University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - Quiver Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

Page 21 text:

 I asked him if he didn’t think it was a pretty heavy responsibility to make a decision about going off to war where you might get killed. Well, he fell back on that old line about ‘duty to country.’ Personally if some other country were to attack the United States and I thought that they had a better system of government than we do, I certainly wouldn't feel that I had to rush out to fight or kill anybody. I doubt if my husband would either. I don’t know what ‘duty to country' means. I find it next to impossible to talk with older people. They all seem hung up on ideas of God's will or ideas about how this is God's country. I don't believe that God sets up countries or governments and I don’t think He has any personal preferences. He doesn’t need countries fighting for Him. As a matter of fact, He doesn't even need us. 17

Page 23 text:

“Another thing that I think about a lot these days is the whole black and white issue. I was fortunate in some ways when I was growing up. We lived in a place where there were no Negroes at all. I don't mean that was fortunate, but what I mean is that I never had any bad prejudicial experience. I simply had no experience of black people. I went to school in the South and saw some black people there. I was so out of touch with things that I didn't know what their situation was. I saw that they were laborers and servants. but I just assumed that was their job. I didn't make anything People are really threatened by Black Power. I don’t know what it is that scares them so much. All those people want is a chance to live with some dignity. of it. I was in college during the big Civil Rights movement, but I wasn’t really involved. It really wasn’t until after I was married that I came to realize that there was a problem. My husband was working in a town where there was an explosive ghetto situation. We got involved in a program to try to help suburban whites get informed and involved. I remember especially one meeting where a man got up and spoke out very courageously about the program to bus school kids into segregated neighborhoods. Nobody said anything at the meeting, but afterwards someone followed him and he was found later, badly beaten up. People are really threatened by Black Power. I don’t know what it is that scares them so much. All those people want is a chance to live with some dignity and to stop everyone from exploiting them. That's not so much to ask, is it? That experience really changed me. It opened my eyes to the way things are. Suburban whites are concerned only about themselves. They go to the church, but they’re not nice; they're not kind. I began to think what difference does all the stuff they have really make. So what if they have two cars and a nice house? The important thing is how you live your life — what you do with it. I understand people who are ready to go to jail, drop out, or leave the country for something they really believe in. It’s worth it. You might have to sit in jail and go through some horrible experiences and you would be a changed person afterward, but that's a lot better than killing people.” 19