ustxtxb_obs_1968_02_02_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

MRS. R.D. RANDOLPH I Austin Mrs. Randolph and I have been through the last thirteen years together. I first met her in Austin as we were passing through the door into a ballroom at the Driskill Hotel in October, 1954. It is difficult to write about her publicly. The time does seem to have come when I should do so, however, so I shall, as plainly as possible. In loving her, I am not unusual; she is surely loved by more people in the community of the good in Texas than any other woman. The feeling about her is such, the idea that she is to Texas what Eleanor Roosevelt was to the United States suggests itself, unbidden, to many minds. Nor does the thought weaken on examination, for she is also hated, as Mrs. Roosevelt was. But with Mrs. Randolph, there is still another dimension: because, in day to day politics, she has so much moral and practical power, and she is so damned honest and blunt, she is feared by those she does not favor. Mrs. Roose velt engaged in many good works, complementary to the New Deal, but she did not take a workwoman’s approach to precinct politics. Mrs. Randolph does, and this has made her formidable in Texas in a way that Mrs. Roosevelt was not, in the country. “The community of the good,” that is a strange idea to be throwing around as though everybody knew what I was talking about. Furthermore, it’s a damned smug idea, is it not. Who can claim to be a member of that community, or to say what it is? Having used the term, I will defend myself. I use it because that is the way I think of the Observer community this morning. I was sitting in a chair I am fond of, thinking about the Observer, and instead of the idea of the Observer coming into my mind, the idea, “the community of the good,” did. I do not think that idea can be given any fixed content. What is good depends on what time it is: 1859 or 1945, 7 o’clock in the morning or 11 o’clock at night, 1776 or 1905, momentless sleep or high noon, 1938 or 1968. The more interesting the idea of a community is, the more difficult it is to say who belongs to one. But variant with time and placeand meaning, by the word, “community,” that which is held together by what is communicated among the members instead of meaning where they arecommunities of the good have existed, and do exist now. I think such communities can be said to have two different kinds of reality, the self-defined and the historically defined. In the first kind, the members of the community believe themselves to be pursuing the good together, and this is a salient fact about their community whether it works out that way or not. In the second kind, the members of the community may or may not believe this about themselves, about each other, but history looks back on them and sees them in that way. Nothing Feb. 2, 1968 13 We are neither Liberal nor Conservative BUT We are Concerned Because We want to sell insurance to everybody BUT Everybody cannot afford it SO That iswhy we think all Americans should be increasingly and realistically sensitive to the problems of poverty Oh yes, Dignified People Are Concerned About the Future BUT Discrimination thwarts Man’s Quest for Dignity and Eliminates Sweet Dreams about Tomorrow That is why we at American Income have Firm Resolve in our opposition to discrimination IN ANY FORM We are not antior pro-Labor Unions. Our statistics reveal, however, that Union Members have Higher Incomes and Can Afford Insurance Guess what we are really trying to say IS that PEOPLE are more important than doctrines or institutions and we love PEOPLE i-iMERICAN INCOME LIFE Executive Offices, P. 0. Box 208, Waco, Texas BERNARD RAPOPORT President