The Chapel Hill weekly., 1963-08-28

OHIl SildlI.
This is not a revolution limit
ed to other continents. Here in
our own land, we have more than
fifty million students attending
more than $4,000 public and
private schools at all levels.
There are more students today
in the United States than there
were city residents only forty
years ago.
Our American commitment to
education is old and long stand
ing. But the real impact has
just begun to come within very
recent years.
We have entered an age in
which education is not just a
luxury permitting some men an
advantage over others. 1t has
become a necessity without which
a person is defenseless in this
complex, industrialized society.
Levels of education which
were once regarded with
awe, have now become common
place And Jobs which once could
be filled by strength and native
intelligence now call for college
degree, We have truly entered
the Century of the Educated
Man.
1t is a mistake, however, to
confuse skill with education. A
man who has been taught only
to hold a job has not been edu-
cated-he has been trained. And
the man who has merely been
trained is not fully qualified to
take his place in a free society
as a fully participating citizen.
Education, of course, is not
something that is acquired just in
college. All of life is an educa-
tion process and when | think of
death, | think of it as the NOM
ent when the brain ceases to in
quire and to expand.
There was a time when some
Americans regarded an educa-
tion just as a passport to posi-
tion of luxury in our society. We
have come a long way from
those days. We have learned that
no man can avoid the obligations
of citizenship indeed that these
obligations are forced upon him.
This thought is particularly
compelling at this time in our
history when our country is torn
by internal tensions.
People who have been denied
basic rights for centuries have
reached the explosion point
where they are demanding those
rights-nOw And it is not pos
Sible to find logical, moral rea-
sons to say them nay.
In the course of their struggle,
government can-and, assure
you, Will-protect them, as it
protects all citizens, in the exer-
else of those rights which are
guaranteed to them by the Con-
stitution and the laws of the
land. But the response to their
real-and juSt-aims must come
from from tfi the community as whole.
Government will play its prop
er role But our citizens, though
they may look to government for
leadership, cannot abdicate their
moral obligation to make a total
commitment carry out that
commitment - to the cause of
equal opportunity and equal
treatment for all Americans, re-
gardless of irrelevant considera-
tons of ancestry.
The days that lie ahead Of us
will be not only troubled but
confusing. The question of equal
rights and equal treatment is not
simple one because it is COM
plicated by traditions and pat
terms Of thought that are deeply
ingrained. The cause of a strong
and united America will not be
served by promoting misunder-
standing and by refusing to un-
derStand the legitimate demands
of those who are seeking simple
justice.
We have too much of a ten
dency to equate the struggle for
equal rights with social pres
tlge and status. The issue is
clouded by stating it in terms of
who can live in what fashionable
section and who can go into what
desirable restaurant or who can
go into what prestige school.
Frankly, it is difficult for me
to see why anyone should denv
to another person the right to
any prestige to which he is en-
titled. But even beyond that, we
must face up to the fact that in
dividual economic survival in our
modern, industrial nation urgent
ly demands equal access to the
facilities of cur society.
| If we deny a man access to