ustxtxb_obs_1964_05_01_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

Dialogue McLendon Republicans I was very amused on hearing a reminiscence by the five students who welcomed Gordon McLendon at his stop in Waco. The Young Republican Club of Midway High School flocked out to greet him, and it was that group’s president and vice president whom I overheard babbling boisterously as we dressed for track. According to the Young Republican vice president., a reporter from a Waco newspaper asked McLendon about his relationship to the Republican Party; McLendon denied it and the reporter, satisfied, turned away. Then the president of the Young Republicans \(who is also chairman of the McLendon stepped up to McLendon and pledged his allegiance and declared that he was president of that club. On second thought, that is not so ludicrous: no Democrat would support him. John Gibson, 709 Falcon Dr., Waco, Tex. So It Ap-pears In the April 3rd Observer you asked for help with “the apple” and the “genesis of evil.” Mr. Johnson is quite correct in that “the fruit” was not identified in the Bible, but why won’t your guess be as accurate as any other? The genesis of evil, as some wit pointed out relevantly though irreverently, wasn’t with the apple in the tree, but with the pair on the ground. Howell Watkins, Fluvanna Methodist Church, Fluvanna, Tex. 16 The Texas Observer Well, an Apple in a Glass Case Tell Mr. Leonard Johnson of El Campo [Dialogue, March 20] that the latest Torah translations rendered the word “fruit” and not “apple.” Also that the theological interpretation of the fall may come in handy as a figure of speech for Arthur Miller and be taken seriously by some fundamentalists, but has little meaning to the Jewish community, who after all gave the Bible to the world. We believe that a child is born pure and without blemish, and that as he grows, two inclinations within him develop and are in constant conflictgood and evil. Rodin has a sculpture on this theme. Rabbi Charles Martinband, Temple Emanu-El, P.O. Box 423, Longview, Tex. \(H. Mewhinney wrote a column in the Houston Post on this controversy, contending that it was, too, an apple Eve ate in Eden. Although he recited various scholarly evidences to this effect, he did not contend that the Bible says it was. \(The matter must have been toying at my subconscious, as. the Devil has a way of doing, when, driving on the open superroad last week, I decided to have an apple for supper. I bought two winesaps at a supermarket for the weary traveler, but the first bite was so tasteless, I’d have flung them both into the grass if the highway had not been so broad I couldn’t have reached the grass with them. \(Stopping, then, at a 7-11 on a traffic circle, I descried in a glass case an apple iced and succulent, by name Delicious, suitable for supper and for Eden, too. But for the probable absence from Paradise of refrigerators, Fords, and superhighways, I’d have re-enacted the Fall in the car, for I believe in the Fall, and capitalize it, for I need it, to explain myself, and Arthur Miller, too, not to mention Marilyn, in whom I believed. \(I think’ Mr. Johnson of El Campo has the best of the argument at this point, but at least we are still free to Fall, and with the apple most to our taste, selected at leisure from the chaotic orchards of our free enterprise system and our traffic cirThe Hill Country in Spring Flower This letter is by way of thanks, as well as something of an apology. I was born in Dallas 21 years ago, received all of my formal education in Lubbock public schools, and will take a degree in chemistry from Texas Tech this semester: I stand proven as a native son. My thanks are extended to you as the editor of the Observer. My apology is for my near-perfidy: that is, I had almost given up Texas as a haven for cretinous agricolae and reactionary politicians. My fairly recent discoveries of sympathetic people politically and.socially, the revelation of the Observer, as well as my first sight of the Texas hill country in spring flower have persuaded me that the place may be worth saving. I am off for St. Louis next month and a four-year stint as a medical student at Washington University. Wait ! Before you cringe and discard this letter, let me protest that I am not money-hungry, nor do I subscribe to the sanctity of the A.M.A. I favor medicare \(in fact feel it to be only other programs opposed by the majority of men in medicine. But then I never did crave popularity. I plan now to come back to Texas someday \(not the plains, God forthis poor, ignorance-ridden state. God knows it needs help. Now do me the favor of starting my subscription as soon as possible. Hunter Heath III, 2623 31st St., Lubbock, Tex. He Can’t Be Percy Selden [Dialogue April 3] is probably right about Johnson. Yet knowing I’d have to vote for Johnson in the end, I’ve been writing him excoriating letters, implying his war against poverty is for purposes of talk, to be forgotten in November. At any rate, the war may help slightly, but can’t be adequate. Congress won’t let itbe. And I’ve read Myrdal’s Challenge to Affluence. One can agree that Johnson would like to be a great president, yet he has already proved that he can’t be. I’d vote for Fulbrightknowing he’d agree with Supreme Court decisions. Richard Ashman, 5902 Marshal Foch St., New Orleans 24, La. Pseudo-Events I enjoyed your brief observation, “May hem on the Spirit,” in the March 20 issue because it spoke eloquently not only of the sensationalism but also of the sheer bulk of the “news” in our mass media. One radio station in Los Angeles broadcasts 15 minutes of “news” on the hour, five minutes on the half-hour, and three solid hours of “news” in the evening. A newspaper in Philadelphia prints seven editions daily. A great deal of this “news” consists of “pseudo-events,” a term used by Daniel Boorstin in his book, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. Our expectations of the amount of novelty in the world are extravagant; therefore, our mass media provide synthetic happenings to make up for this lack of spontaneous events. “Pseudo-events” are created primarily to be reported. Examples of “pseudo-events” were the “Great Debates” in the 1960 presidential race. Appearance is more important than reality in “pseudo-events”; therefore, the images projected by the candidates were more important than their achievements. More interest was shown in their performances than in what was said. And much of what was said simply created more “pseudo-events,” as the Quemoy-Matsu issue. I recommend this provocative little book. John Holcombe, 647 Hendrix, Claremont, Calif.