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Show Senate Obliltm? Civil RightrAction It seems that the best Way to avoid solving a nation-1 nation-1 problem these days is to channel it into the Senate. In hat astute body, recalcitrant senators have almost un-mited un-mited rights to obstruct, delay and otherwise thwart !easures to which a minority is opposed. Nowhere has hat prerogative been more fully exploited than. in the urrent Senate debate over Civil Rights. That debate is now in its 10th week with little pro-ress pro-ress to show for its long-windedness. The Southern loc has placed every conceivable barrier in the way f reaching accord on the provisions of the bill. Afc an xample of responsible, effective government, the Senate ebate would rate pretty poorly. Pres. Johnson has pledged passage of the Civil ights bill if it takes all summer with "around-the-clock :ssions." It now appears that a good deal more than lis will be needed. The Senate must first realize that lis country is not willing to wait for legal measures lat are already long over-due. Nor will it be satisfied ith a watered down version that the Southern coalition ould like to see passed. The strong groups behind the Civil Rights move-.ent, move-.ent, the Congress of Racial Equality and the National ssociation for the Advancement of Colored People, ave already voiced their dissatisfaction with the pro-ress pro-ress of the Civil Rights Bill. James Farmer, national irector of CORE, has pointed out that "serious trouble" ould result from a failure to pass the bill and that weakling weak-ling amendments would "cut the heart out of the bill id render it meaningless." Martin Luther King of ie NAACP voiced similar sentiments when he said iat Negroes were "confused and frustrated" by the enate debate. The inevitable result of Senate inaction on this ;iestion cannot be increased militance on the part f those demanding passage of the Civil Rights Bill, t the Washington demonstration in August of last ;ar. they were asked to wait the outcome of Civil Rights gislation in Congress. They were asked to demonstrate pace fully in support of the process of law rather than sort to violence to win the battle for their cause. They in no longer be asked to wait; they have waited too ng already. How can the Negroes or other minorities blamed for taking on an attitude of militance in light the Senate's refusal to act? It would only be fair to say that the Negroes are pt the only ones that are confused and frustrated and fed of waiting. The majority of Americans believe in 'ght. freedom and equality of opportunity for all races, hey see no distinction between a white American and black American. Notwithstanding the arguments of e South, they hold that the Constitution provides urantees that must be applied o all Americans. If the rights and priveleges of citizenship can be med to a minority group, what is to prevent their be-j be-j denied to the majority? It is this motivation that axes the Civil Rights movement much larger than any :e ra.e, any one minority. If freedom can be denied to ;e. how much longer before it is denied to all? It's time to foresake the methods of force and diss-t.on diss-t.on of sivirrs, Ue-ins, freedom rides and mas8 dem- lity with the process of law. Only then can we art on the road toward equal opportunity for all re-I'dlMs re-I'dlMs of race or d since t thci rrcan freedom and justi praise let- t those ideals into practice! The Senate must real- that it can wait no longer; it, too, has waited too 'g. Lets pass the Civil Rights bill now! |