ustxtxb_obs_1966_04_29_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

####~4#####~~44############41414#11+11~~11###~~11i Observations Subscribe to the Observer Subscribe for a Friend The Observer “is the conscience of the political community” in Texas. Andrew Kopkind in the New Republic, Nov. 20, 1965. The Observer “has a stable of gifted writers and kindred spirits who contribute to its pages.””Copies find their way to the desks of the mighty and even into the White House.”St. Louis PostDispatch, July 25, 1965. Send $6 for each year’s subscription Texas Observer, 504 W. 24th St., Austin, NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE Zip Code “Despite its shortcomings, the Texas Observer is needed in Texas. Texans would miss its publication . . .”Texas AFL-CIO News, Nov. 15, 1965. “Although we disagree completely . we strongly recommend the Observer as one of the best sources of state political news available.” Official Publication of the Young Republican Clubs of Texas, 1965. to Sarah Payne, Business Manager, The Texas. NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE …… Zip Code No Wilful Wading If any of our readers in Central Texas feel like taking a dip this spring or summer, I recommend Spring Lake in San Marcos. I’ve never swum there myself, but there must be something especially sexy about doing it, since the San Marcos city council has just made it illegal to. During the 1965 Texas legislature, this publicly-owned lake became the subject of bitter conflict between two warring financial empires, “Aquarena,” a private business that deploys its fleets of boats upon the lake for money, and a scuba-diving business, which fits out its customers in moon-man gear and sends them underneath the lake’s surface to look at the things that are swimming and growing there. The distinguished state representative from that area, Henry Fletcher of Luling, saw to it that the legislature made it illegal to swim within 200 feet of a boat, or something like that, there at Spring Lake. When I inquired of him the whereabouts of the public interest in this provision of law, he offered me a ticket to Aquarena which he told me was worth, \(f I counted in my if Mr. Fletcher yet understands why I returned him his ticket. Evidently the scuba divers are still hurting Aquarena’s profits, because on April 20 the town’s council passed an ordinance making it illegal for anyone to “wilfully swim, dive, skin-dive, scuba-dive, bathe, in, on, upon, or under the waters of Spring Lake.” Yes, kiddies, it will be all right to wade there, but not wilfully. Here’s a chance for the whole family to demonstrate. No mess, no portentous issue, just a swim-in for the sake of a swim-in. 1 But look out for the boats. The Loyalty Oath The Texas loyalty oath should promptly be put to the test of constitutionality the Arizona oath has just failed. These oaths catch no communists and point the finger of suspicion at everyone; they are a hangover from McCarthyism. We will be a healthier and freer country without them. `In Dealey Plaza “The Park Board has decided,” said the one-sentence announcement, “to defer indefinitely construction of the proposed historical marker in Dealey Plaza in deference to those concerned with the inscription as now planned.” Thus did Dallas’ city fathers back down under criticism of the inclusion of historical details about Dallas on the proposed markers at the Kennedy assassination site. Monday the park board decided to delete the details entirely. Democracy Psychoanalyzed Dr. David Wade, a psychiatrist, who is president of the Texas Medical Assn., told its house of delegates in Austin this month that socialistic medicare was passed because the American people were mentally sick. “Our nation was caught up in a frenzy precipitated by the assassination of a President” and “vast amounts of social legislation were forced through Congress” as if H. M. Baggarly, editor of the Tulia Herald on the plains, editorialized: One of the few bright spots in the gloomy looking primary ballot is the Attorney General’s race. We are enthusiastic about Franklin Spears, state senator from San Antonio. . . . He has liberal following, not necessarily because he is a “wild-eyed liberal,” but because he is running against an ultra-ultraconservative and an ultra conservative. That opposition makes anyone to the left look good. All we ask of the conservatives is that they examine his voting record. They will find it to be very middle-of-theroadish. Our interest in Spears is two-fold. First, he has a good chance of winning, according to a leading poll and he is the type attorney general Texas needs. Secondly, he is the only moderate gubernatorial timber now on the horizon in Texas. Spears is a man all moderate and liberal, as well as reasonable conservative Texas Democrats can unite behind for governor this “could wipe out the national guilt felt for his death. The medicare health act was among the many such pieces of legislation . . . I feel they were the results of a guiltladen people trying to make amends in a neurotic fashion.” Dr. Wade also told his fellow doctors that medicare is an “evil” that “has befallen us” and that the federal government “seemed bent on our destruction.” But he said the doctors have “rallied from the sense of despair we felt last year.” It’s obvious that everybody’s crazy but us doctors. The people are plotting against us, the forces of evil are all around us, the feds want to kill usand what’s that under the bed? My Godit’s a majority! R.D. in 1968 or 1970. Spears is young, intelligent, highly capable, and has the personality of a Don Yarborough. Perhaps the best recommendation we can cite is that he is the only one of the three AG candidates unacceptable to the Amarillo paper. Greg Olds said in his column in the Robstown Record: The first time I saw Franklin Spears was on one of those sad days for the Democratic Party that have been occurring in our state too often in recent years: Tower vs. Blakley, 1961, name your poison. Repulsed, I boycotted the polling places that day, and, as night fell, sought solitude in an old stand-by barbershop quartet music. In Dallas a show featuring a chorus and several outstanding quartets from the Southwest were performing in the State Fair Music Hall. Barbershop singing Is an amateur hobby that appeals to a few nostalgic souls of all ages, who, if they don’t long for the “good April 29, 1966 15 Two Guest Editorials