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Show rage o . Just a TIi ought Offense, Defense and Rebuttal By ZANE R. MISKIN My, my, things do pile up, don't they? It seems if I am to keep my position defended and also advance new thoughts, I must deal with several subjects at once. So here goes! Recently one of my professors challenged me to define and defend the "American Idea." I accepted that challenge, and perhaps an excerpt ex-cerpt or two from my defense would be interesting. in-teresting. I stated that this term implies, rightly, right-ly, that there is something unique in the way i 0 - America does things, especially especial-ly political things. I quoted the Declaration of Independence's Independ-ence's assertion that the reason that governments are instituted among men is to secure the unalienable rights with which men are endowed by their Creator. This premise was unique when it was advanced, ad-vanced, and is still uncommon uncom-mon today. erates. The extremes are anarchy and totali-tariansim, totali-tariansim, which sometimes masquerades under the names socialism, fascism, or communism. On Rhodesia Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to Mr John G. Kinnear, a Salt Lake businessman business-man and a native of Rhodesia, speak on Rhodesia's Rho-desia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). He said the white Rhodesians have been responsible for most of the major technological and industrial developments in his native country coun-try and that they want the black man to participate in government, but cannot swallow the one man, one vote theory at this time, since this would place control of the country in the hands of the illiterate majority. The white Rhodesians feel that the 'black man should earn his franchise through an active support of government first. Opponents of the Smith position will immediately im-mediately point out that this puts the black in an inferior position. Yet black men have been emigrating to Rhodesia from black-dominated black-dominated countries in great numbers. Apparently Ap-parently conditions in these countries are not as rosy as they are painted. Instant-black rule is a farce in the nearby Congo. Tanzania is now communist. Katanga, Malawi and Zambia lack competent leadership. Poverty is prevalent and ignorance is appalling in these three countries, while Rhodesia's blacks are much better off. We in America are ignorant as well ignorant of the actual status of Rhodesia. I suggest we learn all the facts before we oppose her right to independence. Defense In answer to Jerry Goodman and Polly Stewart's letters I can only say that once more by liberal friends have deliberately missed the point. When emancipation came to the Negro race, it found them, by and large, illiterate and uncivilized. They were not capable of exercising their civil rights with any serious degree of responsibility. Booker Washington realized this and remedied that lack in himself. He therefore there-fore had his rights 'bestowed on him, not because be-cause he accepted the doctrine of "Uncle Tom", but because he accepted literacy and civilization civiliza-tion from the only source he had: the white race. In answer to Mr. Goodman's question, I am willing to help, not the "Negro movement" move-ment" but the individual Negro, in exactly the degree that he indicates willingness to' help himself. This is why Washington was helped by his white friends. In answer to Miss Stewart, I fail to see how Washington typifies the Negro playing the role of the polite, respectful colored menial accepting ac-cepting a position of inferiority, when the end . of the book finds him being honored and respected re-spected by such whites as the Queen of England, the President of the United States and others, if not as their superior, then certainly cer-tainly as their equal. I have read the book in its entirety, Mr. Goodman, and the very fact that Washington is not representative of the Negro is the problem. I challenge my readers, if I have any left ,to read the book and form their own opinion. Mr. Miskin I stated what I felt to be political realities: that a government or body politic is a separate and distinct entity from the individuals which comprise it, which has delegated to it some, but not all, of the powers of the individual member; that there is one power which cannot be legally surrendered by the individual the right to rescind his delegation dele-gation of authority at stated intervals. This is known in our society as an election. I stated that when a government usurps that power, it is the duty of the individual to abolish that government and replace it with one which respects re-spects that right of choice. , Another political reality is the fact that it is possible to find a group or body which is free, while the members thereof are not free; while it is impossible to find members of a group which are free, while the group they compose is not free. We therefore see that freedom originates with the individual, and tyranny with the State. I defined the "American Idea" as follows: That the test of the legality of any government lies in its adherence to the principle that government's gov-ernment's natural function is the protection of the freedom of the individual; that from this protection is derived the allegiance of the individual in-dividual to his government; and that if this protection is not given, no allegiance is owed, for that government is illegal, at least such parts of it as fails of this objective. I also postulated an inverse relationship between security and freedom. Whenever a measure of security (protection) is gotten (usually from government) a concomitant amount of freedom must be given up. It is the price of security. The greatest possible freedom is the state of anarchy. The least, a totalitarian dictatorship. dictator-ship. The American ideal is a compromise between be-tween the terror and chaos of . anarchy and the absolute peace and consensus of totalitarianism. totalitar-ianism. There is a basic order, yet some dissension dis-sension and conflict. This is a necessary result of the exercise of freedom. Those who espouse this idea, then, are not extremists, but mod- |