An orchid this morning to Yardley Jones, for his meaningful cartoon in last nights Journal. In case you didn't see it, it depicted a group of Canadians picketing in protest against racial discrimination in the United States while a Canadian Indian family looked on. One of the marchers is saying to the Indian gentleman, "well you could walk with us but whatever would my friends think?” Dr. Clifford Elliott phoned me yesterday to tell me the Edmonton Council of Churches has started a fund for Dr. Martin Luther King. Many people will echo Yardley Jones sentiment and say, "why not a fund to assist the lot of our Indians?” "Why not protest marches for them?" "Why not indignation over their plight?" "Why can't the Canadian people get mad enough, or care enough to give the Indian a chance?" Well… I feel these are valid questions. At the same time I admire Dr. Elliot and the Council of Churches for coming to the aid of Dr. King with some Canadian money. When I asked Dr. Elliot how he would answer those who said "clean up your own backyard first" he said "perhaps it will take marchers from Selma to come up here and focus worldwide attention on the Indian problem." Perhaps it will. In the meantime, the civil rights movement in the states is pricking the conscience of people of good will the world over. Let us hope Canadians will soon see that we are not without sin. If Canadian participation in US racial affairs does nothing more than make enough Canadians sufficiently uncomfortable to take concrete action on behalf of our own minorities, then it will have been worthwhile. Hatred knows no boundaries, true, but let's put our own house in order. The time is NOW, the place is HERE. How do you stand on the matter?
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