As Mariner II hurtled past Venus, took a quick look, sent its report home, and kept going, the mind balked—not only at the intricacy of the accomplishment but also at the irony. For we know more, even now, about outer space than we do about the earth ten feet below its surface, and as the learned astronomers unravel the ciphers radioed from space they may find they know more about Venus than they do about their wives. But whether in science or art or love, man cannot flee the irony of his condition; and so let us proceed with this science, and welcome the clarification of those cabalistic radiograms from the abyssal distances: 21, 5’6″, 125, 35-24-36. . .
“The time is long past when a small group of censors can silence the voice of peace.” So saying, Women Strike for Peace marched on Washington to fight the good fight against HUAC. They were well rehearsed. They counted on the organized support of Liberal and leftist elements behind them. They demonstrated. They placed a wreath on a statue of the suffragettes and picketed the White House. They jammed the huge House Caucus Room, and as HUAC began hearings into the possibility of subversive infiltration into the peace movement, their uncensorability proved to be awesome. When the first witness was called, they all rose and stood silently; later, witnesses received ovations and each was presented with a bouquet of roses as she stepped down, to be hustled off by sympathetic newsmen to relate her feelings about the ordeal. On the stand, counseled by the highfalutin Telford Taylor, the women (and one man) moved smoothly through the paces of committee-baiting: there were speeches, statements, denunciations, outbursts and harangues, all swaddled in Motherhood v. Strontium 90. And as one by one the witnesses completed their remarks, a pattern emerged, one profoundly familiar to those acquainted with HUAC proceedings. Blanche Posner, identified as a member of the Communist Party from 1922-1952: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I respectfully decline to answer . . . The Fifth Amendment is invoked 40 times. Ruth Myers, asked about past or present affiliation with the Communist Party, invokes the Fifth Amendment. Lyla Hoffman . . . invokes the Fifth . . . Rose Clinton, identified Communist . . . invokes the Fifth . . . Iris Freed, Elizabeth Moos, Dr. William O’Brinsky . . . invoke the Fifth. Without exception, the “voices of peace”remain silent, under their constitutional privilege, about affiliation with the Communist Party. The silence, as the saying goes, was deafening.
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