THURSDAY, FEB. 18, 1971
Coffin: Exercise
PAGE THREE
WlUlani Sloane Coffin Jr,
made a series of apperaaces
on the SA campus Tuesday: an
aiier-supper talk, an evening
public address, and a post lec
ture question and answer per
iod In Kings Mountain Hall.
Coffin responded to a gues-
Uon on mUltary recruitment
lOUowlng Tuesday night’s din
ner. “There Is a distinction be
tween right of free speech on
academic grounds and privi
lege of recruitment for the
convenience of students.” He
went on to say that military
recruiters have no rlgbt to be
OD campus; that their function
Is not to educate but to pro
vide a service. If the majority
of students do not desire the
privilege and convenience of a
military recruiter on campus,
then the recruiter has no choice
but to go elsewhere. But if a
recruiter were Invited to speak
on the relative merits of the
army by a group of students on
campus, then this would be an
exercise of rights.
This distinction between
rights and privileges does much
to Justify Coffin’s actions in his
own mind. His motto, so to
speakj is that the exercise at
Inalienable rights is most ef
fective when they are most of
fensive, Underlying his concept
of rights is his freedom to ex
ercise his rights. “If you be
lieve what you are doing is
morally rl^t;” tacitly, if you
are free from the fear of the
consequoices that may befall
you for actions, “then you are
free to act upon your rights."
Hence Coffin began his efforts
to resist what he described as
tlie violence done to the inte
grity of the individual. This ef
fort took many different forms.
In terms of draft resistance
he, along with Benjamin Spock
and Marcus Ruskln, among oth
ers, decided that non.iolent
protest against the draft could
be demonstrated through the re
turn of draft cards to the De
partment of Justice. Once the
draft reslsters had made up
their minds to disobey the law
on mandatory possession of
draft cards, then Coffin felt jus
tified In acting as a represen
tative of them, and a bearer of
the consequences of his and
their actions,
William Coffin pursued an
other aspect of violence due to
the integrity of the individual
in his public address InAvln-
get Auditorium. The role of
orthodox Christianity In the
framework of the political so
ciety is ultimate. Coffin des-
c r 1 bed orthodox Christianity
thusly: "This is a new world
In a new time. What we need
to do is renew a frontier re
ligion in terms of time. Ortho
dox Christianity is a religion
of hope, which is neither opti
mistic nor pessimistic, but a
driving force to do what you
think is morally good. It stress
es the integrity of love . . .
The ethics of perfection are the
ethics of survival In this so
ciety which orthodox Chris
tianity must begin to over
see.”
Rev. Coffin drew upon the an
alogy of Exodus to portray
where man and this nation are
today.
Within this analogy, Coffin
made several observations on
the state of man today. Funda
mental to his Ideas is his con-
cept of the free individual.
“Most people are not free and
have no expectation of being
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free. When a person ap{>ears to
be free, the response to him
Is to stifle his expression of
freedom, not to achieve his type
of freedom.” "The opposite
of love Is not hatred but fear.
Love seeks the truth; fear seeks
safety." “What we fear Is not
the evil In us, but we fear the
good In us because it demands
so much of us to take advantage
of It.” “We hate evil and in
justice more than we love the
good and Just.” “Don’t feel
guilty when you do not know what
to do. What you do when you
don’t know what to do Is most
important.”
Following nis lecture, Cof
fin attempted to answer ques
tions from the floor. In re
sponse to a question regard
ing the disillusionment of to
day's youth and of people gen
erally, he said, “who the hell
gave you the right to have
those illusions about society?
The US has lost a generation
in the sixties due to disillu
sionment and frustration.”
“You do what you think Is
right, Irregardless of the con
sequences Involving you, and
of what Is going to be effec
tive.” Coffin did not think that
he would affect what is hap
pening In Viet Nam. “I want
to bear witness to the evil
of it.’’
Retiring to Dick Prust’s a-
partment to continue discus
sion, Coffin responded to a
number of questions. He spoke
very hlgtily of the Berrlgan
brothers, who are currently
serving sentences for bloody
ing draft records at a local
draft txiard, for their non
violent demonstration of
conscience against ttie war.
He also spoke very sympa
thetically toward the Black Pan
thers whom he feels are being
blatantly persecuted; he does
not support the violent crimes
of the Black Panthers, but does
understand their frustrations
and fears toward police. “When
40 High Point police are sent
to pick up 4 Black Panthers
whose ages range only from 14
to 19 years, then they have the
rlgtit to lie scared.”
William Coffin carried on
most of the evening In his own
Inimitable way. His humor and
strong personality left an Im
print on this college which will
long be rememtwred.
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