ustxtxb_obs_1965_07_09_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

V#044*####N#####44.0.~~#~444~~~~~~1144#~~~~~~~~# Dialogue An Assignment for Arrowsmith Despite the depressant of reading about the harmful farce played out by the legislature, I was exhilirated by your big double issue [June 11-25]. Particularly taking was William Arrowsmith’s autopsy on Texas culture \(excuse “autopsy,” but I have the most stimulating thing about Texas is the fact that, for some reason, it continues to attract and hold people like Arrowsmith who deliver such talks to the Junior League. Ironically, he’s able to sally forth on such assaults and return unscathed primarily because he operates out of Austin, a city with almost no endemic cultural distinction, whatsoever. Had he been from Dallas, I’m sure the Houston delegation would have walked out on him, uttering Parthian darts like “ship channel” and “Barbirelli” over their shoulders. Has Arrowsmith seriously considered translating Aristophanes into Texas idiom, starting with “Lizzie Stratter”? Harris Green, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. This Cultural Morass Regarding Dr. Arrowsmith’s recent article in the Observer, a heart-warming bravo is given. He has pinpointed in a most precise and devastating manner the cultural morass of Austin and environs. He has beautifully verbalized what many of us with lesser talents have felt for a considerable time concerning the region in which we live. R. L. Airth, 2403 Ridgeview, Austin, Tex. 16 The Texas Observer #### The War Cries of the Hawks In reading your accounts of political activities in Austin, one is moved to wonder whether the other 49 states are as decadent and undemocratic as Texas. Contemplate the scene in Washington and conditions which prevail throughout the land for an answer. This, then, is a democracy?a country in which the people have no voice even in matters which may affect their very lives. With each passing day the war of atrocity in Viet Nam spirals upward toward the ultimate atrocityand, possibly, the ultimate catastrophean attack on China. Our duly elected “representatives” in Washington heed not the voices which plead with them for a return to reason and morality. They harken only unto the war-cries of the Hawks, those greatest of cynicsmen whose only concern is for power and profit. If democracy could be saved, so might mankind. Helen Boren, 6330 Carnation Dr., Beaumont, Tex. Food for Northern Mexico An article in the Observer May 14 [“The Weight of This Elite] touched on the need of mutual U.S.-Mexico aid on that nation’s northern border. I have been advocating U.S. surplus food for some 1,000,000 needy persons in that region, and I would say that hungry stomachs furnish a good way to provide storage for the U.S. “oversupply” of food items without exporting them to the “communist bloc.” Frank Ferree, president, Volunteer Border Relief, P.O. Box 981, Harlingen, Tex. The Fate of the World Liberals seem to have a hard time “getting through” to L.B.J. on foreign affairs, especially Viet Nam. Hence teach-ins, demonstrations, etc. Drew Pearson, in a recent column in the York, Pa., Gazette and Daily, entitled A CONTEMPORARY VIGIL AT THE UNIVERSITY It’s Spring! election signs sprout forth between the legs of squatting girls, who hold their ground through the long evening, companioned by radios and passing Greeks; many have for long hours lain proof against snow, and dew, and rain. I saw Montgomery girls go marching; girls warmed cold corridors in Washington, but we have our heroics too our girls who squat upon the ground have many other things to do. They brush their black hair into darkness and yawn their sacrifice to the stars. DONALD PETESCH Austin “Why Johnson Stays Home,” explained that he would be too unpopular abroad, even in the Philippines. In a subsequent column Pearson said, “While President Johnson has an intimate feeling for demestic problems, he does not have a feeling for foreign affairs.” In the hope that by a sort of osmosis L.B.J. may acquire in his home state some of this feeling from your liberal journal, I send the enclosed. . . . The fate, not only of the U.S., but of the world, is involved. Lewis A. Eldridge, Jr., M.D., Rensselaerville, Albany County, N.Y. \(Dr. Eldridge sent a patron subscription Elroy Bode’s Story I would like to congratulate Elroy Bode [“The Ranch: An Ending,” Obs. April 16]. From now on, when people ask me about new Texas writers, I’ll not only recommend John Graves’ Goodbye to a River, but will also show them the story by Elroy Bode. Lee Hirsch, 15A Fitzjohns Ave., London NW 3, England. Liberal Victories I think nowadays the main effect of your magazine is to demoralize the liberal element of Texas. About all that gets printed in the Observer concerns areas of effort where liberals are always losing. There are other areas of effort where the liberals consistently win, and you ignore these areas. It’s true the Conservative Establishment is stronger in state government than it ever was. In Price Daniel’s time it would normally just work to block legislation, while now it gets its own bills passed, and big business gets de-taxed and the public gets taxed more. But this is not because the legislature is more conservative now. It’s because John Connally will pass bills that Price Daniel would not have passed and certainly wouldn’t have asked for. Conservatism has quit building up in Texas, and the tide is at least at a standstill, if it hasn’t turned back yet. There are liberal victories on grassroots levels. The integration movement keeps winning whereever people organize and protest. Also, there are more A.C.L.U. chapters in Texas now than a few years ago [five in all Ed.], and by building up a string of courtroom victories the A.C.L.U. is gradually enlightening the law enforcement policies in certain cities and is lessening some of the recurring injustices of our state. Liberals are learning more about how to organize for other causes besides election campaigns. Yet even in campaign organizing they have reached a turning. Formerly only in Deep East Texas, the Gulf Coast, and San Antonio were the liberals very active. Now in places like Dallas they dare to challenge the conservatives’ party establishment. Now that the legislature is over with for a while you should do some reporting on the areas where liberals are effective at making changes. In a time of demoralizing major failures, when there is so much need for consolation, what minor successes there are should not be ignored. John Clay, 909B W. 21st St., Austin, Tex.