European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page in the stars and stripes wednesday july 15,1987 columns today s crossword notes from a visit to Washington by and Rodney everyone should go id Washington every few Yea in Sec what they re doing with our Money. I w ears just in was invited to speak Al a reception for a group of Congress men and while i dislike speaking it seemed Lite an invitation one Don l urn Down t am Back Home now. Herewith some note the scene of the event was the caucus room of Mecannon office building. There Are eight such build Ings three for senators five for representative. They arc All magnificent. They were built from huge Slabi and mocks of Marble. They have monumental spiral staircases and the High ceiling cd Halis Are interrupted by huge heavy and Beautiful mahogany doors leading to the congressmen s offices. Congressman Allan Swift introduced himself. I he said pm Allan Swift from Washington Ili 1 said. Does hat bother you i mean having to say Washington Mare All the Lime drives me crazy he said and. Then i la be Lulun ing to the radio and hell say three people were murdered Early his morning in Northeast Washington you know that s where i come from and i m startled but then 1 realize where 1 am and thai they re talking about Washington d.c., not my congressman de Markey of Massachusetts is i Friend to met through my daughter in Boston. He says he s in a lot of rouble with the news divisions of die network Over the hearings be called into their operations. He had expressed concern Over the effect general Elco tric i ownership of Abc might have on the Abc Newt coverage of defense department activities because be is also one of the major defense department contractors. Even people in Ibe Newt business who Are worried about it objected to the suggestion the hearing gave of government interference Marcey i a Good Congress Man. He Mutt inspect he May have been wrong but he dorsal admit it congressmen Don t if my speech had been graded by a teacher i d have failed. I had Good material but my delivery was uneven. The acoustics were poor the lights were in my eyes and there was a lot of movement in and out Bedoor racing me. 1 Felt badly about failing in front of so distinguished an audience. A lot of Ilie congressmen did t stay Long. The made an appearance and left. There were other parties i guess but it in t Clear to me Why they come Al All there was plenty of Good food and drink Al he reception but 1 m always too nervous to cat if i m going 10 speak and by the time i be finished speaking hey pc taken it All away. Dumbness getting out of hand by Russell Baker we Are in the midst of another assault on dumbness. This one was ignited by evidence of amazing ignorance among Young people. A Survey of California College students showed Hal of them could t locate Japan on a map. Geography literature history you name it and kids go Slack in the jaw. High schools swarm with people who Don t know there was a world War i. Two thirds of America s teen agers Don t know he civil War look place in the last Hal of the 19th Century. These statistics Are cited by people who fear that american dumbness is getting Oul of hand. Books say ing we have became a nation of dolts enjoy brisk sales and journals published for the literate dwell on the theme that ignorance threatens to end us. The last great attack on National ignorance was set off by fear the russians were beating us in vital technology Competition. The fear now is that we Aie. Losing to other nations in mercantile Competition. Ii is easy to blame the educators but the fact is hat americans have always been of two minds about Igno Rance and recently we have rather favored in. Note Ronald Reagan no president since Harding has been More ignorant of his own government yet his popularity polls have been higher thin any president s is Nee Eisenhower. Eisenhower was suspected of being a bit dim him self. We now know belter but the misconception did t Hurt his popularity any. In the 1950s, oafish ass was respected by americans while evidence Ofa Intelli gence was regarded with suspicion. Adlai Stevenson the thinking Man s politician was regarded As an Egghead an abusive synonym for thanks to the 1950s red Hunters who seemed convinced that people of intelligence would naturally be come communists intellectual was not a popular thing Tobe. The pendulum swung Back in the 1960s when John Kennedy put the Lively mind Back into Good impute but dumbness was soon triumphant again As the Vietnam War produced the Victory of he know nothings on he cant uses. Ignorance was rehabilitated As a form of sociological uplift and gussied up under a new name if it was t relevant Why did anyone need to know in and so we had the heyday of the Campus know nothing triumphant battering Down the bad old ind cram stud ies which universities had been created to teach Way Back i n the ridiculously irrelevant past so we have in the american character this tendency to find ignorance fetching. In is always threatening to flare up so you admit to this Commilles that you know where Japan is located he did they teach you that in Moscow?1 or you stand there with your dishonest hypocritical Middle class Clos face sneering at Liis audience and Tell us we can t gel to Japan by going South fro Biloxi and you think you re telling us something Worth telling you re telling irrelevancy that s what you retelling. Don i waste our time idling us How to find Japan. Tell us How to find Justice and peace and love and spiritual both these phases Are modern variants of the primordial american oaf congratulating himself on his ignorance by saying a us tic learning is a dangerous win Loop 38 mountain48 breach 16 fashion Cut a Stead and Able report a Cutty solution Buci �0 Blaa a biblical Craft 43 Chapli prop the Blanto 49 complacent47 i humor vj-18 Jane Austen novel 49miriu� so silent Clam m Strong Hen 37 it equals 3.7 ifuaru38 South Wisl wind Yei Kerdiy Juwer 7/11 7-15 the far Side and to you jus threw every fling los Jolly. Mathewa poise is to Meinung you have to organize
