University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

'Join Together To Seek Solutions'

I can certainly agree with your
editorial opinion to the extent that
"rallies" and "protest demonstrations"
usually result in a lot of talk
and very little action. However, I
would like to stress the fact that
Student Council never billed the
Thursday meeting as a "protest" or
a "rally"-it was the Cavalier
Daily's usual "interpretative"
reporting which did so. We did call
for a meeting, but the reason for
such a meeting was explained by
Council member Ken Lewis:
Council, for once, had an opportunity
to open itself to more student
participation and should meet
with other students to plan the
Friday events.

I am very disappointed that you
took it upon yourselves to criticize
Student Council when for once it
was leading, rather than following.
It is crucial that students become
aware of the current civil liberties
crisis and join together to seek
solutions.

Finally, the meetings on Thursday
and Friday, and the petition
calling for a Federal Grand Jury
investigation of the Kent State
indictments arising out of the
Spring incidents, were the result of
a request by the student and
faculty senates at Kent State, and
solidarity is an important aspect of
the student movement.

Free Doran First

It seems that Student Council
was more than willing to jump on
the bandwagon started at Kent
State on Tuesday. Student Council
has agreed to "solicit signatures for
a petition calling for a Federal
Grand Jury investigation of the
indictment, collect for the defense
of the indicted students and faculty
members, and call a mass meeting
on Thursday to plan workshops,
meetings and speakers on Friday."
All this comes about because of the
indictment of twenty-five people
from Kent State as a result of their
actions last May.

But has Student Council called
for an investigation of the
indictments and arrest of Tom
Doran as a result of his actions last
May? Has Student Council helped to
collect money for Tom Doran's
defense fund? Has Student Council
called for a mass rally to plan
workshops and meetings? Does this
imply that Student Council is not
as concerned about violations of
"civil liberties" as it seems to be?

Tom Doran was arrested as a
result of his alleged activities during
the strike last May, but there was
no big uproar from Student Council
when he was indicted again last
month. Doesn't Student Council
care? Or are they only interested in
the publicity they might get by
being part of a national action?

If Student Council wants to
"show the entire nation that
students have unity and strength
and that this violation of civil
liberties shouldn't happen in
America," why don't they do
something about the local issues
first?

FREE TOM DORAN!

'Yellow Editorial'

The purpose of this letter is not
to question your integrity or
motives Many times this semester I
have seen editorials or articles that
have contained untruths, but your
editorial on Tom Doran in the
October 22 issue has broken my
silence. This is a piece of "yellow
journalism", full of deceit. The
purpose of this letter will be to
remind you of the tremendous
responsibility of your position and
to urge you to present in you paper
uncolored, unbiased, factual
reporting.

You have made a hero of Tom
Doran. Let me tell you about your
hero. He has been convicted for
violation of the Selective Service
Act and sentenced to three years in
jail. He is appealing the conviction.
He has been convicted of cursing a
police officer and destroying University
property. He is not appealing
either. He has been indicted for
perjury, a felony, and comes to trial
December 10. You said, "Mr.
Doran hasn't been convicted of
anything lately." That's not true.

You said, "His parents have not
been permitted to visit him". There
are visiting hours from 2:45 to 3:00
on Saturday. In case of emergency,
special permission can be arranged
for parents. He can see his doctor,
lawyer or preacher anytime. Just
call the jail and find out the truth.
This time you did not lie, you just
didn't tell the whole truth. His
letters are censored, but he can
send a confidential letter to his
lawyer or his preacher. Again you
failed to present the whole truth.
Why are you bending the information
to make a martyr of Mr. Doran?

Now the question of bond. I'm
surprised Mr. Doran's parents
haven't gotten him released. I could
go down and bail out Mr. Doran. If
you want him out so badly, get five
people with cars registered in their
names and worth $1,000. Are all of
you afraid to risk your cars? I'm
afraid to risk my $5,000. Or is it
that Mr. Doran makes a better
martyr in jail?

If Mr. Doran is convicted on
December 10, that will make him a
liar. We don't tolerate people who
lie, cheat or steal at this University;
at least I didn't think we did. If Mr.
Doran is convicted, I don't see how
anyone can support him.

You are either ignorant of the
facts or have made a deliberate
effort to misrepresent the truth.
Your editorial is a piece of trash.
Don't believe me though, I challenge
you to check me out. I want
you to answer these questions. Did
Mr. Doran's mother and sister really
get fired? If Mr. Doran is not guilty
of lying, why doesn't he prove his
innocence with a lie detector test?

Is everything I have stated in
this article true? Ask Mr. Doran's
lawyer, the Honorable George M.
Coles, Jack Camblos or John
Dudley, but find out the truth not
only about Mr. Doran, but about
everything that goes to print, no
matter how unimportant it is. Then
take the truth and present it fairly.
I don't think I'm asking too much.
I direct your attention to the
phrase in six point type at the top
of your column: "For here we are
not afraid to follow the truth
wherever it may lead, nor to
tolerate any error so long as reason
is left free to combat it". I suggest
you heed Mr. Jefferson's wisdom,
not just quote it.

Suffering Sumner

I would like to thank you for
your review ("Suffering
Cybernetics, Mr. Sumner") of my
show. It must have been your fair,
unbiased, open minded, intellectual
approach that brought such a
crowd (30 standing, 24 turned
away) on Friday night. One rarely
sees such careful cropping of lines
of verse. I mean, it would never
have occurred to me to omit the
last line of the narrative that
accompanies my drawing of
"Population": "These little men
who look like flies/Are like a baby
when he cries/For help/But no one
answers/ For the room is full."

And you are right, it
was pretension to use such terms as
"in person". After all, this is
Charlottesville. Funny, but no one
thought it pretentious when I
appeared in person in Rome, Paris,
London, Stockholm, Frankfort, or
a half dozen other cities outside the
U.S. And calling it a "world
premiere" was a bit premature on
my part, because I do plan to make
a few changes before it plays next
in Amsterdam in early December.

In spite of your stagnation, the
show goes on. Goodbye, David.

Lloyd Sumner

— Ed.

Vote For
The Man

In response to your column of
October 22 (Lindsay: Republican
Without a Party). I feel that you
have demonstrated a common fault
with many people in this country.
By saying that Mr. Lindsay should
not have broken party ties, you are
advocating the support of a
candidate regardless of his political
achievements - or lack of them. If
more people voted merely
Republican or Democratic because
they were so registered, the
democratic system would surely
die.

Mr. Lindsay is to be praised for
his "radical" ideas and backing of
Mr. A. Goldberg. In the past, the
city has had the annual role of
beggar when it came to finds and
aid from Albany. Mr. Rockefeller
has done very little for New York
City and its problems; where was he
when Mayor Lindsay asked for aid
in the teacher strikes, subway
strikes, sanitation strikes, prison
riots - the list is endless. Ever since
the Mayor's election to his position,
the Governor has tried to make Mr.
Lindsay look bad - possibly in
defense of his own political future,
but all the while hurting N.Y.C. and
New Yorkers.

For this reason, Mr. Lindsay
feels that the Goldberg-Paterson
ticket is New York's ticket to move
aid from Albany. No man can be
condemning for leaving the party
and placing the welfare of his city
first.

I only hope that more people
like Mr. Gillmore would look into
the candidates and not vote merely
by party ties.

Fantasia
Revisited

It is difficult, at first, to take
Paul Chaplin seriously in his review
of Walt Disney's film Fantasia.
Halfway through the article we
begin to wonder if he has even
bothered to see the film before
writing his review.

As we read on, however, the
horror increases when we realize
that, in fact, he actually has seen
the film and still speaks the way he
does.

It seems that our critic does not
take the narrator at his word. Before
the music actually begins, the
narrator tells us that artists have
put down their thoughts upon hearing
the music. The cartooning, far
from demanding an editing of the
music, was inspired by it. The
cartooning depends on the music,
and not vice versa. Perhaps Mr.
Chaplin is thinking of the left out
repeat in the first movement of
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, or
the admittedly poor editing job in
the third movement of the same.
Perhaps he has never tried to devise
a complete scenario for two hours
of music written, in some cases,
centuries ago. The visualizations
are, indeed, a result of "genius."

Mr. Chaplin complains of "dragging"
in the Pastoral and Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring. At this point
we begin to doubt Mr. Chaplin's
sanity or, maybe, just his understanding
of music. These two pieces
are certainly among the most enchanting
and exciting works of music
ever composed. And in Rite of
Spring the further complication is
added that what was shown in
cartoon form was "an accurate representation
of how scientists believe
life began on our planet."

This is one of the greatest collaborations
of our time and our
critic can only complain that "it
drags." Well, perhaps the critic isn't
interested in geology or evolution
either. But if he isn't interested in
science, and he doesn't really enjoy
the music, what is he doing here at
all?

Finally we arrive at our answer.
The man has come for humor,
humor and animation! He wants to
be entertained. Let us not argue
about the relative brilliance of the
cartooning in this or any other
Disney film. What is pertinent here
is that Mr. Chaplin "edited" this
film to suit his own light fancy. He
is guilty of that which he accuses
Disney and his cartoonists. Instead
of letting the artists speak for themselves
and develop the movie in the
way that seems best to them, he
wants them to drop all attempts at
seriousness and remain bound to
light humor. Only this sort of
blindness could have permitted the
final audacity of suggesting that
Schubert's Ave Maria be left out.

We suggest that Mr. Chaplin see
this movie again before it leaves the
University.

CD Brainwash?

I have read with interest all that
you have written concerning fraternities,
including Thursday's "If the
fraternities die at U.Va., don't
blame us - the C.D. didn't hurt
them" editorial. Your attitudes
prior to this have been much more
derogatory and demeaning, implying
that only a fool would join a
fraternity. This hurts me because I
am a first yearman who is considering
joining a frat. At first I was
rather grateful to you for presenting
the "other side" of frat life.
However, of late your harangues
have gotten out of hand and you
seem to have taken it upon yourselves,
for some unknown reason,
to destroy the fraternity system
here at the U.

In a decision as important as
joining a fraternity, I think someone
should present the opposing
views at the beginning of rush, but
should remain silent after that to
allow each person to make up his
(or her) own mind. If one has been
going to a fraternity rather regularly
lately, and has been asking intelligent
questions (rather than
"How's it going?", "What's for dinner?",
and "So what are you majoring
in?"), then he should know
most of the disadvantages and
drawbacks of becoming a brother.

In other words, C.D., let us
make up our minds. We're old
enough.

Noisy Audiences

The cost of noise pollution at
U.Va. films is about to price me out
of the market. Academia should
provide that rare, tolerant and intelligent
audience available nowhere
else, but the only communication
from the screen to many seems to
be the desire to perform - perhaps
show biz is catching. If you can't
tune in to a film, would you kindly
turn off?

Library Hours

Two petitions bearing ninety-six
signatures have recently been received
requesting that Alderman
Library open earlier than the present
hour of 2 p.m. on Sundays. We
wish to assure those people who
have made this request that it is
being given serious attention.

The Department Heads who
would be most affected by the
possible change in hours have been
studying their budgets to determine
whether they have sufficient funds
to provide the necessary additional
staffing. In addition we have asked
Mr. Mannix, President of the Student
Council, to discuss the matter
and give us the opinions of that
representative body concerning Library
hours generally.

We hope to arrive at a decision
that will best meet the needs of the
entire University community.
Meanwhile, please be assured that
the matter has not been ignored.