KAWSNN COMMENT
Trigger fingers
Soldiers in the news, marching across the television screen. Israeli soldiers, brave and confident, reflections of a trigger-happy nation.
Commando raids, air strikes, artillery barrages. Punishing the Arabs. Refusing to give up the fruits of victory. Killing more Arabs. And America applauds.
Hero-warriors, fulfilling the prophecy of the Bible. Reclaiming their homeland. Destroying those who would deny them their Biblical rights. And America loves it all.
America passing out money. For planes, guns, bombs, bullets. Death to Arabs who are hate-crazy because they were driven from their land.
America cheering during the six day war. Choking a little when Israeli planes zap the Liberty, burning and killing Americans.
America reading Exodus, then The Source,
and crying. Forgetting the Arabs have a history. Forgetting they have suffered also.
Yes, the Jews have bled. Bled because people let emotions overcome reasoning. Bled because someone decided they were the cause of the world's ills. And bled still more because someone forgot Jews are human beings.
In American newspapers it's Arab terrorists hijacking planes, but Israeli heroes raiding villages.
But what is an Arab? American answer: an Arab is an oppressor of the Jews. False: an Arab is a person, people, a human being.
And now it's Israeli planes bombing and killing Egyptian civilians by "error." 166 dead or wounded, but it was an error.
When your finger is always on the trigger, errors are likely—the gun can go off.
Joe Naas
The Agnew wit
By MIKE RIEKE
According to Webster's dictionary, a satire is "a literary work in which vices, follies, stupidities, abuses, etc. are held up to ridicule and contempt." By this definition what
better way is there to satirize our Vice-President than to reprint his own words?
In a speech in St. Louis Tuesday Agnew denied that the Republican Party had any Southern strategy and went on
to speak of the present stature of the black American.
In the end
From The Highlands Candle, Las Vegas, N.M.
In the end.
There was Earth, and it was with form and beauty.
And Man dwelt upon the lands of the Earth, the meadows and trees,and he said
"Let us build our dwellings in this place of beauty."
And he built cities and covered the Earth with concrete and steel.
And the meadows were gone.
And Man said. "It is good."
On the second day, Man looked upon the waters of the Earth.
And Man said,"Let us put our wastes in the waters that the dirt will be washed away."
And Man did
And the waters became polluted and foul in their smell. And Man said, "It is good."
On the third day, Man looked upon the forests of the Earth and saw they were beautiful.
And Man said, "Let us cut the timber for our homes and grind the wood for our use."
And Man did.
And the lands became barren and the trees were gone. And Man said, "It is good."
On the fourth day, Man saw that animals were in abundance and ran in the fields and played in the sun.
And Man said, "Let us cage these animals for our amusemen and kill them for our sport."
And Man did.
And there were no more animals on the face of the Earth.
And Man said, "It is good."
And Man said, "Let us dispose of our wastes into the air for the winds shall blow them away." And Man did.
On the fifth day, Man breathed the air of the Earth.
And the air became heavy with dust and all living things choked and burned. And Man said, "It is good."
And Man said, "It is good."
On the sixth day, Man saw himself and seeing the many languages and tongues, he feared and hated.
And Man said, "Let is build great machines and destroy these lest they destroy us."
And Man built great machines and the Earth was fired with the rage of great wars. And Man said. "It is good."
On the seventh day, Man rested from his labors and the Earth was still, for Man no longer dwelt upon the Earth. And it was good.
(Ed. note—The Candle says this adaptation was written by a Pennsylvania high school student.)
"Where on earth," asked Agnew, "has any great minority come so far, so fast, as have our 20 million Black Americans—out of slavery and through segregation to their current station in American society—in the course of a single century? This is a record that should inspire optimism and hope in America—not pessimism and despair."
That quote shows Agnew's folly and stupidity. It holds him up to his due ridicule and contempt. That is satire.
Blacks and whites both will be relieved to know that civil rights is not really a problem. They can look forward to the day-perhaps only another short century away—when a school will not burn to the ground the day before it was to integrate. They can look forward to the day when white parents will not keep their children at home rather than sending them to an integrated school. They can look forward to the day when busing will not be necessary to establish racial balance in any school in the United States.
It seems like only yesterday that blacks were picking cotton and saying, "Yasuh, Massa." And look at them now; they have almost caught up to the white folks. To come so far, so fast, should definitely inspire optimism and hope in America.
Apparently this is the attitude that made the Republican Party, as Agnew said, a force in the South and "a force for good."
A few months ago a letter in "Time" magazine suggested that a new volume be added to the series of "Wit" books. In addition to the present volumes "The Kennedy Wit" and "The Stevenson Wit." a volume of Agnew quotations was suggested. It would be entitled "The Nit Wit."
*Patience, boy. There are certain procedures that must be observed.*
Alphabet soup and maybe an avocado
By MIKE SHEARER Editorial Page Editor
"This land that is ours together is a great and good land. It is also an unfinished land. The challenge of perfecting it is the summons of the seventies."—President Richard Nixon.
Whether striving for a Great Society or a Perfect Society, we going to fall short. But I am less willing to pooh-pooh the idealism of such terms than are many people. After all, hasn't it always been man's desire to be Christ-like or Buddah-like? Why then not a society blatantly striving toward what it thinks is perfection?
Clearing the way then for President Nixon to aim at perfection, we should all stand back and just see if he is indeed headed in that direction. The evidence doesn't seem to have both his nose and his finger facing the same mecca of perfection.
But Nixon has deserted, almost completely, other issues which cannot be deserted on the road to perfection.
As Tom Wicker said in a recent column on Nixon's state of the union message, "The net effect was to make this the first state of the union message in a decade that was not devoted primarily, in its domestic proportions, to the inequities and injustices of American life—to attacks of various kinds on poverty, discrimination, hunger, ill health, helplessness and exploitation."
A hungry, oppressed man needs more than clean air and water, and Nixon has not revealed that he is aware of that fact. And if America's hungry and oppressed continue to grow in number, we can count on a continuation of what is, in fact, our march away from perfection.
A Perfect Society? Why not?
But first, before we begin our idealistic and maybe quixotic journey, let's take a look at who we are following and in which direction we are being led. And then before we take that first step in search of sociological gods, let's remember Emerson's admonition:
"When half gods go.
"The gods arrive."
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