~Wtt&1 - - Hoover Library

To Catcha Fish byD,,;dLC.rrasco,'67As we stood tnlkmg one evening next to the wooden house (three rooms all stilts)where another S.O.S. worker and I lived, the young Puerto Rican school teacher told mewhat S.O.S. was all about. Short, muscular Romualdo Martinez, who had fought in theKorean conflict and whose English was the most adequate I'd heard in the barrio, spokewith enthusiastic determination. His eyes and words penetrated my own realm of thought."As I was trying to tell the people of EI Coco this last evening when we explainedthe sanitation program, we do not want to give them the 'Bsh' but we want to teachthem 'how to catch the fish: I'm not so sure that your program is doing this. 'Ve cannotjust bring trucks and men here to take away their trash. We have to teach themthe method of trash removal without depending on bucks or the government or on yourpeople. The people themselves must be taught the concept, the idea. We must communicatethe meaning of sanitation to them. That is what I mean when I say we mustteach them 'how to catch the fish: Without this kind of a program significant contributionis automatically limited."While the S.O.S. is working in communitydevelopment trying to teach people 'how tocatch a 6sh,' the volunteers themselves arelearning what it means to be a fisherman.Today, on the campus, there are moreand more students and professors (and, onoccasion administrators) who are trying tolearn 'hew to catch a fish.' Don't take theanalogy on all fours. But, the silent generationhas become a restless one and is bellowingout some rather profound and farreaching groans.College students are standing up to becounted, sitting in for results, getting o~tto be responsible, marching forward Insearch of change and authenticity. That iswhat is involved in catching Martinez' fish.He was talking about the lifeblood of theeducational experience.The unrest on the campuses across thenation and the unrest on Western Maryland'scampus is Ior the most part a positiveresponse to some very negative conditions.Irving Kristole, in his article "What's buggingthe student" writes it very plamly,possibly too plainly for members of thesilent generation to digest. "It is above ~1I,an existentialist revolt (see November 65issue of THE MAGAZINE). The term isunfortunately chic and ambiguous. But inthis context it has a fairly definite meaning.The students are in rebellion not so muchbecause things are bad for them or forothers, but because things are the way theyare for them and for others. They arebored."Roland Liebert in his article, "The ProtestMood of Students," carries the idea furtherand says it with more clarity. "Nearly .aUcampus protests, while themselves. beingconsidered by students a form of socml service,have served as well to strengthen theopportunities for the continued growth ofthis ethic in new areas." He is speaking ofthe ethic of social service which is the mostcreative facet of the protest movement. It isprotest and demonstration transmuted intoservice-active service.Western Maryland is not without its negativeconditions to be sure, but more importantis that it has had some gut-level unrestand demonstrations in the form of the S.O.S.movement, the tutoring projects on Unionand Charles Streets, the teach-in on Vietnam,the pilgrimage of concern which sawfour students spend their spring vacationshelping Negroes in the South register tovote, the statement and position paper onfraternities and the May Day demonstration.my fellow students would say,As one ofthere arc waves in the bathtub.One merely needs to look past the glorifiedfacade of the S.O.S. to recognize that thefield projects are statements of protestagainst traditionally dull status quo. Theorigin Student Opportunities Service is aofcase in point. A visiting lecturer. accused thecollege generation of being uncommitted,uninvolved and narrow. This was in 1963and students on the Hill looked around ateach other, at what the College had to offer,and saw that it was true. A handful gatheredwith a concerned professor and demonstratedtheir defiant attitude by organizinga service orga~ization and by launchingOperation Philippines the same year. Asthis article is being written there are 21volunteer workers in Puerto Rico and Appalachialiving out the ethic social service.ofThe fact that Western Maryland has beenrepresented in the Philippines, in the Antilles,in Appalachia by field service teamsconsisting of students who finance their owntrips, organize their own training, initiateand co-ordinate projects with citizens in thebarrios where they live, is a demonstrationof youth searching for reconciliation and achance to serve. The plain fact, that thepage eleven