The_Rambler_1965-04-13

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(X)UJE6E OF • V
FARMINQOAIJ NV 11
STATE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE
FARMINGDALE, L.I., N. f .
VOLUME XXXV No. 9 April 13, 1965
Newman CM
Convention
The 46th annual convention of
the New York Province of the
National Newman Club Feder-ation
was held on March 13-14
in the Belmont-Plaza Hotel New
York. Representing the State
University at Farmlngdale were:
Mr. Frederick lekel, President
of SUATC Newman Club; Mr.
PhlUp Seldel, Miss Judith An-derson,
and Prof. Thomas La-donsky.
Advisor.
The theme of the Convention,
"Builders of Bridges," emphas-ized
the Importance of the ed-ucated
layman in the church as a
link between the secular world
and the Church.
Following Mass at Saint Pa-trick's
Cathedral, the convention
members were ^ven an oppor-tunity
to attend one of four Panel
Workshops: "Christ in the Mar-ketplace,
"Modern Design for
Nurses," "Teaching and Chris-tian
Values," and "Christ in the
Intellectual Life." Each panel
was coordinated with the stu-dents
area of studies. In this
way the students learned howthey
could be a true "Builder of Brid-ges"
in their particular field of
interest.
Early in the evening, Frederick
lekel attended the Club Presi-dent's
Dinner where he and other
Newman Club officers met with
Mr. Donn Kurtz, National New-man
Club Federation President.
Various problems of individual
Newman Clubs and regions were
discussed and Mr. Kurtz asked
how the NNCF could be of great-er
aid to the College Newman
Clubs.
One of the most important
events of the convention was
elections of Province officers.
This year the Long Island Region
will be well represented by Miss
Marilyn Bishop (Hofstra Univer-sity)
who was elected as an of-ficer
of the Province.
Sunday the Newman Club mem-bers
attended Mass at Holy Fam-ily
Church. Holy Family Church,
(also known as the United Nations
Chapel because of its close prox-imity
to the U.N.) impressed
many of the convention members
because of its striking contem-porary
interior decoration. Im-mediately
after Mass the New-manltes
were fortunate enough
to see Francis Cardinal Spell-man,
who arrived to dedicate the
church.
Voting Rights Bill
The voting rights bill sent be-fore
Congress on March 17,1964,
will if inacted Indubitably achieve
Its purpose. But in the process
of achieving its noble objective,
that of allowing a few more people
to vote, it (the bill) will create
several unnecessary and unfore-seen
evils.
The bill goes beyond requiring
that voter qualifications be fair
and impartial, in effect it does
away with qualifications as being
Irrelevant to voting. In the area
affected it (the bill) goes further
then the rejected Kennedy pro-posal
- that a sixth grade ed-ucation
t)e proof of literacy, for
voting purposes.
The bill does not provide that
any evidence of discrimination be
necessary to have its provisions
put Into effect; simply the fact
that less then half the people of
voting age In any given state or
district bothered to vote In the
last election, would put the pro-visions
of the bUl In to effect
allowing the federal government
Bitter End Singers to Swing at SUATC
Since they opened at The Bitter
End Cafe, Sleeker St., New York
City» August 24, 1964, the Bitter
End Singers have been rising
ever since. They were invited to
the White House by President
Johnson twice, to appear before
the Congressional members in
the Rose Garden.
Mrs. Johnson was so taken
with them that she invited them
to travel with her on her whistle-stop
tour.
They appeared on the N.B.C.
Follies of 1965 (with Steve Law-rence,
Allen Sherman, Juliet
Prowse, Nipsey Russel, ai^ Jill
St. John). Other television shows
past and future including Cere-bral
Palsy Telethon, Clay Cole
Show, Show Street starring Zsa
Zsa Gabor, On Broadway To-night.
They began their College
Concert Tour on January 25,1965
at West Point.
They are booked to appear at
The Tidelands in Houston, The
Embers in Indianpolis, and Basin
Street East in New York.
The Bitter End Singers repre-sent
a new dimension in enter-tainment;
in their concerts they
perform as a group and also do
Goddard Speaks on Selma
On March 31, the guest speaker
for the Newman Club was Mr.
William Goddard, recently re-turned
from Selma, Alabama.
Mr. Goddard, a Roman Catholic
from Amityville, was a radio
announcer, is a member of the
Long Island Catholic, and re-presents
the "Catholic Inter-racial
Council of Long Island".
The theme of his speech was
"Suddenly It's Almost Tomor-row."
Mr. Goddard spoke first of the
general attitude of people towards
the Negroes. Many of us feel
that the Negro should be content
to sit back and count his coupons,
and have no qualms about his
living conditions today. The
Negro leader, however, feels dif-ferently,
and Uttle by little they
are gaining their freedom.
Mr. Goddard, along with Fr.
John Henry, Sr. Maria Ukaria,
Sr. Saint Thaddeus, and Mrs.
W, Rowcroft, went to Selma.
Their r e c e p t i o n at Mont-gomery
was filled with contempt.
A station wagon from St. Eliza-beth's
Catholic Mission wel-comed
them and drove them fifty
miles to the Negro portion of the
city. As soon as they arrived at
the dividing line, the dissimilar-ity
was like that of night and day.
Antique broken down shacks took
on the titles of homes.
The only decent place was the
Good Samaritan Hospital, a Ne-gro
clinic, but open to whites,
built by the Edmundlte Fath-ers,
and ran by the Sisters of
Saint Joseph.
Mr. Goddard remembers an
actual "Selma Wall" ofhelmeted
troopers, and patrol cars, with
demonstrators facing them.
Three hundred leading marchers
began their advance. There were
black suited priests and minis-ters
with Father and the Sisters
remaining in the front. All of
a sudden the marchers split and
went off the lines. The troops
cut them off and Mr. Goddard
remembers seeing one priest
jabbed in the throat with a club.
The people began pushing and a
leader was thrust forward. He
was then threatened with arrest
by the troopers until one nun
spoke up and said that if they
were going to arrest him, that
she too should be arrested. Noth-ing
came of this.
Contrary to his previous idea,
that safety is with the priests and
nuns, Mr. Goddard soon found out
that the safest place was in the
Negro area . The Whites in
Selma loathe the clergy, nuns,
and lay people, yet the Negroes
open their homes and hearts to
all the White visitors. They
shared what little food, warmth
and clothing they had with the
Whites.
There was one place of peace
and quiet, recalled Mr. Goddard,
and that .was Brown's Chapel.
There he met a four year old
Negro girl named Priscilla, who
he feels must have had hollow
legs, because she ate everything
and anything she was offered.
Generally, about ninety-nine
and nine tenths of the Negroes
in Selma were in favor of the
Whites coming down. One Negro
boy remarked, "it's about time
the white man got involved."
Mr. Goddard said the Negroes
in general went out of their way
to help the White people, and he
summed up his oration with a
definition of Almost and To-morrow.
Almost, means we are
on the brink of a change and To-morrow
is for us to decide when.
"This is a challenge only we
can answer, but we must remem-ber
our Pledge of Allegiance,
our words, Sea to Shining Sea,
and above all else Liberty and
Justice for AU...'
single comedy spots. Their sound
ranges from hard hitting rock
songs such as "Hard Times "and
Dixieland tunes such as "Missis-sippi
Mud" and "Basin Street
Blues", to old standards such as
"Crawded" and "Sea Song", and
will be appearing Sunday, May 2,
1965 3:00 P.M. at Allard Field
House. Tickets on sale in the
lobby of Walt Whitman Hall daily
from 11:00 AJ^. - 1:00 P.M.
to step in and sweep away the
voter qualifications set up by the
state regardless of how reason-able
they are. Having a fifty
percent requirement as the yard
stick for when the law is to be
used, defeats the very purpose
of the bill, because in effect this
means that should a Southern
State decide to open its polls for
registration, regardless of color,
tomorrow, the fact that at the last
election less then fifty percent of
the voter age people voted would
hold the state still Uable for the
penalties of the law.
There is one more point of
legality to be pondered and that
is the Constitution which in Ar-tide
I Section 2, Article n Sec-tion
1 and in the seventeenth
mendment, specifically gives to
the states the right to set voter
requirements.
Tlie bill provides that no person
shall be denied the right to vote,
because of his failure to comply
with any test or device. The bill
goes on to define test or device
as "any requirement that a per-son
demonstrate any educational
achievement or knowledge of any
particular subject, possess good
moral character or prove his
qualifications by the voucher of
registered voters or members
of any other class."
It can not be maintained that
fully functional literacy is not
necessary for voting unless it is
also maintained that intelligent
choice is not necessary for vot-ing.
The matter of good moral char-acter
has always been a touchy
subject to define, for voting pur-poses
it is usually defined as a
person not having spent more than
a year in prison or having ever
been convicted of a felony.
Isn't it grand that not only will
Illiterates now have a chance to
vote but ex-cons as well, not to
mention the men now serving time
behind bars.
The Negro must have the right
to vote, a right that has for far
too long a time been smashed.
But in the process of obtaining
this right must other rights be
smashed!
Sidney Kiqg Saksenberg ni ... .And Comedian FredSmoot