University of Virginia Library

Here We Go Again

Another summer has passed; it seems that
just yesterday we were cramming for exams,
and yet we are back in class today. The most
obtrusive thing about it all is that nothing has
changed very much on the surface (with the
exception of our late, indescribably beautiful
Lawn, which, anyone can see was cut so close
that it probably would have died with or
without the help of the conditions blamed by
Buildings and Grounds in its statement
on page 1 of today's paper). Two important
intersections nearby have been changed,
parking along Newcomb Road has finally been
eliminated, the new buildings are a little
further along in their construction, nobody
sees any football players around anymore,
there seem to be a lot more girls around - but
everything else seems to the casual observer to
be about the same.

We suspect, however, that underneath
everything is not the same. Phenomena like
the Democratic Convention were the last
straw for many concerned but not yet
inflamed students. Students everywhere, even
at the University of Virginia, are slowly or
rapidly getting more and more fed up with the
antics of a generation which seems determined
in its attempt to doom us all to death in an
unpopular, unwanted, undeclared war; a
generation which seems to tolerate the
existence of men like Mayor Daley of Chicago
and which seems without embarrassment to
tolerate the beating of its children in the
streets of its cities with the whole world
watching; a generation which seems to
tolerate the fact that a tiny country can
successfully capture our ship and all its crew
and hold them captive for months while their
families are driven to distraction with
worrying whether or not they will ever return;
a generation which seems less concerned with
the feelings, the lives, and the opinions of its
children than with its own daily comfort.

And as students everywhere get more and
more fed up with the antics of that
generation, as each day brings new such
antics, students everywhere get more and
more "on edge." The students of this
university, insular as it is, are not immune to
the spreading uneasiness. No number of white
columns or green acres can keep it out.

We have seen demonstrations he, ut no
one has ever taken them very seriously except
those who were in them. This year, however,
we will see more and more demonstrations of
increasing fervor. This year we will see more
and more coats and ties among those
demonstrations. Public expression of the
growing discontent will no longer be reserved
to those variously labeled "troublemakers,"
"weirdos," "beatniks," "hippies," etc. More
conservative-minded students will be moved
to join their colorful contemporaries in
speaking out against the things which
disillusion and enrage them daily. We only
hope that everyone involved will never lose
sight of what is best for the University.

More important, we hope that those in the
administration whose power it is to do
something about it will never fail to realize
the intensity of the feelings of those who seek
change or who conscientiously rebel or speak
out against what they feel is the hypocrisy of
our society; further, we hope that in realizing
that intensity and the conscience therein they
will never fail to respond accordingly lest
those harboring it be driven to lose sight of
what is best for the University.

Nothing much has changed on the surface,
but all-important changes have occurred
underneath. Look out, because when those
changes manifest themselves on the surface,
anything could happen.