Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Jan. 25, 1958, edition 1 / Page 2
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. A. xiLCi v,/vltOLJJNA ‘A'IMtiit* SA'l'URDAY, JAN, 25, 1S53 An Idea Venus A Gan The Tndian “massacre” of the planned Ku Klux Klan rally last Saturday had just the right ring of poetic justice to it. The Klan is obviously a bully, and everybody likes to see a bully get his “come uppence.” Picking on the Indians at Maxton was just the right move the Klan needed to make to insure that it got what it so richly deserved. In the wake of the Indian success in rout ing the once dreaded riders of the night have come suggestions that jierhaps such action is just the tactic that Negroes need to employ to deter whites, who have been liberal in their use of dynamite on homes of Negro leaders in the past few months, or any others who try to intimidate them. The Indians met the issue squarely in the teeth ;jthey fought violence with violence and won. However, we do not believe nor have we ever believed that this is the right way. The successes gained by violence may appear big at the moment, but they often turn into defeats in the long run. Of course, w6 believe that it is every man’s duty to defend his life and pn^rty. But the business of actively marshalling resources for a premeditated attack of violence upon another group is al together a different matter. There are at least two very good reasons Life k Like That “Inescapable Conlwinily’^ By H. ALBERT SMITH In a conversation- with a little why violence can not right the injustices which Negroes have .suffered at the hands* of white men. The first'—and to the practical minded the sufficient reason-is that Ne- ^oy. a wom^an obs^ed: ■ So your name is George Wasn- ington.”. The lad replied, "Yes’m.” Said the woman further, “I suppose you try to be exactly like him, or as nearly like him' groes are numerically outnumbered. The fate of Negroes in a campaign of attritiorf against the whites would be similar to that of the American Indian of the last two centuries, near extinction. The second and more important reason is that the struggle now going on in this coun try for racial justice is not one for the bodies of men but for their minds. It cannot be won trl..h bullets, clubs or dynamite. The idea of freedom and justice for all is stronger than the appeal to the Smith and Wesson. If Ne groes or any other oppressed group were to descend to the level of their antagonists and choose the weapons of their opponents, they will be helping to defeat their own cause. It is extremely difficult to beat an adversary with his own weapons. Regardless of how sweet the revenge must have tasted for the Indians in Robeson Coun ty and how poetic the justice was for the bullying Klan, the practice of meeting vio lence with violence can in the end only mean complete chaos and the utter loss of every thing we value! Whose Children? is he. An' Old Testament passage suppbjrts this. It reads: “Can tho Bthiopian change his color, oP the leopard his spots?” TTien, Way you also do good, who are accustomed to evil." The passage statM the fact of flxatton involving both the per sbnalfty, character and the type ot life ,we live. It involves tho Pfirt we play in establishing that fixation, in making ourselves ,What we are, and channelling lour behavior either for good or Wil. ^ WiilUam James had this in like George Wash-.|mind when he said that habit is ?'ten times human nature; it is human nature confirmed and as you can. Evidently not any too well ac quainted with the history of the man who is known as “The Father of His Country,” the little fellow asked in some l>e-, wilderment: “Like who?” The question brought the re ply, “Why ington.” More certain of himself at this stage of the exchange, the-jMirticulariied.” Our first reaction to news that four young Hillside students had been arrested and tried for traveling at speeds from eighty to one hundred miles per hour in a fifty-five miles per hour zone was downright anger. Ex cessive speed is one of most common traffic offenses. It wouldn’t be so bad if the speed ing driver endangered only his and the lives of "his car’s occupants. But the idea that he al so puts in jeopardy the lives of innocent mo torists who happen to be on the same road with him makes the offense nearly a mon- ■trous crime. The fact that some innocent motorist, his wife and children, could have all been sent to their deaths by the action of these four youngsters was the first thought that hit us. Then there are all kinds of speeding driv ers. There are those who start to their de stinations too late and have to exceed the limit to get there on time. There are the ^Jpsychos,” driven by compulsion to get a- head of the next fellow on the road for all kinds of emotional reasons. But, to our way of thinking, by far the won^ kind is the show-off, the kind who wants to demonstrate how many “horses’” he has under the hood. And though all of them can kill with the same d^ree of quickness and efficiency, there may be some pity to be had for the guy who is behind schedule or the poor fellow who drives—or rather is driven—by compirifliow. But seapch -as wo may', we- can hardly find any compassion for the “show- off.” According to police reports, this is what happened to the four young Hillside students. They were returning home from a basket ball game at Chapel Hill in apparent serene good .sense until one of their caravan decided to show how much more his daddy’s car would do than the others. Not to be called a “square” by his fellow school mates, the next driver accepted the challenge, then the next and the next. Pretty soon i^t got to be a hot race. Luckily, highway patrolmen were able to halt the mad race before somebody got killed. By the time all of these ideas had occurred to us, some of the insensity of the first flush of anger had waned and we began to wonder who was responsible! The business of placing responsibility is not so easy, especially in such matters. It would be simple to drop all of the blame on the shoulders of the youngsters and “throw the book” at them in every sense of the word. But they are still adolescents, or at least they are chronologically. It would be easy enough to say that the parents are to blame. Certainly, they have the formal re sponsibility for their children. But age has long since ceased to be a fac tor for really determining responsibility. Too, uncontrovertible scientific facts have taught us that nowadays the influence of parents on youngsters is far less than it was once upon a time when the home was a tightly knit social organization almost self sufficient. Now, however, youngsters have many interests which take them away from theii- homes or become genuinely interested in projects which they do not feel would be welcomed at home. Or their parents, both of them, are so busy making money that they are at home only for the morning and eve ning meals, leaving their children to grow up “on their own.” So the children of John Doe really become children ©£■ ^he ^ prevailing culture, whether the main elements are helpful or harmful. But society cannot, or at least it will not, as sume the full responsibility for growing children. So we seem to have ended in an in soluble dilemma. However tough the dilem ma seems, all of us should remember that the power of exerting good and evil inflU'- ences on impressionable, growing children is an awful one that we possess and will con tinue to as long as human nature is as it now appears. In some sense, all of us who wor ship power, speed and similar gods are re sponsible for the Chapel Hill road race. lad answered with finality; “I can’t help being like George. Washington, because that is who I am.” A True Reflection In that final word, is em bodied a truth beyond success ful contradiction. It iS' a truth reflecting a reality corrobora- ,ted both by life and psychology, not to mention the pronounce ment of the one man whose spirituaV intelligence exceeded that of any othar person of his tory. Said this holy man, “A good man out of the good treasure'^of the heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the ’evil treasure evil things.” The truth expressed here is this: No man can react to life in ways at odds with the behavior pat terns of his inner self. Now, quite often you will con tact a person who talks as if somehow his behavior is some thing detached from what he really is, or that it is initiated From what we are, there Is IS) retreat, either in status or be haviour, as long as we remain what we are. I And there is no given time in any man's life, however long he lives, when he is nft what he is. The only es cape from the present self is a new self. Pood Por flloHght We see this working out in life situations everyday. Take the case of three brothers I knew. Two were on the brutish side« irasible, high-tempered, domineering. The women who married them “sold” themselves 'into virtual slavery. The one, gentle and kind, walked into a life of abuse and mistreatment which ended only when, in a fit of temper, the husband shot her. The woman who married the other brother, somewhat of a beauty- by anybody’s standards, had no easy time. I and others ‘saw her ^any a time wearing fa cial evidence of a fierce beating administered by her mate. If she Ihe Tuskegee Report And Reform Of The South It does not follow from this year’s report by Tuskegee on race relations that progress toward complete elimination of all forms of racial discrimination should go slow. Be cause the report contains a negative state ment of the condition of relations between the two races in the South durihg the year, it is not hard to misread its meaning. But the one crucial difference which must be kept in mind is ttiat the Tuskegee report and the re form movement now going on in race rela tions have two different aims. To confuse the -two is to miss both an understanding of the e paper and the movement in racial form. ' its own definition, the Tuskegee report .objective statement of what takes place the two races during a given year of the general character of i at Dmrttmm, m. C, ime. > S«* PettiSMW WL. Pott om» at > s, im. relations between them based on what it dis covers has happened. The report is limited to saying what happened and suggesting the immediate causes. Thus, by definition and scope, it is interested in stating the effects and only indirectly the secondary causes. On the other hand, the reform movement has for its aim the removal of the artificial distinctions between men and the unreal criterion for awarding preference in things material. To do this, it seeks to reorganize the structure of southern society, to change a system which places a value on white skin and a penalty on black. In the process, Ne groes will be freed from the restrictions of second class citizenship an(} limited job op portunity by the arbitrary skin color value system; while whites will be freed from the untenable morality which demands that all others whose skin is different from theirs be given a lower status. It is easy to see that such a movement is bound to pose an overall conflict which will in itself give birth to numerous side con flicts. In the process of changing frome one system, already established, to another, it is axiomatic that the conflicts will mutiply in number and intensity. It is with this aspect of the reform movement that the Tuskegee report is concerned. It is concerned with ob serving the rate and degree of conflicts gen erated by the contending systems. But to infer from the record of growing (Please turn to page Four) by the will at the discretion of when he di^ it was either the intellect. He will boastfully because of love that persisted in assert: “I can take it or leave It.” By that, he means to say that he can play fast and loose with mo ral law as he sees fit, that he is in such complete control of him self that he knows just when it is safe to play with fire and when it is not. Well, .even this is an expression of what he real ly is within. And that, as I shall indicate, falls short of being ei ther good or safe. Sometimes, this sentiment isi expressed in the words: “I am no slave to anything. What I de sire to do, I can do if it is the wise thing to do. If it is not pru dent to do it, then I can refrain from doing it. Before going into that, we can say that every man is a slave to his self no matter what he thinks. Each of the above contentions are fallacious, deceptive, mis- IpaHlng anri riangprniia They arel.n0 matter how spiritually bank- fallacious and deceptive because they misrepresent the facts of life. They are dangerous because to practice the philosophy em bodied in them is to commit spiritual or moral suicide. I will admit that we can do, or not do, as we desire, but only in the deep sense that psycholo gists recognize desire as the fountain of conduct. What I won’t admit is that desire can be controlled by pushbuttons, be' turned off and on like an electric current. That is because desire is inseparably a part of the inner self, the stuff that makes us what we are. And that self can not 4>e, changed from moment to moment, so that at one instant; Jgeen achieved. it is one thing and the next in stant something else. Fixation Involved We cannot help being and be having like the George Washing ton we are, because each of us #ite of cruelty, or the joy of re lease. The third brother had two wives. They found life with him to be hell on earth. Each fled the gates of hell. He died a few years ago—alone. Here is food for thought for women who contemplate marri age, with star dust in their eyes, but fail to evaluate the “self” the inner qualities—as well as the outward appearance-of the males whose names they would take. ‘ t Change Possible As I have indicated, although there is no escape from the self of the moment at anytime in one’s life, yet escape is possible. That is to say, the George Wash ington of today does not forever have to remain the same person rupt, morally unworthy, or so cially unacceptable he may be. If life is so organized that 'no one can at the moment be dif- ierent from what he is, it is also ^ organized that one may be come a different person, so radi cally changed in spirit and pur pose as virtually to become “a new creation.”’. This, the crowning claim o£ religion, psychology recognizes and ' hi^ory does not overlook. This is the goal of psychiatry ini its dealings with twisted lives ' some of which have seemingly gotten beyond the borders of re demption, either spiritually oi socially. It is a goal that has Change Needed Said the little colored boy, “I can’t help being like George Washington) because that is who I am.” What a true observation! (Please turn to page Four) FREE WHEELIM By BILL CROWELL PSYCHIC...Ever seriously thought of your new car as a “symbol of sexual potency?” •> Neither had I, but that’s not saying a little of Dr. Freud’s esoteric science hasn’t got mixed up in the automobile businessi of late. I have in mind some recent, writings of one of the country’^ most eminent noggin-tinkers. Dr. S. J. Hayakawa of the San Francisco State College. He says, and I paraphrase him liberally, that we are all unconscious self-' appeasers to the gods of speed and power and superiority and that the automobile we demand are built to fit these specifica tions. Even more interestingly,. the good doctor says the ‘58 cars have deliberately sacrificed, all else—common sense, efficiency, safety, economy, dignity and es pecially beauty-^o a psycho- sexual wish-fullfillment. Or to put it ungramatically -we replace what we ain’t got with cars with a rbcket-ship motif ^ show the world here goes a man. A strong, determined leadership can their , SOUTHERN PRESSURE GROUP5 IGNORANCE TEAR By ROBERT SPIVACK Watch on the Potomac SPIVACK The End Of The Line To believe it you had to see it. And the only way to see it was to be there. Photographs, tele vision or just listening to the voice on radio—all these tended to leave a false impression. What I am referring to is President Eisenhower and his recent news conference, the first since Oct. '30, 1957. It was a sad and sorry spec tacle. Only a week before I had seen the President come, up to Capi tol Hill to deliver his State of the Union message. For one so mild as Mr. Eisenhower, it was full of fire and well delivered. Ex cept when his voice became hoarse towards the end of the 44-minute address he seemed to be in good shape, even to be en joying himself. U was entirely Afferent at Ws press conference. He was not en joying himself. He was under a strain from the moment he came in. He walked in with his head down. He was gruff as he said, “Good morning. Please sit down. I have no statement of my own.” There were none of the usual amenities. Nothing .said about not having met with the news papermen for 10 weeks, nor all the things that had happened in- Imtwaen, from .Sputnik II to the mild wtroke to the Paris meeting of NATO. Except for a fleeting moment or two, there were no smiles and few attempts at levity. He was grim, he was fighting mad, but he was also a hurt man, deeply hurt. His comments were vague and his voice lacked vitality, except on one point. That was the defense of John Foster Dul les. ' It was Mike O’Neill of The New York Daily News ^who touched off an outburst of public Presidential anger of rare mag nitude. DuUm Cber Alles O’Neill noted that Dulles has been coming under increasing criticism” and it has bfeert re ported that he recently Aubmit- ted his resignation to you and that you rejected it.” O’Neill asked if the President would “confirm this report” and If it was “in any way impairing...” But he never got the sentence finished. “Have you seen that report or have you written it yourself?” the Preesident snapped. “No, sir,” the startled O’Neill replied meekly, “but it was in the newspapers.” “It was?” the President re plied unbelieving. “Then I would say, I would class it as trash.” * .Then the President launched into as vigorous a defense of Dulles as he has made of any member of his Cabinet. Dulles, he said, was the “wisest, most dedicated man I know.” What touched off this particu lar bit of Presidential rage we do not know. But we have it on excellent authority that only a short time ago the President was complaining to a friend about the effect Dulles was having on some of our allies. Perhaps the President has forgotten what he said, maybe he’s sorry he said it, he may even feel guilty about it. The gist of the remarks was that he wishe«l Dulles would be a little less verbose. In short, that he talks too much. The Rest Of The Picture Except for this episode most of the conference moved slowly. Buf^e President’s lack of vi tality crept through at another point. He was asked if he would “fight” for unification -of the services and streamlining of the Pentagon? “Well, now. Just a minute,” the President answered. 'T don't know who you are fighting...my views will certainly be express ed to the very best I caijn and, as I say, if the trend and ten dency is not in that direction, then I couldn’t ^ssibly have anything tc^do wim iK^ / This scarcely seemedTDte the kind of bold attitude one might expect towards a sprawling, over-grown, defense establish ment that has been outstripped in one area by the “backward” Russians. The Pentagon spends two- (Please turn to page Four) Spiritual Insight “Unable To Overthrow God’s Work” By REVEREND HAROLfyROLAlSD Pastor, Mount Gilead Baptigt Church “This is also related,” Dr. Hbyakawa writes, “to the ina bility of the purchaser to deal ef fectively with the living men and women around him so that he often lives increasingly in a fantasy world of power and he- rolc'^tlon in distant, interplane- tery s^ces.” Tile Califbmla psychiatrist sees the seven-year old cutting off cereal box tops to get a space helmet to act out his fantasies. “But the 3S-year-old buys a. highpowered car," he declares. Despite manufacturen’ vows to d^-emphasize horsepower and speed In their' advertising. Dr. Hayakawa cracks last at the cur~ rent models, with at least one quietly boasting of' “engines up to 34S horsepower.” “The excessive horsepower o# the new cars is purely sym bolic,” he says. “Bvery single horsepower above 160 has noth-' ing at all to do with transporta'- tfon except to make it more dan gerous.” SUDDTOT THAWT.,.Pep.aV& who wl«r drink before dl4ving are puttii^ the quart before the heane. “If it is of God you will be able to overthrow them...” Acts 5:39 Man in his blindness often gets beside himself. And he thus throws his weight around to try to hinder or overthrow God’s work. Man is too weak to overthrow the onward march of God’s eternal plan. This blindness of man has been one of the tragic fact^ of history and human experience. Why do we do this? Well, we get drunk with the wine of worldly success. We let a. little power corrupt and blind us. We become o-ver- Whelmed with an exaggerated sense of our own importance. Pride and selfishness blind us to the weakness of our hu manity. Let us guard against the peri lous temptation of throwing our weight around to block or Hinder God’s plan or program. “If it is of God, you will be unable to overthrow it...” Let ^us ais mortal, finite hu^nans ever remember this sobering bit of tnith. In the weakness of our mor tal natures we will never over throw God’s work. Yet, we have made this tragic mistake through the ages. We have some great, tragic examples. There ^ were the Pharoahs In Egypt. We remember the fail ure of Joseph’s brothers. We can never forget the furious anger of the priests against Amos at Bethel that day. There was the blind religious leadership of Israel at -Calvary on Good Friday. There were those who made a vain at tempt to overthrow God’s work in the early church. And there are the unjust, unholy schemes of our times—one hundred and forty laws to block the coming of Integra tion with its hopes of decency, justice, fellowship and bro therhood among men. - “If it is of God, you will- be unable to overthrow them...” O, the tragedy of man’s blind ness. Yes, little, narrow, bigoted, blind, sinful, arrogant men would block the onward march of God’s righteous causes. Man’s feeble efforts will conUhue to fail. The Church, God’s eternal plan of salvation, went on marching bn its God-appointed mission. Our feeble, feverish efforts may annoy for a while but God’s work will finally trl-^^ umph. We are too weak to overthrow the onward march of God’s plans and purposes. “If i^ is of God, you will be unable to overthrow It...” Man’s weakness will never overthrow God’s unfolding purposes, l^et us remember this great truth in the Strug gles of our times. We must realize the futility of fighting against (3od’s plans. Let us join forces of righteousness. These efforts carry a Divine guarantee. But our feeble, weak efforts against God are in vain. Be^ ware,,...lest happily ye bs found even to fight against God.” Let us ever remember that In some individual or social struggle that “IF OOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BB AGAINST US?"
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Jan. 25, 1958, edition 1
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