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Call PICK, Before You Pack FOR HOUSTON IALBERT C MOTOR INN 3301 Southwest Freeway at Buffalo Speedway Heliport and Airport Bus Terminal near by Color TV in every room Restaurant & Lounge Heated Pool Family Plan Free Parking Meeting and Convention Facilities for up to 375 ALL AT MODERATE RATES RESERVATIONS: CALL TOLL FREE 800-621-4404 In 800-972-7200 Enjoy real money-saving value, and relax at the 1111 :NT Democratic Presidential Candidate JIMMY CARTER will be a state-wide candidate in the May 1st Democratic Primary. If you are interested in helping or would like further information please contact: Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign, 4340 N. Central Expressway, Suite 203, Dallas, Texas 75206 Paid for by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Campaign Committee, R. J. Lipshutz, Treasurer, P.O. Box 1976, Atlanta, Georgia 30301. A copy of our report is filed with the Federal Election Commission, and is available for purchase from the Federal Election Commission, Washington, D.C. 11L The Observer goes to Northern California 14 The Texas Observer San Francisco Northern California is about 17 different kinds of cultural shock for a Texan. For one thing, we arrived the day after the San Francisco mayoral election. “Who won?” we inquired. “Eh,” said our guide, with a bored shrug, “just your average liberal. Guy with union support who goes to all the Farmworker rallies.” Maybe by 2076 we’ll be able to be blas about it when we elect your average liberal in Texas. We went to California to attend the big annual do of the American Civil Liberties Union there. You know how it is with A.C.L.U. in Texas: 50 people in jeans show up for a keg in somebody’s backyard. Halfway through the evening, the keg attendant gets so smashed he stops charging 25 cents-a-cup for the beer. If you’re lucky, someone brings along a guitar and sings “Sam Hall” and that’s it for the big A.C.L.U. fund-raiser for the year. The Northern California A.C.L.U. held its fundraiser in a fancy ballroom of a fancy hotel in downtown San Francisco. A very ecumenical hotel: on the preceding night, the John Birch Society held its annual banquet in the same room. About 700 people turned out for the A.C.L. U. do, the ladies dressed in long, fancy gowns and such. Most respectablelooking bunch of people we’ve seen since the last time we were at an A.M.A. convention. California’s new, young governor, Jerry Brown, is enormously popular, but most political reporters have failed to notice what was apparent to us at once. Remember that you read it here first: Jerry Brown is just like Dolph Briscoe, only not as good. Unlike Briscoe, he works night and day. But, like Briscoe, he doesn’t do much. He is known among his non-fans as “the Zen Fascist.” He is cutting hell out of social spending in California, and when confronted with the resultant human misery, he announces that government can’t solve all problems. Of course, this is what we’ve been doing in Texas for years. Terrific, everything comes to those who stand and wait. Now instead of being cheap, our system is considered avant garde. But even if Brown tries for the next ten years, he’ll never be able to not do as much as Briscoe. Vocabulary notes: in Northern California, minorities are referred to as “Third World people.” Japanese and Chinese Americans do not like to be called Orientals: they prefer “Asians.” Northern Californians distinguish between communists and leftcommunists. Redwood trees are impressive. We saw one that was 24-stories high, but it produces diddly-poop pine cones: any East Texas pine would be embarrassed to put out a cone like that. Mike Sharlot, a temporarily diSplaced Texan now teaching at Berkeley, thinks redwoods probably would grow faster if someone talked to them, like houseplants, but you’d probably have to use a real loud voice. San Francisco, as has been noted elsewhere, is a keen city. It’s not even grossly expensive, like New York \(dinner for parking: that’s $1.50 an hour. Ethnicity is very big in the Bay area. Chinese, Japanese, blacks, chicanos, and Italians are all much into cultural pride. It’s so chic to be ethnic that your average mixed-up, one-sixteenthof-everything American feels out of it. “Mongrel Pride!” doesn’t have much class as a slogan. The Italians seem to run the politics. No reflection on Italians, but San Francisco politics are not squeaky-clean. Labor unions are very powerful. The newspapers are terrible. Here is a San