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Student protests, 1972-1973

1972-01-30 New York Times Magazine Article: ""Metamorphosis Of A Campus Radical"" Page 11

year's. He deputized a troop of monitors and, as it turned out, they were needed, for May Day ushered in a fortnight of peace rallies and skirmishes with the police. It was the final phase of the revolutionary cycle, a time of parade, of a challenging of motives and of squabbling over them. 
On Wednesday, May 5, a large crowd was drawn to the Pentacrest by the rumor that, in emulation of Indochina war tactics a dog was to be burned on the Old Capitol steps. When it was learned that no consenting animal could be found, the crowd moved off. The demonstrators were in an exuberant mood as they trooped the business district in a show of righteous force, but here they were menaced and scattered by a fast moving pickup truck bearing the name Barny's DX, a nearby gas station. The air of a traditional collegiate rite turned vindictive as the demonstrators converged on Barny's DX, broke its windows and the surged through campus and town breaking hundreds more, at the post office, the Field House Armory and throughout the business district. A Daily Iowan photographer caught a historic moment, Ted Politis and a dozen monitors, arms upraised in a vain attempt to protect Iowa Book and Supply's plate glass against their classmates flying rocks. 
There were 26 arrests that night and at quarter past 3 in the morning a bomb made of three sticks of dynamite exploded at the police station. Although no one was hurt, resentment grew and culminated five days later in an all night battle between

were equally displeased, admitting it had been an ugly night, one in which even old comrades had lost their humanness. They view it now as the end of a revolutionary cycle and the beginning of the disillusion which prevails today. 
Reasons for that disillusionment are real. Despite radical skepticism, the war was wound down and the changing economy has altered most of the issues.Refusal to work for the makers of napalm would be a rather empty gesture in today's job market. 
Indeed the whole, sharp, black and white picture of four years ago has gone blurred and gray. Students no longer see the possibility of participating in and effecting political change. The villains are harder to spot and the heroes are dead or dying. Chappaquiddick was a hero death, as significant in its way as Martin Luther King's; and Ralph Nader, once a true knight, had gone gray as General Motors in his own institutionalizing. 
Radicals believe the war is being waged as vigorously as ever. Even though Americans are no longer shooting at Asians face-to-face, American bombers are dropping their loads, wiping out villages wholesale, and it is not even reported. They are as angry as ever about it but frustrated. 
Jerry Seis, a New Yorker in the Writers' Workshop, claims to be a radical leader of Iowa City and the only real radical left. "The peace movement isn't together anymore," he says. "Energy is low and consciousness-raising is not what it should be. The old radicals have moved on, or they have families and are 

THE HULK- Stan Lee's comic book character on the wall provides both the name for this Iowa campus hangout and a symbol for the latent power of the university's 20,000 students. The Hulk, when aroused, is "capable of seismic destruction."

tect the goods at Iowa Book, this perverting the monitor concept, which is to protect the students from harm. Similarly, thy see in such profitable enterprises as The Hulk saloon one more perversion of the originally idealistic Iowa Student Agencies, and in Politis's reluctance to fund abortion counseling, the duplicity of a man who has sold out. 
This cross fire is coming from the new kind of radical who is convinced that the revolution is in fact going beautifully, with a whole new set of issues. These are not national issues, for the radicals believe that they have failed at political action and must now turn inward to more real and personal projects. "You can take care of your own life and liberate yourself," Debbie Bayer says "When you read 'The Whole Earth Catalog' you know it. 

an she is a symbol of male success. If society is the enemy, Hugh Hefner is an archvillain and cosmetics are a major evil, not as an expression of female vanity but in this latest sense of her enslavement. Unlike a man, her actual body, actual complexion are inadequate, her gray hair and lined face unacceptable. "Why are we not good enough the way we come?" they ask. "What have you done to us?"
The Women's Center operates along collectivist lines, a sharing of authority and responsibility. There is neither boss nor fall girl, "If you are willing to work, you must accept the same responsibility as the others," says one worker. Members give their time and energy to two kinds of endeavor. The first, predictably is consciousness raising for themselves and others; and 

commune, breaking down the family pattern in favor of the community, of sexual freedom, and of the group taking the responsibility of loving and bring up the children. 
The pioneer day care center, called Dum Dum, occupies a bare, university owned house near the football stadium. When I called there a few weeks ago I found the 2 year olds toddling about daubing each other with paint. Two men sat at a kitchen table, one doing water colors, the other comforting a child on his lap while a woman watched. A third man walked by with a plastic bag full of diapers I was told that ordinarily the work is shared evenly between men and women. On the bulletin board I found some conventional messages: "Chris must have a nap - he may not go outside." and "Lane is miss

N.Y. TImes Magazine
JANUARY 30, 1972 

"Metamorphosis of a Campus Radical" 
11 (of 12)

19

Saving...

year's. He deputized a troop of monitors and, as it turned out, they were needed, for May Day ushered in a fortnight of peace rallies and skirmishes with the police. It was the final phase of the revolutionary cycle, a time of parade, of a challenging of motives and of squabbling over them. On Wednesday, May 5, a large crowd was drawn to the Pentacrest by the rumor that, in emulation of Indochina war tactics a dog was to be burned on the Old Capitol steps. When it was learned that no consenting animal could be found, the crowd moved off. The demonstrators were in an exuberant mood as they trooped the business district in a show of righteous force, but here they were menaced and scattered by a fast moving pickup truck bearing the name Barny's DX, a nearby gas station. The air of a traditional collegiate rite turned vindictive as the demonstrators converged on Barny's DX, broke its windows and the surged through campus and town breaking hundreds more, at the post office, the Field House Armory and throughout the business district. A Daily Iowan photographer caught a historic moment, Ted Politis and a dozen monitors, arms upraised in a vain attempt to protect Iowa Book and Supply's plate glass against their classmates flying rocks. There were 26 arrests that night and at quarter past 3 in the morning a bomb made of three sticks of dynamite exploded at the police station. Although no one was hurt, resentment grew and culminated five days later in an all night battle between were equally displeased, admitting it had been an ugly night, one in which even old comrades had lost their humanness. They view it now as the end of a revolutionary cycle and the beginning of the disillusion which prevails today. Reasons for that disillusionment are real. Despite radical skepticism, the war was wound down and the changing economy has altered most of the issues.Refusal to work for the makers of napalm would be a rather empty gesture in today's job market. Indeed the whole, sharp, black and white picture of four years ago has gone blurred and gray. Students no longer see the possibility of participating in and effecting political change. The villains are harder to spot and the heroes are dead or dying. Chappaquiddick was a hero death, as significant in its way as Martin Luther King's; and Ralph Nader, once a true knight, had gone gray as General Motors in his own institutionalizing. Radicals believe the war is being waged as vigorously as ever. Even though Americans are no longer shooting at Asians face-to-face, American bombers are dropping their loads, wiping out villages wholesale, and it is not even reported. They are as angry as ever about it but frustrated. Jerry Seis, a New Yorker in the Writers' Workshop, claims to be a radical leader of Iowa City and the only real radical left. "The peace movement isn't together anymore," he says. "Energy is low and consciousness-raising is not what it should be. The old radicals have moved on, or they have families and are THE HULK- Stan Lee's comic book character on the wall provides both the name for this Iowa campus hangout and a symbol for the latent power of the university's 20,000 students. The Hulk, when aroused, is "capable of seismic destruction." tect the goods at Iowa Book, this perverting the monitor concept, which is to protect the students from harm. Similarly, thy see in such profitable enterprises as The Hulk saloon one more perversion of the originally idealistic Iowa Student Agencies, and in Politis's reluctance to fund abortion counseling, the duplicity of a man who has sold out. This cross fire is coming from the new kind of radical who is convinced that the revolution is in fact going beautifully, with a whole new set of issues. These are not national issues, for the radicals believe that they have failed at political action and must now turn inward to more real and personal projects. "You can take care of your own life and liberate yourself," Debbie Bayer says "When you read 'The Whole Earth Catalog' you know it. an she is a symbol of male success. If society is the enemy, Hugh Hefner is an archvillain and cosmetics are a major evil, not as an expression of female vanity but in this latest sense of her enslavement. Unlike a man, her actual body, actual complexion are inadequate, her gray hair and lined face unacceptable. "Why are we not good enough the way we come?" they ask. "What have you done to us?" The Women's Center operates along collectivist lines, a sharing of authority and responsibility. There is neither boss nor fall girl, "If you are willing to work, you must accept the same responsibility as the others," says one worker. Members give their time and energy to two kinds of endeavor. The first, predictably is consciousness raising for themselves and others; and commune, breaking down the family pattern in favor of the community, of sexual freedom, and of the group taking the responsibility of loving and bring up the children. The pioneer day care center, called Dum Dum, occupies a bare, university owned house near the football stadium. When I called there a few weeks ago I found the 2 year olds toddling about daubing each other with paint. Two men sat at a kitchen table, one doing water colors, the other comforting a child on his lap while a woman watched. A third man walked by with a plastic bag full of diapers I was told that ordinarily the work is shared evenly between men and women. On the bulletin board I found some conventional messages: "Chris must have a nap - he may not go outside." and "Lane is miss N.Y. TImes Magazine JANUARY 30, 1972 "Metamorphosis of a Campus Radical" 11 (of 12) 19