University of Virginia Library

Crackdown On Dissension

College Topics Reports

The crackdown on the anti-war
movement has indeed begun in earnest
and what some regarded as
merely the peculiar paranoia of
radical groups must be looked
at more seriously, comments the
Daily Californian.

The student newspaper at the
University of California, Berkeley,
continued in an editorial:

"With the recent federal indictments
against noted Vietnam war
protesters and local indictments
against protesters from the Berkeley
campus, it is clear that suppression
of dissenters will no longer
be subtle. It is even clearer that
these new indictments have been
handed down because the administration
intends to escalate the war
and is getting tired of and embarrassed
and apprehensive about
those who would stand in the way.

"In the past one could not help
but feel depressed by the futility
of the demonstrations. But if anything,
the indictments will give
the protesters a new spirit because
now they know their protests
have become more than troublesome.
President Johnson and
others who perpetuate the war
are finally taking their critics
seriously.

"But this new status must be
tragically paid for. Both national
and campus anti-draft, anti-war
figures have been charged with
conspiracy of one kind or another
and these charges are felony offenses
carrying stiff penalties.
Youthful protesters will wear the
scar of conspiracy conviction the
rest of their lives.

"The real tragedy of the indictments,
however, is a national one.
The United States government
has served notice that in time of
crisis, one of the basic ideals of
the nation-the belief that democracy
has room for differences of
opinion-is the first thing to be
sacrificed.

"It's true that blocking troop
trains and induction centers is
doing something about opposition
to the U. S. Government. But
those who feel strongly that the war
personifies what this nation fought
against some 200 years ago-when
leaders adopted the radical idea of
an independent America-must do
something more.

"They cannot accept and function
within the system when they
feel the system has a history of
mistakes.

"So, a handful of Americans
have made and will continue to
make their positions on the war
known. And they will be punished
and they will suffer. Twenty years
from now when historians describe
the war as a waste of humanity
for the sake of national pride,
those who suffer now will be comforted
in the dignity of their dissent.
As for now, the war continues
with no end in sight. And
that is the greatest tragedy of
all."

Marlboro Men Vs. 'Twigs'

Twiggy was bad enough,
says the Northerner of Bemidji
(Minn.) State College.

For the average girl watcher, the
prospect of encountering thousands
of mini-clad telephone poles
with waist-long hair was enough
to send him running to the post
office clutching his Playboy subscription.
But now the girls face
the same dilemma.

One British woman who runs
a male model agency reports that
average chest measurements of her
men have shrunk from 41 inches a
few years ago to 33 inches today.
That's only two inches bigger than
the Twig herself.

And take a look at the current
crop of guys adorning the pages
of the big, slick magazines. They
have shoulder-length hair, willow
builds and not a single hair on
their chests.

The most extreme manifestation
of this Twig compulsion has been
the presentation of a line of formal
and semi-formal skirts for men.
With the advent of hairy calves
protruding from knee-length kilts,
we fear the girls may justifiably
go inside with the retired girl-watchers
and switch on the TV
in hopes of catching Alan Ladd
re-runs.

We fear that world designers
can no longer be held to be
morally good if their aim, as it
appears to be, is to emasculate
modern man, de-feminize modern
woman and turn us into one
asexual society in which we won't
be able to tell the swingers from
the swishers.

Men, don't give up your
trousers. Whether skirts get longer
or shorter, let the women wear
them. Let's encourage a return
to the day of the Marlboro Man,
when a fellow didn't have to apologize
for having hair on his chest,
which, back then, was supposed
to be considerably bigger than
Twiggy's.