University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

The 'Stars And Bars':
Just Sectional Pride

Obviously the author of your
October 5 lead editorial, "Racist
Attitudes", harbors a need to prove
his progressive viewpoint and
thereby keep his liberal credentials
in good order. Therefore he sets out
bent upon fabricating a case that
love of the section of the country
one comes from is racism (if that
section happens to be the South).

Therefore, he makes the assertion
that displaying the confederate
flag or singing "Dixie" is equivalent
to displaying racism. It is possible
by bending over to associate whatever
one chooses with racism or any
other anathema. This posture
appears to have been assumed by
The Cavalier Daily editorialist.

As a southerner I must defend
the Stars and Bars and Dixie not as
symbols for racism, states rights, or
any other political or social school
of thought (for they are none of
these) but rather because I have a
large amount of sectional pride in
the South.

The Confederate flag and
"Dixie" today represents nothing
more than the part of the country
which many people are not
ashamed to come from. Those that
wave the Confederate flag and sing
"Dixie" are taking great satisfaction
in that their regional birthplace is
the same as that which produced,
among many others, Washington,
Jefferson, and Madison. But would
the CD editorial writer wish to
contend that they were little more
than racist slave owner (got to keep
those liberal credentials now)?

Passing mention was made of
the Viet Cong flag, so popular
about the grounds during last May's
Strike. I wonder if The Cavalier
Daily will ever find itself compelled
to note that this flag as a symbol
for Communism?

No 'Hatchet Jobs'

Last year I failed in an effort to
combat the Cavalier Daily's attempted
editorial sabotage of rush, when
my letter was kept out of print.
Somehow I resisted the compulsion
to answer this year's repeat performance,
but after reading Mr. Ted
Jordan's letter I can no longer
contain myself.

I admit that I have something of
a personal bias, having served as
rush chairman for my own fraternity,
however, I did graduate in June,
I am teaching now, and I shall be
objective. Mr. Jordan seems mired
in the currently fashionable
"get-with-it-ness," which condemns
fraternities as a matter of course.

Sure, the University has changed
- it's changed a great deal, but look
around you, Mr. Jordan, fraternities
have changed too. No longer are
they caught in the miasma of
beer-swilling bigotry; no longer do
many of them seek monolithic classes
of country club faces appended
to rep. ties. Each fraternity is as
different as the sum total of the
individuals which comprise it, and
there is room within each fraternity
for a healthy diversity of opinion.

I fail to see how a rush program
could be designed to "hide the
truth" about fraternities, unless it
could be arranged somehow to hide
fraternity members. I have never
felt "holier than thou," Mr. Jordan,
nor anyone else for that matter.
Although I have found a real
sense of brotherhood through my
own experience with a fraternity, I
have a good many friends who are
not fraternity members.

Furthermore, Mr. Jordan is
ill-informed with regard to the
blackball system. Most houses have
disposed of the "one-ball system,
and there is general consensus among
the brothers in any given
house, before a rushee is dropped
from a rush list. Far from the
"hatchet-Job," suggested by Mr.
Jordan, most fraternities deliberate
for hours before making any decision
with respect to the rushees.

In conclusion, a note to the
first-yearman: An open mind is
your best asset. You owe it to
yourselves to inquire beyond the
editorial page of the C.D. Get out
and see for yourselves as many
fraternities as is possible, and the
truth about them will be evident in
the men who constitute them. At
the very least, you may have a few
free meals and some interesting
conversation.