ustxtxb_obs_1965_10_15_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

Dialogue Mf#I441#4’###N#11 04414’11N#I#######~~#44,14~ cans and Anglos, peace-concerned and civil rights-concerned peopleif they’re liberal they’re all welcome. But in my opinion no one should come bearing a brief for his organization, and no organization should have voting membership. Returning to the tap roots of democracy, th!s should be a society of individuals acting as individuals. Everyone should be welcome regardless of his or her organizational connections, but just as the frontier men checked their guns with their hats, when Texas liberals meet together in this new group they ought to check their organizations labor, civil rights, whatever. “I am here as myself” that’s enough identity for citizens coming together in common concern for the trends of our times. Arkansas liberals plan to send a delegation, they have written to the Observer, and this makes me think to suggest that liberals from other states might want to come watch, too. Oklahoma people ask me occasionally why they can’t have a liberal movement like Texas does. No reason, except workthe doing of it. Liberal Party Plans Bold and serious plans are now afoot to form a liberal party in Texas. These plans are not to be confused with the Nov. 6 meeting in Houstonthat is, the liberals who are laying plans for a liberal party in Texas do not intend to try to convert the Houston meeting to that purpose. The liberal party activity, as it is now visualized, would be minimal through the spring of next year to prevent conflict with liberal Democratic activities in the primaries and conventions. As the Houston Post’s political editor, William Gardner, said in his column this month, for the liberals of Texas this has 16 The Texas Observer been the winter of discontent. “How long is their estate, how muted their voices, how desperate their plight, as compared to the bold, strident days of the DOT, when they L Gone East Please change my address [from Houston to one in Cambridge, Mass.Ed.]. As this change may indicate, I guess I could be classified among the surprisingly high number of Texans who have gone to M.I.T. and Harvard for advanced degrees and who, thanks to Connally’s superboard and “higher education for the sake of the businessman’s pocketbook” policies, will never return.George. Fix, 35 Hover St., Apt. 2, Cambridge, Mass. Write The School Board To participate or not to participate in the federal aid to education program seems to be the problem of most local school boards. I believe the young people are being cheated of a much better education when the boards refuse federal aid because of political obligations. . . . I suggest that everyone write their local board and urge that all federal aid that is available be requested and that anything that is offered be accepted, if it will help the children of Texas to a better education. Dean Butler, 3709 Neches St., Ft. Worth, Tex. P.S. This letter hasn’t been sent to anyone else. Murder As The law Can anyone seriously believe the testimony in Haynesville, Alabama, that a Catholic priest was a pistol-packing padre and that Harvard Theological Seminary turns out switchblade-swinging seminarians? There have been more than 25 murders of civil rights workers in the South in the last five years without a single conviction. Each travesty of justice further confirms the belief of pathological haters that they are free to express their aggressions with COMING TO TEXAS Andrew Young, executive assistant to Rev. Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says that eleven S.C.L.C. staffers, many from Alabama, are coming to Texas in October for a campaign to integrate East Texas. Younger Newton of Columbia, S.C., assistant grand dragon of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan, who manufactures all Klan robes \(a part-time work he got into because he didn’t like seeing the boys “out of uniformyou tween 1,200 and 1,300 Klan robes to Texas since May and has hundreds more on order. He was in Texas for a Klan rally near Houston. kept the state in an uproar, the conserva tives on their toes and occasionally reeling, and added zest to Texas politics,” he wrote. It’s time for a little fun again. R.D. out fear of punishment. Such local irresponsibility leaves the federal government no choice but to provide protection against killers. George M. Korb, 1202 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. Books For Paul Quinn The administration, faculty, and student body of Paul Quinn express sincere appreciation for the interest that you have shown in our institution. The article concerning Paul Quinn that appeared in the September 3, 1965, issue of the Texas Observer [in “Observations”] made a number of interested persons aware of our great need for library books. We have received several letters requesting a list of the types of books we need. We received a shipment of valuable books from Mrs. Ruth Hawthorne of Columbus, Ohio. Mrs. Hawthorne’s gift came to us as a direct result of your article. Mr. Bernard Rapoport’s work in behalf of our library has been very fruitful. We are receiving current copies of textbooks from colleges and universities throughout the state. . . . L. H. McCloney, President, Paul Quinn College, Waco, Tex. Be Faithful to Things Texan “A Window to the South” I am willing to grant you, albeit grudgingly; but the increasing emphasis upon national affairs in the Observer distresses me. Little in these articles differs from what is said in the Nation, New Republic, and others of like ilk. Concerning things Texan, however, we have no source other than the Observer. This is the service to which the Lord has called you. “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” U.S.S. Chipola, Pearl Harbor. It Made No Difference The September 3rd issue of the Observer contained a letter from a Mr. Elton L. Miller of Austin, Texas. Mr. Miller expressed the opinion that somehow the brutal murder of the two coeds proves the validity of capital punishment. Surely we agree this was a heinous crime, yet the glaring fallacy of his argument is that the existing Texas capital punishment laws neither prevented this crime nor prevented the murderer from calmly turning himself over to the police. What we “capital punishment abolisher do-gooders” have learned is that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder, and since it is only the poor and underprivileged that get it, it should be abolished. Bill Nichols, Minister, Unitarian Fellowship of Midland, Box 663, Midland, Tex.