THE GREAT BRIDGE AT CHAPPAQUIDDICK
Nathan, George
^ U e . Qfteai ^nddtfe, < d G k o f L f U L t ^ u M l c k by George Nathan A very concerned young lady of the Liberal persuasion recently approached m e to sting m y ears with the most...
...Conservatism stands essentially for slow and cautious change, accompanied always by a reverence for existing and past institutions and for the processes that built these institutions (unfortunately, often too much reverence...
...Reincarnated, she leaped from the floor, gave m e a blitzkrieg kiss on the shoulder and bounded from m y hut...
...So there you have it...
...This explains the juridical imbroglio over disinterment...
...In fact, if any mode of political thought is amicable to the pursuance and acquisition of a good education (and that is doubtful), conservatism is that mode...
...But the evening was no longer young...
...cautiously I investigated it from every angle...
...Obviously, one can never totally isolate the campus from the "community," to use current S D S terminology...
...I suggested she visit the CIA...
...H o w then does the fact that political beliefs should not affect and/or infect the educational atmosphere of the time tend to support m y suggestion that, of all political ideologies, conservatism is the one most amicable to the campus...
...The reason for this lies in conservatism's very nature...
...It would, however, drive S D S members into frenzies...
...the sailing vessel would have to wait...
...as the allegation that he was once suspended from Harvard...
...there simply is no girl to exhume...
...Upon arrival the senior senator noticed that the laboratory's staff was holding some sort of "cookout...
...Booth's adventure appears as mercy killing...
...This irritated the usually serene senator, for he had just left an unconquered moimtain of data which he had intended to approach that evening...
...A month later, in a call from Santa Barbara, she reported that the story would soon break and urged that I report it in your favorite journal of fact...
...From where Miss X obtained her information I have not the foggiest, but as I understand her she claims that on 18 July the senior senator from Massachusetts, Edward (Teddy) Kennedy, was lured to a hidden cottage on Chappaquiddick Island just off Martha's Drug Store, under the pretext that it was really Dr...
...she hissed like spit on a radiator — principle would not allow it...
...Prudence and the National Interest admonished m e to proceed cunningly, yet all the customary paths dissolved in the abysmal darkness of uncertainty...
...308 I know that when the senator heroically delivered his emotive television statement you all wondered with him what black Nemesis haimted his name...
...A break in diplomatic relations appeared imminent...
...Arthur Schlesinger, Jr...
...As she revealed the astounding scheme she set m y mind to resurrecting images of Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth, Sacco, Vanzetti and McCarthy, but all wore haloes next to the conspirators m y comely informant had stumbled across...
...When dribbled to the public, her ghoulish narrative will serve as raw material for acts of Congress, perhaps a Constitutional amendment, maybe even a Presidential Commission...
...But this is asking too much...
...Powerful right wing forces throughout the nation, members of the military-industrial-complex, the Grape Trust, the smog magnates, moon speculators and the Alaskan aristocracy, are marshalling their forces to keep the lid on the bogus grave...
...She wondered to what authorities she should bring her information...
...To the FBI...
...Smashed by Wiesner's astounding information, the ductile senator agreed to wait six or seven hours for Wiesner's return...
...The classical liberal education depends on letting both students and professors search for truths unhampered by current political pressures and ideologies...
...And the alleged laboratory was in truth a remodeled Standard Oil gas station...
...Allegedly Dr...
...The super patriots!!!, in the words of Miss X, "got Senator Kennedy all marshmallowed up," and one of them (code named Daisy Buchanan) exploited his famous humanitarianism, persuading him to drive her to a specially constructed bridge where she claimed a California grape picker was protesting dangerous working conditions in his California sweat vineyard...
...These fiends fabricated the entire evening...
...The rumor that a girl drowned in the senator's car when a hidden direction light signaled him to turn right from the middle of the bridge is as xmfounded...
...The conservative realizes that these works must be respected and reflected upon, and that they are important in their own right...
...A conservative, with his reverence for works of the past, cannot sensibly call for all readings to be "relevant," or any such rubbish...
...Unfortunately this placid scene was but a prelude for tragedy — sinister eyes lurked beyond the heath...
...One of the laboratory technicians, noticing the distinguished senator, offered him a marshmallow, and told him that Wiesner had just taken a fairy back to Martha's Drug Store for refreshments and would return shortly...
...If this were not true, if the current political atmosphere were allowed to influence thought and learning, Locke could never have inveighed against the Divine Right of Kings in a country still governed by a monarchy, Paine could not have called for independence in a colonial America, and Marcuse could not now call for "repressive tolerance" (sic) in a free and non-repressive United States...
...Miss X had come to me, she explained, seeking advice, for she had always admired m y sovmd judgment and the impeccable taste of our journal...
...n Qanije/UAcdlitn A * u l 7<4e QcLmp444> by Bill Kristol Mark Rudd, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and J. K. Galbraith notwithstanding, there is no contradiction between conservatism and education...
...If, however, one can encourage the presence of intelligent conservatives in college faculties, there can be no question that there would be quite a bit more scholarship on our campuses and quite a bit less propagandizing and politicizing, and this would be a very good thing for the universities and for those of us interested in learning and scholarship...
...At the time Wiesner was not even in the United States but on a snake hunt in N e w York City...
...His mind aswirl with affairs of state, he nevertheless joined in the "cookout," detachedly sitting by the fire...
...A right wing cabal is victimizing this great m a n to assure the Republic's continued immunity to progress...
...The conservative tends to honor and respect the past and the present more than the liberal, and far more than the radical...
...The single most important prerequisite for attaining a good liberal arts education is detachment of the university from what occurs daily in the "outside world...
...Miss X should bear her information to the American government in exile at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts...
...And why has Senator Keimedy not revealed his predicament...
...U e . Qfteai ^nddtfe, < d G k o f L f U L t ^ u M l c k by George Nathan A very concerned young lady of the Liberal persuasion recently approached m e to sting m y ears with the most hideous plot ever devised within the borders of what Dr...
...In the interest of humanity and all that...
...Both professor and student must be allowed to study and come to conclusions independently of the political or cultural climate...
...The liberal, for instance, seeking to apply Locke to the race issue, often lets present political problems and considerations interfere with his scholarly pursuits...
...309...
...Ted Sorensen has asserted that "Senator Kermedy is too noble," and I believe him...
...I spun the problem in m y mind...
...this being the case, the presence of conservatism in the educational community is less damaging than the presence of any other ideology...
...Obviously, any sane person (a rather small group at present) would prefer that all scholars not let current political issues affect their work and teaching...
...Wiesner had just discovered that President Nixon was about to — without legislative confirmation — contract for twenty anti-ballistic missiles with the Marx Toy Company of Tanglewood, N e w Jersey...
...Her discomfort grew extreme — she was a Liberal...
...Jerome Wiesner's clandestine laboratory...
...For quite a while now he had been devoting weekends to experiments on a sailing vessel which he hoped to introduce to Congress as replacement for the A B M . Though not as fast nor maneuverable nor even as heavily armed as the missile, it did offer an antidote to further power accretions in the standing militaryindustrialcomplex...
...Let us shed no tears...
...The conservative has no such problem, and thus the more true conservatives (not reactionaries or nuts like Nathan) one has on a campus, the less politics will tend to corrupt the academy...
...Just as if Norman Thomas were standing at m y shoulder, a brilliant idea scrambled across m y tongue and dove into the room...
...Contrasted with Miss X's revelation, McCarthy's villainous design exudes the most flawless social consciousness, and Mr...
...Its identity at Chappaquiddick is n ow known, and it is m y duty to tell you that the events of 18 July were manipulated by a conspiracy of right wing extremists (mostly members of the John Birch Society and the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce) intent on destroying the senator's presidential hopes as surely as fluoridation is Bolshevizing America...
...has cooly appraised "the most violent people on earth...
Vol. 3 • September 1969 • No. 2
