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that there is a sickness in this coun–
try that has got to be healed and
that nothing short of sorne really
tremendous efforts in the way of
emergency surgery will avail.
ls Our Frame Still Sound?
For the !ove of America, let's look
at our country. Let's do it with deep
concern, butlet's do it objectively.
The founding documents, con–
cepts, ideals and philosophies of this
nation might be compared to the
skeletal sysrem
of Uncle Sam. With–
out the support of those ideals, we
have lost our way.
On the Liberty Bell, one of those
goals is inscribed: "Proclaim liberty
throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof."
It
roight amaze
you, but that's a quote taken from
Leviticus 25:10. lt 's a beautiful
thought. Yet to this day, in the
United States, we still don't have
total liberty for all of our citizens.
There are many people in Amer–
ica today - whether in the ghettos
of the big cities, on lndian reserva-
4
tions, in the hollows and back hills
of Appalachia, or scattered through–
out the land - who do not enjoy
all the privileges of liberty.
The preamble to the Constitution
has not been completely fulfilled.
It
says: 'We, the people of the United
States, in order to form a more per–
fect union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquility...."
Many of our citizens still say they
do not have "justice." And "domes–
tic tranquility"? Well, that was be–
fore the riots, before the high críme
rate, before the muggings and rap–
ings , and robbings and purse
snatchings that so affiict our nation.
The Declaration of lndependence
states: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all menare created
equal." But when
1
talk to people
today and hear blatant racism com–
ing out of their mouths, I know
there are millions ofAmericans who
do not belíeve that statement means
what the foundíng fathers intended.
One other example is particularly
significan!. After the American Civil
War, Samuel B. Chase, a mtmster
and Secretary of the Treasury,
wrote: "From my heart 1 have felt
our national shame in disowning
God is not the least of our present
disasters." Through his efforts, four
words, which became our national
motto, were added to our coinage:
"In God We Trust."
But we don't. As a matter of fact.
we are still not really sure we should
talk about God in America, except
in hushed whispers inside churches,
or in a sermon, or in profanity. We
get embarrassed when someone
brings God into a conversation.
A Sickness We Can
All Agree On
America's cities can be likened to
Uncle Sam's
stomach
- reaching
out to devour the natural resources,
and, in turn, pouring pollutants into
tbe air, streams and rivers, and onto
the land.
To me, cities are places which
have become virtually uninhab–
itable. As we look on America's
cities, on the problems of our
crowded, teeming centers of popu–
lation, it's time to ask: Is this really
the good life?
We go back and forth in our auto–
mobiles to our jobs and then home
again, battling one another
in
an
exhausting, enervating style of life
that would drive an animal com–
pletely insane - all of this because
the city
is
where "the good life" is
assumed to be. But then we spend
our weekends fightíng to escape the
city because of the bad life we find
there.
Our cities are seething turmoils of
unrest, of crime, of people who
curse and hate one another.
I recently had a revealing conver–
sation with a New Orleans cab
driver who has a knife scar on his
arm from shoulder to elbow. the re–
sult of an attempted robbery. At
night ht' carries a .357 Magnum on
the seat beside him. "And l'm here
to tell you," he said, "that
r
think
about 90 percent of tbe taxi drivers
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973