alternative: Crisis at Columbia

One of the benefits of looking back on our past is not only to be reminded about facts from 50 years ago but also to gain insight into the maturity of how we were thinking and writing in those days.

Although I don’t remember this particular publication (the alternative), reading the first story, Columbia in Perspective by John Meyer (Yale ’67; Herbert Lehman Fellow, Political Science, Columbia), reminded me that “history” tends to simplify events, and many of the nuances of moments we lived through get lost.

I view the events at Columbia during those days as a positive part of the wellspring against the War in Vietnam.  The events at Columbia in the Spring of 1968 were not, however, as simple and pure as I remembered them before reading this then-contemporary account.  Clearly troubling to me now are the anti-democratic positions of SDS.  Viewed in comparison to today’s radical groups, SDS seems more impactful, and possibly even more violent, leading me to wonder about the role of violence in political change.

I must admit that from my still politically unsophisticated vantage point, I am still confused about all of this — just as I was in 1968.

I recommend that you download a copy (right-click on the link and “save target as”), print the story (or any article for that matter), and read it in its entirety to see what old emotions it evokes and what new insights YOU get from this 50-year vantage point.

alternative: Vol. 1, No. 2;  May 1968

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