiny rivulet (witness: fresh
Spring water!); and what keeps
our watches and our very clocks
going? Yes, yes, it’s their main
spring!! Ah, the glory and
goodness that is Spring. And what
is more, Spring is free. Who ever
heard of paying for Spring?
Never have we and never shall
we. Inalienable Spring! hip and
still hurrah and on so.
Alfred South
j Editors,
lo. I have noticed, no doubt
by virtue of especially acute
senses, and an elevated
awareness, that there has been
formed and duly chartered a
black fraternity. What can this
mean? A true brotherhood exists
in and as something other than a
pseudo-graeco-incorpora t ion.
Why would these students bring
on themselves the disadvantages
of a fraternity? I can not un
derstand why and wherefore
people with unlimited op
portunity for a real community
(and a bead start on organization
in the guise of the BSA) would
forfeit (some of) the respect and
support that many students gave
the students now in the frater
nity. Of course, they lose no more
of that respect than my fellow
students in any of the other older
fraternities or sororities have.
Perhaps my respect is a little less
than important to these people.
Be that as it may or mayn’t. . .
Is it that, being denied mem
bership in the white fraternities
on campus, they have reacted in
this (predictable) manner?
Perhaps (again) it is narrow
minded of me to think thusly but
it seems that there would have
been more advantage in acting
unpredictably, maybe by proving
and so illustrating the true spirit
of fraternity in such a way as to
make the whole of the white
student body painfully and un-
mis takes biy envious (as some
already were). But, un
fortunately or otherwise, that
student body already has a
working Greek system and are in
no wise envious of the new
fraternity. The prevelent white
attitude could put down as
slightly condescending. What a
shame; and what a waste of good
potential.
l Tom Brown
Dear Editor,
Ken Bryant said in his Cl alter
interview, that the black-white
situation was "better than he had
ever seen it” since he came. I
think this is a lot of trash. For
three years now, I’ve watched the
majority of the incoming black
freshmen, who at least at the
beginning of the year were
friendly, become more and more
bigoted, even to the point of not
speaking to whites.
This is very well evidenced by
an event Tuesday night. Kappa
Sigma had just beaten Omega Psi
Phi in an extremely close
volleyball game. Brian Carney,
one of Kappa Sigma’s players,
walked up to Billy Smith to
congratulate him on a well
played game. When Brian ex
tended his hand, Billy warned,
"don’t you touch me white boy!”
I knew Billy when he came as a
freshman and he was a really
great guy! but now?
When I came as a freshman, I
liked blacks just as whites, in that
I could not justify my making
that type of discrimination
against another person. It has
become increasingly difficult for
open minded whites to retain
their open minds, and the
situation now is worse that I have
ever seen it since I’ve been here.
For all of the white bigots that
have been offended by this ar
ticle, you can reassure your
selves that the number of black
bigots is also skyrocketing..
Doug Hardy
Dearest Doris,
And
down and d)wn we go. This
chaotic sockty can be given
consideration a student body?
It should more securely (and
correctly) be labled (or labeled,
Continued On Page 3
The Mercer Cluster
ISESSiL
Sport. Editor
Copy Editor
Tbomas Norton. Diane Wood. Nancy Loveday, Martha ll»m
M ' n ’
74, - ,s,, ■ w E “- «*£ ££
