THE FUTURE OUTLOOK J. F. JOHNSON Editor & Publisher MISS EMMA P. JOHNSON News Reporter L. A. WISE Staff Photographer Make all checks payable to and mail to: THE FUTURE OUTLOOK P. O. BOX 20381? GREENSBORO, N. C. 27420 PHONE BR 8-1768 Seconl Class Postage Paid at Greensboro, N. C. 10c Per Copy Published Weekly $6.00 Per Tear What Does The Negro Want? by MISS BEATRICE HERBIN American politics, we must admit, is suffering from a cause of poor leadership, mismanagement, mistakes and confusion. This not only refers to Federal complications but to State and local complications as well. As I wrote in The Greensboro D^ily News, Saturday, September 7, 1968, I said in the article, "It Must Be Either Humphrey or Nixon," there is no real choice on which to vote in the November election for President, yet they are the best we have. (And I do not appreciate the Wallace headquar ters sending me their literature yesterday, as I am op posed to him and his stand on government.) I mentioned in the article that the only way to keep him out of office is for every Negro to vote along with all the sensible whites for a Republican or a Democrat. Humphrey and Nixon are all that's left since we lost Kennedy, Rockefeller and McCarthy. Now, I read in the Wednesday's issue of Daily News that Marvin Fitch of Wilson, connected with the SCLC, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of which Aber nathy is doing a poor job since the death of its founder, Dr. Martin Luther King, wants the Negro to vote for Gardner. Jim Gardner and Bob Scott are running for Governor of North Carolina. I say again, both are weak in experience and foresight of the qualities of Head-of State, but they are all we have. However, this same Negro was originally opposed to Jim Gardner, the Republican Candidate and sought to organize a state-wide boycott of his Hardee's Hamburger Place; now, all of a sudden, he changes in favor of Gardner who has been criticized on his unconcern for the Negro's problems in this society. What does Fitch want? He is too confused to lead me anywhere, and I suggest that all Negroes and whites, too, who base their vote on hearsay of some so-called leaders begin reading and studying this business of politics for themselves, and vote accordingly. Has Fitch been bought by the Republicans ? Of course, the Negro wants recogni tion in all aspects of American Government, and it is right that he should have it, but why dilly dally from party to party? We all would fare better if these leaders, them selves would study history and evaluate the progress al ready made under the Democrats. Governor Dan Moore has not been a bad Governor considering the progress Negroes have made during his time in office. Bob Scott comes from a political family, and though young and wavering between the white votes he desires and those of the Negro supporters, he may still prove to be our best of the two. I am happy that none of the Greensboro Citi zens leaders attended the Raleigh meet in support of Gardner. Hawkins did not get the recognition at the Dem ocratic Convention in Chicago which his group sought, but that is no reason to give up. Evaluate your program ; i study and improve it; then in the next four years come | in strong. Rome wasn't built in a day. And while some Negroes holler, "Freedom Now," let us so work to qualify, understand and pursue in a manner of dignity, the status we want. Not because we are Negroes and the Constitu tion says this or that; not because we have so long been deprived of one thing or another, but work towards ac celeration because we are well-prepared to help all of society. These are the kind of leaders this State and this Nation needs. And as soon as both whites and Negroes forget their personal and prejudiced feelings; then shall we move rapidly towards a "government of, for and by the people of the United States." For decades I have been opposed to divided citizen ship and arrogant attitudes of the people of both races that erupt into violence and senseless action: The Ku Klux Klan and the Non-Violent Coordination Organization, which became violent under Stokeley Carmichael and Rap Brown. It seems to me, and perhaps to much of the public readerss that somebody doesn't know what non-violence means. Only Martin Luther King knew ; the Honorable John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, not to leave out Abe Lincoln, Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court (1819), and Chief Justice Warren, whose 1954 T his Weed's Sunday School Lesson 3. ESTHER SAVES HER PEOPLE What Is Our Concern? Someone once said that des tiny is the scapegoat we make responsible for our crimes and our follies. It is a convenient excuse when we do not wish to oppose what is happening in the world or in our own lives. In other words, destiny is a con cept we use to evade responsi bility in the daily grind of life. Obviously, if we view life as a movement of human deeds following an inescapable blue print, it is foolish to speak of man's responsibility. Without freedom there can be no respon sibility. The word responsible means able to respond. When we turn to the Bible for guidance, it is a bit difficult to understand the point of view generally expressed there. The biblical writers emphasize the freedom and the responsibility of both man and God. Therefore we may assert the ultimate tri umph of God's will in the uni verse; we also must assert man's genuine role in the shaping of the future. How do you reconcile these two seemingly opposite asser tions? How can we say that man plays a decisive role in history but that God eventually has the last word? How can man actually be responsible in the world? Where is man's re sponsibility exercised? This is our problem as we turn to the Book of Esther. Before You Read the Scripture Scholars differ concerning the date and purpose for Esther. Some think it was written about 150 B. C. to celebrate Jewish victories over the Greeks. Others see it as a fifth century B. C. defense of a Persian festi val called Purim that the Jewish community had adopted. Re gardless of the date of the book, we should see it as an attempt to win approval for this festival in Jewish life. Most of the festivals in Israel were originally Canaanite agri cultural festivals. As the early Christians took over the Roman holidays and gave them new meanings, so the Israelites adopted and gave new meaning to the Canaanite holidays. They wished to use the celebrations as occasions to praise God for what he had done for them. Purim may, have begun as a Persian festival. It is not men tioned in the Pentateuch. There fore, to justify its observance by Jews, it needed to be connected with some event in Israel's his tory. The author of Esther has associated the feast with the deliverance of the Jews from a plot to destroy all of them. But nowhere in the book does God's name appear. This fact almost cost the book its place in the Bible. We probably should view the author as a man who thinks of man's work as the means by which God achieves his pur poses. Thus Esther and Morde cai (Mor-duh-kye) are people whose courage and shrewdness are the means by which God delivers his people. The names Esther and Mor decai strongly resemble those of two Babylonian deities, Isht&r and Marduk. This fact has led some scholars to suggest that an old myth was turned into a work of historical fiction. How ever, archaeologists have found a reference to a lesser official during the reign of Xerxes I whose name resembles Morde cai. Therefor^ Esther may have some rootage in actual fact. What the Scripture Says The Scripture for today is Esther 1 through 8. Selected verses are printed below. See Home Bible Study suggestions in the back of the quarterly. Esther 4:8, 13-16 8 Mor'decai also gave him a copy of the written decree is sued in Susa for their destruc tion, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people. . . .13 Then Mor'decai told them to return answer to Es ther, "Think not that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the king dom for such a time as this?" 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mor'decai, 16 "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my j behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I per ish." Esther 7:1-7 1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, as they were drinking School Desegregation ruling brought down the rafters in American and Southern society. Marshall wrote that "We are speaking of a constitu tion to endure to meet the needs of human cries through the ages, and not of a contract between states." His ob jective was justice for all, yet, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, let us be reminded that "the price of liberty is eternal viligance." As long as man is made as he is, with the characteristics of love, hate, jealousy and fear, there will always be problems among men on this earth, and in my book the only panecea for eternal peace and that on this earth is Jesus Christ ? a knowledge of Him, a practice of following Him, and like the martyrs after Him, to die for a right and just cause. When old self is straightened out, and this applies to seekers of public office too, then the people can live together in peace and justice. T do not endorse all the strategy of the Negro movements, for some are misguided ana I only pray and hope that eventually he decides fully what he does want, and moves Intelligently in that direction. wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? it shall bg granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfill^ 3 Then Queen Esther answered I have favor in yow sight, ? king, and if it piease the long, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. 4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king." 5 Then King Ahasu "Whn f"u t0 Queen Esther, Who is he, and where is he that would presume to do this?" 6 And Esther said, "A foe and enernyl This wicked Hainan!" Then Hainan was in terror be fore the king and queen. 7 And the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace h8I ,bUt Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther for he saw that evil was deter mined against him by the king. Memory Selection: Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time 38 thls? -Esther 4.14 How We Understand the Scripture Esther 1:1-9; The author has e ven us an elaborate picture 01 P?mP of the Persian court. The generosity of the Persian empire is reflected in the banquet given for all the People of the capital city. The Persians were regarded by I Jews as the people God had raised up to free them. Chapters 1:i? through 2:4: The story of Vashti's stubborn Th? C,??ta',nS 3 Strain of humor. The officials feared that if word go out that the queen had ig nored the word of the king, all the women of the kingdom would follow her example and revolt against their husbands. We might as easily read too little into this story as too much. toe !TUSt bC ?areful of overdo ing the author's intent. But we must also ask what the com pilers of the Old Testament heard in the text. Probably they interpreted this book as showing how God used the stubbornness ^VrUeen f?r the ^entual f??d ?f Israel- Had Vashti not angered the kind and lost her Place, Esther would not have be come queen. She would then not have been in a position to de 'reer JS"* ThUS' throu?h the free actions of human beings, God worked for his people Chapter 2:5-18: The selection of a new queen was no light mat ter. The king's officials selected beautiful young virgins from all the provinces for the harem. There they underwent a year of bcautification and social train ing. The possibility that there might have been prejudice against Jews is indicated by Mordecai's instructions for Es ther not to reveal her back ground. In celebration of his selection of Esther as his new queen, the king gave a banquet in her hon or*, released the people from cer tain tax debts, and gave many gifts. Chapters 2:1# through 3:6. All fConttamd en Put S)