g
By L renee . Young
Director, Paul Robeson Cultural
Center
Willjam F. Buckley re ently
wrote a column attacking on
gressman George . Cro kett
of ichigan. While at tac s by
Buckley against tho with
whom he disagrees is nothing
new, the vicious cowardliness
of this particular attack reveals
once and for all that Buckley
is in reality, a viper with a
vocabulary .
The facist mentality revealed
AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 1987 THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN
t attac
s Congressman Croc
by Buckley no doubt made the
spirits of Joe McCarthy George
Lincoln Rockewll, and Adolph
Hitler clink glasses over the
fire and brimstone. Buckley
reveals his hypocrisy and more
over brings his racism, usually
hidden behind barricade of
verbiage, to the fore.
Congressman Crockett, who
is the Chairman of the Hou
Subcommittee on estern
Hemisphere Affairs i an un
bought and unbossed Bla k
Democrat. As far as Bu kl
· ghland Par resident
questions daily's editorial
Opinion, Cnmmenturv. Letters, Views '
(Editor: Earl Wheeler sub
mitted the fol/owing letter he
submitted to the Detroit News
for readers of The Michigan
Citizen. WMeler is chair of the
Higlaland Park Men's Forum.)
Dear Sirs:
After reading your editorial
in Monday's edition, Aug.24,
1987 I have to wonder why so
much attention is being paid
to little Highland Par ?
There are cities of com-
par ble size in the
etropolitan Area with the
e problems, some have
gone in 0 receivership such as
our eighbor (Hamtramc1c).
Of course, we kno that
m' a factor since the
'1 News has a history of
o , r . t journalism, but its
ore than just casual racism.
We are all aware of the
po r of the news medi and
the overw elming influence it
on our li es. There are
peop e that actually believe
they read in your
DC paper, confusing facts
o
to see
ooking up
Editor:
Augu h arrived nd with
it come shorter days and long
er night , noticeable only in the
morning.
It will, al ,mean we will
be able to e some of the fall
and inter tars as they ri at
early dawn.
I hope you have enjoyed
atching turn this summer.
I am thrilled every clear night
about· midnight when I can
100 out of my we t windo
and see it very high in the y
shining prominently. 0, I do
not get up to see it but can do
o from my bed.
aturn circles the zodiac in
30 years and is in the same
constellation for more than a
year at a time. It orbit is
almost circular and 10 time
larger than the Earths orbit
it distance from us changes
p
with truth. I happen to
believe that there is a con
spiracy to destroy Highland
Park so that it can be
reclaimed for other purposes.
Highland Park is centrally
located between two (2) major
expressways, it sits on the
Woodward Corridor with the
railroad running north, south,
east and west. H the citizens
of Highland Park read your
paper and abandon our city it
will be ripe for picking by
those who covet it.
There is an old African
proverb that we in Highland
Park should adhere too, It
says: "It's not what you call
me, but what I answer to.
I subscribe to your
newspaper, my birds and cats
wouldn't have it any other
way, it lines their cages and lit
ter bo es, and I can afford
such extravagance because, we
fortunately eam more than the
annual salary you attribute to
our citizens.
Wondering Why?
relatively little. It's area is 80
times the area of the Earth.
The rings around Saturn have
alway been a my ery until
Voyager's exploration. They are
far more complicated than
astronomers had thought. Each
of the major rings is d ivided
Into hundreds of ringer rings
and the inner rings rotate more
rapidly. It 100 s like a braid
of strings and is one of the
most remarkable features of the
solar system. Saturn al , has
bands in its atmosphere and a
red spot similar to Jupiter.
Is there any wonder I am
thrilled by seeing such a sight
even ever so faintly, because
it is veral hundred million
mile away!.
argaret H. Zoschke
The Golden anor
tevensville i. 49127
By u in innue.i
by s dati n Buc I y
desperately to mea ca
proving on re SOlan ro .k tl
to be un-American." That h
fails miserably is t be e pect
ed, for the 'America"! the
mind of Buckley and his f How
travelers existed in Hitler er
many, Frano's Spain. and
Mussolin" s Italy.
I accuse Buckley f h po-
crisy because hi effort at
guijl h�' ' .. (' (\'_::I1'on in l.rde a
tortured effort to link rockcu
to Reverend Jes e Jac >11 and
through Jackson to inister
Louis Farrakhan. whom Buck
ley calls "the strident anti
Semite."
This is strange indeed since
Buckley quotes from one Joseph
Sobran, who writes for Buck
ley's National Review. bran
caused quite a stir among
Jewish neo-conservatives with
his warm embrace of a publica
tion entitled In stau ratio n. Thi
piece of work is both racist
and anti-Semitic, saying that
"The Holohoax" was "a
giganti hebe soap opera," and
that Blacks would never pro
gress until there was some
genetic redesigning done.
When Jewish conservatives
wrote expressing. their disgust
and shock, Buckley rushed to
defend Sobran and extol his
virtue as a staunch anti
communist. Thus Sobran can
endorse anti-Semitic publica
tions and be excused since he
is sufficiently anti-communist
in the opinion of Buckley.
This entire shamelss epis de
was recorded by Alexander
Cockburn in the July 5-12
1986 issue of The 'arion.
If such a thing as guilt by
association exists, then Buckley
himself must be accused of
an ti-Semitism.
Congressman Crockett ha ,
enjoyed a-long G.:1 ��stinguic;h
ed career as a lawyer, jud e ,
public servant, and legislator.
He has served as associate
general counsel to the inter
national UA and has been a
member of Congress in e 19 O.
He holds several honorary de
grees and is a member 0 Phi
Beta Kappa. He e rned a
J.D. from the Univer it)' f
ichigan in 1934 and ha
practiced law in FI rid . \ e st
Virginia and Michigan. In hi
la t bid for reele t i in he
troun ed hi Republican
pponent , re el in )-.2" 'If
the v te . The people of :�'1. 11,,1
like r ckett, but Buc Icy
den t.
In the manner if pi )�ty
politics, Buckley reaches back
l Crockett's past and claims
that he was law partner to a
rnmunist and defended com
munists and refused to condemn
th shooting down of KAL 007.
The question is, does any of
this, even if it were true, have
any bearing on Congressman
r cketr's credentials to serve
a ubcornmittee chairman? The
an wer is, not one whit.
That Congressman Crockett
is a man of great vision is borne
out if on" reads his publication
from 1949 entitled "Freedom
Is Everybody's Job!" Crockett
ays that he defended the 12
c mrnunist leaders because this
trial ... is a step - a cleverly
concealed step - which if un
checked now can and will lead
our country to Facism and
war."
Buckley and Sobran quote
from this book selectively in a
sadistic effort to paint Crockett
as a communist. Yet even a
neanderthal should be able to
see from this book that Crocket t
. re pects Amer'can law and ideals
"'hil-! criticizing some ugly
American realities.
Buckley s"y that in 1951,
',0 . ell charged tlidt th- U.S.
;:. vernment was engaged in
genocide against American
Blacks. Let us over look for
awhile the fa,,· that the l.S.
i: one of the Iew of the worlds
untries which has not ratified
the United ations Anti-Gene
cide Treaty. How can anyone
overlook the fact that the
United States Government stood
idly by as thousands of Blac
men women and children were
murdered by lynchers, both in
side and outside the law in
America, and not see genocide?
How I an anyone know of the
horrible concentration camp
like • experiments' carried out
�'·I.'1t men in Tu kegee ,
Alabama by government do -
tor and not see genocide?
Only if one is sufficiently
racist, does it become difficult
to see.
Crockett, in his tract, points
out that in America we assume
everyone to have rights and
freedoms and to deny those
rights and freedoms simply be
cause one embraces communism
is to "descend to the very
depths of Hitledsm . . . while
it may be the communists to
day, tomorrow it will be the
egroes and Je and the day
alter tomorrow it will be all
who dare to spea out against
the facist tendencie . . . pro
minent in our country today."
Crockett goes on to make a
statement that both Buckley
and Sobran c n i usly over
look. He say, 'I have on
numerous occasions in the past
criticized communi t views
which I regard a c ntray to
my own vi e empha i
7
mine) He further says,
'The fact that ertain ctions
of our populati n y that
Communism . bad d es not
necessarily m e it
Yet this is what tho of a
reactionary fa ist mentalitj wish
to force d wn the rnerican
throat. If Oliver orth can
label the caraguan pe ple a:
communists no mat tel wh t
the reality then ar.:' eff rt to
destroy th people '10 matter
how brutal Of inhumane is
justified by a 'higher law:
When Patrie Buchanan separ
ates America bet een the Right
and Left sayin e n Inger
share the arne value religion
and codes of m rality , he is in
effect creating an "other: to
which anything an justifiably
be done. It is with this brush
that Buckley and bran wish
to paint ongre man Cro ketL
Interestingly en ugh. the
ational Republican P rty
recently tried to apply the
me tactic to d Is red it . :- .: ...
tor Howard eizenbaum f
Ohio in hi bid r reele tin.
Opponents of Metzen aurn were
encouraged t Imply that he h d
"communistic learnings" and
that he like rockett had
once bel nged to the ational
Lawyers Guild. This simple
minded pack of lies was ex
posed and heepishly embarrass
ed Republican apologized and
repudiated this effort as
"pure garbage. '
When Buckley accuses Croc
kett of having said: "the Com
munist Party is in truth and in
fact the con ience of America,"
he is half correct That state
ment, ho ever. must be placed
in its original context, for
Congressman Crockett said in
effect that while Democrats and
Republicans were content to
stand around, the communist
party took up the issue of the
Scottsboro Boys. While
Hoover's FBI could find Com
munists under every bed, it
could not find a single lyncher
andwhile both parties were con
spiring to deny the civil rights
of Black people the communist
party in America led the fight
against Jim Cro la s.
Buckley and his ideological
friends believe that Black people
should 'sta in their place."
and that pla e is not at the head
of a subc mrnittee that will
have the pov er to crub the
imperial! t ir ;mplu es f the
Rigrn. 1 belie e it is by God's
grace al n that e hav been
given C Ge r e
(.0 ket intelligence,
humanity. . and e per-
-n ... (; �:-c in \,,, ith the
tru t rad it i III
Father
The Citizen elcomes
the v· ws and comments
of its readers.