Page 2
The Religious Community and American Politics
On the eve of the 1968
presidential election. The
Guilfordian presents the student
body the following excerpts
from ''The Religious
Community and American
Politics," an essay prepared by
Clergy and Laymen Concerned
About Vietnam for use in
connection with Vietnam
Sunday, Nov. 3. We reprint it as
a moving statement from
religious leaders of many faiths.
And, in this time of prayer,
we have decided that Nixon is
not the one. The choice is
between either Dick Gregory of
the Freedom and Peace Party or
(gulp!) Hubert H. Humphrey.
Eventually the choice is yours,
and ours . ..
The coming presidential
election of 1968 is the saddest in
living memory. We can go no
further without expressing our
sorrow, and searching our hopes
The Quilfor6ion
The Guilfordian maintains a free and independent policy from the
institution within the code of Journalistic ethics adopted by the Publications
Board and printed by and for the students of Guilford College. The Guilfordian
is published weekly except during holidays and exam periods.
JIM GARVIN Editor EMILY HEDRICK . . . News-Feature Editor
PETE BALLANCE Business Mgr. TED MALICK Sports Editor
PAT ANDREW Managing Editor BEKI MILLS Circulation Mgr.
NEILL WHITLOCK Photographer
GENERAL STAFF MEMBERS: Nancy Thomas, Erras Davis, Jean Parvin, Jill Taylor, Craig
Chapman, Bob Price, Mark Lessner, Gil Hutchenson, Phil Edgerton, Bob Milan, Patty Lyman,
Lucy Alexander, Carol Adams, Danny Allen, Doug Reu, Carol Rice, Sue Sherrill, and Jani
Craver.
Sorry, son, we can't treat that type of disease in the infirmary. It would spread to the whole campus.
Quaker Pulse
Quiet Heroes On Campus
Dear Editor:
Just what is a hero; Webster
defines a hero as "a man
honored because of exceptional
service to mankind ... a central
personage taking an admirable
part in any remarkable action or
event; hence, a person regarded
as a model." Right here on
Guilford College campus are just
such people. Why don't we
always recognize them? They
don't go around calling attention
to themselves and you never
hear them say, "Hey, look at
me, I'm sorta special," because
thesf are the quiet heroes.
The don't, but we can,
because they are very special
for the future. The nation, to us,
seems grieviously wounded, in
need of comfort, healing, and
reconciliation. Great tasks lie
ahead of it. It cannot afford to
grow weary.
More than twenty-nine
thousand young Americans have
died. Over a hundred thousand
have been wounded, many of
them maimed for life. Hundreds
of thousands of Vietnamese have
died in their own blood. One in
every seven Vietnamese, at least
two million in all, have been
driven from their homes. We
have burned, bombed and
scorched that beautiful and
verdant land. More bomb
tonnage has been dropped, on
that little nation than the United
States used during World War II
in both the European and Pacific
Theaters. Indeed, more than 100
pounds for every man, woman
and child in North and South
Vietnam
people, giving of themselves to
be of service to so many who
depend on them for life. Last
March, at the campus-sponsored
visit of the Red Cross
Bloodmobile, there were 188
such heroes who came and
offered their "Gift of
Life"—gifts that enabled lives to
be saved and made well.
The Red Cross Bloodmobile
visit to our campus is an annual
project of Alphi Phi Omega, and
we will again sponsor visits
during the current school year.
The first visit is scheduled for
Wednesday, November 6th, in
the Gymnasium, from 10:30
a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
THE GUILFORDIAN
Our sorrows multiply. What
shall we say to the families of
the young men who return
in coffins, or without their Bmb6.
What shall we say when peace is
at last achieved and—as now
seems likely—the terms of peace
are not significantly different
than they would have been
before massive American
escalation in 1965? What shall
we tell the family of the fallen
man? That he died for what he
thought was right, no man can
dispute. One cannot steal away
the heroism of the brave, the
sacrifice of the fallen and the
maimed. While we cannot
subscribe to the pagan notion
that the blood of good men
dying in an unjust cause makes
that cause one whit more just,
we share the anguish of the
families of the fallen
And what of the young men
who are also heroes of
conscience, who cannot bring
Too often we think of the
patients who receive these
"gifts" as the only ones who
receive something, but perhaps
the most wonderful thing about
being one of the "quiet heroes"
is what we receive—a wonderful
sense of person; i satisfaction by
giving something very special,
something that "money cannot
buy," a part of ourselves to be
shared with some one else.
Won't you take time and join
the ranks of the "quiet heroes"
when the Bloodmobile visits our
campus November 6th.
Bart Lippincott
themselves to believe that this
war is like any others-many
young men who would have
willingly gone to fight Hitler but
who refuse to fight in Vietnam?
Many, to be sure, think all our
wars are alike; for them, sons
fight in Vietnam as fathers
fought in World War 11. But
many young men refuse to fight
in Vietnam The Vietnamese are
not the enemy, for them, as the
Germans and Japanese were the
"enemy" for many of their
parents. What shall we say to the
young men who languish now in
prisons because they were not
granted the status of
Conscientious Objectors? What
shall we say to those young men
who flee America, as perhaps
their grandfathers or
great-grandfathers once fled
Europe, to avoid what seems to
them unjust conscription and
immoral coercion? What of the
young men who, despite heavy
propaganda to the contrary,
came to their hour of conscience
in the armed services and
subsequently have refused to
fight?
How it saddens us that the
candidates for the highest office
in the land speak so seldom of
this first of all issues before our
people. They seem indifferent to
the anguish of the younger
generation.
The Cost in Domestic Strife
The mood of the country
meanwhile, is made uglier by the
frustrating war, and serious work
at home goes undone. Billions of
dollars so desperately needed at
home for domestic rebuilding
are simply not available. The
benefits of government taxes
redound upon the wealthy and
the middle class—in roads,
automobiles, airports, splendid
suburban schools, new colleges,
and the industries of war and
space. Our government meets
the needs of wealthy farmers,
industrialists, and the dwellers in
the suburbs. The cities and the
Quaker Quotes
By PATTY LYMAN
The draft in the U. S. today is
a very controversial subject.
Young people all over the
country have been protesting the
draft laws through various means
from demonstrations to the
burning of draft cards. Guilford
students have mixed feelings
about the draft laws.
Clarence Yokely said, "I
think as far as college students
are concerned, they're a bit
unfair. It adds a lot of pressure
on the individual and definitely
affects performance in school."
"I think they have to be
revised, but I wouldn't want a
professional army."—Jim Garvin.
"They're not too rigid. How
else are they going to raise a
standing norm?" observed Tom
Walser.
"I think the system needs
definite changes, and I think it's
obvious to everyone." —Doug
Reu.
"I believe in the draft laws,
but I don't think student
deferment should be taken away
in graduate school."—Johnny
Hodges.
"As far as I'm concerned, the
draft laws, as they stand now,
are as well designed as possible,
considering the fact that have
Friday, November 1, 1968
poor seem systematically
excluded. They can wait no
longer. But at the moment, the
energies of countless talented
Americans-and over half a
million young men—are turned
towards Vietnam The protests
and demonstrations against the
war have frightened millions of
Americans. They do not
understand the new mood and
the new sensibilities of the
young—their long hair, their
dress, their music, their dislike
of the competitive, self-denying
ethic of an older generation.
The Hour for Creative Ideas
The people of the United
States are fond of imagining a
world threatened by a spreading
red menace. We do not see that
in the last thirty years our own
influence, not always on the side
of justice and liberty, has spread
more rapidly and more
extensively than that of any
single world power. Our
technology, our markets, our
system of education, our
military-industrial complex have,
at almost a geometric rate,
drawn a web of economical and
political power toward our land.
This is the reason that our
complicity in every day's evil is
beyond any experience in our
past.
We do not raise our voices in
vindictiveness or bitterness. We
only wish to see our nation as it
is-to face the shattering truth.
We are no longer innocent, as we
thought. We have been
awakened. The plague is not in
alien institutions, but in our
own. We must remake them or
we perish. Through concerted
political creativity the nightmare
in which we walk must be
dissipated. In the past, our
forefathers devised institutions
to meet the needs of justice and
liberty and brotherhood; no less
must we.
The leaves are falling from
the trees. Many of our brothers
are in pain. The winter comes.
Take heart! Ahead, awaits
another spring.
a senile man in charge of the
draft. If we could eliminate him,
1 believe that the present laws
could be redesigned as not to
take the choice youth of our
nation into war."—Denis
Abramowitz.
"It is impossible to draft
boys. The only thing that's
drafted is beer." —Jennifer
Blizin.
"I think it's about the only
way you can do it and nobody
has proposed a better way to do
it. If we don't have them (draft
laws) there wouldn't be people
with the guts to do it." —Hugh
Mills.
"War is an unnecessary evil. A
large percentage of our society's
ideas are warped, but we must
live with them My feeling is,
'Why force a man to kill?' If war
must prevail, the maybe hiring
troops might be a solution.
There are still a few warhawks
left."—Mary Weston.
War is an unnecessary eviL
But if there has to be war, men
have to choose their soldiers in
some manner—even if the
process seems undemocratic and
unconstitutional. But what
happens to our right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit ef
happiness?