Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1965 GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 4 ESCALATION the Archdiocese of Atlanta SERVING GEORGIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News PUBLISHER- Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry CONSULTING EDITOR “Rev. R. Donald Kiernan 2699 Peachtree N. E. P. O. Box 11667 Northside Station Atlanta, Georgia 30305 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew Member of the Catholic Press Association and Subscriber to N. C.,W. C. News Service Telephone 231-1281 Second Class Permit at Atlanta, Ga. U. S. A. $5.00 Canada $5.00 Foreign $6.50 Christian Response Catholic leaders from all over the South will be in Atlanta start ing today, for a conference on soc- cial change and the Christian Re sponse. We welcome the bishops, priests, nuns and laity who have come to discuss and make rec ommendations on the problems of human relations in the South. Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the National Cath olic Conference for Interracial Justice, the meetings will ex plore changes in the social fab ric of our region, consider the implications for the Church, and suggest possible responses. In addition to the formal presenta tions a principal feature of the Conference will be a number of private work-group discus sions to explore the presenta tion material in depth. Speakers and resource per sonnel from all walks of life will be on hand to be of service to the participants and the general theme. Our own St. Martin’s Human Relations Council will provide volunteers and delegates to further the success of this most important event at a crucial period of transition in the. South. The clergy and laity of the archdiocese are urged to attend the various general sessions, and the community Masses will be concelebrated. We are re minded of the 1965 Pentecost Statement, issued by the Bishops of the Province of Atlanta which said in part: “The times call for religious understanding and racial har mony. Every period of chal lenge demands vision and cour age.. The Catholic Church in the past has done what could be done. Now she can do no more... Our readers are welcome at the Hilton Inn at the airport, today, tomorrow and Saturday. We are sure you’ll find it a rewarding tomorrow and Saturday. We are sure you’ll find it a rewarding experience. Willie Brewster’s Gone! J W iljie B rev/ste r *.wa s a a Negro who had never been active in a civil rights demonstration. Last Saturday they buried himatMun- ford, Alabama, after he had been fatally wounded by night riders on a desolate stretch of the countryside of that strife- torn state. Willie Brewster was no “out side agitator” allegedly stirring up trouble. He was a citizen of Alabama peacefully driving along the road returning home from his job. But they shot' him down and drove away. Eyewitnesses say the assassins were white men who had trailed Willie’s car before they opened fire. And like in many other similar incidents in Alabama the murderers have not yet been ap prehended. Nor is there any hope that they will ever be pun ished if they are caught. The anguished cry of justice goes unheeded anJ!"the"^§lain are for gotten. / f\\\ Willie Brewster joins the ranks of the countless Negroes who have been sacrificed at the altar fi hate and prejudice. Their only crime has been a difference of pigment of skin. Sorrow is out of place. Just anger can be the only reaction of concerned men of good will. When will the slaughter stop? Will the so-call ed moderates again reiterate their fearful platitudes? Will they plead again for patience and understanding? Will the elected officials continue to act with callous indifference to the wel fare of an oppressed minority? Will the Churches continue to be silent “because it is the prudent thing to do?” Willie Brewster has gone to his maker. But while his family mourns in the desolation of such a loss, the night riders continue to burn and kill. Is this really Americanism? Smeared GEORGIA PINES He Called Him ‘Friend’ BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN There was no man in his time on whom our Lord pronounced so many eulogies as on the great Pre cursor. He calls him "a Prophet, yea, and more than a Prophet;” and “a burning and shining light,” and He declares that “among those bom of women, there is not a greater Prophet than John the Baptist.” , But among the encominiums bestowed upon John by his Master, there is none so tender and en dearing as the title,, “...Friend...” .and.en-, , n ~. joyments of this life, there are few, that can be compared in value to the possession of a faithful friend, who will pour the truth into your heart, though you may whince under it, of a friend who will defend you when you are unjustly assailed by the tongue of lies, who will counsel you in your doubts and perplexities, who will open his purse to aid you without expecting any returns for his favors, who will rejoice at your favors,, who will rejoice at your prosperity and grieve at your adversity, who will bear your burdens, who will add to your joys and diminish your sor rows by sharing in both. He that has found a friend, has found a treas ure. A poor man may be said to be rich in the midst of his poverty, so long as he enjoys the interior sunshine of a devoted friend. The richest of men, on the contrary, is poor and miserable, if he has no friend whom he can grasp by the hand, and to whom he can disclose the secrets of his heart. Friendship has certain essential characteris tics without which it is unworthy of the name. The basis of a true friendship are self-sacrifice, disinterestedness, truth, virtue and constancy. It is essential to ,true friendship that it be re ciprocal. A one sided attachment can never be called a friendship. The friendship of Christ enables and sanctifies human friendship. It elevates it to a higher plane. It is the bond which strengthens it and makes it lasting. You will never be disloyal to a friend, as long as you are loyal to Christ. “A faithful friend is a strong defense.” When you are openly or secretly assailed by an enemy, or when any danger threatens you, your friend will rush to your aid, regardless of personal danger,. He, will make yoUr 'eause.his own. .A. beautiful, example. of ffiismMiityfof meodSrjip c> is fpfnisijWd iniHe^opK Of .jangsf^octose'wfth^uie friendship between Jonathan and David, that as the ■Bible expresses it, “The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David.” When the enmity of Saul was aroused against David, and when he re solved through envy to slay him, Jonathan, his sterling friend, hastened to warn David of the danger which threatened him, and to hid him in a place of security. He then so eloquently pleaded before his father the innocence of his friend, that Saul promised to be reconciled to David. When Jonathan was slain in battle, David rent his gar ments and fasted til evening, as he exclaimed, “As a mother loves her only son, so did I love thee.” The late Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore once used the preceding in a sermon to describe his ideas Of friendship. Its a strange commentary on life that with all of the advances in science, medicine and technology that the principles un derlying true friendships has never changed. Too, its a strange commentary that as humans progress we seem to have lost the ideas of what friend ships are all about. Today, if a man can truth fully say that he has one real friend, he is more than lucky. Psychologists can blame it on selfishness,, psychiatrists can lay the blame on insecurity but one fact remains that when you stop working at keeping a friend, you’ve lost him. COSTLY FRIENDSHIP Georgia’s Image Your World And Mine The Civil Rights Bill has been the law of the land for over a year yet we still find instances of flagrant violations of the law all over the country. There are some in this State who look with superior eyes at the events in Alabama, Louisiana, and Miss issippi, but are blind to the hap penings right on our own door step. These people have the stance of Pharisees. When We look at the situation of racial justice in Georgia, we inevitably think of the good image which is spread abroad by State officials and some newspapers. Yet apart from Atlanta, and a few other communities, the Ne gro gets little benefit from the Civil Rights Act. Despite the law, de facto segregation in many of our schools is the reality; dese gregation of public accommo dations in some Georgia com munities is all but non-existent; attacks and even murder still go unpunished. One can truthfully say that our self-righteous atti tude is unbecoming of honest men. One has only to objectively ap praise the situation in Americus where four , Negro women have spent almost a week in jail be cause they had the affront to at tempt to enter the white entrance of a polling booth. Where is Geor gia’s sense of fair play when such incidents are written off as “Ne groes being unreasonable.” We are also disturbed by the apparent indifference of top State officials who continue to con sider the situation in Americus as a local affair. We believe it should be the concern of all Georgians. As long as there are centers where injustice against the Negro minority is perpetrat ed and perpetuated, then we have no right to smug superiority over Bogalusa,! Selma and various places in Mississippi. Let’s get our own house in order. BY GARY MacEOIN The mass media of the press, radio and tele vision are doing a tremendous technical job of moving the news onto our breakfast tables and our livingfoom screens. With the satellite hover ing 21,300 miles above the Atlantic, we can now be served sensations' in almost any part of the world live or instant frozen. But our knowledge of significant events is al most as spotty and inconclusive as in the days of the mule express. The great news-gathering services are unforgivably inadequate in this area. They specialize in trivia and look for slick superficial ity as the. primary qualifica tion in . their fieldmen. To maintain, their absurd claim of total world coverage, they pre sent as fact the managed news of totalitarian governments rather than face expulsion of their correspon dents. And since they sell news worldwide, they are subject to official pressures in all countries where national pride can be hurt by the truth. What all the great commerical agencies of the press, radio and television have failed to do for many years has now been done in the case of South Africa by the National Education Television network. In two one-hour shows, it has offered American viewers a penetrating and balanced picture of the racial issues in South Africa. That situation, as it properly concluded, is of vital im portance to us. We must know the facts in order to make a correct moral judgment. We must alsp know them in order to make the political judg ments that are right for the United States and for the free world. THE SOUTH AFRICAN government maintains a well-oiled, well-financed and sophisticatedpropa- ganda machine all overtheworld. Itcan afford to. Indeed, it cannot afford not to. The 19.3 per cent of South Africans who are white and who alone have a political voice enjoy one of the highest living standards of the world. The Republic has great natural resources, and they monopolize the benefits through a system of terror and repres sion which enables them to exploit the cheaplabor of the 80.7 per cent of the citizens who arc PPb- white. • yd bab As the NET program pointed out, United States government and business are making an important contribution to the maintenance of this system. We have a satellite tracking station in South Africa (and, I may add, have yielded to South African government insistence that we send no Negroes to work in it). Our private investors are reaping big profits by their contributions to the growth of an economy founded in and dedicated to the denial of human rights. The South African propaganda machine works CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Travail For Vietnamese BY GERARD E. SHERRY This week’s momentous decisions made by President Johnson in relation to Vietnam point to further hardships and sacrifices on the part of the American people in the interests of world freedom and peace. One may well question whether an escalation of the war is in the interests of peace—but the answer lies less in Washington than it does in Hanoi and Peking. The American commitment to uncondition al peace talks have led the Asia tic Communists to the real escala tion and a stepping up of powerful military :forces to impose their will on the South Vietnamese, THOSE OPPOSING U. S, policies argue that both sides in Vietnam have violated the Geneva Accord of 1954 and that the simplest solution is for the U. S. to get out and let the Vietnam people sort the problem out themselves. This, however, can only presuppose that the other side is honor able and is also willing to abide by the Accord. It is true that there should have been free elections in the South and discussions with the North on unification. The late President Diem reneged on this part of the Accord, but so did the Com munists, who could never risk a free election and their claim to the whole of the country. This is what bothers me in relation to our domestic critics of our government's actions in Vietnam. They qoute the 1954 Geneva agree ment as an argument for the unconditional with drawal of our forces; they criticize the South Vietnam government (or is it governments') and accuse it of atrocities against the Vietcong guerrillas; they say the South Vietnamese peo ple are tired of the war and don’t want the Ameri cans; indeed, most of these critics haven’t got a good word to say about the U. S. or South Vietnam efforts. What is more distrubing is the fact that they are hardly ever heard criticizing the Vietcong and its atrocities against individuals and whole communities. They ignore the fact that the ma jority of the Vietcong are infiltrators from the North not South Vietnamese seeking liberation. It is fairly obvious that the Communist side never has had any intention of honoring its signa ture at Geneva. They want the whole of Viet nam; and they are prepared to risk an atomic holocaust in achieving their aims. THERE IS no doubt that the South Vietnamese government bears some responsibility for the present situation. So does our government which has compounded mistake with mistake in its eval uation „ojt both the .military ,and political pitfalls ^involved'jhe„ cpmmitjjiepi; ,piadp 3 Jjy Presi($eqts Eisenhower,' ‘Kennedy _ anal Johnson.'''j But! their promise to help the South Vietnamese obtain their freedom from Communist oppressionwasmade in good faith and this should not be an issue. VALID CRITICISM is healthy in a democracy, but it ought to be tempered by objectivity based on facts not emotion. I would suggest that many of the critics have let their emotion run wild at the expense of truth. One can have a certain sympathy with them for our government has been less than honest in reports to the people. Defense Secretary McNamarra has contributed in no small measure to the confusion by his fre quent visits to and his optomistic appraisals of South Vietnam. His latest visit seemingly impressed upon him the reality of die situation. He said conditions had deteriorated and that a greater American effort was required. IN ITS SIMPLEST terms, it means more Ameri can soldiers and hardware. It means an expanded graft and the call-up of reserves. It means a semi-war footing similar to the days of the Ko rean conflict. And while we still have the right to ask the whys and wherefores, once the de cision has been made, we can do no more than loyally support the government in the difficult days that lie ahead. There are a lot of unknowns in the situation. Will our increased efforts bring in the Russians more openly on the side of the Vietcong? What about Communist China? Will it throw in its teeming masses of ground troops to bolster the troops of its Cong satellite. Will the powers involved resort to other andconven- tional armaments in seeking whatever victory is possible; or will the mad clamour from the Ex tremists in both camps result in nuclear warfare and all that it implies? There are many responsible Americans who feel that the war in Vietnam is already lost to our side. They are not harping critics but con cerned public and private officials who are know ledgeable and loyal. But significantly, they do not demand our unconditional surrender to Com munist tyranny. Rather they justify our “es calation” of the war on the grounds that we should be jn the best position to extract conces sions from our enemies—this in order that any future settlement be an honorable justice to our Vietnamese allies. One gathers that this is'the prime motivation behind the current efforts of our government. We have repeatedly insisted that we seek no territory in Asia or anywhere else. And unless the critics (especially those among our allies) forget, only American power has frus trated the frequent communist attempts to take over large areas of the free world. WAR ON ANY SCALE threatens the stability of the people involved and there will be much tragedy and sense of loss experienced by most families as a result of the Vietnam situation. The citizens of this country therefore have an obligation both to loyalty and service in the cause of an eventual peaceful solution. While construc tive critics will still have their part, both on the political and social levels, it beholds us all to join ranks locally and nationally, in support of our' President in the awesome tasks that lie ahead for him. Our basic cause is just. If the mis takes of the past are not repeated, an honorable settlement is in our grasp. The attainment of peace is never easy. Like war it requires cour age, dedication and sacrifice. And this is our national heritage. REAPINGS AT RANDOM