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Show The Animist ? True Meaning of Christmas Year after year, churchmen all over the United States intone passionately about the true meaning of Christmas to their congregations. con-gregations. What that meaning is still remains to be understood tby many. It just seems as if the louder Christ's birth gets told over and over again from the pulpits, the more decadent, commercialized and villified it becomes at the hands of the public at large. In 1965, Christmas cards have been spoiled in their turn. In the midst of finals, the entire Chronicle staff received cards from the Student .Action for Social Justice (SASJ). Here is a J sample: The Animist "And all the while blood flowed down the Ebro. The peasants of Guernica were slaughtered in the marketplace market-place felled by German guns manned by German heroes. Back home in Germany no one seemed to be noticing, and the rest of Europe carefully averted its eyes, lest it behold sights too harsh for Christian hearts to bear." The "lines written on Feb. 8, 1965" were signed Virginia Colter. SASJ had its name stamped below, and a map of Viet Nam preceded the writing. The message was clear: Americans, by not protesting against U.S. policies in Viet Nam, behave no better than Germans under Hitler. It irked us all to receive such niceties from SASJ. A Vietnamese Viet-namese member of the staff, N. T. Hien, sadly commented that such Christmas card "will not help the Vietnamese people any. If they (SASJ) care anything about us, why don't they go help us instead of standing in public places and talk emptily about peace." We would have let it go at that, until we learned of some other Christmas messages. American soldiers have been receiving receiv-ing leaflets showing a dead American officer and U.S. students demonstrating against the war. "What's in it for you, GI?", the leaflets ask. "McNamara says Americans will have to learn to accept casualties. And that means you, brother. You won't find him eating in the jungle or going home in a coffin. There aren't any bombs planted in the Pentagon, like there will be in your barracks, bar-racks, your base or the local bar." According to the Associated Press, the leaflets follow a barrage of letters received by U.S. (Marines at Da Nang and Chu Lai late in November that urged them to oppose the war. The address given with those letters was 2407 Fulton St., Berkeley, Berke-ley, Calif. The Viet Nam Day Committee leader of many peace marches has its offices there. Not only have the soldiers themselves been subject to such sinister jokes. Back in this country, their families are receiving similar letters and hate-calls from organized groups. The hate-mongers hate-mongers wouldn't even spare widowers and orphans. Is it any wonder then if GI's now refuse to identify themselves by hometowns home-towns to reporters, in the hope of safeguarding the privacy of their families? To top it all, last week we received a letter from "Peace Anonymous," Malibu (Calif). It said: "Briefly, this paper recommends recom-mends the removal of Congress, the President and the State Department De-partment from the conduct of international affairs." Thus finally the leftaving has agreed with the right-wing to abolish the government of America. We have long held that dissenters have a right to be heard, even if what they say does not please the majority of the people. However, we now feel that the new left has reached the point of no indulgence in its campaign against the war in Viet Nam. Leaving the issue itself to more knowledgeable persons, we submit that the new left is using the old tactics of hate, slander and vulgarity to force its views on people. It is not evon left, it is swimming in the mainstream of extermism in the company of its spiritual brothers, the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan. |