| Author Quoted | Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez (ed.) |
| Title Quoted | Letters from Mississippi |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1967/01/01 |
| Imprint | [S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1965 |
| Quotation | While I was eating breakfast, read in Letters from Mississippi how the SNCC volunteers and the Negroes watched on TV the signing of the Civil Rights bill (July 2, 1964), knowing that as far as the South went it meant nothing. A Negro woman declared she was going to the local pool for a swim. Had to be dissuaded - she might have got herself killed. How hard it is fully to realize the utter enormity of the situation. All these people systematically and totally denied the simple needs and desires of the human heart! No question that this country is under judgment, and the moral blindness of the majority - of those in power - the total moral impotence of the system - are sufficient indications. It gets worse all the time and everyone is helpless. The gestures of a few are perhaps consoling, but achieve nothing important. Perhaps a little here and there. |
| Quotation Source | Learning to love: exploring solitude and freedom. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 6, 1966-1967.; Edited by Christine M. Bochen. / [San Francisco] : HarperCollins. 1997, p. 181 |
| Letter to | |
| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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