If I Were Krushchev

May 4, 1961, Vol. VI, No. 28

By Edmond Cahn

[The Village Voice would like to associate itself with the views expressed in the following piece. Edmond Cahn, professor of law at New York University School of Law, is one of America's most distinguished legal philosophers. He is the author of "The Moral Decision" and "The Sense of Injustice."]

If I were Krushschev, I would tell my propagandists to forget the executives of Chrysler Corporation and General Electric Company, and even the C.I.A. and Cuba.

I would have them concentrate on a single theme, beating and repeating it so relentlessly that no one on any continent could get it out of his head. Morning noon, and night they would keep chanting:

"New York is the city where it is a crime for young people to sing in Washington Square on Sunday afternoons.

"New York is the city were the Mayor calls himself a liberal Democrat, but it is a crime for young people to sing in Washington Square on Sunday afternoons.

"New York is the city where there is a billion-dollar industry of manufactured laughs and artificial gaiety, but it is a crime for young people to sing in Washington Square on Sunday afternoons.

"New York is the city where colleges and universities attempt to inculcate respect for law, order, and decent policemen, but it is a crime, etc.

"New York is the city where the United States of America displays its highest pretensions in art, music, and culture, but it is a crime, etc.

"New York is the city where the Bill of Rights was born, but it is a crime for young people to sing in Washington Square on Sunday afternoons."

Not being Krushchev but a resident of Greenwich Village, New York City, I look forward to casting my vote next fall.

[Each weekday morning, we post an excerpt from another issue of the Voice, going in order from our oldest archives. Visit our Clip Job archive page to see excerpts back to 1956.]