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Show Challenge Week participants diversified, articulate Challenge Week was diversified and the various participants were articulate. Far reaches of thought, as well as the more traditional notions, were capably presented. For everyone attending, there was a confrontation with their beliefs. To reach those provoked by religious discussion and philosophical philo-sophical speculation, a panel of noted local theists on Monday sought to establish, that society, its very nature, needs to believe in a Superior Being. Such a belief, Drs. Covey, Eyring and Warner asserted, gave men a standard to judge their actions by and served as a metaphysical notivation to spurn men toward treating each other in a humane way. Avoided in the discussion, however, was whether such a Being actually exists. But maybe that is not important; belief might be enough. Religious Discussion A marked contrast to the Monday Mon-day panel, where there was virtual unanimity of thought among panel members, was the debate between Dr. Truman Madsen (philosophy, BYU) and Dr. Waldemar Reed (professor emenitus of philosophy) University. Uni-versity. Tempers flared in agentlc-manly agentlc-manly manner, but the question was driven home: Can or cannot God correct the ills of the world? And if He won't, should we be at all concerned about His existence? Instead of looking skyward for some re-assurance, is it not better to adopt a system of prospective pragmatism and an abiding faith in the ability of Man to solve his own problems? While heresay for some and Truth for others, the meeting of those two giants of thought was clearly the high point in the week for those of such intellectual bent. On Monday, a panel on the End the Draft Movement gave certain insights into the draft's function. While philosophies and tempers - clashed, one tiling was made clear: The draft, at least for now, is here to stay. Unfortunately, the central point was avoided. In a presumed democracy, is it consitent to compromise, com-promise, in the name of national preservation, one of the basic tenets of that democracy - freedom free-dom of the individual? Issues from the political scene were ably discussed by Drs. May-field May-field and Williams of the Department Depart-ment of Political Science, William Lockhart of the President's Pornography Por-nography Commission, and State Senators Barlow, Bunnell and State Reps, Grundfossen and Pace. Predictably, Dr. Mayfield delivered a well-balanced and scholarly presentation concerning the Middle East situation. To the consternation of many local "true believers" who felt that they knew all about pornography, William Lockhart's speech provided pro-vided a well documented rebuttal to the popular notions concerning this subject. While Mr. Lockhart fiercly defended his belief that adults should be allowed to see or read whatever they please, he hastened to add that pornographic materials should be vigorously policed to keep them out of the hands of those under age. Political Ideas Somewhat euphemistically termed "The Successes of the 39th Legislature," the State Congressmen's Con-gressmen's presentation proved to be an enlightening bit of escapism. Adding salt to the Week's activities were a conglomeration of short movies dealing with Bobby Seale, anti-war sentiment, the balance of defense and domestic priorities and the ecological ecolo-gical crisis. The short films dealt in fine form with their topics though one occasionally had the distinct feeling that he was being propogandized. Dr. Vladimir Ussachcvsky's dissertation dis-sertation on the "Electronic Revolution Re-volution in Music" was thought-provoking. thought-provoking. His explanation of the history of the electronic take-over in music enlightened both the novice and music major in the audience. One wondered thougli-out thougli-out Ussachcvsky's admittedly brilliant bril-liant presentation if we are not losing some tiling when electrical impulses reproduce instrumented sounds. Despite the success of the Moog, there is something refreshing re-freshing and reassuring about experiencing ex-periencing Bach when played by a string quartet. Motivated Students All in all, Challenge Week was just that. Its diversity exposed great numbers of motivated students stu-dents to issues articulated by learned and persuasive people. Ralph Nader's very well attended j presentation on Wednesday was particularly good evidence of this. He said tilings that if said by anyone less noted and responsible would have been roundly condemned con-demned by the Establishment. Indeed, many of his pronouncements pronounce-ments dealt with the same issues confronting students during last spring's disturbances. And perhaps that is the most challenging - and disturbing -aspect of Challenge Week. If some of the presentations had been : given by a Ruben or a Welch, those thoughts - no matter how valid - would have been dismissed outright. It is not what is advocated advo-cated or proposed it matters not how valid an accusation or proposal pro-posal is. What matters is who says it. , |