THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLES FORUM Campaign 1968 During the past month, The Progressive received more than a score of letters enthusiastically supporting the candidacy of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. A...
...There was no looting and burning...
...Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, and the rest, evoked an abashed cringe and rather feeble grin of embarrassment from me...
...Mrs...
...Penn Kemble Consultant, Interne Program World Without War Council New York, New York Sheep Dear Sirs: When I read the editorial entitled "Sheep" from your "Notes in the News," May, 1968, I wanted to weep bitter tears of frustration...
...At the time of his death, Malcolm X was preparing to take the plight of the American black man before the United Nations...
...More women work than men, most of them far from their homes...
...In Congress...
...I am not convinced that he did not seize Veitnam as a political gambit...
...Ralph E. DeMott Chicago, Illinois Embarrassed Young Liberal Dear Sirs: A new subscriber, I find The Progressive a great embodiment of true and effective liberalism...
...It is not inconceivable that you will get this opportunity, in which case I and, I am sure, many long-standing Progressive readers will pick up our shattered illusions and move on...
...We "sympathizers" and "liberals" living in wealthy, white Northern communities often turn to eulogizing in desperation and concern...
...That's the feeling I felt he was trying to express, but I wasn't sure, the way it was declaimed...
...he has won already...
...The official excuse was that Cleaver and Hutton were thought to have had guns on them as they came out—notwithstanding the fact that Hutton had his hands raised in surrender and Cleaver was stark naked...
...To add to my disbelief you then say that you would have no trouble supporting Mr...
...How does one get an "outcry" going when one does not have the facility (media) to dispense one's views and when one is thought not to have enough knowledge to give a sensible view, and when the issues are so muddied by either the newspapers, the people with power, the Army, or Utah's Congressmen...
...I wonder...
...techniques for influencing American public opinion and foreign policy, and professional means for dealing with these problems in the public arena...
...Humphrey...
...America can no longer ignore malnutrition as a way of life for the poor...
...But let not Shane Stevens nor anyone similarly immature call it a "black hellhole...
...And Malcolm X snapped irritably, "All right...
...His is a voice to be listened to...
...King and the Reverend Mr...
...Leonard Harris Ann Arbor, Michigan Dear Sirs: Your May editorial, "McCarthy All the Way," neglected to state why Eugene McCarthy will not receive the Democratic Presidential nomination, although, in fact, it reveals the prime reason...
...It is a community largely of private, single-family homes...
...He was doing this through his Organization of Afro-American Unity—in which white people were acepted as members and embraced as brothers...
...We don't owe them a thing...
...When did he first speak out against Vietnam...
...Rockefeller, second...
...Eighteen-year-old Bobby Hutton was killed by the police as he also emerged from the building...
...She took me to task for "spouting off," 'when I only had "half of the facts" and why didn't I wait until I had the "truth" before I indicted the Army for the death of 6,000 sheep...
...Did Malcolm X free himself from racism as Shane Stevens declares...
...Humphrey is the perpetrator of one of the foulest blows struck by the Johnson Administration—the attempt to shift responsibility for the expanded war in Vietnam onto the shoulders of the martyred President John F. Kennedy...
...It is "a black hellhole" in spite of its "private, single-family homes...
...I have read and clipped from the two newspapers published in our area, Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, every item concerning the incident...
...It is no Bel Air, no Beverly Hills, but neither is it the abominable slum of Harlem...
...Yorick will keep up with current writings, he will find numerous sources to validate the claim that in many important respects Watts is even worse than Harlem...
...Although the nation may not be worthy of a man of his integrity and high purposes, even as it proved unworthy of Adlai Stevenson in 1952, McCarthy has awakened the conscience of America and has proven to the world that America has at least one politician who is able to raise his head above the crowd...
...Since then the newspaper has refused to print my letters on the subject...
...When...
...If the George Wallaces and the Richard Nixons can see their way clear to pour billions of our tax dollars into Asia to "stop Communism," then I suggest to them and the American people that we protect the poor and grant them a realistic aid program that will set them on a self-sustaining basis with a guarantee of equal opportunity...
...Shortly before he was murdered (by other blacks) I saw him as a guest on a Hollywood television "talk" program...
...Indeed, even now I am wondering how long our liberal press will continue to chase the chimera of "lesser of the evils" politics and continue to drag me with it...
...All whites were enemies...
...Yorick's vivid imagination or something straight out of William Styron's bag of stereotype characters as used in his Nat Turner...
...Any black man who calls Watts a "Negro paradise" is either a figment of Mr...
...It now appears that again we will have to choose between "the lesser" or not vote at all...
...There are few jobs, little income, no adequate public transportation...
...Ruth Shapin Orange, California Dear Sirs: I ask my fellow progressives among your subscribers to remember one thing: If Senator McCarthy had not had the vision and the guts to raise his banner last fall, the President and Vice President Humphrey would still be running for reelection on a ticket that stressed escalation of the war and rejection of the Kerner Commission Report...
...You reflect the attitude of the American electorate, and, I submit, the reason the crusader will fail...
...His damnation of whites was complete and universal...
...I know it well...
...Humphrey is my first choice...
...When writing, a stamped, self-addressed return envelope should be sent...
...The Progressive is right: "McCarthy All the Way...
...Humphrey against a Nixon or a Reagan...
...except, that is, by the Oakland police...
...Small contributions are accepted to defray postage costs, but they are not actively solicited...
...He was shot by the Oakland police as he emerged—naked and with hands raised skyward—from a building where he and several others had fled after being stopped in their car and attacked by police...
...Louise P. Hess Salt Lake City, Utah Fire and Sickness Dear Sirs: Shane Stevens' review in the May issue of Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice, a review written with passion and skill equal to the talents of its subject, leaves me bemused...
...However, if one does understand other languages, it may be helpful...
...Margaret Long's amusement and irritation at Northern sympathizers' ecstatic idolizing of the late Dr...
...Is it in the Congressional Record...
...Here is a man, once renowned as a liberal, now supported by the likes of John Connally and -Lester Maddox...
...La Verne E. Lowe Norfolk, Virginia Dear Sirs: Hubert Humphrey's candidacy for the Democratic nomination is a distressing proposition...
...One response to my letter, a letter from the wife of a civilian employe at Dugway, was published...
...They were merely black, merely hopeful...
...As a nineteen-year-old future social worker, I plan to act upon my convictions...
...But he is, indeed, a gifted rapist...
...Seymour Rayack Queens Village, New York...
...Were the Democratic Party to nominate Humphrey —the candidate of disunity—it would give the election to the Republicans...
...Internships are being offered in New England, New York City, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and California...
...Daniel D. Victor Beverly Hills, California Dear Sirs: The charge of "opportunism" has been leveled against various candidates for the Presidency, but has not yet been directed at the most opportunistic candidate of all...
...For us it is Gene McCarthy all the way...
...Mrs...
...One—Eldridge Cleaver did indeed in his youth rape white women...
...Many, including the official police report...
...in the June issue...
...Your unflinching support of Senator McCarthy from the beginning—in fact, long before there was a bandwagon—has provided hope and inspiration and leadership for countless Americans who are revolted by the war in Vietnam and alert to the imperative need for bold action at home...
...Among the members and consultants of the Council are: Roger Baldwin, John C. Bennett, Norman Podhoretz, Bayard Rustin, Leon Shull, and Norman Thomas...
...The Editors Dear Sirs: I liked Hubert Humphrey before I received the May issue of The Progressive...
...Only with hope and expectations of better things do you find revolt and fire...
...Cleaver's pen is gifted, his artistry consummate, and Stevens strokes a dramatic lyre in support of Cleaver's lyric...
...It will be a tragic irony if the Democratic Party were to succeed in divesting itself of the burden of Lyndon Johnson only to find that it has been saddled with the candidacy of the opportunistic Mr...
...It was for rape...
...Utah must have business as usual (Dugway Proving Grounds) since it brings money to the state which seems more important than people...
...You indicated that if there had been a "sufficient outcry," it might have proved embarrassing enough to the Government for something to happen...
...Even a cursory reading of his Autobiography or his final speeches will show this...
...Shane Stevens New York, New York Letters Abroad Dear Sirs: Would any of your readers like to receive an interesting letter, covered with exotic stamps, from some far-distant country...
...In Soul on Ice, Cleaver explains his actions as those of a black man trying to "hurt" white sqciety...
...An interne in this program is expected to commit at least one year of full-time work to developing knowledge and experience in three fields: the nature of international conflict...
...The May, 1968, issue contained a splendid article on Dr...
...Three—In the last year of his life, Malcolm X renounced his former allegiance to the Black Muslim ideology of racial supremacy, and began forming a working dialogue with the white race...
...The extreme flexibility of Vice President Hubert Humphrey's political posture as well as the shallowness of his principles is evident in the fact that, after serving for many years as Lyndon Johnson's show-horse liberal both in the Senate and in the White House, he is currently being embraced by the Southern Establishment, big business, big labor, and the big city bosses—all of whom see him as the President who can talk fast enough to keep the liberals off balance without disturbing anyone's vested interests...
...If Mr...
...Marsh F. Beall Portland, Oregon Everlasting Disgrace Dear Sirs: Erwin Knoll has presented a well-rounded, provocative article, "How Many More Shopping Days...
...Daniel F. Halloran Albany, New York World Without War Internes Dear Sirs: Your readers might appreciate some information about an Interne Program in the field of public opinion and international conflict, sponsored by the World Without War Council of the United States, for which applicants are now being sought...
...In the interest of truth, however, I should briefly correct four of the major misinterpretations...
...Al P. Yorick Altadena, California Shane Stevens Replies Dear Sirs: There is so much of Mr...
...Cindy Ford Rochester, Minnesota Courageous Dear Sirs: To my mind, The Progressive is indeed the most courageous, the most outstanding magazine in the country...
...I'm sorry that he was recently shot by the police during another burning and looting...
...And I admire Cleaver's genius with words...
...It is possible through person-to-person correspondence that people abroad may get a different, possibly better, image of the people of the United States...
...The arsonists and looters were not entirely damned...
...Perhaps if it were less than that, perhaps if there had been less hope, it would not have been the scene of that initial grand revolt, a city for the burning...
...And, after all, Vietnam, while briefly important, is not the only major issue...
...He was caught...
...During this time he repeatedly denounced the racist straitjacket beliefs of the Muslims...
...after all, what they were doing at Dugway was for my "national security" and I ought to be grateful...
...His is a pen of fire, a vision of nightmare perspective, and a sick mind...
...Thousands of registered Democrats, perhaps millions, unenthusiastic about the "politics of happiness" while our cities burn and our youth die in a needless war, will stay home in November if their choice is Nixon or Humphrey...
...Two—I am most assuredly familiar with Watts, having been there many times over the years, including a five months stay in 1965...
...Not for this progressive...
...Thousands of people of all ages are promoting better people-to-people relationships in all parts of the world through correspondence...
...As Vice President under President Johnson, he has so deeply disappointed me that I can never support him again...
...On the basis of your articles, I'm giving both time and money to Humphrey...
...Any witnesses...
...Were they, too, the "white lice" Malcolm X reviled...
...So they got themselves killed...
...Good writing is not easily come by...
...I like him much better after reading the many maudlin articles about McCarthy, whom I also admire...
...Watts is a colony peopled by colonial subjects...
...He is not, however, "a gifted rapist...
...Correspondents ate asked to write to Letters Abroad, giving their names and addresses, information concerning their age, sex, occupation, interests and hobbies, countries from which they wish to obtain correspondents...
...The program is conducted by the World Without War Council of the United States, a cooperative effort by organizations and individuals who share the goal of a disarmed world under law in which free societies can grow and flourish...
...When Senator Humphrey campaigned for the Democratic nomination in 1960, I worked in Madison, Wisconsin, for his nomination...
...In most cases, language is no barrier, as people abroad who wish to correspond with residents of the United States understand English...
...It doesn't matter if he has been a criminal and a rapist...
...Were they in the same bag...
...Those who supported him when he was a liberal years ago—civil rights leaders, progressive labor elements, and intellectuals—now repudiate him...
...McCarthy, third...
...Anyone wishing application forms should write to: Interne Program, World Without War Council of the United States, 216 East 18th Street, New York, New York 10003...
...And yet, when magazines like yours can endorse the Senator—lauding him as "the greatest hope to plan and execute the program of progressive action at home and abroad in the years of decision that lie ahead"—while in the same journalistic breath add that "we would have no difficulty supporting Kennedy or Humphrey against a Nixon or a Reagan," you are, in effect, playing into the hands of his Democratic opponents...
...He admitted his guilt...
...Letters Abroad, 18 East 60th Street, New York, New York 10022, serves as a clearing house to which any interested person may write for names and addresses of correspondents in almost any part of the world...
...George Cleveland, Ohio Dear Sirs: Regardless of who is nominated in August to head the Democratic ticket, a man like Senator McCarthy cannot lose...
...A. Schmitz New York, New York Dear Sirs: The Progressive's role in the 1968 campaign thus far has been superb in every way...
...Some have presented Humphrey and his "politics of happiness" as a step toward national unity, but such is not the case...
...Four—Cleaver was not "shot by the police during another burning and looting in another city...
...Yorick writes, he is surely in good company in a society that spends a billion dollars a month to kill people 10,000 miles away but cannot feed twenty per cent of its own poor people at home...
...Mrs...
...But I remember things...
...Linda Lee Ray William C. Pratt Atlanta, Georgia Dear Sirs: "McCarthy All the Way," your May editorial, closes: "But the Democratic Party has a superior choice...
...Yours is the kind of progressivism that proves itself in every hour of trial and need...
...Of what date...
...What is his record on some others...
...C.L...
...I have written three letters to the Salt Lake Tribune, one of which has been published...
...Martin Luther King, Jr...
...Further, the homes may be private but the majority of them are collectively owned by corporations outside of the ghetto...
...I remember reading a piece by Cleaver many months ago—in Ramparts—telling the whys and wherefores of a stretch he served in the penitentiary...
...He wanted to rape a white woman, and he did...
...Finally, if Eldridge Cleaver—who as a black man has spent most of his adult life in society's jails and is now attempting to free himself from his hatreds—has "a sick mind," as Mr...
...I remember these things...
...too often, however, we stop with these emotional outpourings and do nothing although we deplore existing conditions and attitudes...
...Senator McCarthy has often stated that his strength lies in his ability to accrue votes the other Democratic candidates cannot rally...
...Being a gifted thinker, Cleaver soon determined that his course of action was not hurting society but harming himself as a human being and as a man...
...A representative cross section of these letters had been set in type to be included with those below but, of course, were deleted after the tragedy in Los Angeles...
...it is part of that Los Angeles that has often been referred to by blacks of Southern America and New York as a Negro paradise...
...Bob Morrow Tucson, Arizona Dear Sirs: I was shocked to find that despite Hubert Humphrey's complicity in the Vietnam genocide, which has killed and maimed one million children, you still find it painful to renounce him, and your "affectionate regard for the man remains undiminished...
...The spirit of compromise runs deep in the stream of the American political experience, but the "all the way" backers of Gene McCarthy do not have to concede defeat before their candidate has confronted the convention...
...Yorick's letter with which I concur, especially in its tone of admiration for Cleaver's talent, that I find it difficult to respond with any heated emotion to his distortions and lack of knowledge...
...We, in Utah, can replace the people, but where can we ever get more business...
...every bit as desperate as the South African black towns outside of Capetown and Johannesburg...
...And what, the interviewer asked, what of the white boys who went to Mississippi on behalf of Negro justice, of Negro rights, and were killed...
...His strength is found among party bosses, Southern racists, and the least progressive elements of the labor movement...
...It will be to our everlasting disgrace if we turn our backs on our countrymen...
...An expression of revolt against the white "Establishment...
...Is Shane Stevens acquainted with the "black hellhole of Watts" he mentions as the growing-up place of Cleaver...
...His new friends, Southern racists and the fat-cats of big business, will not stick by him, as they will find more likely candidates in Wallace and Nixon...
Vol. 32 • July 1968 • No. 7
