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Animals better off? expose the mechanics of the process, but I do not know how to translate that into our time and our place. Understand, I do not think this kind of moriey, this kind of pornography won the race for Briscoe last year. Sure, I thought that if Sissy had had a little more time, a little more money … but I remember jouncing around San Antonio in that crummy bus with Briscoe and that ridiculous night at the Lubbock Auditorium: I thought he won it fair and square. But this, to stand up against this … ? It’s a longer jump for us because, always, we start from further behind in Texas, harder for us politically reared on barbecue and good stump speakin’ right up through the time of Yarborough and that arch-fiend John B. to see the gimmicks. The slick, phony elisions, evasions, connections \(“Born Free” and Well, I am told that this is the way censorship always starts. Some wiseass decides that even though she is clever and righteous enough to remain unaffected by the preachin’ of sin and other bad stuff, that they, the common folk, need to be protected from it. O.K., don’t sign me up with the political Comstocks yet the people are NOT dumb. It’s just that I’m worried. About $750,000 worth. Incidentally, the only ovation of the evening that sounded to me as though it had any heart in it went to Lady Bird Johnson. M.I. 24 The Texas Observer Your article on the Austin State School I worked there for one and one-half years as an attendant, but few people believe the “horror tales” I tell. Sometimes things were so bad that the residents would have been better off as animals then the S.P.C.A. could have helped them. On many buildings the attendants are the only people who ever work with the residents. The attendant must help in bathing, feeding and dressing, plan and carry out any kind of recreation or training, break up fights and try to keep order, and provide whatever affection the residents receive besides cleaning the building and handling the paperwork necessary to keep everything running. All this without support from supervisory personnel or practical help from anyone else teacher, psychologist, nurse or recreation personnel and often at a ratio Whatever abuses are made on the residents by attendants will not stop as long as they are overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. And what person placed on an overcrowded dorm with no privacy and nothing to do? The Observer notes that Begonia Cottage is different. I think it is best explained by the women who have gone to live there from other dormitories. “It’s almost like home,” they say. As an attendant Begonia reminded me of what humane care for the retarded could be. S. L. Price, 918 Donaldson, Apt. B, San Antonio, Tex. 78228. Theology IDialogue Representatives who voted for mass transit in May. If he would have checked the voting records in the House Journal, he would have seen that Rep. Ben T. Reyes was the ONLY Harris County Legislator to vote AGAINST S.B. 642 on final passage. We feel that Representative Reyes should have been given some credit for having had the foresight to recognize this bill as a bad piece of legislation. Because We do feel that this was a serious oversight, we would appreciate it if in your next issue, you would make a point of clarification in this matter, for the benefit of your many readers and some of our constituents. Gloria G. Gallardo, Kathy Hernandez, Albert Luna, 5112 Canal, Houston, Tex. 77011. Thanks, RD The current issue of the Observer has just arrived and I have read Ronnie Dugger’s “Misprision of justice” with complete approval of the judgment he renders and the concern he expresses and with great satisfaction at his ability to express succinctly my own reaction of outrage at the behavior of the present administration in Washington. Thank you all at the Observer. Freda G. Powell, Royale Orleans South #111, 4411 Bellaire Drive South, Fort Worth, Tex. 76109. After Brothers Roloff, Roberts and Graham and Bishop Nixon and his vestrymen and/or Bishop’s Committeemen plus “Godspell,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the Jesus Freaks, the Children of God and seriously doubt that there are but two righteous in the whole world: “Just me and thee, Lord, and on bad days I wonder about thee, Lord!” Louis E. Buck, 3116 Wheeler St., Austin, Tex 78705. HARTA error Having worked closely on the transit issue we would like to commend Mr. Roberts on his perception of the situation here in Houston. Overall it was an excellent report. However, we regret that Mr. Roberts did not check his facts more thoroughly in making reference to the Harris County … Judge John J. Sirica has said he doesn’t want John W. Dean III or any of the other Watergate defendants lecturing or writing books to capitalize on their notoriety. But Sirica didn’t say anything about stage plays or movie scripts, and Dean is reportedly negotiating in that area.. .. Maxine Cheshire, Washington Post “Considering only program expenditures that can be controlled by the executive branch, the Nixon administration has cut back poverty assistance from $7.2 billion in fiscal 1973 to $6.6 billion in 1974, the first such decrease in the 10-year period since 1964. Most of the cutbacks proposed for fiscal 1974 are in so-called ‘human investment’ programs designed to assist the poor in breaking out of poverty through their own efforts.” Weekly report of the Community Nutrition Institute “We didn’t spend time on the disadvantaged for the simple reason that there were no votes there.” Jeb Megruder, Harper’s Magazine, October, 1973