Friday. November l4. not;

EDITORIAL

ii”
W.

LE'ITERS TO THE EDITOR

War Prolesrors Red-Suited
To the Editor:

Major demonstrations will
take place on November 1345.
(2) Another nationwide Mora-
torium sponsored by the Viet-
nam Moratorium Committee,
November 13 and 14;

(b) A national Student Strike
against the war sponsored by
the Student Mohililation Com-
mittee to End the War in Viet
nam (”Student Mobe"), Novem-
ber 14;

(c) A March Against Death in
Washington, D. 0,, November
14-15. and mass rallies in Wash
lngton and San Francisco, No-
vember 15, all sponsored by the
New Mobilization Committee to
End the War in Vietnam (“New
Mobe”).

It is important to understand
that these are not true peace
demonstrations, Each one is a
part of the Fall Offensive
Against the War in Vietnam
agreed upon by the three above-
named groups and SDS last
summer. These four groups co-
operated to build the October
15 Moratorium Day Observances
which were also a part of the
Offensive, and have been work»
ing together on the upcoming
demonstrations.

The three Sponsoring groups
all demand an immediate. coma
plate and unconditional pullout
Of all US. Forces from Vletnam,
The purpose of these demon-
slrations is to achieve this.

What these groups stand for.
in other words, is “the night.
mare of the entire nation" of
South Vietnam. to use the words
of President Nixon in his No-
vember 3 Address. What they
are really advocating. despite
their pious words about peace,
is a repeat 7 on a much lal-g
er scale m of what the Presi—
dent described as “the mas~
sacre” that took place last year
when the Viet Cong murdered
3.000 civilians during their
brief occupation of the city of
Hue and fifteen years ago
when, as the President stated,
the Communists murdered 50,-
000 North Vietnamese, _

The so-calied “March Against
Death" is actually a March For
Death because it is sponsored
by a basically Communist or-
ganization to serve a Commun-
ist purpose in Vietnam that
would bring death to untold
thousands. Each marcher is to
carry a sign with the name of

an American who died for free-
dom in Vietnam and call out
the name of the deceased as he
marches. These marchers should
tell the full story of each man
killed by adding to their signs
and to their chant these words:
“KILLED by COMMUNISTS."
if they were really protesting
death in Vietnam the marchers
would also carry signs bearing
the names of each of the 3,000
civilians killed in Hue last year,
and the 50,000 killed in North
Vietnam fifteen years ago.

The November 14 Student
Strike is actually a strike for
Revolution and Communism.
J. Edgar Hoover testified on
April 17 of this year that the
sponsor of the strike. the Stua
dent Mobilization Committee
“is controlled by members if
the Young Socialist Alliance, the
youth group of the Socialist
Workers Party." The Socialist
Workers Party (SWP) is the
party of the Trotskyist Com-
munists in this country and has
been cited as subversive by the
Attorney General.

What does the Young Social-
ist Alliance (YSA) stand for?
Read what one of its own mem~
bers, Jose Rudder, says. Rudder
is an exserviceman who former.
ly belonged to the Communist
Farty's youth group, the Dubois
Clubs, and was also a member
of the Communist Party itself.
He left them, he says, “greatly
disillusioned about the whole
left." Then, according to his
own story, he began to think
about things and to read the
literature of the Young Social-
ist Albance (YSA) and its par.
ent group. the swp. He came
to the following conclusion:

“i was a Marxist, a commun—
ist, and l believed in the revo—
lution . . . the only organization
that 1 could see that was con-
cerned about . . . seeing the rc~
volutlon take place in this
country was the YSA. So l de»
clded to join." (Young Socialist,
official YSA magazine, April,
1969, pages 10 and 11).

Remember: Vietnam is Coma
munism’s War a not Nixon's
war. The revolution that Jose
Rudder wants in the U.S.A. is
the revolution the Viet Cong
have launched and are fighting
in South Vietnam — with the
help of North Vietnam, Peklng
and Moscow.

CAMPUS COUNTERATTACK
U. s. Anti-Communist Congress,

Washington. D. c.

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Disagrees with Rubenstein
To the Editor:

1 would like to raise some
points which I feel should be
considered by other people who
attended Dr. Richard L. Ruben
Stein’s three lectures and his
panel discussion.

Dr. Rubenstein’s talks raise
some important questions,
among them this one: Does the
God of Scripture command cer-
tain things because they are
intrinsically right and good,
or are things right and good
because God commands them?
People inside the Judeo-Chris-
tlan tradition have taken both
positions on this issue. But Dr.
Eubenstein assumes that only
one position, the latter. exists.
That position is probably the
less defensible one. since it can
lead to the conclusion that God
might equally well have com-
manded nlen to hate one another
and Him. making hatred right.
But if the former position is
taken, then or. Rubenstein's
argument that the God of Scrip.
ture wills things arbitrarily falls
apart, as does his claim that
every man can decide for him-
self what is right.

it is not surprising that Dr.
Rubenstein does not [incl his
conception of the Scriptured
God to bc a very friendly ligure.
(Though His lack of appeal
would hardly provide grounds
for a man to assert His nonvex-
istcncc.) But, as Mr. Burklc
pointed out in the panel dis-
cussion, this tyrannical, caprici-
ous iathcr figure of Dr. nuben.
Stein's is an inadequate view
of the Scriptural God. Does this
figure have anything in common
with the God of the Old Testa-
ment — the God who consistent»
ly responded to the rebellion
of His people by forgiving them
and renewing His covenant with
them, who punished only as a
last resort to lead the people to
repentance? Or with the God of
the New Testament, who loved
man so much that He became
a man Himself and dled for all
men, so that they might receive
forgiveness and a fulfilling, sata
isfying life? Dr. Rubenstein is
attacking a straw figure, a God
of his own creation.

in his assertion that one can
reconcile Auschwitz with the ex-
istoncc of the Scriptural God on-
1y by making Auschwitz the will
of that Cod, Dr. Ruhenstein is
handling the difficult problem
of evil much too simplistically.

To fix the blame for Auschwitz,
he might more fruitfully begin
with a consideration of the
Philospher he admires so much,
Hegel. To justify the murder of
three million Russian kulaks
and the murder of six million
European Jews, 'men quoted
Hegel. Men who redefined mo-
rality in their own terms picked
up what Hegel. knowingly, had
contributed; they appealed to
his belief in the inevitable
triumph of the human spirit to
justify the worst crimes against
the human spirit our world has
ever seen. Yet, if we believe in
the existence of the Juden-
Christian God, Dr, Rubenstein
tells us we must make that God,
the God who commands men to
love even their enemies, the
author of such an act!

of course Dr. Rubenstein as-
serts that such a God is dead,
Where is his evidence? To ob
serve that the JudeoChristian
God has met the needs of a cul
ture does not prove that such a
God is a product of that cul-
ture’s imagination, dreamed up
to meet those needs. The truth
that a religion interacts with the
others aspects of a culture es-
tablishes nothing about the
truth or falsity of that religion.
And even if it could be estab-
lished that many people
“create" a God to satisfy their
need lor a paternal figure,
what would it provel People
can believe in the right things
for the wrong reasons. (If a
man becomes an imperialist be-
cause he had a domineering
father, that is, for a reason
which has nothing to do with
national pride, it does not fol-
low that imperialism is a fig-
ment of human imagination.)
Such wishfulfillrnent reasoning
can explain anything away.

Perhaps Dr. Rubenstcin docs
not leel his arguments need any
rational justification. He offers
us instead his “gut-level" re
actions to life. But how reliable
are these? Are we to decide on
the basis of a little boy's fear of
death that there is no afterlife?
Or are we to conclude that the
Judeo»Christian God is dead and
earth is the “cannibal mother”
because a Jewish grandmother
has Palestinian dirt sprinkled
over her coffin? Each person’s
“gut-reactions” are different
from everyone else‘s; Dr. Rub-
enstein might well have cited
“gut-reactions" of joy and hope.

Dr. Rubenstein’s assertion that
for him the death of God was

tragic is very puzzling. He seems
to give up the Judso—Christian
God with enormous ease; in»
deed, he seems only too happy
to shake Him off and embrace
a “tragic pessimism." Students
who are considering adopting
the death of God position might
well ask if the issue is not so
terribly important as to require
the most serious kind of thought
and then they would do well to
demand better credentials for
that position than Dr. Ruben-
stein has to offer.
Sharon Vander Jagt, "10

Condemns Senate Action
To the Editor:

The student Senate’s action
to observe the Moratorium
through the suspension of
classes and other campus activi»
ties is another example of the
efforts of the thoughtless few
in power to abuse the rights of
the powerless majority — a
tactic widely used in American
Politics.

This action has angered a
great many students and has
alienated a once sympathetic
student body from any meaning-
iul support of the activities this
thirteenth and fourteenth of
November. ,

What need is there"for the
suspension of cla es and regu-
lar campus activ es’! Possibly,
if students still have to get up
for their morning classes, they
can then find the impetus ne-
cessary to participate in the
Moratorium,

Paul Rothlnan '12

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