The Nation's Pulse
Rusthoven, Peter J.
by Peter J. Rusthoven The Nation's Pulse America's Bicentennial is very much in the news these days. It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine that does not contain an article or...
...For several days this spring, hundreds of residents attended intensive lecture and discussion sessions on Madison, Hamilton, and Jay's defense of the Constitution, in an effort both to learn about the past and to discover what the Founders would expect of citizens today...
...As one noted, "Every one of us wanted to believe she was innocent...
...Veeck himself was replete with peg leg (genuine) and bloody head bandage (alas, a mere prop...
...in short, live as free men in a civilized society...
...William F. Buckley, Jr...
...and each understood his overriding obligation to the law of the nation...
...Tyrrell reports in May's "Continuing Crisis," the Midwest Breeders' Cooperative has gone so far as to hold a Bicentennial Semen Sale, complete with pictures of the Father of Our Country on every semen container...
...You see, the Founders were really quite "with-it" types—revolutionaries, as a matter of fact—and only the establishment heavies of our era stand between us and the true dreams and aspirations these forefathers had for our land...
...Choosing the famous "Spirit of '76" painting for their motif, the three marched solemnly about the field in the general vicinity of home plate, resplendent in powdered wigs, knee breeches, and other colonial attire...
...Can you go home and sleep and not have any doubts or feel you were pressured into it?' " Clearly, the Hearst jurors were a serious and thoughtful lot, and a credit to our way of doing justice...
...All in all, I am enjoying the Bicentennial...
...The outstanding performance in this area has been presented by the redoubtable Bill Veeck, who recently repurchased the Chicago White Sox...
...this for which we owe undying gratitude to those remarkable men who two hundred years ago pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to launch this grandest experiment in the history of civilization...
...one of the most amusing and outrageous and interesting journals in America...
...What did impress me about the -Iearst affair, however, was an aspect of he trial which is really not very unusual it all: namely, the role and reactions of he jury...
...Many observers were convinced during the trial that defense attorney F. .Lee Bailey was making mincemeat of Prosecutor James Browning, and that the jury could not fail to be overwhelmed by Bailey's prestige and rhetorical skill...
...We felt enormous sympathy for her, but then, at some point in everybody's mind, the sympathy was outweighed by the evidence...
...For many of the most commonplace events in our land provide daily reminders that this s a nation where responsible individual Citizens have historically unprecedented xintrol over the vital aspects of civilized Existence...
...The trial, of course, was hardly commonplace event in many of its feaures...
...Bailey's performance was "dramatic" enough, but ultimately thought he had "let them down" by not providing enough hard evidence to support an acquittal...
...Consider, if you will, the recent trial of 'atricia Hearst—an event as far removed rom Bicentennial celebration as one can magine...
...Each juror was sensitive as well to those emotional factors present in the Hearst case—as in many others—that inclined one toward sympathy with the defendant...
...It is incidents like this, of course, which make events like the Bicentennial worth...
...And when she was first on the stand, everyone's heart went out to her...
...Unfortunately, the Bicentennial has also been the "inspiration," if you will, for more harmful nonsense...
...Three years $20...
...The Alternative' is...
...As with most patriotic occasions, celebration of the Bicentennial has been something of a mixed bag...
...Each juror, the Times notes, "said in his own way that the decision to find Miss Hearst guilty...
...The jurors felt Mr...
...As one juror noted, Bailey simply "wasn't very helpful...
...It is hardly an insight to note that there is all too little reflection in this country on those aspects of our nation's heritage which have made her unique in the history of mankind...
...The CBS television network presents each evening a "Bicentennial Minute," in which individuals of varying prominence and repute describe historic events that took place, as the phrase has it, "two hundred years ago today...
...and to the extent an event like the Bicentennial prods us to dwell for a time on our history and purposes—as Sheboygan and many other communities demonstrate it has—it is all to the good...
...After the final vote, said one member of the panel, "We all just sat there...
...It is evident, first of 11, that the seven women and five men kho sat in judgment of Patricia Hearsttook their obligations with extreme seriousness...
...They are living indications that individuals can handle important responsibility...
...It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine that does not contain an article or feature on some aspect of the nation's rapidly approaching two hundredth birthday...
...that individuals can...
...For one thing, patriotism in 1976 seems less the last refuge of scoundrels than of ad-men (though some, perhaps, would contend there is little to choose between the two...
...We all wanted to make sure that the people who changed over had no doubts...
...We kept saying to them 'are you sure...
...But here, too, the jury demonstrated that its responsible, serious, common-sense approach would prevail...
...This outfit is busily churning out paperbacks and pronunciamentos, filled with earnestly pompous assertions about Jefferson's supposed fear of the current "corporate state," or about how the Founders would undoubtedly favor national health insurance or radical redistribution of income were they members of today's Congress...
...Any number of trendy causes, from "gay liberation" to the more radical fringes of the women's rights movement, have contended in all humility that their particular special interest embodies the spirit of the American Revolution in modern garb...
...And predictably enough, a national Bicentennial Commission sits in Washington to preside over the festivities...
...Everything from automobiles to beer, from clothing to take-out food, is apparently to be wrapped in the flag this marketing season, as if George Washington, were he still with us, would be driving a white sports car with red and blue racing stripes, and Thomas Jefferson would be picking up his 39-cent Liberty Bell mug on his next purchase of a hamburger at Jack-in-the-Box...
...I find much of the hoopla amusing, and many of the explicit demonstrations of patriotism quite moving...
...THE ALTERNATIVE, Post Office Box 877, Bloomington, Indiana 47401 Enclosed is $ Please enter a ^ new ^ renewal subscription to The Alternative for: ^ One year $8...
...Thousands of gifts, for example, have come pouring into the White House—handmade flags and artifacts and whatnot—notable less for their beauty (though some appear quite skillfully done) than for their demonstration of citizen desire to contribute to and participate in the public honoring of their land...
...Some communities have made truly remarkable efforts to learn more about the revolutionary period, about the philosophical and political underpinnings of the country...
...this which sets us apart from other nations and other philosophies...
...I am perhaps not as critical of the openly patriotic as some, but then I believe that much of that criticism comes from those whose only claim to sophistication rests on a casual and shallow cynicism...
...But I believe it should not, finally, require something as dramatic, and unique, and explicitly patriotic as a Bicentennial o force us to think on these matters...
...The New York Times of March 22, 1976 ontains a fascinating account of this porion of the Hearst story, complete with iumerous post-trial quotations from the urors themselves...
...But despite commercialism, circus-variety ballyhoo, and the ponderous bleatings of those who would turn this nation into an Albania, there has been much about the Bicentennial that is encouraging and even moving...
...each understood the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven...
...was the 'most difficult' of his or her life—more difficult, specifically,, then the decision to get married, to have children, or to change jobs...
...It is difficult to imagine a more meaningful form of citizen observance of the nation's landmark birthday...
...The Bicentennial has also led to a lot of nonsense, some of it in questionable taste: as Mr...
...Veeck decided to honor this historic year by having Manager Paul Richards and another White Sox executive join him in a special presentation of the colors for the Sox home opener...
...There was silence, a long pause, and then everybody began to talk...
...If we indeed deserve that la bel, however, I believe it is not so muck because of our often unthinking enjoy ment of vast material blessings, bui 22 The Alternative: An American Spectator June/ July 1976 rather for the blithe way we take for granted political and cultural traditions unknown to all but a fraction of those who have lived on this planet...
...It is this, finally, that is the most meaningful feature of the independence we celebrate this year...
...How could you help it...
...Most notably, the city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin sponsored a series of public workshops on The Federalist Papers, conducted by William J. Bennett, Assistant Director of the National Humanities Center in North Carolina...
...The United States has been callec by some, with an eye to our lofty standarc of living, "the spoiled child of the West ern World...
...parallel organizations and committees exist in each of the fifty states and some ten thousand communities throughout the land...
...And on a less commercial plane, the Bicentennial has inspired a fair amount of Some Thoughts on the Bicentennial that kitschy and largely harmless hoopla which is itself distinctly American...
...We are not, it seems, a people much given to reflection...
...Please print) Name Address City State Zip 99B he Alternative: An American Spectator June/ July 1976 23...
...And finally, when they had agreed on a verdict, those jurors who had been for conviction from the outset of deliberations were still concerned to be sure they had done the right thing, still careful to protect the defendant's rights by making sure that those jurors who had changed their views had done sofreely...
...Most obnoxious of all is the originally named "People's Bicentennial Commission," a group formed, one presumes, to present a "countercultural perspective" on the current celebrations...
...But for all that, my choice for the most moving event of this two hundredth year of our independence is that provided by the jurors of Patty Hearst...
...while...
...Two years $15...
...that individuals can make the most serious judgments of guilt and innocence with compassion and intelligence...
Vol. 9 • June 1976 • No. 9
