The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current, October 14, 1965, Image 4

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The Georgia bulletin, October 14, 1965, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1965 of Atlanta SERVING GEORGIA’S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News PUBLISHER- Archbishop Paul J. Halllnan 'mw, MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR K ev». R. Donald Kiernan 2699 Peachtree N. E. P. O. Box 11667 Norths ide Station Atlanta, Georgia 30305 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew Member of the Catholic Press Association and Subscriber to N. C. W. C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga. U. S. A. $5.00 Canada $5.00 Foreign $6.50 Crawfordville Travail Who is responsible for the Civil Rights mess in Crawfordville, Georgia? This is a question which requires an immediate answer if peace and tranquility are to be re stored. Last week Governor Sanders met in his office with the town and Taliaferro County officials. Later the same day, he met with a State-wide Negro investigative committee, which included one of the Crawfordville leaders. The Governor called for a morator ium on demonstrations until the Courts had decided on the Negro complaints of de facto segrega tion in the county school system. He implied that this moratorium had the agreement of both the white and Negro delegations to his office. This was later de nied by the Crawfordville Negro participant. Complicating the situation is the fact that the demonstrations are being directed under the aus pices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Its rep resentative, Hosea Williams, has refused to go along with the moratorium until school deseg regation, and other Negro griev- anqes. ^are, negotiated with the white leaders. Recent news paper stories have intimated that Mr. Williams was the only stumb ling block to a peaceful settle ment. No evidence was offered other than to quote nameless “in siders” at Crawfordville. Fur thermore, leaders of the Negro community have reaffirmed local determination to acceptSCLC di rection until a solution is found. Dr. Martin Luther King’s visit Monday to the strife-torn town seemed to confirm this. Crawfordville’s white power structure attempts to circumvent the law on school integration is but one of the issues involved. There is also the economic re prisals against Negroes attemp ting to bus their children to white schools; then there is the lack of employment for Negroes; and the disgracefully low wages that are paid those who are employed. The Negro community, although numerically almost as large as the white, has no political rep resentation whatever either in the City or in the County. To sug gest an end to demonstrations un til the Courts have ruled is to ask the Negroes to forego the only weapon they have to get justice. Without the demonstrations of the past several weeks neither the Governor nor anybody else AN ALTAR BOY iiliiKkhui. “Just holding it for a friend, Sister!” would have needed to be con cerned. It is unfair to suggest that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an outsider in the Crawfordville situation. Here again the SCLC*s function is to assist Southern Negroes who oth erwise might be at the mercy of a white power structure which will not initiate any reforms re lating to Civil Rights problems. This was true in Americus, Al bany and a host of other Georgia towns which have moved ever so little towards granting equal rights and opportunities to their Negro fellow citizens. One cannot blame the Negro leaders for turning a deaf ear to the pleas to let the Courts de cide--they have had many exam ple s of Southern justice applied to their race which do us little cred it. Secondly, they feel they should not have to go to Court on many issues. Recent history shows that despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, costly legal maneu vers have had to be initiated to gain the fruits of this legisla tion. , The Negroes in some of 'our communities outside of Atlanta give the impression of complete despair and frustration. Their own local leaders can get no rec ognition from white leaders who will move only when forced to. Negroes feel they are being used as pawns in a State-wide politi cal game. They charge that our State leaders talk of equal rights and equal opportunity but never actively work for it. They see demonstrations and the import ing of SCLC leadership as the only means of dramatizing their case. They have no say in the political structure of their area. Their struggle for even a mini mum recognition of their dignity as human beings is constantly thwarted by a de facto disenfran chisement on the political and so cial levels. We agree that demonstrations are not always helpful, but with out them we doubt whether even Atlanta (never mind the rest of the nation or the world) would have be)en appraised of the tra vail of the Crawfordville Negro. What is needed is high state of ficials themselves visiting the trouble spots and listening to both sides. If this is done, we are sure the innate Southern generos ity and dedication will be moved to a greater application of ele mentary justice in behalf of our Negro brethren. We agree with those who say patience is need ed on the part of the Negro; but let us not forget that the Supreme Court ruling on school desegre gation was issued eleven years ago. Only this year have some Southern communities introduced partial desegregation. Others are still attempting to circum vent the law in this regard. This is why we were surprised at the “pilate” stance of sev eral TV station editorials which last week called on Negroes to stop demonstrations in the in terest of Civic peace. Would the Founding Fathers of this great Nation have agreed with such a stance when the question of jus tice was at stake? BY GERARD E. SHERRY NEEDS CONCERN Fearful Press Is Worthless OUR RECENT observations on poverty and as sistance to the poor have drawn a large corres pondence. Some people have suggested that we quit worrying about the poor and “stick to religion** in editorial comment. Waycross Pope Arrives say the most interesting. It seems to me that as world problems get more serious the seminars, lectures and discussions take on a more profes sional outlook. The chiefs did not turn their backs on the question of police brutality, juvenile delin quency, and racial strife but rather faced these problems head-on with a profound sense of justice, integrity and right order. The array of speakers and pannelists looked like a “Who's Who" in in ternational law enforcement. Founded seventy-two years ago ttye organization has grown to over fifteen thousand members in sTxty-sik'dCferentPBSuritffl&s of the fffe% K v?6rld.‘its^” " growth during the last decade most probably is ' attributed to a former director of the FBI, Mr. Quinn Tamm. Mr. Tamm, the present Executive Director, has co-ordinated many of the activities of the organization into a forceful and realistic aid for police executives regardlesss of the size of the department. I enjoyed meeting with and talking to Chief Bill Parker of Los Angeles; Chief Tom Cahill, an Irishman from the “old sod’*, the subject of a re cent book by Ernest K. Gahn, “OfGoodand Evil’*, and who has recently been appointedby the Presi dent of the United States to a crime commission; former Chief Uullea of San Francisco who has been a Serra Club member for years and whose son is the president of San Francisco University. There was the light side of the convention too when New Yorkers began kidding Commissioner Sullivan of Boston what he would do if the Holy Fa ther had visited Boston instead of New York. Chief Bill Barnes of West Palm Beach described the wealth of Miami Beach as a place where the police use 1 , French Poodles insted of police dogs, where the police department has an unlisted num ber, and where people gift wrap their garbage and it is picked up in a Lincoln Continental! It was inspiring sight to see all of these Chiefs working together. Some were lettered men, others came through the ranks with little or no formal education; but no one would doubt their dedication to duty and their sincerity in attempting to preserve peace and order. Everyone there was there because he wanted to make his own commu nity a better place in which to live and work. GEORGIA PINES BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN LAST WEEK I was one of those millions of persons glued to the television sets across the nation watching the historic visit of the Holy Fa ther to this country. I had planned to attend the convention of the International Association of Chiefs, of Police in Miami, and unfortunately this convention fell on the same date as the Pope’s visit. I did spend most of that day watching the visit, and I’m sure that I saw more events and closer views than those attending in New York City. One humorous event which took placl in Miami was when Chief Wilbur Perkerson of Valdosta, Georgia was waiting for Chief Ray Pope of Way- cross to arrive by plane. He turned on the TV in his hotel room and the sound track came on before the picture. Chief Perkerson heard the announcer say, "Pope has arrived by plane in New York”. Immediately he thought that his friend has boarded the wrong plane and landed in New York instead of Miami! I had a very interesting convesation on Tuesday afternoon with Commissioner Vince Broderick of New York. He and his chief Inspector flew in for the convention after the Holy Father had left New York. He had many interesting sidelights and sto ries to tell since he had spent the whole day with the Papal party. Incidentally I learned that the Commissioner had taught school during a summer session years ago here in Atlanta, at Oglethorpe University. The convention drew over 1,600 Chiefs of Po lice from some 30 different countries. Aboutthirty chiefs from Georgia attended and through the kind ness of Southern Bell Telephone we were guests at a breakfast on Wednesday morning atwhich our own chief, Herbert Jenkins, spoke. Chief Jenkins is the immediate past president of the international group and did a superb job in conducting the con vention. MOST OF the days were spent renewing old ac quaintances and listening to lectures. This is the third convention which I have attended and I would The basic function of the Catholic Press is to inform and instruct. Hence, the editiorial page plays an impor tant role in exer cising the func tion. It should be the unofficial but competent mouth piece of Catholic thinking in the Diocese. It should give prudential judgments on the affairs of the day without claiming infallibility. To me, the average editorial page of our Ca tholic newspapers is as somber as the funeral parlor. It lacks, however, the background music and glittering furnishings with which today’s morticians bury the dead. Sometimes we notice the flippant spark of daring similar to that exhibited at an Irishwake, but too seldom is Catholic vitality evident. One of the basic weaknesses is that most of the Catholic Press is timid. There is too much yearn ing for the safety of the status quo and too much fear of the possibility of being wrong. So, too, there is the fear of the many pressure groups within our midst. Our own Catholic societies all have axes to grind, and gripes to make; hence, we fear their reaction. We fear their adverse com ments to what we write and say. Then there are the national pressure groups en dorsed by some Catholics but whose motives ap pear solely political. So,too, : there areanti-Com- munist pressure groups within the Church and few editors wish to court their disfavor. We so often give the impression that the one true Church demands one track minds. We cower behind our editorial defenses wishfully yearning for the peace and quiet of ennui. Many of us are so afraid of controversy that we invoke the virtue of prudence at the expense of justice. In all these things we seem to have lost the heritage and tra dition of the Catholic Press. Where are the cru sading men of old who entered the field of con troversy with courage and vitality? While they may at times have lacked prudence, they at least voiced the Christian optim ism of the just and fought for the Faith with a conviction which knew no bounds. What is the purpose of the editorial page? It is the same as the secular newspaper editorial page — the encouragement of an articulate public opinion. It is useless to expect a 1 vital lay apost- .olate jf the Catholic Press 'fails, through neglect, to lead the layman to his ultimate responsibilities. The Catholic Press does not exist simply to defend the Church. It also has to propagate the teachings of the Church. Inasmuch as the Diocesan com munity is also our ’concern, the laity must be made aware of this. The Catholic editor must be willing to learn about and form opinions on local secular pro blems, especially those which affect the welfare of the community. He will be interested not only in zoning laws affecting the erection of Catholic schools, but also those affecting public and Pro testant and Jewish parochial schools. The Ca tholic editor should be as willing to defend the rights of the non-Catholic as he normally is will ing to fight for the rights of his co-religionists. We must show all men the breadth and vision, the aged wisdom and the perennial youth of the Church. We should be as vocal about racial in justice as we are about Communism or smut. We should be as firm in relation to corruption in bu siness as we are in relation to Corruption in la bor. We should avoid aligning ourselves with any group. This will give us the freedom to denounce even our friends if they’ve become un-Catholic or anti-community. We must also avoid the danger of accepting the counsel and advice of those who say you mustn’t attack this or that evil because Mr. or Mrs. Jones is a large contributor to the Church. We must not be afraid to speak out against pos sible Catholic injustice to the community and in justice by Catholics in the community. We must at all costs avoid the cracking of the “Catholic whip.” We must show our neighbors the univer sality of the Church, its love for all men, and its concern for all problems. REAPINGS AT RANDOM COUNCIL STUDIES ATHEISM Your World And Mine BY GARY MacEOlN ROME. “When Vatican I proclaimed papal in fallibility, the workers of Europe were too weak to Stand up and cheer,” says Father Arthur McCor mack. "With that historic experience, Vatican II has even less excuse, if it fails to show;today’s dispossessed masses its concern and meaning for them.” Father McCormack, member of the English mission society of Millhill, is an expert on prob lems of population and of world development. Co - editor of "World Justice” (Louvain), he is closely associated with Car dinal Suenens in seeking to make the document on the Church in the Modem World as useful and relevant as possible for those to whom it is addressed. They will have to settle for much less than perfection. The debates on the re vised versiori have revealed gaps which all agree cannot be filled in the time available. In addi tion, deep divisions of viewpoint remain on how to deal with many basic issues, and the current Council mood is to find vague formulae to mask over such disagreements. A GLARING EXAMPLE is what to do about atheism. The Council discussion and the parallel talks and writings outside the aula have revealed an amazing study in recent years of this pheno menon, in search of a pastoral approach. Prac tically every part of the world is involved and concerned, with the curious exception of the United States. Apparently, the conclusion reached by Will Herberg ten or more years ago remains valid. Our pluralism is governed by rigid con ventions. The only socially approved categories are Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism. Specifically, agnosticism and atheism are still out. In consequence, the U. S. bishops took no sig nificant part in the discussions. But just about every other region was well represented. What was new in the exposition was the search for the positive elements in contemporary atheism, or at least the reasons why those who propagate it regard it as necessary for human progress. "Let us talk about atheism within the men tality of those who are atheists,” said Cardinal Seper, of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, "It is a fact that CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 All this will require of editors the avoidance of the so-called middle of the road. We must leave this island of inaction, with its hesitations and its fears, and dare to speak and act in defense of truth and morality. I do not mean to be trite. We have compromised for much too long with the rest of the world. We must now stand up and be counted in a very real way. If it means being unpopular, even among fellow Catholics, then so be it. The times are too serious for pussy-footing or the pious mouthing of cliches. It is my conviction that Catholic editors have a special role in these times — that of striving for religious and professional competence in or der that they may become part of the new leader ship, promoting the new spirit of adventure which has come about through the emergence of new nations and new forms of government. So many of us are afraid of innovations, be they in terms of spiritual formation or temporal affairs. We are always looking for precedents to justify our actions. Sometimes we might find ourselves alone in a point of view. Yet, if we believe we are right, then we should follow our conscience. By all means let the critics be heard, but they must never be permitted to reduce an editorial stand to merely being all things to all men. An editor is human—he therefore will at times lack prudence and charity; he will also be wrong, at times; but this is the human trait, and it should never be the excuse for timidity or lack of concern for man’s problems. Yes, it is true — through a firm moral stand an editor “sticks to religion.” Whaf more can be asked?