The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [80]
—Deploring? Do you know I’ve come seventy-five miles in snow and storm to see you!—
“It is obvious that you did, sir, but the point still remains, what was your intention when you came here, sir?”
—What was my intention, if not to help you?—
“I don’t think so!”
—I can get sore too!—
“It’s your privilege if you want to get angry at my speaking the truth.”
I asked Joseph what he thought of this exchange. “I think Rex is all in the negative,” he replied. “I think it’s a waste of time for me to say anything foolish. You’re not doing anything wrongly. You did a great deed, coming seventy-five miles to attend this meeting, and your name is right there in the article that proves that Dr. Dung is in the negative. I wouldn’t be so crazy as to tell Dr. Rokeach that he’s deploring me and that he’s made a false accusation, or anything of the sort. I would keep my mouth shut completely.”
Joseph concluded this speech by saying that I was nice enough to allow Leon to go to the toilet.
“I believe in respect of free will,” Leon answered.
“Respect of free will?” Joseph cried. “Hell’s fire! You’re going too far all around. All Dr. Rokeach has to do is to make the motion that he”—and he pointed to Leon—“shouldn’t belong to this meeting, separate him from us.”
—Separate who?—
“Dung!”
—No, sir! I’m not making any motion like that!—
“Well, Christ!” Joseph cried. “He’s after Dr. Rokeach for no reason at all. I’m trying to help Dr. Rokeach, and now Dr. Rokeach says that the motion is wrong. Well, the only thing I can do is to keep my mouth shut.”
I asked Leon if he wanted to make a motion to censure me.
“I can’t stop you from believing in negativism,” he replied. “A reporter would have no excuse for not knowing what’s going on, as he could see it on Channel 1.”
I then offered to give him the news clipping, to keep or tear up as he wished.
“That went into the squelch chamber,” he said. “It’s already ground up.”
Joseph asked for the clipping to keep as a souvenir.
“That shows what side of the fence you’re on,” Leon said.
Joseph motioned to me to keep it. I asked Leon if he would care to rewrite the article correctly.
“I’m trying to state that my feelings have been hurt,” he answered. “The reporter can correct it himself if he’s near enough to it.”
Did Joseph think the story needed to be rewritten?
“It’s all right the way it is,” he said.
“I don’t think it is,” Leon broke in. “You’re a liar and you know it.”
“I’m not liar. You’re not calling me a liar, you damn rat! Christ! You’re always in the negative! You might as well break off these meetings or get another man.”
“I requested that when it first started,” Leon said.
“I know you don’t care for these meetings. You don’t care for progress. A man gets so he wants to run away from you. You’re wild!”
“Bless you. I don’t believe in negative psychology.”
“But do you adhere to it? Christ! You can’t say five words without saying the word ‘negative.’ It’s futile! It’s bullshit! I can’t get any meaning out of this. I feel as if these meetings are going into nothingness.”
And Joseph, who was extremely agitated, threatened to withdraw from the meetings. “I don’t want to be a pariah,” he said. “I want to be in society, so if these meetings are detrimental to my social standing I’d much rather be dismissed from these meetings altogether. I’m not going to have my head, my brain hurt by these meetings. They are detrimental to me.”
—In what way?—
“Too negative. Dung can’t say a word that isn’t negative.”
Leon tried to interrupt, but Joseph would not let him. “I don’t want to hear about it. Not a word of it!”
Leon said, in a subdued voice: “I’m giving my opinion.”
“It makes you sick,” Joseph went on. “You wish to be away from it. I feel like crying!”
Leon said he was sure I would have spoken up had I been unjustly offended, and to this I replied that both Leon and Joseph had a right to be angry. At this point, Joseph changed the subject quite abruptly, asking me about my recent trip out of town. We talked about it for a while and then the meeting adjourned, as usual, with Leon