The Words of the Hendricks Family
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The Words of the Hendricks Family |
October
19, KAL Memorial with representatives of dissident groups and N.Y.
Gov. Cuomo.
It had been raining all night and most of the morning. But as I study on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin, watching brothers and sisters pour out of the cars and vans which seemed all to arrive at once, the sun was shining in a clear sky. Our members were pouring onto what has been since the 1920s one of the strongholds of Marxist-influenced thought in the United States. The economic interpretations of Wisconsin professors Vernon Parrington and Carl Becker are a major influence in American historiography. And still at Madison, the university, student body, town and state capitol are permeated with communists and leftist sympathizers.
It had been no surprise, then, for me to hear that CARP had endured many tribulations on this campus. Our early members were spat upon, kicked, even ambushed on the streets at night. Our speakers and musical groups were pelted with eggs and tomatoes whenever they appeared on campus. Our signs would be torn up, our speakers intimidated into silence or simply drowned out. Not only Eldridge Cleaver, but even Edward Kennedy and Henry Jackson were attacked here, with radicals spitting on them and preventing them from speaking. Teach-ins were held against our Church and our founder, featuring all the noted deprogrammers. There was a weekly column in the city newspaper called "Darker Side of the Moon."
But all this seemed irrelevant today as CARP members prepared for the rally. Leafletters went out with flyers and the World Student Times. We dressed up one brother in black robes, made up his face into a grim reaper, and sewed the hammer and sickle onto the front of his garment. Signs and banners were distributed. The effigy of Andropov swung high at the lead as we began our march through the campus. "One, two, three, four. Soviet Union murder no more!" echoed between the ivy-covered walls. "KGB out! KGB out!" shouted our gang of three hundred at the amazed students.
Over the years we had gained a foothold in Madison. A CARP band, Prime Force, provided the students Moonie music, and they were greeted eventually with applause instead of tomatoes. Last spring the town experienced weeks of postering and TV and radio ads and interviews leading up to the "Unificationism and the Martial Arts" event. The message got across: 1500 students attended Dr. Seuk's talk and the Wonhwa Do demonstration. Dr. Seuk said he was disappointed because there was no disruption! The following day we marched through the town, confronting no longer the "Moonie slime," "Moonie wimps" catcalls from the left; now it was "Moonie storm troopers" and "bright bully boys." During Eldridge Cleaver's third visit to the campus the crowd supported him, rejecting the communists' harassment. At that time our Midwest director, Michael Smith, met the Dean of Students, who asked if we might help him in his planned drug rehabilitation programs. As Michael puts it, we've gone from being weirdos, to problem makers, to maybe OK, to "hey, they can help us." Now our CARP representative, Daryl Clarke, is teaching Wonhwa Do on campus.
As the march approached the student union plaza, the CARP band struck up a song, and soon a large crowd of students gathered. Into the crowd melded the march, with the grim reaper perched next to the bank of speakers and Mr. Andropov's effigy next to the other bank. New wave music melded with a similar shock effect into a series of high-intensity speeches denouncing the Soviet rulers and communist system and calling the students to pay heed to the lessons of the KAL massacre. There was no unified opposition. As isolated individuals tried to shout down the speakers they were diverted by our members -- not by Wonhwa Do, but by argument. We thought that the local communists simply were not there that day, but found out later that these isolated individuals were the local communist leaders! The point is that Unificationism is now gaining the upper hand on the campuses, getting in touch with the righteous, patriotic spirit of many students. As we marched toward the state capitol, a crowd of students, inspired by our demonstration, emerged from a pub and sang the Star Spangled Banner! A small step for a few students; a giant leap for the University of Wisconsin!
CARP was not planning that this autumn be a time of demonstrations, but the KAL 007 massacre changed everything. We had to act; we had to give public voice to the outrage of our membership and of the American people in general. Between September 1 and September 26 CARP initiated or participated in forty-nine demonstrations across the nation. The first demonstrations in New York illustrate the pattern most of the events were to follow. There was great unity among family members, with brothers and sisters from all departments -- in particular the IOWC -- participating. We had a good showing of outside speakers, including the president of Captive Nations, and Vietnamese, Afghani and Russian dissidents. There was excellent press coverage and the membership of other conservative, anti-communist groups; indeed the "grassroots" of America, came to be represented by CARP in this vocal, activist protest. Taxi drivers shouted encouragement, and the police assigned to the demonstration were equally inspired and supportive. We marched to the Soviet mission building and shouted loud enough for Yuri to hear us behind the Kremlin walls.
The next two days found many of us in Washington, D.C., making our voices heard at the White House and the Capitol. Here we worked with the Young Republicans, the National Conservative Action Committee and World United Against Soviet Aggression. It was clear that without our CARP members those groups would have had nil impact. But because of us the events received a good coverage, including a color photo on the front page of USA Today, a national newspaper. The day following these rallies Reagan announced the toughest measures to date, the closing of all Aeroflot offices and expulsion of Aeroflot personnel.
And so it went through the month. CARP members were modern minute#men, often travelling nights to demonstrate in different cities. Wherever we were, there was the media, and there was the message: the US must take a strong stand condemning the Soviet government for the KAL massacre: through this incident we must recognize the Soviet Union for what it really is: a regime built upon lies, oppression and barbarism; all freedom- loving people throughout the world -- including behind the Iron Curtain -- must unite in overcoming communism. We were covered in everything from the Daily Worker to Time and Newsweek to the Moral Majority Report. As put by one New York TV reporter, the nation wants to know: "C... A... R... P, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles... What does this mean?... Who are these people???"
The climax of this phase of CARP's activities came September 26 at the United Nations. President Reagan was scheduled to address the General Assembly that day. When we sought police permission to demonstrate we found that the rally sites had been taken by other groups -- all of a leftist persuasion. (It turned out that the three leftist groups were one group which had taken the sites under three different names.) We persuaded the police to grant us at least one corner near the U.N. for our demonstration, and we made sure that our starting time was a half-hour before that of the leftists... Not to worry, those folks were half an hour late anyway.
Were they ever shocked to see three hundred Moonies booming up and down First Avenue in support of the President and the horror of communism! Flags waving, bright signs ("The People Support Reagan," "Stop Soviet Atrocities"), articulate speakers, the media pouring all over us... the opposition was left in the dust. So the "People's Anti- War Mobilization" united all three of their rallies into one and moved down the street, away from the U.N., directly across from us. We still dominated them completely, in numbers, in spirit, in power. We had a series of fine speakers, our own members as well as leaders of many anticommunist organizations.
All they had were three frowzies shouting slogans over loudspeakers. Ninety percent of the media coverage came to us. No one said anything, but we all felt like Jacob, knowing that complete victory would come through perseverance. We were all prepared, I'm sure, to stay the afternoon and all night if necessary. But it was no contest. At twelve o'clock the leftists broke up, to the sound of cheers from our side. The atmosphere on East River Drive cleared considerably as we presented the world our concluding speeches, songs and manseis.
CARP is determined that the victims of Soviet violence in KAL flight 007 not die in vain. We see that through the fulfillment of our portion of responsibility this tragedy will be a historical turning point. The nations of Korea, Japan and the United States have united to a degree never before approached, on the levels of government, media and the sentiment of the people. Further, many nations of the world are united by a stronger bond against communism. Many nonaligned nations are being forced by conscience to question their alliance with the Soviets. The current of opinion of mainstream America has shifted noticeably to the right, and CARP has come to represent that mainstream in the media. The American liberal establishment has to re-think its position regarding communism. Our demonstrations, including a Memorial Rally on October 19, have kept in public view the outrage of all moral people.
It must be the case that the Kremlin strategists did not count on the power of our movement, for in fact if we had not acted there truly would have been no effective public protest against the Soviet crime. We cannot but have confidence that our demonstrations have carried forward the righteous indignation of the people, setting into firmer soil the immediate reaction against the Soviets, enabling it to, hopefully, resist the erosion of time and leftist counterattack (such as that the plane was on a CIA spy mission). Communism is exposed, its defenses are breached -- we must press the attack lest the wall be repaired and the weakness forgotten.
Though CARP will continue strategic demonstrations, we have always realized that we must address the issues on a deeper and more pervasive level. Thus we are stepping up a program of education for American students. This includes printed materials, VOC videos, VOC speakers and seminars on campuses. We have an effective video presentation of our September activities, relating the KAL crime to continuous Soviet practice and communist ideology. CARP is setting up ten more video centers across the nation, specifically for use by college students. We will be forming a CARP Speakers Bureau. For the sake of future effectiveness on the streets and campuses we are designing a "CARP Activist Training" program for our members and guests. We are developing concepts of "educational activism" to supplement confrontation, engaging such techniques as teach-ins and memorial rallies.
CARP believes that if the right, indeed if the American mainstream, had used simple activist tactics in the sixties to ventilate its political and social views, the communist momentum could have been halted at that time. Vietnam, not to mention Afghanistan, could be free today. Conservatives tend to rely upon money and institutions, but at this time in history these means are not effective unless they are coordinated with a base of popular support. The left gained this in the sixties. Victory over communism must gain that support in the eighties; it is humanity's last chance.
It is natural that CARP would spearhead such activism in our movement. We are a group of students, with the enthusiasm and energy of youth. We are primarily an educational corporation with a religious, philosophical foundation.
We are not a church or a business. We are indebted always to the support given us by our brothers and sisters in all missions.
We are seeking, and we believe that we have made a good contribution toward, the resurrection of our Father's name in America and the resurrection of the name of our movement. CARP is proud of having been named the "Joshua" group by Father, and of always being totally forward about our relationship with him. We feel that many Americans are proud of us, because we represent their sentiments. Many conservative leaders and anti- communists are coming to realize that Father is the point around which they can unite.
Representatives of nineteen organizations spoke at our KAL Memorial Rally, and many of these, including a representative of the Governor of New York, attended a banquet at CARP's Columbia center that night. Our Texas regional director, Peter Gogan, was an invited speaker at a large conservative banquet in Houston recently. We have learned, again, the power of unity with the central point, the way God works through that unity.
We have to some degree expressed the outrage and pain of God and of True Parents, in seeing a ship of the chosen nation, carrying people of 15 other nations, destroyed by Satan. God now has the condition to claim something back. September of 1983 was sixty-six years after the Bolshevik Revolution. KAL 007 could mean separation from Satan for the Western world. Our rallies were a world level dispensation; they were always part of the international news coverage. We want to empower the people of God's side -- which means all people -- to take a stand. In the Vietnam era, college students, through demonstrations, flag and draft card burnings, and civil disobedience, made a great impact in the media. The media in turn pressured Congress and finally the President to withdraw from Southeast Asia.
This was the providential failure of the United States in its role as archangel protecting the Adam and Eve nations of Korea and Japan. The way to restore that failure is for the Abel-side youth movement, guided by the Messiah, to express outrage and accusation toward the evil of communism, burning the Soviet flag and awakening the righteous, responsible heart of all Americans. Other anti-communist groups look for our leadership, for they see that only we can reach the young people. We have a long way to go, but we know we can get there. Rallies in the U.S. are one thing. CARP's goal, Father's goal, the goal of all of us, lies far beyond the slumbering streets of America.
Moscow. We will demonstrate in Moscow.