Nixon, Colson & Sanchez on Education policy and Catholic Church

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However,

I don't know.

We're not going to say much up there.

They'll know I'm on their side.

That's not all.

Well, you've got three or four paramedics sitting in this place.

They'll know it's on their side.

I talked to Crowe.

I talked to Crowe this morning.

Is he back or not?

Oh, he called and said he was going to ask him.

Does he know I'm coming to the dinner here?

Uh, no.

Well, I told him what I said, and he said, tell the President for me that he has a choice between the two, or take the Catholic education.

He said, you know, stand up.

He's quite a pleasant person.

He said that?

Oh, he said to me today.

I didn't know that.

He didn't indicate it when I was, when I left the call.

And also, he was very nice when he didn't indicate it.

He was very pleasant, that was all.

And also, when he came to preach, he was very nice.

If you're not, they ought to agree.

They're all kind of terrible.

Well, he said to me, well, he said today, he said, I cannot be involved in the price of violence in the church.

But he said, I intend to the president when I introduce the president tomorrow.

I asked him to be on the issue.

And he said, I intend when I introduce the president tomorrow to make it clear that he came to me in 1968 and talked to me and gave my ideas

as a candidate, and that he was the first person, the first candidate for president, in history, with the courage to take a position on this, the most sensitive issue of the Catholic Church.

And then he said, further with that, he said, he was given all of the initiative in the direction that Catholics are most concerned with, as no other president in history has done.

If he gives what he deserves to the mayor of the country, that's what he's got to do.

Yeah, right.

I want to do it for other reasons.

I know it's tough.

I know that McConnell, of course, is for political reasons and against it for, frankly, reasons of prejudice.

I believe in private education.

I have damn little confidence in the present public school system.

And also, I believe the country needs little religion.

And so, for God's sakes, if I can keep a school open for them, they're going to get a little courage, and that's better than having none.

Now, having said all that, it's tough as hell on the Trump table.

And it will raise hell in some of our fundamentalists, some of our guys.

It will raise hell in the NEA and all the rest.

But will they not screw up again?

Will they not get the NEA?

I told Crow, Mr. President, I said that you...

I told him exactly what you had told me in your office on Thursday, that...

What concerns him about this is that he believed in religious education, and he said that most of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, he said, Mr. Colson, we should remember that I am not only here in Philadelphia, this is not only my archdiocese, but he said I'm now chairman of the Council of Bishops, of course.

And he said, I know the people of the Catholic Church, and they understand that it is a matter of

I think they really respect you for it.

And it is the right position, really.

You don't have this hellish fight within our own domestic council.

And the reason that it's being fought is that you've got

those who are still disciples, as I have not at all, and have never been, of the John Dewey public education, progressive idea, and progressive education.

And frankly, L.A. believes in that, and so does Marcus, and so does, and so does John Irvin.

And of course, the coal, the whole group is up with the heart, and I don't know what they feel, but my view is,

I have got that with public education.

Well, Connolly, Mr. President, Connolly, I think you should understand, I told you that, and Connolly does not oppose this report.

He doesn't want to open a pack or a box of capsules on it.

It's his whole concern.

He doesn't, he says it, and oddly enough, the way it bridges it,

who, by the way, in some ways believes that we have to, at the right time, come to a text where it's being interpreted as being peaceful.

But Elliot is a very decent man who will try to see what is right and stand up for it.

Well, there are a lot of prejudiced people, though.

There are prejudiced Catholics, and there's a hell of a lot of prejudiced Protestants, frankly.

And also, there are prejudiced public school men, the NEA crowd.

Well, that's the question, Elliot.

Elliot said, personally, he said, we've got to do it as part of the whole, as far as I expect.

We are.

That's what the speech said.

That's what I'm going to be asking.

But anyway, I'm going to say it.

I'd like to say that I believe it.

Well, whatever damage Mr. President has done, I've said so many things about it.

Well, you see the Knights of Columbus speech last year, whatever damage suffered the Baptists or the people on the hard line, well, not really.

I think that affected me a lot.

I mean, I think we, Fred Rhodes, who's the pastor, the damn good politician, said to me, and it's going to be the head of the Southern Baptist Church, said to me, he said, he said, you've

You've already taken whatever losses are there.

You said, look out for your games and the other side.

You said, go for it.

But anyway, it's gone now.

I think it'll be very good.

We will build absolutely the most arrays ever around the country.

We'll have to be careful.

And it comes in a hard way because they're very, very upset with the population

My wife is Catholic.

I am against abortion.

That's what I am.

Because they've only demoralized me.

And when I see the little black kids in Puerto Rico being barred, it shouldn't be.

It's got to be what I am.

I agree with you.

Yeah.

What the hell are you doing?

Where are you going?

You know what I mean, right?

I'm Japanese.

You know what I mean, right?

I go to church once a year.

I went with my wife this Easter, and boy, all of the literature is telling the church that the building is fighting against the population.

They think that is a hard-line position against abortion, also against the legalization of marijuana.

Well, I think we've got to stick harder on that.

Absolutely.

— 3 min 50 s with no transcribed speech —

What reports do we have, or will we have inside of this camp?

Is he going to go back and say, you know, does he like me?

Does he like me?

By God, that Messiah thing, the wrong they have.

You said it last night, you said he's a man without fear.

He is going to take himself very seriously.

He is not.

I will say that we're together.

He's a hell of a felony guy, though, to say.

One of them tells us,

One of the roommates that he is is like a portion of his organizational network.

And Doug keeps quickly touching them.

In fact, Doug's done producing magic.

And he is, he's done a superb job of organization.

Right, if we don't pass the check off, they won't do that.

That's not a criminal issue.

You know, it's too late.

You can ask them.

Now, they've put an appeal to you for the, uh, pushing for details.

I would recommend you do, if they put an appeal to you, that's what they're going to write.

But, you know, to us, too, we won't give you details.

Thanks for that.

that it's discriminatory to apply it to more officers than it needs to in order to express your demands to networks in some areas of the fourth party campus.

I'm going to take a couple of these at that press.

The press will say what they think it's going to take.

So what?

It's a bad deal.

I think that you have a marvelous rationale, at least since last year, by overwhelming the bipartisan vote.

This was the beginning of the Senate.

This year, we passed a descriptive practice vote.

We got a partisan vote, and at this time, that vote was repeated on the committee vote, and I think that's all right, too.

I hope so, because it would be.

The general president passed it in the Senate, but that vote was on the 39th, so not a single Republican voted for it, not a single Democrat voted for it.

Why is it not a conference?

No service in the house.

The house has to have her.

I know so.

We can't get enough.

I just got my notes from the court.

How are you?

A lot of that.

I can show you if you want to see it.

Some of the very good stuff you deserve.

That's going to cut me in my own little bit.

That worries me a lot.

Well, Mr. Victor, he's in the National Guard, and he's going out to Oregon to report to the right.

He's going to issue a press release, and the National Guard is going to assist him.

They could get me pressed, but I'm going to go to the other camps.

We can create a party of cities that don't.

Let me ask one last thing.

What is the situation on Thursday?

There's nothing.

The troops over there aren't good.

They have their game plan in place.

He said they may be able to hold over until Friday.

The problem is that the other people here won't come back.

The Germans have to leave tomorrow at 3.

The Germans will be here at 5.

They'll have trouble with the war on Friday.

If they have to go over to UCLA, then we'll just... Eastland just has to go over Friday and not come for them.

The difficulty is when we get into the executive session, I can just see, I can see the bias sort of pushing me out.

Let's have a list of witnesses, let's have two weeks from what we're doing.

Go out in two weeks, and I'll ask, they'll know that I'm going to open up other orders.

Unless it will be small, it's going to be bad.

At this point, it's going to be hard lines.

And our folks understand that.

McGregor is on that list.

I think that's good.

They're doing what they like to do.

Well, okay.

Well, who is it?

A, uh, let's see.

I don't know.

If you've got your next drag, I bet you've got the lures.

No, they haven't got it.

It's me.

You want to make some changes.

Andrew's got it.

Well, I just got Ken's note to me, you know, with some changes, so I'll get it over with.

Yeah, Andrew's going to have a drag ready for me by 3 o'clock.

Nixon, Colson & Sanchez on Education policy and Catholic Church

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Also recorded on April 5, 1972

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Nixon, Colson & Sanchez on Education policy and Catholic Church

AI Summary

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

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Also recorded on April 5, 1972

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