Arizona Western College - El Matador Yearbook (Yuma, AZ)

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hite lem Jrld suse .d if nna why wer way han .in't lers ice, tuse rem kill 'ery ake d a nie, loot d if our .ave hen will you the fon- at's She nt a I of this slow the bag I US- con- Slow lem. We nat's killg that thC ver ubll- a be the I got Now that, Y more and more he,s beginning to rid himself of these fears. I think the only way for him to rid himself ofthese fears now is for me to move into the society like we mov- ing into it now: to where can he turn on the television and see something other than the Amos and Andy show or go to the stores and see Buela and Aunt Jamima. Now he turns on television set and see a black news commen- tator, a black cat doing this, the black woman doing that. It kinda relieves those fears of them, but you know that young kid coming up ain't got those fears anyway. El Matador: What you are saying is once I understand the black man then my fears are automatically gone? Gregory: Automatically gone. El Matador: You have charged the FBI with taping your telephone. How did you know that your telephone was tapped? Gregory: How do I know? I bought the tapes back, thatis how I knew. El Matador: You mean the FBI actually sold the tapes of your telephone recording back to you? Gregory: You can buy anything in this country you want to buy. You can get any information in this coun- try you want to buy. Didn't you see in the Chicago Seven trial they came in court and proved that they CFBIJ had tapped their phone? Did you see in the trial going on in Harrisburg, Pa., they got proof that they CFBIH tapped the phone? You can get anything you want be- cause we keep all our records. If you got enough money, you can buy it back. That ainlt no problem, but you know when your phonels tapped, if you have been using the phones. I can pick up this phone and talk on it. You can't tell when your phonels tapped. There is no dif- ference between a phone that's tapped and when itls not tapped. And when itls your phone, you be sure you know. There are a million ways. I know. I owed them ftelephone companyj 536,000 and didnlt pay the bill. And they wouldn't cut my phone off. El Matador: How long have you been on the concert- lecture series circuit? Gregory: Five years. El Matador: When you started out five years ago were you more militant then than you are now? Gregory: About the same. El Matador: Then you really haven't changed your attitude to much over the past five years? You have kept pretty much the same? Gregory: No. I was honest then and I'm honest now. El Matador: Have you seen any changes in attitudes of your audiences over the past five years? Gregory: Every six months you see a drastic change. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Every six months. I look at a kid this year that's getting it to himself. You talk about how quiet it is on the coast, every kid is get- ting it to himself to try andfind out who he is. Baby, when he finds that out, boy, this country is in trouble. That is where he is going within himself. There is more people talking about eating better today. The one thing you can go to the bank and get is a million dollar loan to open a chain of health food stores cause they know that's gonna make it when everything else has failed. And the awareness, you look at the books that young people are reading today. They're very interesting. If you go to a library and check the books that young kids reading on college campuses 20 years ago, compared to the books that were read 15 years ago: compared to the books that they are reading now. You see where the changes are coming. The literature thing is altogether different. There's more social books now. At one time, man, the hottest books kids read on college campuses was the Three Musketeers and all that kinda stuff. These days are over. All of it is social stuff: look at all the so- cial books that comes off the press everyday in this coun- try. They're selling. It's totally unbelievable. I would see a tremendous difference but you can see that difference every six months. It shifted after what happened at Kent University. Tremendous shift. After Kent University, it became very interesting. Before Kent there was about twenty-nine 525,000 or better acts for college campuses, and after Kent, there's only three 525,000 acts. I mean the social thing shifted that bad that that trick just don't gomno more, So I defenitely see a tremendous change. ROTC enrollment is down across this country 53 per cent. There comes a time when a young kid wouldn't dare come to college without joining ROTC. That was his guarantee to get through four years. He don't care now. What do I need to join ROTC for, he asks. I ainlt going anyway. So what you gonna do? Put me in jail? You know what is happening in this country? So many people went to jail they stopped drafting folks. You now they haven't been drafting nobody, don't you know? You know why? Five out of every six people in the last 12 years has gone to the federal penitentiary because of draft resistance. Five out of every six. So they stopped drafting. That's what the games all about. When that thing gets to shifting, man, it gets to shifting where it can't be dealt with, they jump up and wanta make you believe that, ah, we not gonna draft nobody for six months. That ain't what it is man. They know that half the people they run through ain't going. It wasnlt bad when a lot of them was splitting to Canada, but you got a lot of them that ain't even splitting to Canada no more. They say, man,I'm not going. Period. You know, here's wherellive and anytime you want me, I know a lot of cats, man, go down to the draft they no sooner get their induction notice. Cat says, go down to the draft board man, they number so high, they wouldnlt get drafted anyway. They go down say, man, look Ijust want you to know I ain't going. They going out of their way to go on record, man. Say I'm not going. We've never been able to deal with this cause we've always had a penal sys- tem stood up where yould be scared ofjail. You stop getting scared of jail, then they can't use it no more. l

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ick Gregory who bills himself as a soldier in a war against hate and bigotry appeared on the Arizona Western cam pus Feb 23rd as the headllner for this year s Concert 8: Lecture Series The Civil Rights and black power advocate and some times comedian spoke to a standing room only crowd in the Little Theatre for more than two hours With an almost evangelical delivery reminiscent of the late Dr Martin Luther King Gregory decrled the fear that he feels is destroymg America. His unspoken message that night was that people are afraid of what they don't understand, and not understanding is a sickness that is weakening America Brmg moral honesty back to the system, he asked of his young audience who interrupted him more than a dozen times with applause. You must make sacrifices for America to bring moral honesty, he said Any country that says 'Let the buyer beware' instead of 'Let the seller be honest,' there's gotta be something wrong. ' Throughout his lecture, the 39-year-old Gregory, who has been on a much publicized fast since April 24, 1971, voiced his opposition to violence, alcohol, drugs, underpaying law enforcement officers, hatred and corruption. Hatred is a sickness and understanding yourself and others is a medicine, he said. . Gregory showed forth with bursts of energy uncommon of a person who has lost more than 189 pounds in a fast that will continue until the Vietnam war is ended. Fruit juices have been his only nutrition. A daily jog of 20 miles is his only formal exercise and' weekly medical checkups have allowed him to continue his speaking engagements at colleges and universities. Gregory, physically and mentally exhausted at the end of his speech, met with El Matador editor4in-chief Michael Star- rett, associate editor David Schuman, staff member Audrey Barrett and college staff photographer Paul Miller in an exclusive interview. During t-he interview, the tired Gregory drank three glasses of orange juice filled with crushed ice. The underlying tone of his speech and interview emerged as a message of freedom and equality-for the entire human race, and that today's youth must be the ones to bring America back to morally stable and sound ground because - - A ' f' A Y 'ss ' - V ' -' A' ' . ,, . 1 9 , , 9 ' . ' , , ' - . - ' . . ' - - - E . . ' 3 . n U 9 I . 'Thneis running out, baby! j