ustxtxb_obs_1964_01_24_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

This is manifested by a prime concern about material possessions, and how one’s private affairs might be affected by the liberation of those whom he preys upon…. Where is the unenforceable obligation noble men take as their own? Warren M. Conerly, 2416 Branard A., Houston 6, Tex. Keep It a Texas Paper Your copy of the Observer with the eye witness account of President Kennedy’s last ride is the best writing I have ever read. You told so many small personal details that the other correspondents did not report. . . . If we only had such articles preserved from other historical events, think how much clearer and easier history would be today. . . . Please send me one more of the black bordered numbers. Your paper is best in the nation, and please do not include the entire South, let’s keep it a Texas paper. We need to know everything you print about conditions in Texas. You will lose a lot of your Texas subscribers if you include other states. Mrs. Roberta Farris, Voss, Tex. Should Have Seen Him Anent the Dec. 27 issue’s “Questions on Oswald’s Civil Liberties,” may I say that perhaps the Dallas Civil Liberties Union, affected as was the rest of the public by the one-sided TV trial, was not alert to its foundation principle, that. the “Assassin” was innocent until tried and found guilty by a fair trial. An A.C.L.U. lawyer, keen to protect a ed to the wall by the .police and the TVwashed public, should insist on speaking directly to the incarcerated prisoner, not only to ask if he desired a lawyer, but to stress the importance of having legal counsel until such time as he could have contact with a lawyer of his choice. One could not expect Oswald’s mother, or brother, as laymen; to understand the urgency of having immediate legal protection in an emotional and violent situation, such as that of the assassination of a popular president ; nor the wife, psychologically unaware of the rights of an arrested person under our American, as contrasted to the Russian system. Samuel Robbins, attorney, 117 Liberty St., New York 7, N.Y. P.S. Your journal is one of the best, if not the best. J. W. “Tommy” TUCKER Appraisal of Real Estate 3317 Montrose Boulevard Houston, Texas 77006 JAckson 4-2211 Extremism Is Good One of the regrettable results of the assassination has been a widespread criticism of extremism. Extremism is necessary and good. Granted that some extremists are wrong, who can say that others are not right? The blanket condemnation of extremism has not differentiated between good extremism and bad extremism. It has defamed extremism per se. I can’t believe that we are really accepting the idea that deviation from the norm is inherently evil. A list of such deviationists would have to include most admired men throughout recorded time. If each of us selected the three persons we consider the greatest men who lived, and then judged them by the norm of their respective backgrounds, perhaps extremism would be vindicated. The massive criticism of hatred has seemed a much sounder reaction to me. Hatred has no merit. If I am an extremist, my extremism is against hate. Even so, I am unalterably opposed to any laws which would restrain the free functioning of those wretched groups which not only practice hate but attempt to sell it to the people. Their product will not be purchased by an American public free to choose. . . . Robert E. Cogswell, 4418 1/4 Stanford, Houston, Tex. On Black Snobs I should like to commend you for printing Saul Friedman’s “Houston, A Backwater of the Revolt” [Obs. Nov. 15]. The article is extraordinarily perceptive, fair, factual, and sober. . . . We as Negroes must be able to distinguish the white image of success from the solid substance behind it, and by substance I do not mean merely material affluence. Self-respect does not supinely submit to oppression, no matter whether it lives in a split-leveled home or motors in a Lincoln Continental. One of the greatest crimes our segregated society has perpetrated against the Negro has been to rob him of his self-esteem. The black bourgeoisie delude themselves into believing they have status because they have the symbols of status, notwithstanding they lack the substance of statushuman dignity and self-respect. This delusion bristles me most when I see well-to-do Negroes subscribe to ideologies and practices as reactionary as those of the most arch conservative. January 24, 1964 15 AMERICAN INCOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF INDIANA Underwriters of the American Income Labor Disability Policy Executive Offices: P. 0. Box 208 Waco, Texas Bernard Rapoport, President