Article July 4, 1970 Issue

Freedom Now!

RUTH ROSBOROUGH LAROCCA

A student of Christian Science recently came across an old civil rights button having the legend, "Freedom Now." That "now" referred to a time more than five years earlier. Although some civil rights progress had been made in that time, government statistics still showed that for great numbers of Americans that five-year-old "now" was apparently further away than it had been when the button was new.

As she thought about this situation in immediate terms, the cherished idea of liberty which means freedom to participate in the exciting mobility of opportunity that the majority of one's countrymen enjoy, seemed unlikely to come now or in time to satisfy the legitimate cravings of many. The obstacles of poverty, of educational lack, and of prejudice presented themselves to her thought as humanly insurmountable.

But suddenly she realized that to maintain her usefulness she must not continue to think along these lines. She must reexamine the situation in the light of what her religion taught her. She prayed for the inspiration of Mind, God, to turn the light of the Christ, Truth, on the brave slogan of that little button.

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