Dadf What^s A Conscience
Unlikely question. Poor Dad.
Poor teacher. Even doctors
can” find it. It’s not an organ, a
bone, a tissue, a gland, a cell or a
fluid.
It could be something like an
appendix: vestigial, no longer
needed. No longer functioning.
Perhaps Webster’s definition
of conscience should be preceded
in brackets by “archaic”:
“knowledge or sense of right and
wrong, with a compulsion to do
right.” It even adds “moral
judgement that opposes the
violation of a previously
recognized ethical principle and
that leads to feelings of guilt if
one violates such a principle.”
Aha! The key word is
“previously.” Implying “not
necesarily valid now,” and
omitting “recognized by
whom?”
Roget’s Thesarus edges
closer. To Conscience it adds
words like “grace” and “inward
monitor.”
Call it perhaps a spiritual
muscle which, like all muscles,
slackens and withers away wnen
unused. It is abundantly clear
now that in the current absence
of ethical principle, tens of
thousands of Americans find
nothing wrong in stealing
anything from hotel towels and
ashtrays to the private files of
psychiatrists and the vaults of
public confidence. TTie ripoff is
now a social staple. Rape an old
woman for 75 cents, grab a buck
from a kid.
RIPOFF
And now the horrible
escalation of the ripoff in the
abduction of innocent human
beings - for hugq^ ransoms, and
by hallucinated bandits with
manic or “social” causes,.
;^d what else than a ripoff is
the sparing profit of certain huge
corporations in the face of
scarcities, or inflation-
depression^ Or the doctored
income-tax returns* of citizens,
joined by their President?
Where then has this “inward
monitor,” this “ethical prin
ciple” vanished in so many of us,
rich or poor? When was it exiled
along with “grace” and the
concepts of “discipline,” “right”
and “wrong”? It is one thing for
liberal dogmatists to sneer at the
word “p'ermissiveness” (the
middle-class bad sister of good-
brother “law and order”). Tbe
sneer nevertheless bypasses the
fact that neither home, school
nor church has managed to in
still or strengthen either ethical
principle or conscience in a host
of Americans ranging from
white collar to hard hat to blue
jeans to black skins to the
schoolchildren and adults in the
towns Md cities of this nation.
Certainly, honor and honesty
do exist. The invisible muscle,
the soundless voice still function
in thousands of unnamed men
and women everywhere. More
often, one might suggest, in
kyMARYAMANNES
those past middle age who were
punished for their betryal of
conscience in childhood either by
verbal thunder or silent treat
ment. Where love existed,
neither was cruel or imusual
punishment. They were the
natimal reactions of parents
who practiced what they
preached; a code of ethics where
none could take from another
what was his or hers, whether
goods or a good name.
EXCUSES
In schools, in their time,
mischief could be tolerated - but
not malfeasance; high spirits,
but not low deeds. Now, in big
city schools, it is the very brave
(and very endangered) teacher
who punishes malicious abuse,
theft, lying or even total un-
wQlingness to learn.
The excuses for tolerance are
manifold, beginning with simple
preservation of one’s ovm life
and ending with the familiar
litany of social causes; poverty,
ignorance, discrimination,
environment. Broken homes,
dullness of school routines and -
perhaps more pervasive - the
daily TV and movie diet of
violence and violation, por
nography versus love. And
always, in the aidless com
mercial pitch, the lust for
Things. Sprinkle with cynicism
(“Everybody does it”) and serve
to the public’s taste.
To withstand these, the muscle
of conscience, the inward
monitor once called “the still
small voice,” must be trained in
earliest childhood. How to
distinguish between what is good
and bad (let the cultural critics
sneer); how to recognize and
honor certain immutable
standards and traditions in
conduct and creation; how to
recognize beauty and reject
ugliness.
The trouble now is that street
and screen have to a large extent
superseded home, drowned out
family talk throu^ gangs and
gunfire or the massive electronic
bombardment that commands
the eyes, envelops the growing
ear and stifles the inner voice:
How can this voice compete,
let alone exist? Has the physical
damage to the eardrum (widely
acknowledged by qualified
observers of the effects of
prolonged amplification) its
moral equivalent; deafness to
values? Conscience does not
scream through a microphone, it
echoes silence.
You ask, then, what values are
left? Kindness, courage,
honesty, responsibility - cer
tainly they exist in fellow
Americans throughout this land
It IS more than likely that they
have shared in common parents
or pr^ences who cared enough
to instill them from the time they
could crawl. By love, by
prTOept, by words. By simple
daily judgments and acts of their
own.
Perhaps there are simply not
enough of them now to witastand
the tidal waves of greed and self
gratification. Our only hope,
then, is in a new breed of young
men and women who will follow
their intense hatred of war with
an equal disgust for daily
murders on neighborhood streets
and for nightly “entertainment”
by mass violence and loveless
sex.
REBIRTH
Somdiow the privacy nnH
tenderness of love will suner-
sede the public market of in
stant coupling.
^mehow the brutalities daily
committed against people by an
unresponsive government -
local, state and Federal - will no
longer be tolerable._to them.
If these young people (and
many are already b^inning to
do so) gradually take positions of
leadership in their communities,
their nation and their homes, a
rebirth of values may follow
them.
New parents may restore the
functions of that invisible organ
of conscience in their children.
So, importantly, might the long-
exiled grandparents be once
again a source of surviving and
immutaUe truths.
Clearly we stand in crucial
need of their common and in
dividual resuscitation. And the
sooner the better, if an already
fragmented society is not to
follow its leader into that heart of
diaos, the moral void.
. Newsweek,
line., 1974.
Reprinted by permission of
Marya Myrnes
[May *74, CROSSROADS, Page 7
ALUMNI NEWS From Page 6
’72 - 'Thanks for your note,_
Ralph Tileston, telling me that
you were discharged from the
Airce in March after four years
of service, and are presently
employed with New Jersey Bell
Telephone Co. as an installer.
Ralph and his wife live in
Burlington, N.J.
’73 - Congratulations and best
wishes to Joe Antosek and Linda
Diane Hill, who were married'
December 26 in Kansas City,
Kansas. Joe is a salesman with
Owens-Illinois suid as of January
1 is living in St. Louis, Missouri.
Salvatore DeSapio is operating
engineer for DeSapio Brothers,
■ contractors and builders in
Baptistown, N.J., and studying
to take the N.J. State
examination for real estate
salesman. He hopes to obtain his
Salesman’s license some time
this spring. Ed Ferris has ac
cepted a position with Burlington
Industries in Cramerton. It was
good to see Janet and Chris
Rasmussen when they visited
the Abbey in March while on
break from Virginia Com
monwealth University where
Chris will complete his graduate
studies in Business in June.
76 - It was good to see Chris
Johnston when he visited the
Abbey in January. He was still
on Christmas holiday from St.
Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.
INMEMORIAM
Wallace G. Dunham, Class of
1932.
'Wade H. WiUiford, Class of
i935.
Maynard Joyner, Class of 1944.
Paul F. Blackwelder, class of
1955
Dr. A.R. K^pel, Class of 1967
(L.H.D.)
Belmont Abbey College
Rotaract Club Certified
'Hie Rotaract Club of Belmont
Abbey Collie recently has been
certified as one of over 1,500 such
clubs under the sponsorship of
Rotary International. Dr.
Gilbert J. Farley of the Abbey
faculty, and chairman of the
Rotaract Committee of the
Belmont Rotary Club, an
nounced the certification.
Jack Sailstad of Davidson,
N.C. a senior at the Abbey, was
elected president of tlie dub by
the charter members. Other
officers elected were: Gerard J.
Sieeran, Stone Haibo-, N.J.,
vice-president; Mark Wm. Kowi,
Washington, D.C., Secretary;
Jeffrey Van Hodc, Newark, Dd.,
treasurer. 'Those serving on the
Board of Directors are: Barry D.
Miles, Bdmont, N.C.; Douglas
C. Keir, Charlotte, N.C.; Baxter
L. Starr, Gastonia, N.C. and
Donald Hatchett, Newport News,
Va.
Sailstad announced that the
first major dub project was
cooperation with the Gaston
County Chapter of the American
Cancer Society in its Crusade of
information distribution in North
Belmont, April 28.
On May 1, the dub sponsored
the FAST 'TO SAVE A PEOPLE
campaign at the college.
Students and faculty were urged
to skip one of the days meals and
to donate the money saved to aid
the people of drought stricken
Africa. Campus chairman for
the project was Barry D. Miles.