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FREEDOMWAYS

FOURTH QUARTER 1968


against another pulls the trigger. Everyone who condones discriminatory and prejudicial legislation which gives legal sanction to injustice pulls the trigger. In all this we ought to be praying with Edward Roland Sil's jester, "Lord, be merciful to me, a fool."
  As we as a nation and a people try to determine our place in time and history there are some historic precedents of which we should be aware. There was a time in the Roman Empire when political leaders were being assassinated. The emperor and other holders of high political office organized the pretorium guard to protect the office holders from the recurrent violence. It was not long, however, before the guard turned on the emperor and it ensued ultimately that the office holders and the people needed protection from those who had been assembled on behalf of public safety and decency.
  It is not without relevance that prior to the advent of the Nazi regime in Germany a number of public figures were assassinated in what appeared to be unrelated and individual circumstances. It is not without relevance that before Hitler's ascendency to control in the German nation there was great upheaval in the colleges and universities which resulted in an undermining of authority. The enlightened and progressive forces in Germany did not emerge. There emerged, on the other hand, a political regime which has been a stench and an obscenity to all humankind. If we in America are not moving in the direction of a new dawn, it may be that we are inescapably trapped in the horror of these nights in which we find ourselves.


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