DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1970 | ""Iowa '70: Riot, Rhetoric, Responsibility?"" Page 12

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University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1970

""Iowa '70: Riot, Rhetoric, Responsibility?"" Page 12

8

exaggerate possible dangers."
The institution (by election or coup) of a Vietnamese government unfriendly to the U.S. may have resulted in tangible disastrous effects. However, after intervention the odds are trivial. The military then points of the disaster that could have occurred as an answer to dissent.
It is this turn of mind that may have led President Boyd to call for the arrest of 215 students on the seventh.  The cost of the actions are born by those who have no potential to injure the decision-maker. The results of an under reaction are the only possible detriments to him.
Kenneth Boulding, who was on campus May 7, discussed the dynamics of today's political systems. He described the process as a "threat system." It is this sort of "tit-for-tat" maneuvering that has made the over-reaction turn of mind seem plausible--even mandatory.
It therefore seems that the attitude that has culminated in Cambodia, Kent and the arrests if the seventh is not repression, as the liberals might have it, fascism, as the radicals would say, but rather a seemingly logical outgrowth of the threat system of administering a conflict.
The bonded students, the Kent survivors, or the Vietnamese might point up the short-sightedness of such an argument. Crucial actions taken because the consequences are someone else's cannot be justified from a moral viewpoint. As the campus incresingly parrots the division of the nation and as confrontation tactics produce the reactions of the threat sytstem, it becomes increasingly evident that the actions can not be justified even from a utilitarian view.
Boyd's semi-admission of error separates him from his military counterparts. But the lingering of the national guard until the thirteenth and the injunction of the sixth exemplify extreme security seeking at such vast costs that students are challenged to find a solution to the sort of fearful thinking that will exploit the full divisive potential of each effort of protest.

About the Bust
I was arrested for disobeying an officer when he told me to leave the grounds in front of Old Capitol. I refused to move because I was tired.
I was tired of Vietnam and Cambodia and every other manifestation of imperialism; I was tired of seeing my friends killed, jailed, exiled, or turned into murderers for a cause nobody can quite believe in anymore. I was tired of watching people get hurt, killed, or busted by other people; I was tired of conservatives telling me repression is necessary and liberals telling me repression is all a nightmarish mistake. And I was tired of jumping when someone with more authority than I said jump.
So I sat there. And I got busted, along with 227 brothers and sisters. They took us away in four University of Iowa buses to a Civic Center garage. The next day I got booked, fingerprinted, photographed, bored, arraigned, and bailed out.
My feelings, as I remember them, were jumbled but acute; I felt confident that the stand I had taken was right; I felt worried about money and my lack of it and about the effects an arrest would have on future job opportunities. I felt sorry because I knew my parents would be hurt and angry.
I felt impatient as we sat there, arms linked, waiting for the cops, and I felt fear when they finally appeared and we were trapped, with our convictions, ideals, and unity, between armed state authority and the symbol of the University of Iowa. But most of all, I felt frustration and despair. The cops I saw before me were not pigs; they were my brothers and their faces said they weren't any happier to be there than I was.
I wondered how they could have chosen to be standing on that side; had they ever heard of Vietnam or Cambodia? Had theyseen the pictures of the Kent State murders? Did they condone the presence of a militaristic, racist extension of the nation's defense system on our campus? Didn't they know we were sitting there for them? Didn't they care?.....But we had cbhosen sides and we each had our jobs to do.

Saving...

8 exaggerate possible dangers." The institution (by election or coup) of a Vietnamese government unfriendly to the U.S. may have resulted in tangible disastrous effects. However, after intervention the odds are trivial. The military then points of the disaster that could have occurred as an answer to dissent. It is this turn of mind that may have led President Boyd to call for the arrest of 215 students on the seventh. The cost of the actions are born by those who have no potential to injure the decision-maker. The results of an under reaction are the only possible detriments to him. Kenneth Boulding, who was on campus May 7, discussed the dynamics of today's political systems. He described the process as a "threat system." It is this sort of "tit-for-tat" maneuvering that has made the over-reaction turn of mind seem plausible--even mandatory. It therefore seems that the attitude that has culminated in Cambodia, Kent and the arrests if the seventh is not repression, as the liberals might have it, fascism, as the radicals would say, but rather a seemingly logical outgrowth of the threat system of administering a conflict. The bonded students, the Kent survivors, or the Vietnamese might point up the short-sightedness of such an argument. Crucial actions taken because the consequences are someone else's cannot be justified from a moral viewpoint. As the campus incresingly parrots the division of the nation and as confrontation tactics produce the reactions of the threat sytstem, it becomes increasingly evident that the actions can not be justified even from a utilitarian view. Boyd's semi-admission of error separates him from his military counterparts. But the lingering of the national guard until the thirteenth and the injunction of the sixth exemplify extreme security seeking at such vast costs that students are challenged to find a solution to the sort of fearful thinking that will exploit the full divisive potential of each effort of protest. About the Bust I was arrested for disobeying an officer when he told me to leave the grounds in front of Old Capitol. I refused to move because I was tired. I was tired of Vietnam and Cambodia and every other manifestation of imperialism; I was tired of seeing my friends killed, jailed, exiled, or turned into murderers for a cause nobody can quite believe in anymore. I was tired of watching people get hurt, killed, or busted by other people; I was tired of conservatives telling me repression is necessary and liberals telling me repression is all a nightmarish mistake. And I was tired of jumping when someone with more authority than I said jump. So I sat there. And I got busted, along with 227 brothers and sisters. They took us away in four University of Iowa buses to a Civic Center garage. The next day I got booked, fingerprinted, photographed, bored, arraigned, and bailed out. My feelings, as I remember them, were jumbled but acute; I felt confident that the stand I had taken was right; I felt worried about money and my lack of it and about the effects an arrest would have on future job opportunities. I felt sorry because I knew my parents would be hurt and angry. I felt impatient as we sat there, arms linked, waiting for the cops, and I felt fear when they finally appeared and we were trapped, with our convictions, ideals, and unity, between armed state authority and the symbol of the University of Iowa. But most of all, I felt frustration and despair. The cops I saw before me were not pigs; they were my brothers and their faces said they weren't any happier to be there than I was. I wondered how they could have chosen to be standing on that side; had they ever heard of Vietnam or Cambodia? Had theyseen the pictures of the Kent State murders? Did they condone the presence of a militaristic, racist extension of the nation's defense system on our campus? Didn't they know we were sitting there for them? Didn't they care?.....But we had cbhosen sides and we each had our jobs to do.