Montclair State College - La Campana Yearbook (Upper Montclair, NJ)

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ev¥. To the Editors: Faulkner was speaking for South- erners when he said, The past is not dead; it isn ' t even past. Having recent- ly moved North after a life spent most- ly in the South, I find Northerners won- dering why Southerners talk as if the past were real. I tell them that in the South, we have been busy for a long time trying to sort out the past worth keep- ing from the past worth getting rid of It ' s a job that connects us with mo t of the world ' s people today — the vital busi- ness of achieving a particular identity in a plural world. For my own part, I hope Southern- ers (white and black) don ' t forget the TENNESSEE MANSION ATLANTA SKYSCRAPER suffering, the defeat, the injustice of Southern history, or the courage it took to endure and throw some of it off. We Americans can use that remembering. It might remedy our rootlessness, our disdain for limits. And it might free us for change. I have always wondered if a South- erner put up that famous sign over the Western ban I ain ' t what I oughta be; I ain ' t what I ' m gonna be; but I ain ' t what I was. Donald IV. Shriver Jr., President Union Theological Seminary New York City It was the mid- ' 50s, and my home town, Clinton, Term., had just become integrated. Many of the scenes of those days will never leave my memory. At the courthouse, endless speeches in- flamed the night air. On the outskirts of town lighted crosses sat overlooking the city as white knights danced beneath them. On my 15th birthday a series of bombs erupted inside our school, and for two years I was among 1,000 high school students who rode 13 mUes a day to a lent-out grammar school, where the commodes were the right height for second-graders. Recently my wife and I went to Montgomery, Ala., to pick up our first child, an adopted daughter. As we got in the car to leave, I whispered to her, Melinda, thank heavens you never knew, you never knew. Dan Kenneth Phillips Jacksonville, Ala. Love and Hats I was bom and raised in Clinton, N.C., the son of two professionals who happen to be black. I lived in New Jer- sey for 13 years. I regret my return to the Sunbelt. The first major shock was the dis- proportionate number of young blacks with college degrees who were unem- ployed and turning to alcohol and drugs. It was also obvious that the arrogance and greed of the white community re- mained largely unchanged. My wife, who happens to be white, was able to ob- serve some of this firsthand. There was a prevailing hostility toward blacks, but what was most shocking was the auto- matic assumption by whites that all other whites shared this hostility. What has been harder for my wife to accept is the hostility of the black community toward her. I ' m beginning to hate my- self for loving this place as I do. Delford A. Jones Clinton, N.C. Forever Proud The new spirit of the American South is an outgrowth of the trauma ex- perienced by the U.S. in the ' 60s and early ' 70s. Long the naUon ' s moral whip- ping boy, the South gained itsaihnesty during a period of racial tension, assas- sination, war, urban unrest, youthful ahenation and political misconduct that left no American unaffected. Free to think of itself in a different light, the South has replaced self-right- eous demagoguery with genuine pride. The South has always been proud of its ways despite, perhaps even because of, the derision it suffered for its shortcom- ings. But the new Southern pride is based on the steady progress the region has made toward overcoming its problems while retaining its special identity. Albert Oetgen Savannah, Ga. Lost Our Character Forty years ago, Columbia, S.C., was a sleepy Uttle Southern town (pop. 40,000) with wide streets, a farmers ' market, 12 o ' clock whistles, midday din- ner, and lots of blacks living in decaying httle shacks who helped with the house, yard and children for shameful wages — but then nobody had much money in those days. You would not believe the transformation we have undergone: en- closed, air-conditioned malls every few blocks, high-rise apartments and com- plexes, condominiums, housing for the elderly, underprivileged, young and swingy, middle-aged and any category. No more slums and quaint neighbor- hoods. Blacks hold important jobs. They are heads of agencies, five in exclusive neighborhoods, get elected to judgeships and the legislature. To say that maids and yardmen are vanishing would be trite. About the only thing that has not changed is the weather — stiU beastly hot in summer and mild in winter. We have entered the mainstream of America. We ' re already complaining about the traffic congestion, and it won ' t be long before we ' ll have smog and pol- lution to contend with. It ' s a good feel- ing not to be apologetic about being a Southerner, but it ' s not the same South. We ' ve lost our character, but I guess that ' s the price of progress. Evelyn Baker Alton Columbia, S.C. A Computer and a Bible The thing that I find most interest- ing about the New South is that it clings to traditional values. The New South is carrying a computer in one hand and the Bible in the other. Torek Hamada St. Louis In Los Angeles the only game in town seems to be talking about getting your head together and then never do- ing it. In New York it ' s fashionable to decry the physical deterioration of landmark buildings and then forget about them on the way to your air-con- ditioned office. But in Charleston, S.C, citizens ' groups have restored entire blocks to antebeUum splendor. Southerners are working out a con- sensus between the dynamics of contem- porary Uving and the values of tradi- tional life. Edmund Guertin Jr. Los Angeles Lust and Eden The South is space, Ught, trees, the sun. The South is mediocrity, violence, boosterism, glorified ignorance. It is friendliness and a joy in simple pleasures — and simple ideas. It is row upon row TIME, SEPTEMSeS 27, 1976