The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 17, 1992 Page: 2 of 16
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2 FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1992 THE RICE THRESHER
OPINION
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Rice students 'too busy' to
make time for Berlin Wall
I despise apathy, yet am hypocritical because I exude it myself.
Because I am a Rice student who fills her schedule with classes and
activities, I do not make time for reading the newspaper every day or
campaigning regularly for the causes 1 believe in.
Monday my German 202 class braved the wind and ventured to the
far side of campus to visit the Berlin Wall, located between the Rice
Media Center and Center for Continuing Studies.
What is the significance of a piece of concrete? With all of the
attention, what is the wall except a larger version of a trinket on sale
at Foley's?
My instructor, a visiting professor from Germany, was insulted I'd
suggest buying a segment of this dismantled edifice. She didn't even
want anything to do with it, much less own a piece.
As for me, the crumbling of the wall had no personal significance.
I've never been to Germany and while the dismantling was a historic
event, it did not directly influence my life. Even when I read the article
in the Thresher as well as Rice News, I had been lazy and not visited the
curiosity on the other side of campus—until Monday. In my rush,
even when I saw movies at the Media Center, I didn't bother trying to
find the wall.
Monday, however, I was shocked. The wall, while only 12 feet high
and four feet wide, is oppressive. Its shadow alone is terrifying. The
foot, its foundation, stood on the western side, an ironic support for
the wall (I know that physically, this made the wall more difficult to
push over, but symbolically it is horrifying to think that the wall was
literally supported by the western side.)
My German class discussed the wall and the implications of its
dismantling. Why keep a segment on campus? Will it only serve as an
additional surface for graffiti, like the swing in the Hanszen quad? We
concluded no.
Browning-Ferris Industries donated the wall to remind us not to
accept authority blindly. Unfortunately, the wall is isolated—it would
be more appropriate and accessible in the RMC cloisters. However,
moving it is unlikely. Now the courtyard around the wall is even
landscaped.
Becau se we have never lived our lives restricted by the foundations
of a concrete slab, perhaps we do not always appreciate our freedom.
In the United States, at Rice University, we can act on our political
beliefs. We can celebrate Martin Luther King's Day and participate in
the Rice for Life or Rice for Choice candlelight vigil. We can choose.
However, we isolate ourselves by not making the trek across
campus.
One of the other editors said he saw the wall after watching
Bugsy—and the movie was more memorable. The wall was only a 12
foot piece of concrete with part of a word he didn't understand spray-
painted across the front.
All I can say is I'm sorry. I wish he could have witnessed my
German class.
—Ann Zitterkopf
Ann Zitterkopf, Harlan Howe
Editors-in-chief
Chad Carson
Managing Editor
NEWS
Leezie Kim Editor
Eric Carmichael, Kraettli
Epperson Assistant Editors
Ann Chettle, Sam Cole, Alyson
Goodwin, Eric Hahn, Kevin
Mistry, Shala Phillips
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Shala Phillips Editor
Ross Grady Columnist
Brian Beeghly, Neha "crutches"
Bhagat, Eric Hahn, Patricia Lin,
I,ou is Spiegler
PHOTOGRAPHY
Chris Sonneborn Editor
Eric Hahn Assistant Editor
Barbara Solon, James Yao
OPINION
Mark Schoenhals Editor
Bill Tanner Cartoonist
Ben Hippen, Lidya Osadchey
Collumnists
Phone: 527-4801
David Mansfield
Business Manager
SPORTS
Peter Howley Editor
Mike McCormick Scoreboard
Eric Anderson, Randy Block,
Lynanne Foster, Riva Rahl
BACKPAGE
Heidi Huettner Editor
M. Wasz Cartoonist
FEATURES
Shaila Dewan Editor
PRODUCTION
Josh Denk Production Manager
Thomas Anderson, Jeremy Hart,
John McCoy, David Hale
BUSINESS
Shane Speciale Ads Manager
Chris Cowles Assist. Bus. Man-
ager
George Nickas Ads Production
Keith LaFoe, Adrian C. liserio,
John Schwartz, Circulation
© COPYRIGHT 1992
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, Is
published each Friday during the school year, except during examination periods and
holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and business offices are located on
the second floor of the Ley Student Center, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas, 77251.
Advertising information available on request. Mall subscription rate per semester:
$15.00 domestic, $30.00 International via first class mall. Non-subscription rate: first
copy free, second copy $1.00. Letters to the editor must be received by 5 p.m. on the
Monday prior to publication. Unsigned editorials represent the majortty opinion of the
Thresher Editorial Staff. All other pieces represent the opinion of the author. Obviously.
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MLK days for celebration, contemplation
To the editors,
On January 15 and 20, we will not
be attending our scheduled classes.
Rice University does not cancel
classes in honor of either the birthday
or the observance of Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and we feel it would
be a grievous error on our part to not
pay tribute to this man for his con-
tributions to our society.
America experienced a social up-
heaval during the 1960s. Heroes were
made and great ones died. Reflecting
on these social events, we—as Afri-
can-Americans—recognize the sac-
rifices made by civil rights leaders of
that era. Their determination and
diligence in gaining the promises of
social equality and opportunity in-
spires present and future genera-
tions.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
epitomized and embodied the perse-
verance of a selfless civil rights
movement. Thus, as African-Ameri-
can citizens, we find it necessary to
honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
on his birthday.
Further, as African-American
members of the Rice community, we
Great African-
Americans like
Rev. Martin
Luther King,
Jr., made it
possible for us
to further our
educations
at prestigious
universities
like Rice.
are especially mindful of his endeav-
ors. For it was not until 1965, at the
height of the civil rights fight, that
Rice University broke the will of its
founder and admitted the first Afri-
can-American student Were it not
for the contributions of great African-
Americans like Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr., it is unlikely we would have
this opportunity to further our educa-
tion at this and other prestigious in-
stitutions of higher learning.
By boycotting classes on both
January 15 and 20, we effectively es-
tablish that Rev. Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s work and suffering in the face of
adversity were notin vain. Moreover,
it serves as an opportunity to reflect
on and pay tribute to all African-
Americans who fought to secure our
generation a chance at a better life.
We realize that we cannot compel
all African-Americans in the Rice
community to support our actions,
butwe do askthatyou remember the
fight and continue to support the
cause.
Michael Quigley
Aaran Green
Jones, '94
Stalinism not the only bad Marxism
To the editors:
I read with astonishment Dr.
Maria Todorova's allegation that
Stalinism was the only kind of
Marxism taught in Soviet-occupied
eastern Europe between 1945-89
(Rice Thresher, January 10). This al-
legation is false. In most countries of
eastern Europe, such as Poland,
Unable to convey
the subtlety of
their arguments
without the Red
Army, Marxists in
eastern Europe
are in danger of
going the way of
the dinosaur.
Stalinism was dead after 1956, and
Marxist "revisionists," as they were
then called, began to advance much
more sophisticated and subtle ver-
sions of Marxism
These versions included a critique
of Stalinist and Leninist determin-
ism, a critique of attempts to explain
all culture in terms of class struggle,
acritique of attempts to deduce moral
values from simplistic historical
periodization, and renewed empha-
sis on the role of the subject in his-
tory. Gyorgy Luk&cs, Antonio
Gramsci and many other west and
east European Marxists were the
object of interest of the Marxist phi-
losophers who then published and
taught at Warsaw's colleges and
universities.
This is a matter of historical
record. In addition to these facts, I
have personal recollection of the
situation in the 1960s when I was a
student at the University of Warsaw
and was taught philosophy by Pro-
fessor Bronislaw Backo, arevisionist
Marxist but not a Stalinist (at least
not at the time when he taught me).
He emigrated to Switzerland in 1968,
and I do not know his subsequent
views.
But another and better known neo-
Marxist philosopher, Leszek
Kolakowski of the Univeristy of
Warsaw (currently at Oxford), has
since repudiated Marxism in his
Main Currents of Marxism (Oxford
Press). Now he is given "the silent
treatment" by the neo-Marxist frater-
nity in the West for his extensive and
devastating survey of the subtle fal-
lacies and mendacities of post-
Gramscian Marxism
At present, all varieties of Marx-
ism are in some disfavor in eastern
Europe, having ruined that region
and the people who live there. De-
prived of the assistance of the KGB
and the Red Army in bringing home
to the people the subtlety and sophis-
tication of their arguments, post-
Gramscians and other Marxists in
eastern Europe are in real danger of
It is interesting to
find Institutes of
Failed Ideas
in American
universities
where post-
Gramscian
Marxists are
preserved.
going the way of the sabre toothed
tiger and the dinosaur. How interest-
ing to find in some American univer-
sities Institutes of Failed Ideas where
post-Gramscian Marxists continue to
be preserved and nurtured.
Ewa M. Thompson
Professor of Slavic Studies
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 17, 1992, newspaper, January 17, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245801/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.