University of Virginia Library

As a long-time opponent of the
Vietnamese war who spent part of
the summer of 1968 campaigning
for Senator Fulbright, 1 certainly
do not support the call of the
Young Americans for Freedom
(YAF) for "victory" in Southeast
China. Yet I cannot help but feel
that, in objecting to a compulsory,
University-sponsored moratorium
against the war, the YAF has raised
an important civil liberties question
which deserves a respectful hearing.
For the University to close classes
on October 15 as suggested by the
Student Council, would be an
unfair imposition on those in our
community who honestly do not
endorse the moratorium's aims.
These people should not be required
to, in effect, protest against
their will. Compulsory moral protest
is as much an impossibility as
compulsory worship — something
Bud Ogle, a man of the cloth, must
surely realize. Worrying about compulsion
versus voluntarism is not
simply quibbling over "tactic;"
freedom of conscience is an intrinsic
value in itself, and should be
defended regardless of how one
feels about the war in Vietnam.

Basically in fact, I disagree with
the concept that the University
should act as some sort of moral
witness to the nation, because such
a concept presupposes a nonexistent
consensus about what is
right and wrong. An academic
consensus never can or should exist.
The University is not the Church,
militant or otherwise. At best, it is
a free and open forum for an
exchange of different ideas in a
mutual search for truth. When the
University stops searching and begins
deigning and pronouncing,
when it assumes that is, a preaching
or ministerial role, then it becomes
untrue to itself.

This is no plea for the Ivory
Tower. Students and faculty, individual
and in groups, can involve
themselves in the needs and concerns
of the larger world. No one,
however, has the right to use the
University to draft others into
support for their own beliefs and
causes.

When Mr. Jefferson founded the
University 150 years ago, he hoped
that it would become a great
secular institution dedicated to free
inquiry. Regardless of what might
happen elsewhere, here in Charlottesville
we would always be so
devoted to liberty that we would
"tolerate any error" — even on
Vietnam.