Viking_Yearbook_69

"There's a great deal of talk on American campuses about relevance . There's a great deal of worry that perhaps the campus isn't in sufficient contact with real life. But perhaps we can begin to stop worrying. It's possible nowadays to be clubbed over the head on an American campus faster than you can say 'ivory tower.' "One of the things that is most greatly troubling the students in this country is the Vietnam war. Most of them want very much for us to get out. And may I say that, as is true with most of these underlying student concerns, I share their dismay . And I spoke of that and I've been asked since a number of times 'Well, very well to put yourself on the side of angels, but how're you going to do it, say something practi– cal, do you have a plan?' And I want to say to you now, yes, I have a plan. I'll tell you how to get out of Vietnam. In ships. "We've heard a lot of talk about a generation gap . I don't think there is a generation gap that has any– thing to do with age. I don't feel it in my own case and I'm 62. And I hope my students don't feel it. There is a gap ... but I don't think it has anything to do with age. It's somewhere else. It's between the people who are finding their satisfactions, status, position in society, income, and what have you, in polluting the air and water, and surrounding us with more armaments than we know what to do with, and keepingus at war. It's the gap between them and the people, young, and old, who have to try to live with those conditions. "I'll tell you what I think is bothering students most of all. They are terribly bothered with a sense of frustration. They feel that things are all wrong and they don't know what to do to make them right or even better, so they do anything that comes close. But I think I can tell you something that's bothering them even more deeply, and that is , not their frustra– tion, but our frustration. Not that they can't help themselves, but that we , their parents, don 't seem to be able to help ourselves . That's what is bothering them. Don't kid yourselves , behind all the arrogance is a kid . Forgive me , you who are here, fo r my calling you kids . Believe me, I do it in affection and no disparagement . .. the best thing we could do fo r them, w e older people, is to gi e them a lillie mar confidence in our ability to conduct our affairs . "Believe me , you produce some adult unres t and the students will go back to class and leave it all tn you."- George Wald