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THE DIALETTE
MAY 24, 1968
EDITORIAL
It Is As If They Don't
Trust Us
“Students at Montreat don’t
have any honor.’’ Suddenly, I grasp
ed my stomach with the hope that I
might keep myself from being sick.
Being told that I had no honor was
like a four year old being told by an
older brother that there was no Santa
Claus.
“I want you to spread out so no
one will cheat.” I would have run for
the bathroom but I was afraid I
would be accused of going to consult
my cheat sheet and that every inno
cent move would be recorded by the
hidden microphone or filmed through
the one way mirror.
I was one of the lucky ones be
cause this had not happened to me
until a couple of weeks before grad
uation. Other students had complain
ed about this but I neglected *o say
anything about their cries for recog
nition of this problem.
SHOULD EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLDS VOTE?
Eighteen year olds and the bal
lot seems to appear together as often
as Crosby and Hope once did. In
this, a Presidential election year, the
question of suffrage for the eighteen
year old bracket occurs with regular
ity in newspapers and journals across
the United States, whether this is
because there isn’t a shread of orgin-
ality left in journalism or due to the
fact sober-minded men considers it
an issue, permit us to add to the bulk
of material.
Politicians apparently recognize
eighteen year olds according to their
statue with the nation’s youth, take
the rather hirsute Mr. Kennedy, for
example, a thorough-going liberal and
spokesman for our century’s oppres
sed (i. e., youth) says firmly to let
them vote. Dean Rusk the Davidson
graduate from Georgia apparently
anticipates a time when they will go
to the polls.
In a recent statement concern
ing the Pueblo crisis, Mr. Rusk, ever
seeking for fresh rhetoric advised the
MAYBE ... PERHAPS... WHO KNOWS?
“I may not agree with what you
have to say, but 111 defend to the
death your right to say it.” This
famous quote was first made in re
ference to Voltaire-writer and philo
sopher, inconoclast and dissenter. It
applied as much to a spirit he had as
to an actual vocal or physical de
fense. It applied-and applies-to a
spirit of questioning, and search, and
openmindedness; a spirit that holds
little or nothing as absolute and
writers “truth” with a small “t”.
If there is a “best of all possi
ble worlds”, perhaps this spirit
reigns there. Many times it does not
reign at Montreat. It is wounded
each time a teacher says “give your
own ideas”, and then grades off be
cause these ideas differ from her
own. It is trampled upon whenever
a student refuses to open his mind
to an idea which conflicts with some
he already holds. It is flagellated
each time one person, by word or
attitude, damns another to Hell for
daring to doubt and question. It is
injured when one individual delivers
an opinion as if it came from the
mouth of God and admits no fallacy,
allows no dissent. It is pierced each
time one student calls another un-
Christian for failing to adhere to
his particular dogmas.
It is a lack of this spirit that
produces dogmatism-that kills in
quiry. In an extreme, it is a lack of
this spirit which produced the In
quisition (which could have been
propagated as easily by the Protest
ants as the Catholics) and caused
the death of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. It is this intolerance that
did consign or would have consigned,
Voltaire to Hell or the guillotine for
daring to think contrary to what the
—Continued on Page 3
God Died Late Yesterday
One of the requirements for ad
mission to Montreat-Anderson ■’ms to
sign the honor pledge and attend the
honor service. One of the things a
student expects that a teacher will
do is to prepare him for the future.
One wonders what kind of basics of
honor the instructor is giving when
we are not given a fair chance to see
if we possess a dominating sense of
honor when under pressure.
Some feei that teachers have the
attitude of “we don’t care what you
stated or signed before, forget all
that. This is my class.” In effect they
are breaking away from one of the
doctrines of our college.
We have previously dedicated
ourselves to live with a high sense of
honor at Montreat, so why is it
necessary for a teacher to ask us or
force us to reinstate our honor? It
is as if they do not trust us.
North Korenas to “cool it.” Mr. Rusk
isn’t even running for anything,
either, or is he? Other more conser
vative voices such as Senator Long
of Louisana and Baker of Tennessee
are opposed to suffrage for the
eighteens.
Chief among the arguments of
the teenage cadre clamering for the
ballot is the axiom “if we’re old
enough to fight, we’re old enough
to vote.” By that same reasoning,
our senior citizens are too old to
fight and therefore too old to vote,
opposed to the teenage balloting if
they are “not responsible, mature, or
well-informed enough” to exercise an
intelligent vote. The above adjectives
seem murkey enough to turn against
themselves.
Now, what can we say about
this business of eighteen year olds
getting the vote; only this, an issue
presented in such cliche’s as the above
paragraph, will soon be as untimely
as the hula hoop or Fabian records.
We can not mourn its passing.
ATLANTA, Ga.—God, creator of
the universe, principal diety of the
world’s Jews, ultimate reality of
Christians, and most eminent of all
divinities, died late yesterday during
major surgery undertaken to correct
a massive diminishing influence. His
exact age is not known, but close
friends estimate that it greatly ex
ceeded that of all other extant be
ings.
The cause of death could not im
mediately be determined, but the
diety’s surgeon Thomas J. J. Altizer,
38, of Emory University in Atlanta,
indicated possible cardiac insuffi
ciency.
Word of the death, long rumored,
was officially disclosed to reporters
at five minutes before midnight
after a day of mounting anxiety and
the comings and goings of ecclesias
tical dignitaries.
In Johnson City, Texas, President
Johnson was described as “pro
foundly shocked.” He at once direct
ed that all flags should be at half-
staff until after the funeral. The
First Lady and the two Presidential
daughters, Luci and Lynda, were un
derstood to have wept openly.
Both houses of Congress met in
Washington at noon today and
promptly adjourned after passing a
joint resolution expressing “grief
and great respect for the departed
spiritual leader.” Senator Wayne
Morse, Democrat of Oregon, object
ed on the grounds that the resolu
tion violated the principle of separa
tion of church and state, but was
overruled by Vice President Hubert
Humphrey, who remarked that “this
is not a time for partisan politics.”
Plans for the diety’s funeral are
incomplete. Reliable sources suggest
ed that extensive negotiations may
be necessary in order to select a
church for the services and an ap-
propirate place of burial. Dr. Wil
liam Pauck, teologian at Union
Seminary in New York City, propos
ed this morning that it would be
“fitting and seemly” to inter the -re
mains in the utlimatic ground of all
being. Funerals for divinities, com
mon in ancient times, have been ex
ceedingly rare in recent centuries.
Reaction from the world’s great
and from the man in the street was
uniformly incredulous. “At least he’s
out of his misery,” commented one
housewife in an Elmira, N. Y., su
permarket. “I can’t believe it,” said
the Eight Rev. Horace W. B. Done-
gan, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of
Ohio. In Paris, President de Gaulle
in a thirty second appearance on na
tional television, proclaimed “God is
dead! Long live the republic!”
News of the death was included in
a one-sentence statement, without
comment, on the third page of Iz-
ve>tia, official organ of the Soviet
Government. The passing of God
has not been disclosed to the 800
million Chinese who live behind the
Bamboo Curtain.
Public reaction in this country was
perhaps summed up by an elderly
retired streetcar conductor in Pas
saic, N. J., who said, “I never met
him, of course. Never even saw him
on the Johnny Carson Show. But
from what I have heard, I guess he
was a pretty nice fellow.” Prom In
dependence, Mo. former President
Harry S. Truman, who received the
news in his Kansas City barbershop,
said, “I’m always sorry to hear some
body is dead. It’s a damn shame.”
In Gettysburg, Pa., former President
Dwight D. Eisenhower released
through a military aide the follow
ing statement: “Mrs. Eisenhower
joins me in heartfelt sympathy to
the family and many friends of the
late God. He was, I felt, a force for
moral good in the universe. Those
of us who were privileged to know
him, admired his character, the
breadth of his compassion, the depth
of his intellect. Generous almost to a
fault, his many acts of kindness to
America will never be forgotten. It
is a very great loss indeed. He will
be missed.”
Dr. Altizer, God’s surgeon, in an
exclusive interview with the Dialette,
stated that the death was, “not un
expected.” “He had been declining
for sometime and had actually lived
much longer than expected.” Dr.
Altizer suggested, “God was an ex
cellent patient, compliant, cheerful,
alert. Every comfort modern sci
ence could provide was made avail
able to him. He did not suffer—he
just, as it were, slipped out of our
grasp.”
Editor’s Note: The above story
was adapted from a story by An
thony Towne in an article entitled,
“God Is Dead In Georgia.”
CONGRATULATIONS GRADS
FROM THE DIALETTE STAFF
THE DIALETTE
MONTREAT-ANDERSON COLLEGE, MONTREAT, N. C.
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CARL STURGIS
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