DARK MUSINGS

              DARK MUSINGS 
 
By CARL BROOKS 
 
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL TOLERANCE —1943 
 
When the Civil War ended, slavery did not die It cannot die while its essential spirit lives. While traditional prejudice and practices beyond the reach of the law keep the embers of this incognitos institution aglow, while one man is considered the bout inferior of another because of the color of his skin, it is not dead. 
In this state, Pinckneyville has taken the lead in an effort. to stir the dying coals of a racialism into a bitter flame again. On January 7, 1943, the Editor of the Pinckneyville Democrat wrote an editorial on Religions and Political Tolerance. Mr. L. B. Sheley. the self-styled authority on this subject. made the following seditious statement: “One kind of tolerance we think is being run in the ground is this recognition of ‘rights’ of Negroes........Our answer to the argument that God made the negro is that he did not make them white.” 
Take your bow, Pinckneyville, for a splendid performance in the un-American Arena of Shame. And while the noble editor glories in a job well done, this humble Muse will utter a silent prayer-—a prayer for a man who, after exhausting his own resources, accuses Cod Almighty of discrimination. The man would have us believe that we Negroes were decreed inferior by a God of justice and wisdom: 
he infers that the fault is the Creator’s who, though Just, did now create all men equal, pend. 
Sheley’s article is the most despicable, pro-nazi bit of journalism to appear during the present crisis. The man, whose prejudice evidently causes him to lose sight of Patriotism and reason, not only defiles the teachings of Christianity ——, but also flagrantly contradicts, the principle upon which this country was founded that all men are create equal. The continued existence of this house Of democratic ideals is dependent upon unity today. In view of this fact. the attempt to divide it is both ignorant and un-American. What love of country could dictate such an attempt in these trying times ? If this satanic division is accomplished, the house will not, it Cannot stand. 
The issue in this war is freedom, and freedom is a precious thing. Too often it has been assumed that this is a war of color——a, war for white supremacy. Our present battle is not white man versus the ‘little yellow bellies”. It is a battle of ideology, of democratic principles versus totalitarianism. This is a war to keep men free. The United Nations have pledged them selves and all their resources in a super-effort to free the world from ideas of race supremacy, of ideas of the master folk. That is why we fight. 
The true worth of freedom is proven by the fact that men wait patiently, endure pain, oppression. discrimination, and even death in a hope for its attainment. It is probably true that the questions who love it most and those who have been denied its fulfillment. Freedom they have not, yet they fight because they know the road to freedom has been started. The struggle today is to lengthen and broaden this road which is so vital to the happy and progressive existence of mankind. Today men fight and die because they are determined that this road must be kept open.