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...
...in short, live as free men in a civilized society...
...this which sets us apart from other nations and other philosophies...
...As one juror noted, Bailey simply "wasn't very helpful...
...parallel organizations and committees exist in each of the fifty states and some ten thousand communities throughout the land...
...After the final vote, said one member of the panel, "We all just sat there...
...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...
...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...
...The Bicentennial has also led to a lot of nonsense, some of it in questionable taste: as Mr...
...We all wanted to make sure that the people who changed over had no doubts...
...As with most patriotic occasions, celebration of the Bicentennial has been something of a mixed bag...
...We are not, it seems, a people much given to reflection...
...I find much of the hoopla amusing, and many of the explicit demonstrations of patriotism quite moving...
...It is incidents like this, of course, which make events like the Bicentennial worth...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...The Alternative' is...
...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...
...Some communities have made truly remarkable efforts to learn more about the revolutionary period, about the philosophical and political underpinnings of the country...
...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...
...They are living indications that individuals can handle important responsibility...
...that individuals can make the most serious judgments of guilt and innocence with compassion and intelligence...
...that individuals can...
...each understood the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven...
...But here, too, the jury demonstrated that its responsible, serious, common-sense approach would prevail...
...while...
...Each juror, the Times notes, "said in his own way that the decision to find Miss Hearst guilty...
...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 difficult to imagine a more meaningful form of citizen observance of the nation's landmark birthday...
...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...
...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...
...and each understood his overriding obligation to the law of the nation...
...It is this, finally, that is the most meaningful feature of the independence we celebrate this year...
...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...
...The trial, of course, was hardly commonplace event in many of its feaures...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Unfortunately, the Bicentennial has also been the "inspiration," if you will, for more harmful nonsense...
...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 ALTERNATIVE, Post Office Box 877, Bloomington, Indiana 47401 Enclosed is $ Please enter a ^ new ^ renewal subscription to The Alternative for: ^ One year $8...
...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...
...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...
...The jurors felt Mr...
...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...
...Bailey's performance was "dramatic" enough, but ultimately thought he had "let them down" by not providing enough hard evidence to support an acquittal...
...As one noted, "Every one of us wanted to believe she was innocent...
...Two years $15...
...Three years $20...
...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...
...Consider, if you will, the recent trial of 'atricia Hearst—an event as far removed rom Bicentennial celebration as one can magine...
...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...
...Veeck himself was replete with peg leg (genuine) and bloody head bandage (alas, a mere prop...
...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...
...The outstanding performance in this area has been presented by the redoubtable Bill Veeck, who recently repurchased the Chicago White Sox...
...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...
...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...
...We felt enormous sympathy for her, but then, at some point in everybody's mind, the sympathy was outweighed by the evidence...
...We kept saying to them 'are you sure...
...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...
...And predictably enough, a national Bicentennial Commission sits in Washington to preside over the festivities...
...And when she was first on the stand, everyone's heart went out to her...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Please print) Name Address City State Zip 99B he Alternative: An American Spectator June/ July 1976 23...
...William F. Buckley, Jr...
...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...
...one of the most amusing and outrageous and interesting journals in America...
...How could you help it...
...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...
...There was silence, a long pause, and then everybody began to talk...
...All in all, I am enjoying the Bicentennial...
...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...
...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...
Vol. 9 • June 1976 • No. 9
