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Carter's rrteh d&cover Americans
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President Jimmy Carter, during the transition, appoint
ed an anti-isolation task force. He wants to be sure he
doesn't lose touch with the simple folk.
Here is a preliminary report from a pioneer member
Washington not Sodom and Gomorrah. More like
Stalingrad. Sidewalks covered with ice. People wearing
boots, scarves, mufflers, old German army fur hats,
mittens..
.Natives not hostile but very distracted. Gather in large
numbers at bus stops. Wonder if will slip on icy curb
getting on bus. Wonder if bus will come. Near-uprising
other morning at corner of Connecticut and Macomb.
Twenty people waiting for bus. Bus approaches after long
wait. Crowd slides forward. Bus is not in service". Some
disposition to rush bus. Ringleader slips.
Ask man at bus stop if he feels country is off to new
start. Has muffler wrapped around head, can't hear too
well, '"two hundred buses couldn't start last Monday," he
says. -
Georgia warmer
Ask him how he feels about CIA. Says he is waiting for
LA. I tell him I from Georgia, hoping to attract his inter
est. He asks me why I didn't stay there-much warmer, he
understands. V ; i
I attend cocktail party -typical Washington, civil ser
vants, transition types, reporters. Ask attractive woman
how she feels about your economic program. She says
pipes in playroom had burst. Waited three days for
plumber. Plumber charged $87 for 42 minutes work.
Ask reporter how he feels about new President. Says he
has fallen in driveway, broken leg, still feeling pain.
Washington winds
Try. to engage distinguished-looking older man about
sew direction in Washington. He asks me your policy on
side streets. Tells me about his street. Hows never come.
No salt, no sand. Only afternoon sun. Place is like Dormer
Pass. His car died there last Wednesday. He called friendly
neighborhood service station. Owner told him no tow
trucks. Asks me your views about fair-weather friends in
service stations.
Porch is skating rink
I explain your anti-isolation concept He says his wife
hasn't been out of house in week. Front porch, on north
side, is skating rink. He thinking of attending Ice Capades
to see Dorothy Hamill, hoping for pointers. 1 ask how he
liked Inaugural He says weather for Nixon's second
inaugural was very clement.
Ask how he feels about your idea of power-sharing. He
gets very animated. Thinks I am talking about power
failure. Big topic here, many cases. -
I join group in deep discussion, hoping bring up subject
of reorganization. No opening. They discussing thermal
underwear.
I go to McDonald's, am invited to join nice little family
in booth. Wife is saying husband has not shoveled drive
way. Husband says wife has not spread salt. Wife says
local hardware store has run out. Husband says kitty litter
as good. Wife says kitty litter smells. They want to know
what White House uses. Promise to get back to them.
Getting home.
Explain your wish to keep in touch with ordinary
people and their concerns. Husband says, "Right now, our
concern is if we can get home. There's a patch of ice at
the turn of our street."
Ask how they have enjoyed People's Inaugural. They
haven't seen. Furnace broke. They spent day in local
library keeping warm. Wife slipped on front step of
library, broke toe. Cast for three weeks.
Drop in at house in Falls Church. Nice family, voted
for you. Tell them I a member of anti-isolation team,
anxious to know what they thinking about. Husband
suffering from three cracked ribs. Fell down in shopping
mail Wife says husband should have worn boots. Husband
says wife should mind own business. They did not attend
parties, although intended to take in square dance. Wife
en way home from hairdresser, walking in street because
sidewalk glazed, was doused with water-slide from frozen
trees. Cried all night.
Wife wants to know if they can collect medical
expenses from shopping malL I say White House hot-line
will answer question. I ask how they feel about Soviet
threat, they ask me if I think it will snow again, and is
snow or ice worse.
IZsssd rpeech
They watched Inaugural on television. All faces locked
blue, wondered if some thing wrong with set. Were arguing
about that during your speech, so missed it.
Drop in on house in northwest Washington. I ask wife
how she feels about women appointments. She says she
would have applied if she had realized car and driver come
with job. TelJs me she gets ride to work, but her side
street like, tundra, so ride leaves her off at top. She makes
way home in half-crouch, clutching car hoods. Asks me if
I think she should give up job.
I inquire husband's views about Sorensen appointment
and cancellation. Wrong question. Sorensen is also name
of plumber. Basement pipes frozen. Wants to know if
pipes ever freeze in Tthite House. Tell him I will let him
know.
Summary; People in Washington suffering from per
secution complex. Unused to severe winter, feel imposed
upon. Now think, talk weather all time.
Recommendation: Do something about weather.
Otherwise, very difficult to get their attention.
g& :
letters
Words for which we look .
"This is to what many pardon protesters objects
Editorial, Jan. 24. ,
The Daily Nebraskan is a paper at which 1 do not often
seriously look; but I ar? glad that the foregoing sentence
is one up which I did not pass. Prepositions are things up
with which our students should not end sentences. All of
us English teachers try to make sure that this is an error of
which our students' writing is free. It is good to see that
you realize this is a problem out with which you can help
us teachers. It is a widespread bad habit out of which all
our students should get.
1 do believe that this sentence indicates a level of
linguistic purity up with which the Daily Nebraskan will
try to keep. And I want you to know that, whatever
Winston Churchill and others of low taste may think of it,
yours is the sort of writing up with which we learned
people will all gladly put. One of those out of whom you
must not run.
Dudley Bailey
UNL English professor
'Get down' music
becomes 'downer'
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting a budding
musician. He wrote disco, and was ready to break into the
popular music market. He said so, anyway. He called it
the "big time". ' ,
In fact, at the time we were introduced, he was writing
a new hit song. He said it would be one, anyway. I asked
him to read me the lyrics. They went like this;
Get down, get down, get down.
Get down, get down, get down,
Get up and get down.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
, Get down, get down, get down.
I was moved. The fellow was obviously an artist. His
words touched the wellsprings of my heart. I could not
contain myself. Through my tears I confessed I had never
heard more beautiful nor truer lyrics. He was pleased.
The whole thing reminded me of another incident
which IH not relate. It is one of the darker blotches of
history, no doubt, but the truth must come out. It
concerns a man named Arthur Carp.
Arthur Carp's story
Arthur Carp was a music major at a small southern
university. He was described by friends and neighbors as
the quiet type, who spent his extra time in his room
sharpening reeds for his oboe. No one, at the time,
perceived Art as a threat. Least of all his girlfriend, Kathy
Kumquat. .
warp nine
Kathy was the first victim. No one knows what
happened in those fateful final hours before Art was trans
formed into a deranged killer. They had been playing a
duet. She was found the next mar g, two slugs in the
harpsichord.
Art went oji a rampage. He single-handedly raided
three supermarkets and shot out all of the Muzak speakers
with his pistol while singing "Aria" at the top of his lungs.
Steals radios
Then he broke into four record stores and destroyed
their stock of 45 rpm records. He ripped the AM radios
from 32 different automobiles in used car lots.
He phoned three radio stations and personally
threatened the lives of the disc jockeys and a 75-year-old
receptionist. The disc jockeys reported him.
Then Art went after the downtown disco bars. In one
he cleared the dance floor in five minutes, ripped out the
lights, kicked in the speakers and shot the drummer.
The police finally caught up with him, just as he was
pouring a pitcher of Schlitz into a jukebox in the back of
a neighborhood bar.
"Get down!" shouted a policeman.
"Don't say that!" screamed Carp, and he rose, brand
ishing his pistol. He pulled the trigger.
dick.
It was out of bullets. Art flung it away and fell to his
knees. The officers heard a low, animal groan coming
from the general direction of his larynx.
Getting away from it
"You can't get away from it," sobbed Art.
"Come on, Carp," the officer said. "We're going down
town. Get away from what?"
"It's all around, around, around," he groaned.
"What is?"
"Why don't they do something about it?"
"About what?"
"Don't talk so loud. Oh, my ears!"
They hauled him into the front seat of the police car,
never making any sense of his hopeless jabbering. No
body, even his attorneys, understood what had happened
to Art Carp. I think they pat him away, i don't know. It
was a sad case.
Thinking about all this depressed me, so when I got
home 1 turned on the radio and tried to relax. The new hit
single they wercplaying went like this:
Get down, get down, get down, get down ....
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