"Povety in itself does not create unhappiness. Christianity teaches us that poverty, freely accepted, can be a cause of virtue.... The difference is in the individual's attitude toward his circumstances." There is a belief "that poverty creates crime. The truth is that crime creates poverty."
To combat rioters, the classic rule is to use as much force as is necessary to control the perpetration of civil disorder."
"We don't shoot to kill. We shoot to prevent killing."
Some of the YAF delegates seemed bored with the speech. Some seemed uneasy. One shook his head slowly as Thurmond spoke.
He analyzed violence on campuses next. One contributing cause, he noted, is the fact that colleges are composed of "a large group of people removed from family roots and restraints," in the "presence of left wing professors who condition the students toward rioting."
To the Kent State students, "apparently it was inconceivable... that there is an ultimate authority with which they are not allowed the privilege of dialogue." The blame goes to those who willfully break down respect for authority.
The mention of Vanderbilt University Chancellor Dr. Alexander Heard, head of Nixon's advisory council on campus unrest, brought booing from the audience. "The President should have advisers, in my opinion, who know how to destroy the Marxist interpretation instead of participating in it.... If there is further unrest on campus this fall, the President's Commission on campus unrest will be responsible for contributing to the climate of unrest."
"We are told that the primary cause of campus unrest is the Vietnam War and the Cambodian incursion. I have been a critic of the Vietnam War ever since I found that we're not trying to win it. But I've never felt the need to incite a riot.... Let's give our soldiers as much power as we've got, let's win the war and bring the boys home." The audience immediately rose applauding, and shouts of YAAAAA-HOOOOO rose over the ovation.
Those University of Hartford students who sat through Thurmond's speech were probably a little awed by the transformation of their cafeteria. When they heard a dixiecrat proclaim that "Next to John C. Calhoun, Agnew's the best Vice-President the country's ever had" in their eastern college eating-place, it must have been discomforting. When a crowd of student-conservatives greeted the announcement with a standing ovation and drawled YAAAHOOOS, it was unquestionably sobering.
On Saturday afternoon, when Bill Buckley had finished his splendidly worded and congratulatory speech, and when the assembled Young Americans for Freedom had picked up their papers and started off towards the buses for home, the quiet band that had been hired for the picnic began to play again. They played careful, almost exact imitations of some of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's songs. It seemed to be an inappropriate band for a conservatives' picnic, but perhaps they didn't listen closely to the lyrics, nobody seemed to mind. A few people remained, standing close to the band, enjoying the music. One of them was Ken Grubbs, a very young looking, modishly dressed man who intelligence comes across clearly in the hesitation in his choice of words and in the reserve of his speech. He used to be the editor of YAF's New Guard; now he works for Human Affairs. The band was playing "Wooden Ships," a gently bitter song about the time after a nuclear holocaust, and about the way things are now.
"... Go take a sister, then by the hand.
Lead her away from this foreign land.
Far away, where we might laugh again.
We are leaving, you don't need us."
Ken seemed to be appreciating the song. He paused a moment, when asked what he thought about it, and answered slowly. "Well, I'm astounded-'Wooden Ships.' I like the song. I wonder if it fits." He paused again. "I don't like to politicize a song-but I think it makes sense for some people here too."