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EUROPEAN COMMENTARY
Chaplaincy Challenge
As' Unconstituional
)AY, AUGUST 12, 1964
NIGHT EDITOR: JEFFREY GOODMAN
Police Review Issue
Clouded by Invective
rO CITY
COUNCILMEN and the
American Civil Liberties Union were
jected to vitriolic and irrelevant at-
ks from five local ultra-conservatives
City Council Monday night.
hat the attacks were reprehensibly
aderous was the least of the matter.
r more revealing and dubious was the
empt by four of the five speakers to
credit two ideas merely by discrediting
individuals and groups who support
m.
'he speakers argued against. establish-
citizen boards to review police tactics
L against opposition to the "Support;
ir Local Police" ,stickers which the
ice department distributed in May.
I they been at all interested in a
sonable discussion of these matters,
conservatives would have limited
mselves to the merits of both issues.
'et four of the speakers stuck almost
lusively to documenting the Commu-
t affiliations of the ACLU and to de-
ding the John Birch Society; two did
even mention review boards or police
kers.
CE SPEAKERS wasted 25 minutes tell-
ing council that the ACLU had been
ad to be a "Communist front," that
ny of its leaders were Communists
. that a past leader of the organiza-
i had called for a new social order
er the banner of Communism. After
s having "destroyed" police review
rds-the speakers claimed the ACLU
ports such boards-they turned to de-
se of the John Birch Society, and, by
lication, of police stickers.
is wholly irrelevant to the desirabil-
of police review boards whether the
U was, in fact, a "Communist front"
some time in the past. Yet four of
speakers thought the issue was closed
e they had linked the ACLU, Com-
iism and review boards. While the
h speaker read from a U.S. News and
Id Report interview in which a Cali-
ia police chief attempted a semi-
cal downgrading of review boards, the
others limited themselves completely to
guilt by association.
The past Communist affiliations of the
ACLU may well be true. On the other
hand, it is doubtful if they are present-
ly true. Yet other conservatives in the
city have argued that just because the
police stickers originated with the John
Birch Society does not make them bad.
If the conservatives want their programs
to stand or fall on their merits, they
have no choice but to allow ACLU pro-
grams the same benefits.
This they do not choose to do.
JF ALL THE CONSERVATIVES were
seeking was revenge for the attempts
of certain liberals in the city to discredit
the police stickers because of their ori-
gin, perhaps their attacks last night were
justified. But if this kind of revenge is
justifiable, then council and the city are
in for a long and unending series of per-
sonal slanders that can produce nothing
but bitterness, broken-down communica-
tions and confusion of the issues.
The real issue with both the review
boards and the stickers is what is accom-
plished by these drives in themselves. This
can be decided only by objective inquiry
and review of the experiences of other
cities. It is incumbent upon council to
carry out such investigations before lend-
ing its support to any program. So far,
however, this has not been done.
Instead, discussion of the review boards
and stickers has been strangely mixed
between examination of merits by peo-
ple outside council and attacks upon
supporting groups by audience speakers.
IN THE POLICE review board matter,
the only constructive dialogue has
come from the local chapter of the Na-
tional Association for the Advancement
of Colored People. (Nothing, by the way,
has been heard from the local ACLU
chapter.) On two separate occasions, one
of them last night, NAACP leaders have
come before council to discuss the pros
and cons of such boards. On the other
hand, the speeches Monday night, with
the exception of the one in which the
California police chief was cited, have of-
fered nothing constructive and have put
the whole matter in the realm of emo-
tionalism and personal invective. And
council itself has yet to prosecute any in-
quiry.
In the police sticker matter, the only
discussions of the value or lack of value
of the stickers themselves have come in
these columns and from a Democratic
party release. The individual who brought
the whole matter to council's attention,
himself a liberal, has limited his state-
ments to evidence linking the stickers
and the Birch organization, and it is these
statements that are largely responsible
for stirring the wrath of the local con-
servatives.
An investigation of the stickers was
called for 'two weeks ago, but the re-
quest was nerely to look into their ori-
gin and not their value. Were council
more foresighted, it would have investi-
gated the stickers' value before it ever
accepted them. As a matter of fact,
there was no discussion of the donation
at the time.
JF IT IS NOW TOO LATE for council to
decide whether the police stickers pos-
sessed sufficient merit to be distributed,
it is nevertheless not too late for an in-
quiry into the value of police review
boards. The inquiry should be conducted
by a bipartisan council committee work-
ing with the Human Relations Commis-
sion, the city administrator, the city at-
torney and the chief of police. The com-
mittee should investigate the working of
review boards in other cities, should ask
itself whether conditions in those cities
are similar to conditions, in Ann Arbor
and should hear the reasoned testimony
of groups and experts concerned.
Under no circumstances, however,
should it allow the kind of senseless, ir-
relevant, ugly personal attacks and illogi-
cal arguments which blackened Monday's
meeting. It must not fall into the trap, of
either conservatives or liberals, of think-
ing that the support or opposition of any
organization is relevant to the merits or
demerits of review boards. Nor should it
RECENTLY the Pentagon has
come under attack for 'un-
constitutional activity." The same
forces that won in the prayer is-
sue are now said to be pressing
for the elimination of the chap-
laincy in the United States armed
forces on the grounds that this
institution is in violation of the
First Amendment.,
This pressure group feels that
the "establishment of religion"
clause is violated, and has been
for a long time, by the fact that
government-paid chaplains are
provided for the forces. More-
over, their standpoint is supported
by the Supreme Court decision of
1947 concerning the First Amend-
ment, which says: "Neither a state
nor the federal government can
set up a church. Neither can pass
laws which aid one religion, aid
all religions, or prefer one religion
over another . . . No tax in any
amount, large or small, can be
levied to support any religious
activities or institutions, what-
ever they may be called, or what-
ever form they; adopt to teach or
practice religion.
From this passage, it appears
that no justification of the chap-
laincy can be promoted. And yet,
it seems wrong to cut of f this in-
stitution.
Chaplain Guikema of U.S. Air
Force Base Soesterberg, the
Netherlands, reasons that the
armed forces are in many ways an
exception. They try to provide as
much of the usual American en-
vironment as possible; and the
government is involved in many.
activities in the armed forces that
are taboo elsewhere.
The government provides free
medical and psychological treat-
ment for the troops-a sort of
.socialized medicine"-or it
retailing in the commissaries
it is engaged in broadcasting
printing-all at a rate unth
able elsewhere in our free er
prise system. It is only fair t
to say that the chaplaincy
belongs in a soldier's environn
AMERICAN armed forces t
abroad are even more in nee
a chapel program than most b
located in the U.S. In most cc
tries, the churches on the o
side of "the gate" are just
able to give the soldier what
needs. Their services are not
lored for servicemen, and
guage barriers as well as dif
ences in customs make relig
experience very hard. In addit
homesickness may be acute
it is then that a chaplain is e
cially needed.
Yet unless another amendI
is passed of a clause of excep
is ruled by the Supreme Court,
chaplaincy may continue to
termed unconstitutional. Anc
some day thenSupreme Court
pressed into an uneasy ruling
iiar to that of 1947, will the ci
laincy then go?
Chaplain Guikema is not de
concerned about this possibi
He feels that if this does hap
all denominations and churn
will get together to organiz
chapel program. This prog
would probably pi\ovide for
chaplain's office outside ei
military base at the cost of
the churches of the U.S.
The chaplain would still
there. But much of his intin
contact with the troops woulk
lost-and this, of course, at
cost of troop morale.
WHO'S WHO?" Judith Ann Holmes (1.) and Ann Rivers seem to be asking as they see double: Joe
Schwerer (1.) and Victor Raider-Wexler. Just another case of mixed identities in Irish Hills' pro-
duction of a Comedy of Errors, in repertory throughout the summer season.
SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Present Comedy o Erors
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the
fourth and final article in a series
concerning the Irish Hills Play-
house. George A. White is editor of
Generation and the New Poet Series.
By GEORGE A. WHITE
I HAD A PROFESSOR who once
expressed indignation over a
modern version of one of Shake-
speare's plays. His contention was
that the bard was a superb crafts-
man who knew both audience and
humanity well; so well, that his
plays were evidence of careful
manipulation of the audience's
emotions. Little was left to chance.
To alter a play .would be to take .
the fun from Shakespeare-a das-
tardly deed!
In retrospect, I think this at-
titude holds with Shakespeare's
middle and later plays. But with
the earlier ones, such as A Comedy
of, Errors, the director must use
his own imagination or watch his
audience sneak away during in-
termission.
Last Friday's Irish Hills pro-
duction of A Comedy of Errors
held the audience, laughing, until
the play's end. There were few
departures from the original lines.
The innovations were added ones.
The long opening passage by
Aegeon (gangling Eric Nord) gave
the audience a history of the twins
that are the play's crux. Un-
fortunately, it's a crashing bore:
almost 100 lines of interrupted
autobiography. Even the most
faithful admirers of the bard wind
up proping their eyes open with
their fingers.
IT IS to the credit of Irish Hills
that they brilliantly "solved" this
bewildering technical problem with
the introduction of two slapstick
characters and a host of pre-
plannedrblunders and boners.
Victor Schramm as Victor
Schramm and David Richmond as
David Richmond appear, at first,
as just two more noisey late-
comers (an actor's nightmare).
Like the rest of their friends, they'
split Aegeon's bone-dry oration
by being paraded through stage
center and seated. They differ in
that once taking their front-row
seats, they begin a running com-
mentary on 1) the theatre, 2)
Eric Nord, 3)' their own acting
careers.
Nord plods on, but after a while,
they are impossible to ignore. He
given them a couple of cigars and
escorts them out. Like a long-
distance runner spotting his girl
on the last lap, Nord cracks a
smile when two loud "Bangs!" are
heard off-stage.
Not incidentally, Schramm and
Richmond play their best roles
when they are most natural, i.e.,
when they play themselves. To
maintain their "thematic" intro-
duction, they reoccur throughout
the play as different characters,
but as each scene changes, they
try to do "their" number and
each time, are briskly hustled off.
* * *
AS SOLINUS, Robert Jones
demonstrates his versatility: the
night before he plumbed the
depths of meaninglessness as Mac-
Beth, now he is a bumbling comic
king.
I think it enough to conclude
that the production is wildly, mad-
ly comic, and leave the surprises
to other audiences. Yet it would
be rude if not dull, not to point
out one pleasant surprise: Laura
Seager as the abbess Adriana. In
other roles, Miss Seager has shown
a precise knowledge of the lines
and the nature of the characters
she plays, but has somehow, shown
a coldness, an indifference to each
character, that has rendered her
ineffectual and a detriment to the
company. She is fully engaged and
fully alive in this role. The dif-
ference is welcome.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Further, Discussion of COFO Aims
Onward
IHE UNIVERSITY sheds its old calen-
dar today, looking ahead to its immi-
ent year-round-operations schedule.
he traditionalists among us, having been-
:posed to the inequities of the 1963-64
nterim" calendar, look wistfully back to
e days of 18-week semesters.
Not all is black, however. The longer
mester was not without its pressures;
t students survived-academically as
ell as physically.
Change necessitates disruption, and dis-
ption can mean stimulation to stu-
nts desensitized by too-mild academic
.allenges. Upperclassmen, in particular,
11 be forced to reject the "easy out"
udy patterns afforded by an 18-week
ssion-and so readily accepted-or suf-
r severe academic consequences.
The shorter period, while it may rob
.dents of occasions for genuine leisure,
ay in fact cultivate in them the ability
appreciate the "lapses," the infrequent
are moments that dot the educational
ocess. And if the new schedule does not
ow breaks from thinking, this cannot
considered detrimental to education.
ERHAPS THE MOST comforting reali-
zation, though, is that-at least in the
Kt few years -- University instructors
L1 also be prodded into readjustment
d consequent reevaluation of course
ntent. The result can only be benefi-
it to instructors and students alike.
-M. L. BUTCHER
Editorial Staff
NNETH WINTER .................... oO-Editor
WARD HERSTEIN ....................Oo-Eeitar
RY LOU BUTCHER ............. Associate Editor
RL,ES TOWLE...............Sports Editor
'TREY GOODMAN .................... Night Editor
BERT HIPPLER .....,............Night Editor
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following
two letters continue a discussion
concerning the aims of the Council
of Federated Organizations begun
by Martha MacNeal in a letter last
week. Miss MacNeal cited a "rumor"
she said she had heard from civil
'rights workers that COFO wanted
its workers to be killed in order to
draw sympathetic publicity to its
Mississippi voter-registration proj-
ect. She challenged Miriam Dann,
who has been soliciting funds lo-
cally for COFO, to "straighten this
out.", In response, Miss Dann charg-
ed that Miss MacNeai's contention
"is simply another excuse for not
acting."
To the Editor:
I REGRET that Miriam Dann
has interpreted my letter con-
cerning rumors about COFO as
a "rationalization for my own' in-
action. She is perfectly correct in
charging me, with inaction as I
have not participated in civil
rights demonstrations consistently.
My own relatively sporadic work
for civil rights certainly is- an
issue, and an important one, but
it is not the point relevant to my
questions concerning COFO.
The point is that the rumors
about COFO have come from ac-
tive participants in the civil rights
movement., These people, the
sources of the rumor, do not need
to defend their inaction because
they are in fact active and have
been for years, and it is the fact.
that they attack COFO which has
puzzled me.
Now I realize that there area all
kinds of complicated disagree-
ments among the leaders of var-
ious civil rights organizations, and
so far the only explanation I can
see for this charge against COFO
is that some kind of internal lead-
ership split has occurred and has
found expression, whether ac-
curately or inaccurately, in this
particularly devastating rumor.
And if ,the rumor is inaccurate, as
Miss Dann persuasively argues, I
wonder what the real issue is.
* * *
I HAVE READ the many ar-
ticdes appearing recently in The
Daily reporting on the Mississippi
project, and I have noted that
apparently precautions are taken,
and I have forwarded these ar-
titles, duly underscored, to the
sources ofthe rumor, but I have
received no reply. It appears that
the anti-COFO position must re-
duce to the charge that COFO
does not take enough precautions
and that COFO recruits are not
sufficiently warned of the hideous
danger and horror that is Mis-
sissippi. To be specific: one of,
my sources wrote to me that COFO
"wants bodies" to be used as
"cannon fodder," and went on to
say "Now I am willing to be
fodder, but I won't be thought of
as fodder."
So this is the issue as it has
come to me. I realize that it may
be an exaggerated statement aris-
ing out of some other issue, but
there certainly is some issue some-
where at the root of it all. The
rumor is internal to the civil
rights movement and cannot
therefore be an excuse for in-
action in the case of my par-
ticular sources. If the rumor itself
is a false 'issue. I want to know
what the real issue is; I want to
know why this particular split
among civil rights activists has
occurred.
If the rumored issue is a false
issue, would someone please tell
me what is really going on? I.
think that COFO ought to have
the chance to present its side of
the argument, and I think it would
be to everyone's advantage if the
real argument were made clear.
-Martha MacNeal, '64
A Misconception
To the Editor:
AM GLAD that Miss MacNeal
is giving me this chance to
complete my answer to her ques-
tion, which is a legitimate one. I
am sorry that I became so involv-
ed with a different aspect of the
problem in my last letter..
Your question is, I think, this:
Is there anything behind the call
for Northerners (the turnout was
mainly white students)? Was
there another motive behind the
desire to establish Freedom
Schools, community welfare posts,
and expand the voter registration
drive?
One thing is certain: civil rights
leaders were at the end of their
rope. How could they arouse pub-
lic opinion? Negroes are lynched,
murdered and thrown into rivers,
imprisoned, etc. every day. Lynch-
ings are not out of style. Yet the
whole nation remains silent. The
Ku Klux Klan membership rises.
Barry Goldwater-type bigotry and
inhumanity is cloaked in terms of
"legality" and "constitutionality."
Yet Goldwater's following expands
instead of decreasing.
Newspapers print such facts as
no less than 60,000 armed
men (are) organized in what
amounts to guerilla units dedicat-
ed to terrorism" against Negroes.
(Joseph Alsop, Detroit Free Press).
Public opinion is nil. In Southern
states, we have recently witnessed
trials and tribulations of whites
might pierce the insensibility of
influential and powerful whites.
While leaders did not want the;
death of any one of those cour-.
ageous workers who went to Mis-
sissippi, they were willing to
chance any situation which might
arise in order to arouse public,
opinion. It is probably this at-'
titude which provoked Miss Mac-
Neal's question.
The workers, however, were
realistically aware of the pos-
sibilities of death, torture, and
imprisonment.hBefore they left
their cities, they went on fund
raising missions to raise bond
money. In training at Oxford,
Ohio, they learned how to protect
the vital parts of their bodies
when attacked. Obviously, they
were aware that a militant segre-
gationist might hit someone too
hard or use some other weapon
than a police dog, club, or cattle
prodder. Likewise, they knew that
theyuwould be sitting ducks for
vicious white mobs if', they were
kept in local jails.-
Since no one else seemed willing
to start the long road back to
freedoms for Negroes like the free-
dom to vote, to picket, to have re-
dress for legal or political wrongs
committed against themselves, to
have equal educational and job
opportunities-since the govern-
ment and the mass of Americans
had abrogated this responsibility,
the volunteers (white and black)
took that responsibility into their
own hands-come what may.
IT WAS EITHER a misinter-
pretation of this analysis of the
problem; that gave rise' to Miss
MacNeal's question, or else it was
because she spoke to persons who
took that analysis to the extreme.
They fall into two groups:x;e .
a) Anti-white Negroes who want
to see whites getting some of the
same brutal treatment that they
have been subject to for 300 years.
They would like white students of
prominent families to be murder-
ed in order to bring those whites
in on the side of Negroes.
Their problem is that they, like
so many prejudiced whites, can-
not see people of a light color as
humans like themselves. They have
suffered too much at their hands
to offer any pity. They are a sorry
group. They should realize the
consequences of - indiscriminate
hatred or "the end justifies the'
means" philosophy.,
b) The second group is that
group we see walking around
campuses and picket lines so of-
ten. They are whites plagued by
an inferiority complex. I do not
want to go into the psychology of
guilt or inferiority, but the char-
acter which this group presents is
so obvious that we can all recog-
nize them: sloppy, dirty, lacking
ambition, feeling sorry for them-
selves, plagued by over-bearing.
parents from whom they want to
escape yet feel guilty for doing so,
etc., etc.
They bog down the civil rights
To the'Editor:
UTBREAKS of racial violence
in the North and the recent
incident of the Negro youths at
the Ann Arbor police station have
raised concern about racial vio-
lence in Ann Arbor. There is no
reason to think itrcan'trhappen
here. The focus of concern should
be on the conditions under which
violence occurs and on how to
avoid them. Actions, both formal
and informal, by city officials and
other responsible persons have fos-
tered the conditions for violence
bectuse they have been largely
oblivious .of the feelings and at-
titudes of Ann Arbor Negroes. In
the last analysis, it will be those
feelings and attitudes that deter-
mine whether or not there will be
racial violence.
The failure of responsible per-
sons to appreciate this fact is
tragically obvious. For example,
following the incident at the police
station the city administrator pub-
licly stated that he felt it had
nothing to do with civil rights. An
editorial in, the local paper echoed
this incredible Judgment. The
"solution" to the problem of
police-Negro relations failed to
take cognizance of the lack of
trust Negroes have in city officials.
Ill-considered public pronounce-
ments by the mayor and some
councilmen, prolonged legal ac-
tions and endless talk progressively
aggravate the situation.
Widespread Negro hate and dis-
trust of whites is a simple fact.
It must be considered whenever
civil rights matters are taken up
Yet, to date, the impact on Ne-
gro citizens of insensitive ap-
proaches, token efforts and out-
right insults (of which whites are
often rblivious) has been ignored.
Until a genuine empathy with
those who suffer constant injustice
and humiliation manifests itself
there will be no significant civil
rights progress in Ann Arbor.
There will be only tokenism and
talk. The probability of violence
will increase.
* , *p
THE ONLY WAY to avoid vio-
lence is to take action that is
meaningful to those demanding
action. In order to know what is
meaningful there must be a deep
appreciation of the human factors
involved. This is lacking now both
in Ann Arbor and the nation.
Whether enough white Americans
have the capacity t' develop this
merely gave up their bodi
"cannon fodder." They repro
a great ideal.
One must be able to see be
the superficial attitudes of
extremists-no matter how r
espouse it-and be willing to
for what is obviously a just c
If not, we will be faced with
hostility and vindictivenesi
both sides.
-Miriam Dann,
Ann Arbor ioli
"Better Talk To Your Comrades Down There
Before The Whole Project Is Wrecked"
tAR A