The Granite, 1971

~~ersize 13779 -N45 G73 1971 Death, a mysterious abstraction that few of us feel until it reaches the bottom of our own exis tence. Every last gasp of breath in a living being is felt by many who think that their own existence is infinite, who think that their lives shall continue irre gardless of fate. But it is when the death of a com patriot appears unexpectedly before us that the foundations upon which we structure our own lives become shaken. The termination of life is most cruel when it could have been prevented, when the living and the breathing of another human being is smothered bY' idiocy and distrust. When a life is taken because of the structures of an organization, living itself becomes futile in the minds of those who desire freedom in their own existence. If a person, young or old, dies with the knowledge that his or her day to day activities have given him or her per sonal fulfillment, then he or she died living his or her life to the fullest. But if a person dies because of inconsideration and his or her own lifestyle be comes a sham, then his or her death must be viewed as disastrous. F. Rothe Umv.ersilY. of New Hampshire Library 3 ~ v e, s c z €,. f · I Cti- \ tJ e 1l e.. l D i l<i . t-\l '7 ..:11~ cq- I What we have here is a question. Yes, that is what it is. A question of utmost importance. One that is to decide between life and death, between war and peace, between equality and inequality, between poverty and wealth, between black and white, be tween love and hate, between humanity and in humanity, between facism and democracy, between the individual and the institution, between freedom and slavery, between man's destruction and man's conservation. It is a question that will be decided by us. We are people of the world, we hold part of the world's fate in our hands. And in the end it will be the people who will have decided the question and history will be the witness. 17 . 'vf cr NAM[S[, BLACr1$Gti' . Of'1FN POOR AND~ ~ {:).I, ~ :.::::::,:;... We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar. -T.S. Eliot 27 • I ' ' . ~ :,_ - ..... ., j ··: . • ' . .. ; i . - - \ '· .· a\;,: i .\ . ' . .,Y • ;"'fl And it was something he couldn't put his finger on, something he couldn't cognitively set straight. It was this something that bothered him at certain irregular hours of the day. Now was one of them. The conversation, the quick glance, the strange note, the wave of the arm, the phone call-which daily rite was it? was it any of these? all of these? Was something lacking maybe? He figured that to be part of it, maybe the whole thing. Empti ness: that common, grim reality left when all the illusions become transparent and dissolve, even the most meaningful, even the best loved. Even oneself. He looked through his eyes, through their concave lens from a deep, unknown somewhere inside of him, and knew another illu sion. Shadows within, as without; he stood on the wrong side of the fire, wishing only to know, to learn, if only for an instant, the truth; not the emptiness, and not the shadows. -R. Wesson 37 ♦ "But I heard them exclaim, ere they raced out of sight, 52 'Happy taxes to all: Our opponents were right!' " 53 Christ was a virgin, fashioned as a man, And many of his saints since time began Were ever perfect in their chastity. I'll have no quarrel with virginity. Let them be pure wheat loaves of maidenhead And let us wives be known for barley-bread; Yet Mark can tell that barley-bread sufficed To freshen many at the hand of Christ. - The Canterbury Tales Performed by Rob Inglis Allied Arts October 1970 55 The Dreams November, 1970 As a result of the four Kent State Uni versity killings last spring the state of Ohio grand jury indicted twenty-five students and faculty members in an at tempt to repress students across the country, and to lay the blame for the killings on the Kent State University community. Bill Arthell, Kent State stu dent, commented: "the grand jury said the students committed the crime. In other words, the grand jury is saying that the students committed suicide on Taylor Hill on May 4, 1970. 75 - : - .... ...... la. "" I , ,._ - - ~t -, - --- ·- I -- ---~ I - ~ - • .... - ~i!P!f~ .,..,,., '\ "' - "' ~ t ! " " ..,,, "-· ~'- ., . .. ----. "' - . , 11 ." . I' • f ' I t .. \ ,: 1 . ' " ( . t . i Commencement-February, 1971 Winter Carnival-February, 1971 ~ A Joint Treaty of Peace ~ BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH VIETNAM & NORTH VIETNAM Introduction Be it known that the American and Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the name of the people of the United States, but without our consent. It destroys the land and the people of Viet Nam. It drains America of her resources, her youth and her honor. We hereby agree to end the war on the following terms, so that both peoples can live under the joy of independence and can devote themselves to building a society based on human equality and respect for the earth. In rejecting the war we also reject all forms of racism and discrimination against people based on color, class, sex, national origin and ethnic grouping which form a basis of the war policies, present and past, of the United States. PRINCIPLES OF THE JOINT TREATY OF PEACE AMERICANS agree to immediate and total withdrawal from Viet Nam, and publicly to set the date by which all U.S. military forces will be removed. Vietnamese agree to participate in an immediate cease-fire, and will enter discussions on the procedures to guarantee the safety of all withdrawing troops, and to secure release of all military prisoners. AMERICANS pledge to stop imposing Thieu, Ky and Khiem on the people of Viet Nam in order to ensure their right to self-determination, and to ensure that all political prisoners are released. Vietnames~ pledge to form a provisional coalition government to organize democratic elections, in which all South Vietnamese can participate freely without the presence of any foreign troops, and to enter discussions of procedures to guarantee the safety and political freedom of persons who cooperated with either side in the war. AMERICANS and VIETNAMESE agree to respect the independence, peace and neutrality of Laos and Cambodia. Upon these points of agreement, we pledge to end the war. We will resolve all other questions in mutual respect for the rights of self-determination of the people of Viet Nam and of the United States. As Americans ratifying this agreement, we pledge to take whatever actions are appropriate to implement the terms of this joint treaty of peace, and to ensure its acceptance by the government of the United States. The terms of this treaty were worked out in December 1970 in discussions among representatives of the United States National Student Association and leaders of the national student unions in Saigon and Hanoi. 118 Here we are at the window. Great unbound sheaves of rain wan dering across the mountain, parades of wind and driven silver grass. So long I've tried to give a name to freedom, today my freedom lost its name, like a student's room travelling into the morning with its lights still on. Every act has its own style of free dom, whatever that means. Now I'm commanded to think of weeds, to worship the strong weeds that grew through the night, green and wet, the white thread roots taking lottery orders from the coils of brain mud, the permeable surface of the world. Did you know that the brain developed out of a fold in the epidermis? Did you? Falling ribbons of silk, the length of rivers, cross the face of the mountain, systems of grass and cable. Freedom lost its name to the style with which things happen. The straight trees, the spools of weed, the travelling skeins of rain floating through the folds of the mountain-here we are at the window. Are you ready now? Have I missed myself? May I fire from the hip? Brothers, each at your window, we are the style of so much passion, we are the order of style, we are pure style called to delight a fold of the sky. -Leonard Cohen 119 Flowers and Bullets Of course: Bullets don't like people who love flowers. They're jealous ladies, bullets, short on kindness. Allison Krause, nineteen years old, you're dead, for loving flowers. When, thin and open as the pulse of conscience, you put a flower in a rifle's mouth and said, "Flowers are better than bullets," that was pure hope speaking. Give no flowers to a state that outlaws truth; such states reciprocate with cynical, cruel gifts, and your gift, Allison Krause, was the bullet that blasted the flower. Let every apple orchard blossom black, black in mourning. Ah, how the lilac smells! You're without feeling. Nothing. Nixon said it: "You're a bum." All the dead are bums. It's not their crime. You lie in the grass, a melting candy in your mouth, done with dressing in new clothes, done with books. You used to be a student. You studied fine arts.

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