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S O L T I C E
The Modern Quick-Rub
Chattanooga federal
SAVINGS "
817 Broad Street
3875 Hixon Pike
5300 Brainerd Road
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
SUNNYLAND PACKING COMPANY
•SUNNYLAND” MEAT PACKERS
P.O. Box 1280
Dothan, Alabama
Telephone 792-4151
lieving in progressive com
promise.
“I cannot be a good cru
sader,” he once said, “because
I have been cursed all my life
with the ability to see both
sides.”
Those who call McGill a
“legend in his own time” do
so with justice ( though he
himself might object to the
honor and wince at the
cliche). Others saw him as
just a pundit—but he con
sidered reporting one of the
highest callings and he was
on the scene at major fires,
wars, presidential conven
tions, and, most recently,
at the first opening of the
trial of James Earl Ray, con
victed as the assassin of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
But to ignore the puckish,
prankster dimensions of Mc
Gill is to permit a limited
view of this multidimensional
man.
He was fond of writing of
fice memos to top members of
■the editorial staff. One, to
Eugene Patterson (now with
The Washington Post), read:
“One of your columns has
cost me $2. I don’t know
which one it was, but an old
alcoholic came in this morn
ing, said he hadn’t had a
drink for two months, but a
day or two ago he got mad at
something you had written
and he fell off the wagon. He
needed $2. So do I. This is
a unique excuse for getting
drunk, and I shudder to think
what you and I may be do
ing to the alcoholics.”
McGill’s office walls reflec
ted some of his dimensions.
Centered on one was a
framed front page of a news
paper hate sheet. Across from
it was a water color by the
late Robert F. Kennedy’s
daughter, Courtney.
Nearby was a framed note
from Robert Kennedy, who
had visited McGill’s office
when the latter was out. Ken
nedy, referring to a framed
letter from John F. Kennedy,
left a message:
“Dear Ralph: Where are
you? Put Pres. Kennedy’s
letter up a little higher or
will come down and get you.
I enjoyed Confederate Mem
orial Day—even without you.
Best regards. A Yankee from
Boston.”
McGill’s death brought
grief and tribute. The fun
eral was attended by many
prominent Americans, includ
ing former Vice President
Hubert Humphrey.
An Atlanta television sta
tion aired a half hour docu
mentary tracing the high-
points of McGill’s charismatic
and dedicated life.
In its detail, it mentioned
that McGill would be missed
not only by the mighty, to
whom he was conffdant, but
by the lesser known—includ
ing an Atlantan who, leaving
jail the day after McGill died,
spent his last fifteen cents on
a sympathy card for the Mc
Gill family.
The loss of Ralph McGill
recalled lines he himself had
written after visiting the
deathbed of a beloved profes
sor: “It was comforting to
have him living in this world
of which he was so unafraid.
It seems a little darker with
out hirp.”
McGill’s death closed an era
—for he had been among the
first and the most courageous
to assault with all the force
of his voice and pen those
cancers in American life
which drain the nation of its
strength.
But Ralph McGill is gone
only* if w$ let him go—for a
man dies only if we fail to re
member.
Rabbis in South . . . .
from page 29
band survives his environs so
handsomely, despite his freely
and frequently expr e s s e d
view that all men are equal,
because he sees no man as his
enemy ... If you are good
enough, you can say and do
what you believe anywhere.”
Evaluating his information,
Rabbi Krause commented
that “it is easy for those who
sit in Northern cities to con
demn the Southern rabbis as
a disgrace to prophetic Juda
ism” and many have done
so.” Disagreeing with that
verdict, Rabbi Krause con
cluded that “if we must con
demn those who minister” to
the 200,000 Jews in the South,
“it should not be because they
have not been outspoken lib
erals, leading the picket lines
in their Deep-South commun
ities. It should be because they
have not done what it was
within their power to do.” He
asserted that “there is only so
much passivity which can be
excused by the atmosphere”
of the Southern community in
which a rabbi serves. The
rabbi “who sees his hands ut
terly tied, his mouth complete
ly muted, is rightfully open
to criticism—his master is as
much within as without. The
Southern Reform rabbi has
done a good deal, but he could
do much more.”
The Southern Israelite
33