Protests in a New World

New transfer students to MSU were required to live on campus, so I was about to have my first experience with living in a dorm. I was excited, and had planned well. Dad and Gram drove me to the campus, about a one and one-half hour drive from Flint.  MSU is located in East Lansing, abutting the Capital. I was assigned to Akers, and had three other roommates, none of whom I knew of course.

Life was hectic in those first weeks to be sure. We were early as I recall, transfer and new freshmen both arrived before everyone else so we could get oriented without the pressure of a full campus. In MSU’s case, that full campus numbered 40,000, making it one of the largest in the country.

My roommates were nice, we got along fine, the dorm food was okay. We were all excited about classes. At that time, a liberal arts core curriculum was still required. So on top of the political science classes I was taking, I also was taking a language and a couple of other things I no longer recall. I do recall the language thing. I took French, and many dorms had language modules where you could use headphones and do homework and language practice. I definitely did not find it easy. I had taken a semester of Spanish in high school, the only language offered, and I don’t know why I didn’t continue with that, but I didn’t.

It was some time during that first quarter, (MSU operated on a four quarter system), I received a letter from the University “Honor’s College” informing me that I had been accepted into that “fraternity/sorority.” I had not applied, it was something based solely on grades. I guess my transfer grades were the basis. In any case, it allowed me to waive all core curriculum requirements, and the first thing I did was withdraw from the French class, which was taking up entirely too much of my time. I did enjoy the freedom, and over the next two years took extra political science classes as well as general things that interested me such as astronomy, abnormal psychology, philosophy, and Aristotelian philosophy.

I of course had no idea what practical application my political science would lead me to. I had even less idea what one would do with say a degree in anthropology or philosophy. I assumed one could do nothing but teach and for reasons I shall forever regret, I did not consider that a viable option. I do recall taking one education class and thought it was essentially childish and nonacademic.  As I later realized, I think my natural place in the universe was most likely the university life.

I did well in my political science classes and history. In fact, I did well in all. I never received anything less than a B throughout my two year stay at MSU. We spent the balance of our non-class time doing the usual things: football, hockey, and basketball were sports we usually frequented. We swam at the IM facilities, we visited the horse farms, we went to movies in the dorm theatres, lectures with visiting “celebrities,” pizza parties and beer bashes in the dorm rooms and local bars. 

MSU is a huge campus, I would say a good 4 square miles in size. Campus buses were going 24 hours a day and you could pick them up everywhere, so it was easy to get around. But we did walk a good deal and knew a huge number of shortcuts, cutting across IM fields and through buildings. Often one class was on the opposite side of the campus from the next one, and there was a 20 minute break between classes generally. You learned when it was faster to walk and when to ride over time.

All in all, it was a wonderful time. By the beginning of the second year I was already bemoaning that my time there would be short. Three of us from the dorm moved into an apartment the senior year. It was off campus of course, but only by a street crossing. The complex abutted the campus and was actually quite close to our original dorm. We enjoyed that immensely, cooking for ourselves, and with two actual bedrooms. Things went pretty much the same as usual. I began to ponder just what in the world I was going to do next. As i said, I had no idea what I could do with a bachelors in liberal arts and a major in political science.

I’ve since come to the conclusion that colleges ought to be 5 years in length. The first year ought to be open to pure experimentation without grades. Take every course in any subject that you think is interesting. Coming from the small suburban school that I did, did not in any way present me with the vast array of options available to me. I’m sure that’s true for most kids. Especially when you have no one you can look to for advice in your family or neighborhood.  I would do things quite differently if I could do it again. I’d probably have majored in philosophy and probably theology and biblical studies. I find them endless fascinating today and still spend time with heavy tomes of scholarly discourse on one or another book of the bible.

The Vietnam war was a strange appellation in my life. As I alluded to earlier, I believe one young man who had graduated some years before me, had died there before I graduated high school. And then, three of our crowd enlisted after high school and went. That first summer after graduation, we spent a good deal of time writing letters. But since I was not “going” with any of them, they naturally spent more time writing back to those who were more intimately involved with them.

In junior college, I recall that we had a “war” seminar day. Classes were suspended and we went to lectures and rallies on campus all day. That is where I saw my first and only rendition of a Greek play. Lysistrata, by Aristophanes. It was amazingly funny and good. Women withholding sexual favors from their men in order to recall them from warring. It was invigorating, and we felt important and responsible. I recall my mother’s husband left the room when I arrived one evening, fresh from a rally, with a black arm band on. Later Mother told me that he would not be in the same house with me. He was a WWII vet and was defined by the phrase, “Love it or leave it.”  We actually met for lunch a few times secretly before he relented. I kept my anti-war issues out of the conversation from that point on.

At MSU, by 1970, the anti-war movement was really getting hot. Not as hot as elsewhere. We closed down no campus, nor invaded no admin buildings. We did march, and we got gassed. That was bad, but the wind blew the gas across campus and we got it again back at our dorm. But for the most part, campus was fairly quiet. We were spared a good deal of the violence that attended other schools.

I was forever against the war. I don’t recall ever a time when i was not apposed to it. But as I recall, i also was a bit more preoccupied with my own life to spend more than the obligatory time working against it. That was also true of my next educational foray: law school. I cheered from the sidelines, ineffectually, and deep in my heart I knew that I was somewhat of a weakling in that respect. I had no desire or intention of risking arrest. I had no intention of delaying my education and my life. I was a hanger on, and not a mover and shaker. I guess I learned that about myself. It was to be essentially true all my life. I’m much better writing my anger at this or that out in this safe haven than marching and chanting. I am a coward, deep down.

Oh, I do not say that in deep shame mind you. Being a coward is in my opinion rather rational and life protecting. I have yet to find any THING worth dying for. I may well die for SOMEONE, but I cannot conceive doing it for SOMETHING. Perhaps that has more to do with the fact that I never had children. So, in a sense, I have never understood the soldier. Running toward the sound of gunfire seems, well, insane. I am not insane, though I admit to a certain number of neurotic tendencies. So I cheered when LBJ decided not to run again, but I cannot claim that I had anything to do with it.

Next: friendships come and go, and never stay.