University of Virginia Library

Only Anonymously

The number of critics of the current move
against racism and racist policies in the
University and the state who prefer to remain
anonymous in their criticism can only be
gratifying to those who support the movement.
That those who prefer to see the status
quo maintained express their opinions in the
smugness of anonymity suggests either that
they are afraid to have their names associated
with their opinions or that they simply do not
have the courage of their "convictions."

The Cavalier Daily has received an
unprecedented number of such opinions in an
interesting variety of forms. Most frequently
they consist of a clipping or a copy of an
article from some newspaper which lambastes
students in general. Contrary to the understandings
of their senders, they are generally
irrelevant to anything which has happened at
the University. They are invariably unsigned
and enclosed in unmarked envelopes. Let us
describe some of the items in our growing
collection:

- We have a clipping of an editorial from
the Richmond Times-Dispatch entitled "It's
Time To Decide: Who Runs the Colleges?" It
speaks of the "wild demands of the radical
fringe" and describes the "establishment" as
"the dedicated men and women who built the
universities which the riotous gangs are
attempting to tear down."

- We have a cartoon from the same paper
captioned "How to Deal With Them." It
shows an administration foot kicking a
bearded "student anarchist" and a bottle of
"violence" out of the gates of "American
Colleges and Universities."

- We have a carefully xeroxed and clipped
out Art Buchwald column which states: "As
student demonstrations on campuses continue,
the demands of the militants keep
escalating. Some of the demands are reasonable,
but others have a built-in mousetrap. A
few that I question have to do with student
demands that universities take in people
whether they're qualified or not; that all
students who have flunked out be allowed to
return to school, and that professors abolish
the system of grading for their courses." It
then goes into an elaborate satire about
degree-holding doctors and lawyers who know
nothing about medicine and law.

- We have a carefully xeroxed and
underlined article by Al Capp from "This
Week" magazine. The messages underlined for
our attention are these: "You show me a
young idealist who is demanding the right to
change a world he hasn't lived in long enough
to know anything about, or contribute
anything to, and I'll show you a pest. But
show me a student who 'merely wishes to
make a good living' and I'll show you a kid
who's going to be of service to his fellowmen,
because that's the only way he can make a
good living... A student activist is a full-time
brawler, arsonist and petty thief whose
father's lawyer can prove is also a spare-time
student." In response to a question of the
value of the opinions of 18-year-olds: "On
subjects they know something about, such as
puberty and hubcaps." The underlined message
continues: "Any man over 40 who thinks
18-year-olds are just as smart as he is, is
probably right." In response to a question
whether 18-year-olds are good at anything:
"At carrying luggage." In response to a
question about college students and drugs,
"You're the only bunch that doesn't need
them to have delusions of grandeur." The
magazine's thought for the day, also underlined
for us, was, "Men of intemperate minds
cannot be free. Their passions forge their
fetters."

- Yesterday we received a copy of the
column "Metronome," by Ed Grimsley, from
the Times-Dispatch. Entitled "Hungry Bums
Are in Demand," it is a satire in which a
"state recruiter" solicits bums in the park for
membership on the University's Board of
Visitors. Scrawled alongside the column is the
only message we received personally from the
mysterious person who sent the clipping: "To
Student Council and Coalition (Radicals and
Hoodlums)."

Of course we do not have a corner on the
market of receiving such messages. An
anonymous letter "To the Student Coalition,
jointly with the Executive Committee of
University's Human Relations Council" was
received by a member of the two groups. It
called on them "to desist from and resist all
rallies, demonstrations and uncouth behavior"
because they "are hindering and destroying
the purpose for which you ostensibly entered
the University, a place of higher learning." It
continues in that vein, charging that "you are
seriously retarding those who have come to
this University for the purpose of getting an
education. The noise and disgusting actions,
of those acting like what can we say, other
than hoodlums, is distracting and disturbing in
every way." It then asks everyone to "Think!
Think! Think!" because "at this point reliable
citizens see no justification or merit in your
proposals... Politics, race problems, personal
opinions, price controls should in no way be
handled by the students."

And of course there is the mysterious "3"
Society.

The disturbing thing about all these
messages, aside from the fact that none of
their authors will include his name along with
them, is that they indicate complete ignorance
of what is happening at the University on the
part of those authors. Further, they display
opposition to the proposals which have been
made just because they came from students.
Worst of all, they seem to oppose reforms of
the sort which have been suggested regardless
of where they come from. In short, they seem
to prefer the maintenance of the inequity -
and the stagnancy therein - of the status quo.

We are convinced that the cowardice which
characterizes those who have provided us and
the rest of the community with their
anonymous opinions springs from their
realization that, just as their opinions are
highly offensive to most of the University
community, so must their authors be if they
are discovered. Or perhaps they don't want to
be associated with those opinions because
they suspect "down deep inside" that they are
wrong. Whatever the case, it is a cinch that the
opinions and the various devious ways in
which they are offered will be taken as
nothing more than amusement - as the antics
of a few raving cowards - by everyone who
encounters them.