Valley Times from North Hollywood, California • 8

8 OPINION PAGE The Yoke The Valley A Tribute To Courage Valley Times TODAY SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1963 4. NEW PREMIER JOMO KENYATTA 'Democratic' Kenya Vowed i VI key position of minister of justice. The list includes representatives of rival parties and tribes, extremists and mod. era tes. Last January in Nairobi, both Mboya and Kenyatta spoke briefly to the American newspaper group I was traveling with.

boy a predicted that his political party would win. He said, in answer to a question, that independence would be more successful in Kenya than in The Congo, because "we learn by experience." Of the prospects for a socialist system, he said that "A fricans don't think much of class distinctions, but they do like to own property such as their homes." political sophistication, the recent campaign was notable for such symptoms of tribal warfare as poison arrow raids on traveling politicians. Incongruous political partner of Kenyatta is the smooth young Tom Mboya, graduate of Oxford University, active trade unionist, who lost some of his popularity at home a couple of years ago when he quickly established a pport with American and United Nations leaders on a trip to New York. Already Kenyatta has given his critics pause by proposing a cabinet with a balance of contemporaries associated with him ih the Mau Mau story and Mboya's bright young men. Mboya is to hold the THE MELODRAMATIC running gun battle in the Valley this week between the politic and a fleeing robbery suspect uncovered a heartening example of civilian courage that should not pass unnoticed.

Alex Sharp and Bill Hickman suddenly found themselves in the midst of a gun battle when the station wagon they were riding in blocked the flight of the suspect. At this point the average citizen could not be censured for seeking cover and retreat. ing to obscurity. Certainly duty could require no more than that they tell the police the direction of the suspect's renewed flight. NOT SO CITIZENS Sharp and Hickman.

When the gunman's bullets dropped the pursuing policeman, and the gunman took off again in his auto, Hickman and Sharp took up the pursuit, keeping the car in sight, despite the known danger to themselves, until a police car came to take over the chase. The gunman was run to ground shortly thereafter and fatally wounded in a renewed exchange of gunfire with the police. Sharp and Hickman must be credited with a courageous assist in ending the dangerous rampage of this potential killer. IN TIIIS DAY and age, when too many of the public shrink from the inconvenience of personal involvement with law enforcement, such efforts on the part of lust a couple of citizens" deserve public notice and commendation. 4 -'14 'Iv fib 1 lir 16, Ilb 4 1 Vt, l'''', '')A4V8 4 yea A i', A 1 0 II it, 6,, 7 4 A 6 A': 4.00d er' -1 Ir'' 44,: :,.1 ,4,1,,, ,..41, 4r114 '-f.

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I. itt, '1'2 1. I 'A! i'l 1 tK, '''''') C4 I 4, ''A i $:,:,.: 'I sk VC' tl- 1 4 441 A14 tic '''''''''i ct, 4 i I SACRAMENTO REPORT Legislators Keep The Status Quo Religious Freedom By JACKSON DOYLE Valley Timex TODAY Sacramento Bureau 'HOW CUTE' PONTIFF SEEKS CONVERSIONS (First of a two part series) By MIRIAM ALBURN Valley Times TODAY hpecial Whirr In all of unpredictable Africa, omo Kenyatta, the new prime minister of Kenya, is one of the most uncer- rrrrici tai quantit les. Kenyatta's name has been synonymous with the Mau a terror. I ement in Miss Album fact, spent most of the time from 1953 to 1960 in prison because of this.

he consistently denied the charges. Recently he told a group of Americans that the Freedom Land Army (current label for the Mau Mau) was largely an exaggerated idea of the British. Although an exponent of tribal tradition (he once wrote a book on the Kikuyu tribe), he broke ranks to arry a white school teacher in England in 1943, then three years later left her and his son to return to Kenya. In modern Africa, where politics and leadership in the independence movement frequently belong to the young men. it was Kenyatta, about 70, with the look and manner of a patriarch, who got the votes.

In a country of sharp I ribal differences and jealousies, with more than 40 languages, his party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU), standing for unity and strong centralized government, won a generous majority in both house of representatives and senate. The Keyna African Democratic Union (KADU), with a goal of more home rule for local units of government, lost out. Many white residents a Ir eady have left the country, because their farms have been taken over, or because they are apprehensive a bout the future, but Kenyatta has promised that rights of all and their property will be protected. (Population: 66,000 white 8,300.000 Africans.) Kenyatta, accused at times of being a Cornmunist sympathizer, has denied this. Recently he said that KANU would form a government "committed to a path of democratic African socialism." Unlike some new African nations which are, in effect, one-party states, and whose leaders defend this because of the scarcity of educated leaders, Kenya has had, besides its two major parties, other lively political factions.

But despite this apparent Alcr Reds Eye Pope Selection moved the need for future ecumenical councils. Traditionally, the councils had been devoted to clarification of theological quest ions. Pope John believed, however, that the Roman Catholic Church was in need of bringing up to date. His hope was that a new ecumenical council would restore Roman Catholicism "to the pure and simple lines that the face of the Church of Jesus had at its birth." The conservative cardinals who dominate the Roman Curia, the administrative body of the church, were appalled by the idea of a council when first proposed. They tried to sidetrack the project, but to no avail.

ONCE AGAIN the U.S. Supreme Court has up. held freedom of religion in this country. What the court has said is that government agencies may not impose upon the people either scriptural readings or state-dictated prayers. It is important to understand the issues here.

The high court most emphatically has not ruled against Bible reading in the schools. It has even gone out of its way to say that the study of the Bible, or of religions, when done objectively as academic study is legitimate. What is not legitimate is for government bureaucrats to say, "You must read the Bible." In its 8 to I decision (Justice Potter Stewart dissenting), the high tribunal ruled against devotional Bible reading in the public schools of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It should be emphasized that these cases involved devotional Bible reading and not objective academic study. JUSTICE TOM C.

CLARK, writing the opinion of the court, said: "It is no defense to urge that the religious practices here may be relatively minor encroachments on the first amendment. The breach of neutrality that is today a trickling stream may all too soon become a raging torrent and in the words of Madison, 'It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our In all likelihood, this decision will not provoke the violent reaction the earlier New York prayer case did, for apparently many church people have revised their opinions in the interval. Only a month ago the United Presbyterian Church took a stand against devotional use of the Bible and other religious practices in the schools. Two weeks ago the general board of the National Council of Churches came out against Bible recitations. IT IS REALLY a very simple proposition: If the state, or its officials, can impose Bible reading or prayers, they can also forbid them.

They can say you read only this Bibleand not that Bibleor no Bible at all. What the court has done is to protect all ize state-operated lotteries as well as widespread illegal gambling carried on for years by some churches and other organizations and historically winked at by law enforcement people. Once again, the lawmakers turned down the California Highway Patrol's perennial request to use radar to catch speeders and chemical tests to help convict drunk drivers. EFFORTS by ultra-conservative assemblymen to brand more published material as pornographic, and make it more easily banned, failed to get out of committee. So did proposals to prohibit teaching of evolution as factual subject matter in the schools and to outlaw teaching of atheism and agnosticism.

While civil liberty-minded lawmakers were able to kill anti-smut, anti-narcotic, and other strong law enforcement measures, these same legislators failed in their own efforts to modify the loyalty oath which public employees are required to take. Also, while church bingo legalization, opposed by Protestant groups, was killed, so were two measures favored by Protestant spokesmen and violently opposed by Catholics. These latter measures would have established a state-supported program of birth control information, including furnishing of contraceptives to needy persons where desired; and would have legalized "humane abortions" where the mental or physical health of either the mother or child is involved. '65 MAYOR'S RACE The status quo prevailed over sources of major changes suggested at the 1963 Legislature. In many fields, ilk the lawmak- ers decided albeit after much wrang- -t.

,,4 ling that things should stay pretty much as they are. This was Doyle largely true of crime and punishment; legalized gambling; traffic safety; teaching of controversial subjects in the public schools; loyalty oaths; and areas of socio religious concern such as birth control and abortion. For the 20th time in 30 years, the California Legislature faced the issue of abolishing or suspending capital punishment or even letting the people vote on the subject and rejected all proposals. Counter proposals to extend the death penalty to additional crimes also died. GOVERNOR Edmund G.

Brown's hopes of modernizing our legal definition of insanity the ancient McNaughten rule in the light of new medical conceptsfell by the wayside, along with a move to abolish separate trials for insanity in criminal cases. In the areas of narcotics offendersbacked by the governor and Attorney General Stanley Mosk were beaten down. So were proposals opposed by the governor to legal -7: .4 Who'll Try To Unseat Yorty? Those Grocery Bills LETTERS TO THE OPEN FORUM send your letters to the Open Forum. Keep them the editor reserves the right to shorten them. Sign the letters; Include street addresses and phone numbers.

which will not be printed. By RICHARD L. WORSNOP Editorial Reaearch Report WASHINGTON Election of a successor to Pope John XXIII is of interest to Communists as well as Christians. Breaking tradition, the late pontiff sought an accommodation with Red regimes in Eastern Europe and softened the stern attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward Protestantism. It has been said that John's brief but extraordinarily eventful reign brought the Counter Reformation to an end.

The new pope, Pope Paul VI, is expected to carry forward the progressive policies of his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, who died June 3 at 81. Pope Paul believes in converting Communists rather than fighting them. In a pastoral letter in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, he wrote: "Let the uncautious and unhappy ones who gather behind Marxism know that somebody still loves them strongly, immensely, divinely. Let them know that those who carry on in this world the mission of the crucified God think of them, follow them, love them, await them In His name Pius XI and Pius XII were unrelenting foes of Na7ism and communism. Pius XII fought Red totalitarianism with every means at his disposal.

Pope John insisted that a distinction be made between Communist theory and Communist practice. The former remains always the same, while the latter "cannot avoid being subject to changes, even of a profound nature." Whether dealing with communism or with Protestantism, the late pontiff believed that the Church of Rome should "make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity." The most important decision facing the new pope concerns the ecumenical council which convened in Rome last Oct. 11. Under canon law, an ecumenical council is automatically suspended by the death of a pope. It is conceivable that the new pontiff will postpone the second session of the council, which was scheduled to get under way next Sept.

8. The ecumenical convoked by Pope John was the first in a century and the 21st in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church, The last preceding council. held at the Vatican in 1869-70, had proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility. That meant that papal pronouncements on matters of faith and morals, when delivered from the episcopal throne, were binding on all Roman Catholics. It was thought at the time that the dogma had re IT MAY BE difficult for the woman who pays for the family groceries to believe this, but the cost of the government's standard "market basket" of food in 1962 was just about the same as in 1961, and only 2 per cent above average prices for 1952.

The makeup of that official sampling basket, however, though undergoing revision, still has not completely caught up with changes in taste and processed foods. FREQUENTLY, higher grocery bills reflect a higher proportion of foods with built-in servicethe items given extra preparation for convenience, and considered worth the extra cost to the housewife. A cheerful note is found in the recent reports on the food industry: Out of what economists call the "disposable dollar," the average family spent 19 cents on food in 1962, compared with 23.4 cents a decade earlier, a drop due largely to rising incomes. ALL OF THIS indicates that Americans generally can be well fed if they choose to be, and the trend on grocery expenditures is moving in their favor unless they deliberately choose the high-priced approach to grocery shopping for the advantages offered for easy meals. By JAMES E.

BYLIN Asiley Times TODAY Staff Writer Members of the Los Angeles City Council face another election which may have long range political ramifications i theit pro- 411. tracted conflict with Mayor Sam- 100' uel W. Yorty. This time the council- men, not the Bon public, will cast the votes for council president after the body's July 1 reorganization. The City Hall feud may encourage one of the city fathers to make a run against the mayor in 1965 if Yorty decides to seek re-election.

And the council presidency could give him, or her, a broader platform from which to speak, and campaign, than just a council seat. SPECULATION still determines any list of a or a I candidates. From the ranks of the politically unemployed come the names Joe Holt, Richard Richards, even Goodwin J. Knight. In the council, C.

Lemoine Blanchard had held the rumor honors, but his surprise defeat in the Valley's 2nd District by Yorty-endorsed James B. Pot-tin. Jr. stifled these ambitions, Presently, lila council president is the 4th District's pro-Yorty councilman, Harold Ilemy, who replaced Harbor Councilman John Gibson for the two-year term in 1961. HIS ELECTION, however, was an accommodation to Yorty during councirs shortlived honeymoon with the mayor.

Few expect Henry to be re-elected. With Blanchard's apparent d7imise, the focus shifts to COLIDCHWOMal Rosalind Wyman, a vet fling. All are out of context and misleading, especially so in the case of our state superintendent of public instruction, whose statement was much more moderate and comprehensive. No Supreme Court ruling will ever ban the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran or other books of religious tenets, history and tradition from our public school libraries, nor will God ever be cast out of our public schools any more than little boys with red hair and freckles. Cal Dalton, Mission Hills.

accuse an old warrior such as the bishop nor any of his fellow clergymen of "trigger-happy" thinking in responding to what they must see as a challenge, but I do beileve that many laymen and others will fall innocently into the trap that ensnares so many controversialists, the mischievous philosophy of he who is not one of us is against us." Scare headlines in some newspapers (not the Valley Times TODAY) proclaim: "Bible Banned in Schools," "Prayer Decision Called Marxism" and "God Out of Schools Rafferty" starts one whis eran of i decade on council despite her young years. Mrs. Wyman undoubtedly covets the mayor's office as much as she opposes Yorty, politically and personally. But whether the mayor's office covets her is another question. She's a woman, Jewish and an outspoken party factors which even taken singly, according to political observers, might limit her appeal in a city-wide race.

HER FIRST test could be for the council presidency, and the thought of being acting mayor Yorty's absence must titillate her imagination. Her eintion, however, would demand support from council members such as Karl Rundberg who share Mrs. Wyman's acid distaste for Yorty, but have no reason to further her ambitions. Long the betting favor. its as the new president has been L.

E. Timberlake, probably the body's most persuasive member and currently president pro tem rife. But Timberlake, with a troubled medical history, has never voiced any outward desire to run for mayor. IF THE NEW president comes firmly from Yorty opposition, heor sbe--will automatically be grist for the rumor mill. But the anti-Yorty bloc, a mixture of divergent personalities and views, could easily crack over settling on one candidate and be forced to compromise.

The soft-spoken Gibson, a mild Yorty critic who spent many years in the president's chair and who is also fresh from a defeat for county assessor, could be the compromise. The entire outlook for 1965, however, hinges on Yorty's pans for 1964. lie's b-nignly noncommital over constant rumors that he plans to run for U.S. senator against incumbent Clair Engle, either in his current role as a maverick Democrat or even under the cloak of the Republican Party. 0 111414111 NEWS NOTES Potomac Fever School Prayers There has been comment on the Su pr em Court's recent decision regarding recitation of the Lord's Prayer, Bible reading, or any other religious devoti onals (essentially Christian) in our public schools.

While this decision applies to all devotionals of whatever religious character, it is disturbing mostly to Christians since this is a predominantly Christian country. Many of the clergy, moved by a conservative persuasion andor a deep sense of obligation and responsibility, feel compelled to cry, "materialism," "atheism," or "Marxism," The charge of "secularism" has some substance especially when it is remembered that the word, stripped of it's evangelical bias, would convey a slightly different and less frightening connota I n. The other accusatives seem hardly to apply except through rather tenuous extension. Interestingly, in my own church, Bishop James A. Pike from San Francisco states, secularism by default!" Now our bishop is much admired and revered for his clerical and legal eminence even though his frequently liberal viewpoints sometimes disturb a few.

I wouldn't presume to lij (LI 41i 131 II, Poll.Pu7TroZ. Lett CLi.it k.4- 17, 0,, rki, tt I )( 's, iiJ 1 6, 0 1.1e ll 009 4 c. Appreciation Recently, your paper was kind enough to do a magnificient story on our telephone project to serve home-bound children. I think it would be remiss on my part if I did not bring to your attention our deep appreciation of the authenticity and caliber of the articles. I would particularly like to call to your attention the commendable spirit of your staff which included Gordon Dean, Don Michel and Thomas Jardine when they were gathering information for the article.

I am deeply indebted for the fine co-Operation of your excellent William Hirsch, principal, Charles LeRoy Lowman Elementary School, North Hollywood. By FLETCHER KNEBEL IfratarkstergiValley Times TODAY Washington Bureau ortartgratn-gr Ode to Russia's space girl: Twinkle, twinkle, cosmonette, newest kind of suffragette. Weightless sea gull of the sky, you'll be heavy by-and-by. The Supreme Court outlaws the Lord's Prayer and Bible reading in the schools. Then came a quiet voice from Heaven: "Somebody down there doesn't like Me." One thing you can say for Macmillan's Conservative government in Britain.

It never worries over more than one woman at a time. Graduating seniors of one college chose the class fat boy as "the man most likely to exceed." What worries the average man is not so much juvenile delinquency as juvenile propinquity. What this world needs is more one-armed statesmen: It would take them that much longer to press the button. Abolition Rhode Island enacted the first law against slavery in North America May IS, 1652. 'with a woman president her husband would be the 'first How then would he dress?" 4.