THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Mayer and the Law Dear Sirs: In the January, 1966, issue of The Progressive, Milton Mayer must be trying to say something in his article, "The Ability to Kill Christ," but...
...Mayer then proceeds, in a roundabout way, to argue that the erroneous quote might well have been true and, anyway, is true in regard to U.S...
...The lack of understanding in the article is the failure to distinguish the basic difference between Judaism and Christianity...
...Mrs...
...The Freedom Democratic Party needs your financial support so it can keep on aiding people in the fight for freedom...
...Richard Bosch Atwater, Minnesota Wants More Mayer Dear Sirs: I hope you will continue to publish articles by Milton Mayer...
...Equality of voting, as Senator Paul Douglas, who opposes the Dirksen amendment, put it, "is an inlienable right and should not be tampered with...
...Citizens cannot sell themselves into permanent indentured servitude even though they do so contractually...
...A study of parallel histories of the Jews and of the Christians will indicate clearly where the greater ability to kill existed...
...The Jewish people suffered all forms of torture and finally the loss of their homeland because they dared oppose the Romans and remained faithful to the Law...
...Any excess of funds will be used to support the general budget...
...Mayer, the Jews were quite up to obeying the Law...
...Park Chamberlain Los Altos, California The Dirksen amendment would permit one house of a state legislature to be apportioned on factors other than population if a majority of voters approved such a plan in a statewide referendum...
...Mayer notes that "Man must live by faith if he means to be lawful...
...Even a majority does not have the right to take away the inherent and fundamental democratic right of the individual citizen to a whole vote...
...Christ's enforcement order is plain: Man must live by faith if he means to be lawful...
...Traditional Judaism has successfully practiced righteousness by the Law...
...moral stature" in Europe...
...The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party is struggling right now for equality for everybody, but we must have help...
...So, Mr...
...We should not submit a constitutional amendment which would subtract from the inalienable rights of American citizens...
...The Law was carefully obeyed and deeply respected and when the tortured Jews were led into exile, the Law was so deeply impressed in their lives that they carried it wherever they went...
...He beautifully expresses what I feel and am unable to say...
...Wechsler expresses so perfectly my thoughts—my many rejoicings and my fears—that I can do no other than to thank him for putting into words his clear, nonpartisan view of the present critical moment in our history...
...Negroes are evicted from their homes and farms with no place to go...
...He and I must be reading different Bibles...
...foreign policy, so that he is not qualified to sit as a judge of "moral stature...
...If the Jews had not been "obeying the law," they would have assimilated into the Roman society and disappeared...
...Without faith he cannot obey the law even if he would...
...Mississippi Negroes are still being burned and shot...
...Transportation is basic...
...If in fact such is the only effect of the Dirksen amendment, than I must add that I am deeply disappointed The Progressive did not explicitly so inform its readers— and then go on to explain why it believes that the people should be denied this particular choice...
...Because of The Progressive's hitherto unshaken confidence in the people, and in popular government, I would have expected it to greet the Supreme Court's one man-one vote decision like this: "While we enthusiastically approve of the one man-one vote formula, we profoundly regret that the Constitution should be interpreted so as to deprive the people of the right freely to determine whether they prefer the new formula or their traditional 'little Federal systems.' We therefore shall welcome a constitutional amendment that will restore to those citizens who already had a 'Federal system' (as in California) and assure to those citizens of other states who did not have it the right to amend, or not to amend, their state constitutions to adopt the new formula...
...and going on with the words of Jeremiah: "They have forsaken my law which I set before them...
...Under the leadership of the Freedom Democratic Party, new efforts are being made to bring about adequate enforcement of Federal civil rights laws...
...Mayer's writings consistently upgrade Communist and downgrade U.S...
...Mayer and The Progressive have done Judaism and the Jewish people a disservice...
...Jack Hall Griffith, Indiana Wechsler's Clear View Dear Sirs: I write to thank you for publishing in the January issue the article, "Lyndon B. Johnson: Between Two Worlds," by James A. Wechsler...
...The Editors Funds for Freedom Dear Sirs: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party needs help...
...They are losing their jobs (the ones who have them) just because they want to be first class citizens...
...I refer to the paragraph which reads, "Christ had to enforce the Law of Moses because the Jews, who sought righteousness by the law, were not up to obeying the law...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Mayer and the Law Dear Sirs: In the January, 1966, issue of The Progressive, Milton Mayer must be trying to say something in his article, "The Ability to Kill Christ," but whatever the innuendo might be, there is one paragraph there which is an unwarranted slur on the Jewish people and which reveals a profound lack of understanding of Judaism...
...Judaism has lived throughout the ages only by practicing and teaching that man must live by law if he is to be faithful...
...If you can, send your funds to: Warner Buxton c/o Clarke County Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Box 398 Quitman, Mississippi...
...Passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights bill has done little to make the Southern white man stop his abuses of the Negro...
...I have lived long and have read as widely as possible for a busy, self-supporting woman...
...Mine contains the Books of the Prophets, beginning with the words of Isaiah: "They have cast away the law of the Lord, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel...
...The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which is made up completely of local Mississippi Negroes, is constantly trying to make the world see what is going on...
...Oscar Fleishaker, Rabbi Beth Israel Center Madison, Wisconsin Mayer Replies Dear Sirs: Thank you for letting me see Rabbi Fleishaker's letter...
...In short, The Progressive should be wholeheartedly behind the Dirksen amendment, for, as I understand it, its sole purpose is to replace this power in the hands of the people, where it belongs...
...For this purpose funds are sought to purchase a Volkswagen bus or other transpoprtation to organize the voters in the Kemper and Clarke County regions of rural Mississippi...
...Bertha W. Howe Orlando, Florida One Man, One Vote Dear Sirs: As a faithful subscriber since the days when The Progressive appeared in newspaper format, and such a subscriber because of The Progressive's honest presentation of issues even when honesty hurt, I was distressed by the editorial on the Dirksen amendment in the January issue...
...Perhaps when all the Biblically-based religions will finally realize that the Law demands respect for all mankind as the only way to show our faith in God, then and then alone will we be able to achieve world peace...
...Am I not correct in believing that the Dirksen amendment, of itself, will have no effect at all on any state legislature—but will merely allow the people of the states to make their own free choice in the matter...
...and ending with the words of Malachi: "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them...
...foreign policy, which "has done mortal damage" to U.S...
...Milton Mayer Amherst, Massachusetts Roundabout Mayer Dear Sirs: In his characteristically obnoxious style, Milton Mayer makes an "abject" apology ("People's Forum," December issue) to McGeorge Bundy for having used a report in The New York Times which turned out to be erroneous...
Vol. 30 • March 1966 • No. 3
