2008 Woodie Awards
Old News
Waiting for Another War?
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: News
From the Nov. 15, 1945 issue of
The Maine Campus
Have you liked what the world has gone through the past ten years? Is your conscious clear about Ethiopia, and Munich? Do you want to have another war?
Most Americans say "No!"
But today's headlines tell us that we are building only a patchwork peace - a temporary cessation of hostilities. Europe is not really at peace. Starvation and disease are rampant.
What does such a picture mean to those who have suffered and sacrificed so much, these last ten years? The war has come close to many of us on campus; what does it mean to us?
If we do not want the whole of Europe to become what Nazi Germany became after the last war, we must follow through to clean and constructive ends. Famines and plagues will lead to absolutist governments. Warped leaders will kindle the fire of war by preaching a hatred of America. The pattern for European action following this war might well be the same as that of Germany after World War I.
We really did not throw our weight around against aggression, both military and economic, after the last war. We sat back while Hitler invaded France, Norway, Russia, Africa … We let him call us decadent.
It is certain that peace will be lost if disease and starvation sweep Europe. If we are apathetic, if we continue concentrating on the end of our noses and no further, we will establish a whole generation of Europeans who will hate us and who will want to destroy us. Europe must be cleaned up. Europe must be nourished both physically and mentally.
If we are not active now, all Europe will become the breeding-ground of another war, just as Germany was the breeding-ground of this last one. However, there are many ways college students and faculty can bring about action. Our chance is now, not tomorrow. After the last war, we were not interested in taking our chance. Too much of history piled up at our heels. The world went to war.
Now is the time to start. Every minute that this confusion and world frustration continues, the odds for peace grows worse. We, the students around the world, are the ones to initiate more action.
We are not alone, here at Maine. All over the world, reasonable people are grasping for a rational program of peace. And many of these reasonable people are in academic institutions, teaching and learning, fighting for peace.
If we are fully active now, there is still chance to earn a stable, sane peace for ourselves, our children, and Europe's children.
For the sake of long-range peace, let's think this problem over.
The Maine Campus
Have you liked what the world has gone through the past ten years? Is your conscious clear about Ethiopia, and Munich? Do you want to have another war?
Most Americans say "No!"
But today's headlines tell us that we are building only a patchwork peace - a temporary cessation of hostilities. Europe is not really at peace. Starvation and disease are rampant.
What does such a picture mean to those who have suffered and sacrificed so much, these last ten years? The war has come close to many of us on campus; what does it mean to us?
If we do not want the whole of Europe to become what Nazi Germany became after the last war, we must follow through to clean and constructive ends. Famines and plagues will lead to absolutist governments. Warped leaders will kindle the fire of war by preaching a hatred of America. The pattern for European action following this war might well be the same as that of Germany after World War I.
We really did not throw our weight around against aggression, both military and economic, after the last war. We sat back while Hitler invaded France, Norway, Russia, Africa … We let him call us decadent.
It is certain that peace will be lost if disease and starvation sweep Europe. If we are apathetic, if we continue concentrating on the end of our noses and no further, we will establish a whole generation of Europeans who will hate us and who will want to destroy us. Europe must be cleaned up. Europe must be nourished both physically and mentally.
If we are not active now, all Europe will become the breeding-ground of another war, just as Germany was the breeding-ground of this last one. However, there are many ways college students and faculty can bring about action. Our chance is now, not tomorrow. After the last war, we were not interested in taking our chance. Too much of history piled up at our heels. The world went to war.
Now is the time to start. Every minute that this confusion and world frustration continues, the odds for peace grows worse. We, the students around the world, are the ones to initiate more action.
We are not alone, here at Maine. All over the world, reasonable people are grasping for a rational program of peace. And many of these reasonable people are in academic institutions, teaching and learning, fighting for peace.
If we are fully active now, there is still chance to earn a stable, sane peace for ourselves, our children, and Europe's children.
For the sake of long-range peace, let's think this problem over.
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