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voljahoJ___MONDAY, AUG~19 71%? ^nca 0 Casts Baha'i Temple. Vihnetle, III. ortis foi the ff orld GOD doth not behold riif f<j-etire* of hue and com pie xion. He looketh at the heart*. He whose moral* *nd virtues Jre praise worthy i* preferred in the presence of God* he who is devoted to the Kingdom is most loved. —Baha'i Writings Unity Basic Principle EDITOR : In view of the nationwide as well as the local unrest regarding the integration of the white and Negro races, it seems essential that every organization make clear its position. Basic in the Baha'i World Faith is the principle of unity. That is. that all men are created of the same substance; all must be treated with equal justice and mercy by their fellow men. From the inception of the Baha'i faith, communities have been established on this principle of unity. Those of the white and Negro races who have had membership in such communities have found enrich ing experiences in their social and religi ous activities. Furthermore, elected ad ministrative bodies on the local, national and international levels consist, as a mat ter of course, of representatives of differ ent races. Unity in the Baha'i world is not only be tween the white and Negro races but also between various other racial as well as religious, national, and cultural minori ties. In every country of the world there are Baha’i communities in which indi viduals are sharing this feeling of one ness. From first-hand experiences. Baha is know that fears of integration are ground less. The Golden Rule which is at the basis of all religions requires complete justice in employment, housing, school ing. religion, and all other facet* of hu man existence. Obviously this basic principle of unity, these experiences in interracial activities make clear that Baha’is support all ef forts made in these communities to re alize complete justice in every area of human endeavor. BAHA’I ASSEMBLY OF URBANA Eleanor Hutchins, Secretary. ‘Take a Hand' Remember that first day you went to school. Or maybe it was just a new school in a town you had moved to You wondered what it would be like, and whether the other children would like you. I p to a certain age it was a big help if “Mommy’’ rould go along and hold your hand. Well, this fall there will be some cases where even “Mommy” would be glad to have somebody hold her hand. The National Women's Committee for Civil Rights has suggested that where schools this fall are opening on a desegregated basis, it would be nice for white women to take the hands of Negro children and their parents and walk with them into the schoolroom that first day. The heads of this committee are Mrs. Mildred McAfee Horton, former president of Wellesley College, and Mrs. Patricia Roberts Harris, associate dean at Howard University. This, to ns, is one of the most heart-warming ideas that has* come out of the whole civil-rights discus 'Opportunity Is Individual' By Kimmls Hrndrick Los Angeles Some 20 years ago I sought and ob tained an interview with George Wash ington Carver. So far as I know, it may have been the last newspaper interview the great Tuskegee scientist gave any one. As the years pass, it grows in my thought as the most impressive news paper experience I ever had. Yet the recent 1963 conference of the National Urban League, that brought about 1,000 concerned white and Negro people together here from aeross the country, reminded me that what Dr. Carver did for humanity, many other Americans, usually less conspicuously, are doing constantly. Dr. Carver, I think, would have said so. Whether he would have approved the militancy of today's Negro leaders, I certainly do not know. He had been ill, and his secretary told my wife and me, as I remember, that wc must stay with him just five minutes. We must not, she added, shake Associated Press Photo George Washington Carver his hand. But when he appealed. Dr. Carver took our hands and shook them vigorously. Then he talked to both of us for half an hour. > > > We had never been so moved by a human presence. He seemed to us little and very black. He seemed to us, in deed, almost the opposite of what we had expected. We knew we were going to meet a man whose contributions to the development and use of natural products was prodigious. I suppose we thought he would look and act impos ing. Instead, we found ourselves think ing, as we said afterward, that we were in the presence of someone to whom thought was everything and in whom phvsicality and its needs had been re duced to the minimum. Dr. Carver began by telling us that his favorite text came from the Gospel according to John: *'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Re went on, as 1 recall, to say something very much like this: “Free from what? From ignorance. And there are three kinds of ignorance—honest ignorance, stubborn ignorance, and what I call ‘cussed ignorance.’ ” Of honest ignorance, said Dr. Carver, it can only be said that it is hopeful: it wants to learn. Stubborn ignorance, by contrast, seems practically hopeless. As for "cussed ignorance,” he called it "the curse of not knowing how much God loves you.” To illustrate this last, he told us about a Negro boy in a nearby Alabama reform school who had taken his own life recently. He did so. Dr. Carver said, because life looked worthless to him, and he felt worthless before life. But in that very place, the great Negro scien tist observed, there were clays in the soil which, utilized, could transform the economy of the region. Had that young ster known enough, he could have' found his career right there. > A > Sometimes people, hearing this story, have said to me, “Yes—it shows that opportunity is individual.” Surely Dr. Carver, born a slave, proved that it can be, and won unsought honors from gov ernments and scientific societies for his work. We noticed, however, that he himself had also devoted his career to helping others find the environment in which individuality could flower. He told us about the boy who failed with the air of one who regretted he himself had not been there first to prevent the chance of failure. Listening to Urban League workers discuss the urgency of the Negro’s pre.> ent situation—and speaking sympatheti cally, from their background of modera tion, about radical and activist Negro programs—I got a new light on Dr. Cai vcr s comments to a young reporter and his wife. He did his work quietly, by example. He seemed to retreat vis ibly from self-assertion. Yet constantly, in his long career, he was helping create favorable environments for human success. We thought, as we still think, that he seemed unaware that he was Negro, that we were white, or that, color had any significance whatever. He was too busy to think about it. He was too conscious that any kind of man means humankind. To him, opportunity was like the prom ising clay in nearby soil—the thing nearest at hand. And he said to us in this context, as I clearly remember, “Opportunity is never a matter of com plexion.” Education Eauality Urged by President ^ ~ my San Diego, Calif. Receiving the first honorary doctorate ever bestowed by California’s state college sys tem, President Kennedy called on all Americans “to mobilize the»r aroused support” behind a national program of equal educational opportunity for all the nation’s youth. “We are the privileged,” he told 2,000 graduates at San Diego State College and a com mencement audience exceeding 22,000 people. “We should ex pand this privilege so that all men and women may share it.” For nothing in his com mencement address, which the President delivered with nu merous extemporaneous de partures from his prepared text, did he receive warmer applause lhan for his words, “We have no greater asset in this country than an educated man or woman.” Four-Dav Trip President Kennedy reached San Diego right on time in the course of a four-day Far West trip crammed with defense base inspections and a visit to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Aircraft filled the sky as his motorcade traveled from Lindbergh Field here along a parade route to San Diego State College’s Aztec Bowl. He took the contrast between California’s abundantly pro visioned educational program and the needs of the nation’s educationally underprivileged areas to support his call lor strong federal aid. Dropout Issue Noted Citing, for instance, the fact that "only about two-fifths of our nonwhite population’’ have finished high school—in con trast to nearly three-fourths of the young v-hite population— the President, declared: “This is the business of our country. These young people come West." Citing school dropouts and their effect on employability, the President emphasized: "this is one of the most serious domestic problems that will face our nation in the next 10 years.” Citing the astonishingly large amount of "functional illiter acy” to be found among the nation’s adult population, the President said vigorously: “This is a problem that faces us all.” SHARING OI K FAITH "And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John. said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said. Silver and gold have I none: hut such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Naza reth rise up and walk." Acts 3:4-6. I his is the story of the lame man at the beautiful gale of the temple. He was one of the many beggars to be found in the city of Jerusalem. He never knew what it meant to walk, because he was lame from birth, and had to be cariied by relatives or f lends wheievet he went. How fortun ate. that this one day. he was left at the gate of the temple, where he might not only receive a few coins, but legs and complete health. This all came about because these spirit-filled men were willing to share what they had with him Jesus Christ. No man is poor who has C'hiist within his heart ii Donaldson I istui to these words of Peter: Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus C hrist of Nazareth rise up and walk " What a gift, what a blessing, what a joy to be able to share our blessed Lord with those in need. What do you think the lame beggar would rather have, a coin of silver, or legs on which to walk? C ertainly he received much more than he expected: a sound body and a cleansed heart, instead of a few coins that would have lasted but for a day. All about us today are those who tire sick, lame and needy; who need more than a casual hand-out. They need understanding and love; they need the joy of Chi ist in their hearts and ‘ the peace that passeth all under standing.” To those of us who know HIM, who have tasted his love in our own souls, let us joyfully and will ingly share HIM with those who reach out to us for help. May we say as did Simon Peter, ‘‘Such as I have give 1 thee, in the name of Jesus, be healed.” “Somebody did a golden deed; Proving himself a friend indeed, Somebody sang a cheerful song; Brightening the way the whole day long; Was that somebody you? Was that somebody you? W, Howe Donaldson £ l/etie foot 'Today . • • Follow righteousness, faith, chanty, peace, with them that cull on the Lord out of a pure heart.—II TlM. 2:22