THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Wellesley, of All Places Dear Sirs: Wellesley voted May 5 to join the National Student Strike. I was extremely pessimistic over the prospect of striking, because experience...
...As the author, Georgie Anne Geyer, demonstrates, there are many different groups in Eritrea...
...As one Smith College girl asked: "Must one form of education stop for another...
...those who chose to finish as originally scheduled were not prevented from doing so...
...To be weighed against the costs of revolution are the costs of not having one—the costs in the constant suffering of the poor, deprived, and starving that have to forsake breakfast and supper and sometimes dinner for bombs...
...New Right: The False Choice," May issue) is painfully discouraging...
...But the simplest solution—and one which I am amazed has not been proposed by men themselves—is that men should voluntarily be sterilized after they have had two children, so that their wives need no longer carry the worry and responsibility of pregnancy...
...I think it unlikely that many young men now in Vietnam or Cambodia or destined for assignment there would derive much comfort from Mr...
...Today, the "liberators" of Eritrea have selfish economic interests in mind, and are not willing to join with progressive Ethiopians in their struggles...
...This campus has become politicized, as I have been...
...We must ask whether the results which are sought in good conscience by those who support the war, are any longer proportionate to the evil involved...
...You have let us hear Milton Mayer "tell it like it is...
...History has no example of a revolution without a vicious counterrevolution...
...Unfortunately, I find aspects of it lacking in both accurate analysis and judgment...
...New York) Gerald R. Sheehan, S.J...
...The "lesser of evils" route will probably always lead to a Joseph McCarthy...
...I was wrong...
...They do not have the time to chant, to parade...
...Jill Ramsfield Wellesley College Wellesley, Massachusetts Jesuits Join Dissent Dear Sirs: I think your readers might be interested in the pertinent reflections of American Jesuits as they appear in a letter I received from them May 21...
...It is equally apparent that the Rubin-Hoffman operation is^ at best irrelevant and at worst obstructive to that effort...
...Wellesley did not shut down...
...That Wechsler failed so miserably to bridge the chasm between liberals and radicals ("New Left vs...
...Virtually all of our nation's domestic ills stem from the rapidly growing population...
...Oregon) Robert A. Mitchell, S.J...
...Mexico, for example...
...If couples desire more than two children, why not do a kind deed by adopting homeless children...
...I think students here do...
...In my opinion, there are several legitimate goals for both "Eritreans" and Ethiopians...
...C. R. Smith Dunlap, Illinois The 'Death' of Wechsler Dear Sirs: With deepest regret I feel compelled to acknowledge the "death" of James Wechsler...
...Believe me, this has been one of the hardest periods of my life...
...If Mr...
...Because, in the author's own words, Eritrea is "a barren strip of sand and wild mountains on the Red Sea", it would clearly be economically unviable should it achieve "independence" from Ethiopia...
...To take only one, he is likely looking at the Russian revolution naively as most historians do...
...I do not believe that we can wait for the present generation of nine-year-olds to rescue us...
...Webster T. Peterson North St...
...Dear Sirs: I fear there is all too much truth in your June issue...
...They are learning, they are writing, they are telegramming, calling, asking, searching, hoping...
...we are not suspending everything because it's fun...
...I still believe, however, that we are getting a dangerous polarization in the dialogue about technology, as about so many other current problems...
...John V. O'Connor, S.J...
...Frank Duino Index, Washington Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's June article, "The Whelps": Right on...
...New Orleans) Walter L. Farrell, S.J...
...I think it is also high time a number of anti-technology fanatics faced up to the question of just what life-style they want and will accept...
...I have muddled about and finally put together what for me is a workable theory...
...Our concern is further heightened by the clouded origin of American involvement in this war and by the questionable morality of the recent escalation of the war by the invasion of Cambodia and the resumption of the bombing of North Vietnam...
...Paul, Minnesota...
...Missouri) Joseph D. Sheehan, S.J...
...I expect to see some more evidence of hope for the human race before I pass on...
...3) We urge you to modify Selective Service regulations (the draft) to allow selective conscientious objection, as recently espoused by the United States Catholic Conference...
...Allford's view that I have departed this world, I think I have a far greater sense of urgency than his letter exhibits...
...If it hadn't ended as it did I wouldn't be writing this...
...This operation permits continuance of the sexual relationship without the concomitant worry of pregnancy...
...Majoring in music can be a built-in isolation tube, but I have now emerged...
...The costs of being deprived of a full life with education and fruitful leisure, and so on...
...Both men have put their finger on the root of our troubles...
...Our commitments to end a war we find irrational, dishonest, and immoral, to erase the political repression that is making dead men of some of us, and hypocrites of us all, and to stop research dedicated precisely to the destruction of life are serious...
...Thus, the liberation movement is neither united nor homogeneous enough for it to be termed a "nationalist movement...
...After the eclipse of the Axumite kingdom, Eritrea's area was colonized by Arabs, Ottoman garrisons, Egyptian garrisons, Italy, and a brief British administration...
...Mintz were here in the flesh to confront me, I expect I'd get a lot of glib reassurances to the effect that he really just wants humane technology...
...As a middle-aged person who has tried for ten years to help achieve basic reforms through electoral politics (I organized Dissenting Democrats of Texas in late 1967, then volunteered as state chairman for Eugene McCarthy through the spring of 1968), I have been confounded repeatedly by the failure of old liberal friends to match their rhetoric with action...
...And I would also say that the young radicals are precisely correct in addressing themselves to "nine-year-olds" and younger children rather than to middle-aged liberals...
...I think it is high time people faced a few facts about drugs and insecticides...
...Yes, desperate diseases require desperate remedies sometimes...
...We earnestly address these requests to the Senate of the United States, as American citizens and ministers of religion, grievously distressed over the present moral stance of our beloved country...
...To point to the wave of repression initiated by Agnew-Mitchell-Nixon and blame it on the radicals, while failing to consider that the timidity of liberals is a primary factor, is to operate on a very different level of communication...
...It is really of no avail for him—or you—to protest that he is really for population control...
...I prefer his straight, "square" approach as in "The Whelps...
...True despair remains mute...
...After "independence" it would probably have to federate with another country, such as the Sudan, which would cut Ethiopia off from the sea...
...We wish to express to you our deep concern over the moral implications of the war in Indochina...
...One can not take the immediate view only of revolution, as if only the present touches and deprives...
...From way back when, and the Saturday Evening Post days of World War II, when Mr...
...Executive Secretary Conference of Major Superiors of Jesuits Washington, D. C. For the Provincials of the Society of Jesus: James L. Connor, S. J. (Maryland) Patrick J. Donohoe, S.J...
...Christine Stallknecht Cal-State Fullerton, California Dear Sirs: You have done it again...
...I am even older and grayer and more weather-beaten than Mr...
...But flee where...
...It is the next generation—those in elementary schools at this time—that will probably produce enough persons who will match action to enlightened rhetoric to turn this country around...
...THE PEOPLE'S FORUM Wellesley, of All Places Dear Sirs: Wellesley voted May 5 to join the National Student Strike...
...Frank Church United States Senator Washington, D. C. Dear Senator Church: We write to you as leaders of the Jesuits who work throughout the United States...
...let him be judged by his works in this area...
...A similar picture emerges from Milton Mayer's article...
...A significant portion of today's Eritrea is historically part of Ethiopia...
...He is a writer for whom I have the most profound respect, one from whom I drew the greatest encouragement during the 1968 campaign...
...As one professor here suggested, it is a time for the highest mutual respect...
...James A. Wechsler New York, New York Mayer's Cliff-hanger Dear Sirs: I have never read an article with more anxiety than "The Whelps" by Milton Mayer, in the June issue of The Progressive...
...I was extremely pessimistic over the prospect of striking, because experience has shown Wellesley (myself included) to be so apathetic in political affairs, and the only far-reaching results I could foresee meant disappointment...
...Would they even go back to the pre-antibiotic era—before World War II...
...The greatest threat to the human race, he said, is man's own procreation...
...Second, in the description of New Left student politics in the Forum letter from Bradford Sales, with its indication of a trial marriage between left and right extremists, joining in deliberate polarization and provocation...
...Mayer, but I still believe, as he appears to, that youth is sincerely looking for a way and appreciates a straight, honest approach from us old timers...
...It seems to me all the events of recent weeks have affirmed my view that there remains a basis for the effective mobilization of broad opinion against the war and that the November elections offer a real—perhaps decisive—chance to end the madness...
...Don W. Allford Austin, Texas Wechsler Replies Dear Sirs: Despite Mr...
...The students here spent a day deciding, and when they decided, when they looked hard at their self-images being reflected back at them by intensive argument and soul-searching (again myself included), they made their decision—our decision— and began immediately to follow through...
...This compromising approach can be frustrating for both sides, but it is nevertheless essential in retaining honest, complete education...
...The Princeton plan—two weeks off just before the November election for campaign work— makes it possible for students to channel their energies and concerns in the service of the nation...
...Lee Grant Detroit, Michigan Where to Flee...
...Mintz' article represents a rapidly growing trend in liberal circles in these days of concern about pollution and about the ecology...
...Who knows what would follow revolution without a counterrevolution...
...Mrs...
...But this has been tried before, with temporary success followed by rightist domination and disaster: this is how the Nazis got their start...
...Chicago) John J. Kelley, S.J...
...Mayer would conduct himself and wishing with all my heart that the "whelps" would listen, it became a cliff-hanger...
...Detroit) Kenneth J. Galbraith, S.J...
...Several people scorn the apparent talk-without-action procedure, but only when we have built up our own resources can we talk and act intelligently and, as I said, Wellesley needed some informing...
...He is one of a handful of liberal writers who, in my opinion, should be able to comprehend what the young radicals are saying...
...If this country hopes in any way to ameliorate its ills, we are all going to have to listen and honor that suggestion...
...California) John H. Edwards, S.J...
...The result has been an endless schedule of workshops, lectures, trips to area businessmen and churches, distributing leaflets, canvassing, information gathering, organizing for summer work, fund-raising for peace projects...
...Such a position is quite like that of liberals in 1948 and after, of denouncing everyone left of, say, Truman in order to be "pragmatic" and ride the conservative tide...
...Ethiopia's ancient Axumite kingdom had its capital, Axum, located in what is today the province of Tigre, while its principal seaport, Adulis, was located in Eritrea...
...Truman Griffin Virginia, Minnesota Eritrea Dear Sirs: I was pleased to find a substantial article on Africa ("Eritrea: A Name to Remember") in the June issue of The Progressive...
...Mayer came out with those words, "I think I'll sit this one out," he has been telling us, but sometimes he resorts to a roundabout, esoteric manner...
...Oregon) William G. Guindon, S.J...
...Or do they want to have their ideological cake and eat it too—whale the tar out of technology and still enjoy its fruits...
...And have a future President Agnew or Wallace invade to protect us from Castro-ites in Guatemala...
...Would they willingly return to the days before the industrial revolution...
...Moved by these considerations and by our profession as ministers of religion, we call for immediate action from every member of the Senate of the United States: 1) We urge that you take steps to end this war without delay...
...He is not separating the revolution from the counterrevolution with the consequent turmoil and invasions...
...Thinking that I knew how Mr...
...Wisconsin) Costs of Revolution Dear Sirs: Senator Fulbright says in his article in the June issue of The Progressive that what we would get from a revolution would not be something better but chaos and disaster as with the French and Russian revolutions in their immediate effects...
...Thank you for the June issue and "The Whelps...
...I would say that the seemingly inane retorts of Yippies are very much in the classic tradition of rejection of rationalism, first established a century ago by Dostoevski in Notes from Underground...
...We take this occasion to bring to your attention our concern over moral issues afflicting the conscience of every citizen of this nation...
...It is exciting, and it is sincere...
...New England) Robert F. Harvanek, S.J...
...Since I consider the concept held by Locke and Jefferson of the inherent benevolence of human beings essential to any projection of meaning of human existence, the repeated failure of liberals to act out their rhetoric has bothered the hell out of me...
...These include economic development for all of Ethiopia (for which access to the sea is essential), the ending of excessive influence from the outside (including both the United States and Arab countries), and the transformation of Haile Selassie's dictatorship...
...The students here want to go to America...
...Non-strikers, too, have been obliged to think about their decision, and Wellesley has a new complexion...
...Anything that is the product of technology is suspect if not actually demonic...
...especially, first, in Evangeline McAllister's wry suggestion in the People's Forum that you change your motto to read "The truth shall make you flee...
...There is no such thing as a one-hundred per cent safe drug and there never can be one, or one that can be made that way for all potential users, no matter how much testing is done...
...We really mean it this time—the first time for Wellesley on this scale...
...Louise Rounds Santa Barbara, California Dear Sirs: Milton Mayer's article, "The Whelps," gave the thrill of the century to this oldster of eighty-four...
...Allford's view of meaningful activism...
...James Robert Baylor University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois Male Birth Control Dear Sirs: Recently Robert H. Finch, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, suggested a two-child family limit as one important step against overpopulation...
...4) We urge that you take these positive actions to heal the alienation of our youth from this country...
...Over and above the moral ambiguity of the war in itself we have a further concern over the effects of the Indochina war in our own country, namely, violence in our streets, unrest on our campuses, and the problem of the military draft...
...Acting against Ethiopia's interests, many "Eritreans" cooperated with these imperialisms, even to the extent of becoming mercenaries for the brutal Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936...
...At no time were classes or exams cancelled...
...and it was not liberals who disposed of McCarthy...
...Jean Wunderlich San Diego, California Mintz Infuriating Dear Sirs: To me, Morton Mintz' article on "The Pill" in the May issue was simply infuriating...
...In addition, we deplore any attempt to motivate the American people to accept this escalation on the basis of our never having lost a war...
...2) We urge that the national budget be channeled into peaceful directions by cutting back military appropriations...
...And, much as I admire Senator Nelson, I think the guff about "Nelson babies" is really quite appropriate...
...If Ethiopia should give up any territory, it is the Ogaden where the Somali live, not Eritrea...
...And Philip Handler, president of the National Academy of Sciences, predicts 100 million more people in the United States by the year 2000...
...The real test for all of us will come this fall and in 1972...
Vol. 34 • July 1970 • No. 7
