The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1959-10-22

he can be free is the strongest
force on earth and all we need
to do is use it.
Because it makes a glib and
simple picture, we like to think
of the world situation today as
a precarious and explosive bal
ance of two irreconcilable ideo-
logies confronting each other:
which precarious balance, once it
totters, will drag the whole uni
verse into the abyss along with
it. That's not so. Only one of the
opposed forces is an theology.
The other one is that simple fact
of Man: that simple belief of in
dividual man that he can and
should and will be free. And If
we who are still free want to
continue so, all of us who are
still free had better confederate,
and confederate fast, with all
others who still have a choice to
be free = confederate not as
black people nor white people
nor blue or pink or green people,
but as people who still are free,
with all other people who are
still free; confederate together
and stick together too, if we want
world or even part of
world in which Individual man
can be free, to continue to en-
dure.
And we had better take in with
us as many as we can get of the
non-white peoples of the earth
who are not completely free yet
but who want and intend to be,
before that other force which is
opposed to individual freedom,
befools and gets them. Time was
when the non-white man was
content to = anyway, did =
accept his instinct for freedom as
an unrealizable dream. But not
any more; the white man him
self taught him different with
that phase of his = the white
mans = own culture which took
the form of colonial expansion
and exploitation based and NOR
ally condoned on the premise of
inequality, not because of in
dividual incompetence but of
mass race or color. AS a result
of which, in only ten years we
have watched the non white
peoples expel by bloody violence
when necessary, the white man
from all the portions of the Mid
die East and Asia which he once
dominated, into which vacuum
has already begun to move that
other and ininical power which
people who believe in freedom
are at war with that power
which says to the non-white man.:
1--WE don't offer you freedom
because there is no such thing as
freedom: your white overlords
whom you have just thrown out
have already proved that to you.
But we offer you equality, at
least equality in slavedom; if you
are to be slaves, at least you can
be slaves to your own color and
race and religion"
We, the Western white man
who does believe that there ex-
lists an individual freedom above
and beyond this mere equality
of slavedom, must teach the non
white peoples this while there is
yet little time left. We, Amer
lea, who are the strongest ma
tional force opposing Commune
ism and monolithicism, mu S |
teach all other peoples, white and
non white, slave or (for a little
while yeti still free. We, Amer
lea, have the best opportunity tc
do this because we can begir
here, at home; we will not neec
| to send costly freedom task
forces into alien and inimica,
non-white places which are al
ready convinced that there is nc
such thing as freedom and liber-
ty and equality and peace fol
non-white people too, or We
would practice it at home. Be-
cause our nom white minority is
already on our side; we don't
need to sell the Negro on Amer