ustxtxb_obs_1967_10_27_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

example, by looking at George Meany’s quote that Evans used. Meany is quoted as saying that the AFL-CIO “is not perfect, nor are any of us perfect. We are an imperfect body of imperfect men trying our best to do our duty in a complicated, imperfect, and rather messy World” \(italics that Meany implies he thinks the world will always be messy, that man can do nothing about it. One might identify this attitude with the philosophy of Hobbes, who has been described as one who thought of the human community as one in which we all hold each other’s hands to keep from getting our throats cut. The idealist, on the other hand, is identified more with Locke’s concept of a hand-holding, cooperative communityor at least the idealist feels such a community can be achieved. SO WE RETURN to the question of where are the liberal leaders in Texas? Where are the young liberals to look for leadership that will make our political system meaningful to them, that will demonstrate that the system can be made to confront what is to them the gravest of problems? The Vietnam war, with its inhumanity and its blindness to geopolitical realities, has come at a time when the public Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorported the State Week and Austin ForumAdvocate. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Editor, Greg Olds. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Editor-at-large, Ronnie Dugger. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Associate Manager, C. R. Olofson. Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Winston Bode, Bill Brammer, Sue Horn Estes, Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Robert Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. The Observer publishes articles, essays, and creative work of the shorter forms having to do in various ways with this area. The pay depends: at present it is token. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by return postage. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. both young and oldis already confounded by the chaotic technological revolution. The spiraling changes wrought by technology have already created the most profound generational gap in history. Between deodorant and beer commercials each day we see the latest action shots of our computer-programmed war being conducted ten thousand miles from our living room. We read James Reston’s column, and notice he says President Johnson’s impulsive reaction when he became President and before he had time for a briefing on Vietnam was, “I don’t intend to be the first President to lose a war.” We remember Sir Dennis Brogan’s analysis of the Vietnam and Southeast Asia problems two years ago, when he wrote in the Manchester Guardian that “America is travelling down a dark corridor of impotence.” We watch the domestic scene here in the United States, and see that Johnson may possibly have intended to improve the animal-like living conditions of the Negro and other povertystricken citizens. But his preoccupation with Vietnam has caused him to give very little money and virtually no concentration to the domestic problems. In the meanwhile, the reactionary members of Congress have the excuse and the weapon they needed to emasculate the whole war on poverty. And we tell the critics of Johnson and None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Unsigned articles are the editor’s. Subscription Representatives: Arlington, George N. Green, 300 E. South College St., CR 70080; Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO 5-1805; Corpus Christi, Penny Dudley, 12241/2 Second St., TU 4-1460; Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Ft. Worth, Dolores Jacobsen, 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4-9655; Houston, Mrs. Kitty Peacock, 718 Capital National Bank Building, CA 8-7956; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St., Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Snyder, Enid Turner, -2210 30th St., HI 3-9497 or HI 3-6061; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 6-3583. The Observer is published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $6.00 a year; two years, $11.00; three years, $15.00. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c: prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Busines Offices: The Texas Observer. 504 West 24th St.. Austin, Texas 78705. Telephone GR,7-0746. Houston office: 718 Capital National Bank Building, Houston, Texas 77002. Telephone CA 8-7956. Change of Address: Please give old and new address and allow three weeks. his war to go talk about it somewhere else. We tell them to come back another time, say after November, 1968. Vietnam is just , another issue, and it’s ten thousand miles away. But will the critics come back into the traditional Texas liberal fold after 1968? I would say they will not. I would say these critics, young liberals, most of them, are being given the most transparent, selfserving reasons for the lying-down of Texas liberal leadership at this time. I believe the critics are becoming too disgusted with traditional liberalism in this state, its pussyfooting on Vietnam, to ever again fully participate in that movement. It seems to me that there is a parallel between the attitudes of too many liberals in their attitudes towards civil rights and Vietnam. Many liberals have backed off from the civil rights movement saying that they are repelled by the riots; actually, I believe, they are really more worried about open housing. Similarly the Vietnam dilemma is symptomatic of the truth that many middle-aged liberals have become Establishment-oriented and disinclined to press vigorously for social and economic reforms, for new approaches in foreign policy. These older liberals are more inclined to support the Johnson approach of seeming to be concerned with urgently needed reforms, an approach that involves consensus-committees andj or well-named and well-publicized programs which are then left under-funded. This is how the liberal leadership in Texas is viewed by a startling majority of the politically active young people with whom I have come in contact over the past year. And my work with the Draft Kennedy movement has brought me in contact with a rather large number. Before Kennedy effectively declined to carry the fight against Lyndon Johnson early in June, the anti-Johnson sentiment had produced a favorable response for Kennedy even in Texas. This response came largely from the young liberals plus several older liberals who are disgruntled. WHAT SHALL THE liberals in Texas do, those who feel that there should be an open discussion of all issues, including the war in Vietnam, if democracy is to be preserved in the United States as well as elsewhere? The obvious thing for them to do is to get together and set up some sort of organization through which their efforts can be coordinated with the efforts of others who share their concern. They should not hesitate because they may not have had previous experience in party politics, for experience comes fast in political work; moreover, we have already seen that the more experienced liberal activists are simply not going to oppose Johnson and his Vietnam policy. More important, the dissident liberals should not hesitate because they think there is nothing they cats do that will make a difference. There is a great deal that a well-organized, dedicated group can do. For example, they might set out to par THE TEXAS OBSERVER Texas Observer Co., Ltd. 1967 ,A Journal of Free Voices A. Window to the South 61st YEARESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. LIX, No. 21 7cOW Oct. 27, .1967