Sports Should Cease

( The following is the majority opinion of the sportswriters of the CRIMSON.)

We are saddened by and disgusted with President Nixon's misuse of power, particularly with his recent escalation of the conflict in Southeast Asia. His conduct calls for a determined resistance to business as usual and for large-scale efforts to take effective political action in place of such business.

We know of no athlete who is opposed to immediate withdrawal of troops and advisors from Asia. If these athletes are sincere in their beliefs and if they have more than a passing interest in these policies, they should be willing to do whatever they can to register protest and to help change the minds of people who now favor or ignore Nixon's actions in Asia. In order to do these things, athletes should curtail sports activity and use the time thus freed for political activity. Sports at Harvard should cease for the final ten days of intercollegiate competition.

Protest by different teams is a partial step in the right direction. Athletes can register their dissatisfaction with the events which have caused the present crisis by refusing to participate in sports. Or, if they do participate, they could protest in some way similar to the actions taken by John Carlos at the Olympic Games.

But athletes should go beyond this. This strike should be one not just of students registering their disapproval of foreign and domestic policies, but it should be one of a broad cross section of society. It should be obvious that these other segments of the population cannot be incorporated into this movement without leafleting and other work by students who are willing to take action outside the university. In order to spend the time necessary for these activities to be successful, athletes simply cannot in good faith spend two or three hours a day playing sports. And any athlete who has voted in favor of suspending academic work cannot justify athletic participation during this time.

We realize that we are asking much of teams such as the track squad and the crew, which have trained throughout the year and which have their most important opponents scheduled for this weekend. But if individuals on these teams feel strongly about the issues, and if they look at things in perspective, we feel that they will also decide that it is best if they refuse to participate. It is a request for a major commitment, but this is a crisis.

The CRIMSON, of course, has a limited amount of space for stories, and we think that the space we normally use for sports coverage should be used instead for news stories on the crisis because it is of greater importance. In addition, we all want to make this strike an effective one and will therefore engage in efforts ourselves to help the movement rather than devote time to writing sports. This is a sacrifice for us because we enjoy covering sports and reporting them. We are not seeking to avoid the responsibility of writing sports.

However, since we do not wish to completely ignore sports sports events simply because we do not approve of their going on, we will print scores of most varsity contests.