ustxtxb_obs_1970_06_26_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

Observer editors named With this issue, Kaye Northcott becomes editor of the Observer. Molly Ivins, a Houstonian now working as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune, will join this journal as co-editor on August 1. Miss Northcott has been associate editor of the Observer for two years. She holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Texas at Austin where she was editor of The Daily Texan. She has worked as a capitol reporter for Newspapers, Inc. and for short periods on the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, and Newsweek magazine. Miss Ivins did her undergraduate work at Scripps College, Smith College, and Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris. She has an MA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has won numerous reporting awards during her three years on the Tribune. CORPUS [2 MOTOR HOTEL TEXAS’ Bayfront location in downtown Corpus Christi Balcony suites overlooking picturesque swimming pool or facing beautiful Corpus Christi Bay TV \(some Complete luncheon and dining menu in the Marine Club Coffee Shop and Gift Shop Entertainment and dancing. Commercial Rates Year ‘Round Tele 51211183-3520 MOTOR HOTEL 1601 N. Shoreline Blvd. P. 0. Box 1248 Corpus Christi, Tex 78403 communism.” Communism! Don’t we have enough real threats to our liberty without reviving the hoary spectre of an international communist conspiracy? Well, it’s a crafty issue out in the boondocks and in the suburbs as well. Many’s the state legislator who have ridden into office on a tide of rhetoric about queer-minded social misfits at the University. Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock recently said he may introduce a bill to prohibit anyone with a college degree from being appointed president of a state college or university. Hopefully he jests. At any rate, the next Legislature, which begins in January of 1971, will doubtless be ready to thresh political hay out of campus militants. This means trouble for higher education. And, now, more than ever before, when we need coolheaded administrators who can bridge the considerable gap between the university community and the lawmakers, we have Frank Erwin, with his history of using the Legislature as a political bludgeon on his campus critics. Through the courts, through its powerful friends, and through the dent of individuals’ efforts, the university community must try to explain to the citizens of this state what higher education and what democracy are all about. Assuming the worst of Erwin and his legislative cohorts, students and professors may have to inundate the offices of Texas legislators next spring the way university communities nationally have inundated the offices of congressmen to oppose the war in Southeast Asia. Communication is a difficult thing, especially in a time of critical change. But if we are not to be split into warring 14 The Texas Observer ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL Leo Nitch, Director MONTESSORI NORTHWEST LOCATION 7500 Woodrow Phone 454-4239 Aside from the above argument, there is the question of the individual merits of the senatorial candidates. Both men are conservatives and it seems futile to me to debate which man is more conservative. But Bush is definitely the lesser of two evils. Through the handling of his primary campaign, Bentsen has shown himself to be a dishonorable man. Political leanings aside, I do not think he is fit to hold office. So there you have it. Grim. Grim. K.N. Aw, shucks “I think the Texas Observer had the most accurate, fair, and just coverage [of the TSU riot, Obs., June 9-23, 1967] . The other two \(the Houston Post and the were highly emotionally charged, particularly the first couple of days. I don’t think, as some of the Friends of SNCC charged, that there is really planned distortion of the news on a given subject, but the fact that America has been racist for 150 years is the distorting factor here. And God, Mother, and Country will rule what’s going on. I think the newsmen are probably I think they’re honest, and they are fair. They aren’t trying to slant anything for the Jones Foundation or to keep the image of Houston up or anything. They want to report the news as it ought to be. They really can’t help themselves. It’s contact lenses that they : can’t get out, the way they see things. It’s no conscious effort to be dishonest, but it’s not reality.” The Rev. Hunter Morris, Episcopal priest, as quoted in the Houston Law Review. camps, we must reach understanding. If parents and children, legislators and students cannot understand one another, the Frank Erwins of the world will continue to prey upon our fears for their own political aggrandizement. Bush/Bentsen Grim. Grim. I have procrastinated in saying something about the Bensten-Bush race, I suppose, hoping an alternative might appear deus ex machina to save us from voting Republican again. No deus, no machina, not even a leftist write-in candidate has appeared; so I’ll be casting a predominantly Republican ballot in the fall. The Rebuilding Committee argument that liberals should vote Republican because a stronger GOP might lure conservatives into the Republican ranks, leaving the Democratic party to the Democrats, is the only alternative Texas liberals have this fall to cast a possibly constructive vote. At this point, I’m not sure that the Democratic Party is worth rebuilding, but we’ll see.