Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 80, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 1978 Page: 4 of 35
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Friday, November 3.1978
THE DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE
Page 4A
viewpoint
P
Goodman
Still, sitting there, waiting for the
stanzas of “What Have They Done To
For Children:
backyards, new
arter facing up to problems
A The Backwoodsman
Last Saturday, before' Carter
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
political faux-pas after another in his
liberal-conservative fight ever since
Congressional offices remain closed to women
L
VI
sense of what was called for in each
state..
Owen’s recognition
is well deserved
• brain unspoiled by lust dissipation:
a mind trained to think and act; a
nervous system true as a dial in
response to the truth about you? Will
you, boy, let him come as a man
among men in his time? .
The answer is, "Of course not But if
a liberal woman and a liberal man are
in the same race, I’ll pick the woman,
.and I’ll help her too." The sad fact is
that I have had only a few op-
portunities in my life to vote for any
accents. Something more fun
damentally secure about a teenager
who can use the city as a vital
fr
T
sig
Kn
By JAMES GERSTENZANG
Associated Press Writer
for
en
Me
sal
An
—Un
Me
gov
tha
ma
wa
go
wo
. sta
ag
pr
or
to
. pro
appointed because they were widows
of members. This routine became
It is a reflection on the process
rather than on the women, some of
who entered the major party
primaries won nominations. Of these,
less than half — IS of the 18 women in
The show was in fact so weighty it
never got off the ground.
current Congress, the women voted
overwhelmingly for ERA extension
and 2 to 1 against a series of devas-
tating (and successful) amendments
was Jeanette Rankin, considered an
oddball because the first vote she cast
opposed American entry into World
War I. She was not re-elected. After
Wiseman. _______________
“The Grass is Always Greener Over
the Septic Tank,”.which ran last week .
told the tale of an American family
gradually chained to a suburban
charm bracelet from which dangled a
station wagon, a Little League team
and a hundred pound bag of fertilizer.
president's message was the same:
First, there was a pat on the back
for each member of the Democratic
ticket. Then there were a few minutes
of patting his, the last stop on his one-
day trip, the message changed. One
political strategy of Rep. William
Cohen, the Republican fighting for
Hathaway’s seat Cohen has at-
tempted to portray Hathaway as an
extreme liberal, out of touch with
Maine, its needs, and what Cohen sees
as its voters’ moderate and con,
servative philosophy.
The problem was different in
Minnesota, although the bottom line,
was also the possibility that the
Democrats, could lose a Senate race
The state's Democratic Party
average male politician.
But just as important as any of
these factors is that the under-
representation of women in govern-
ment is not seen by liberal or even
radical men as a stirring civil rights
issue or an affront to, democracy.
memory of city related events.
In council meetings, he will
usually respond to a question
concerning the city’s past
operation with a disclaimer ...
"If my memory serves me right
businessman Robert Short won a
Senate nomination, in September, de-
feating Rep Donald Fraser, a leader
of House liberals
Speaking at an airport rally in
From the moment suburban
kids are born to the moment
they're reborn with a driver’s
license, too many are umbilically
attached to the parent shuttle ser-
vice
mass transportation, the volunteer
network, the pickup and delivery
system and the people assigned to the
creative task of waiting. -
The suburbs are an icon built to the
idea that two-legged kids need
chlorophyll as much as the four-
legged ones. Their com munities were
planned to give them access to all the
things officially declared to be Good
preserving childhood than preparing
for adulthood.
No honor was probably more
richly deserved than Denton
Assistant City Manager Jack
Owen’s recognition as one of the
top three men in public works in
Texas in 1978.
Owen received the award
Re
sta
yea
fur
sal
res
Cl
La
de
unbeatable Sen. Howard Baker, and
Kansas Republican Nancy Landon
Kassebaum is in a close contest with
former Rep. William Roy.
Why aren’t women making it to
Washington in larger numbers? Not
many can afford the increasingly high
costs of campaigning. (Americans for
Democratic Action estimates an in-
Many of our kids are so protected
from danger that they become affaid;
. so sheltered that they are unable to
assume responsibility that they end
up feeling responsible to their whims.
In these mostly homogenous
communities, they miss the daily only
learn much later (or not at all) the
ways in which people are similar.
— I know that these problems don’t
known as the “widow’s game” — a
game in which paternalistic men
-made the rules and women were the
pawns. And it guaranteed that there
would not be the kind of trouble an
independently elected woman might
make. Most female appointees served
less than full terms.
Men still make the rules in politics,
with establishment power and money
By
Ass
E
spe
did
Tue
Y
Tue
B
are
showing a keen sensitivity to some of
the political problems Democrats are
facing this year..
He was on the road for Democratic
candidates every weekend but one
during October, carefully sizing up
fol
all
El
mi
to
C
sa
m
of
of
Al
th
ca
not
ces
con
will
unv
con
of
Tov
T
Kn
Ode
—tha
tha
ide
By ELLEN GOODMAN
Syndicated Columnist
BOSTON — It was a bit like wat-
ching a plum turned into a prune. The
producer took a book of ripe, delicious
one-liners by Erma Bombeck and . .
dried' it into a two-hour television
show so cheerless that it might have '
• been a documentary by Frederick
'stage. ’
Of the total 9,501 members of the
House in the entire history of our
nation, only 87 have been women. Of
1,738 senators, only 13 have been
women. For long stretches of recent
time, there have been no women in the
Senate. The current two women
senators — Muriel Humphrey of
’ Minnesota and Maryon P. Allen of
Alabama — got there the way most of
.“Or will you throw away his
inheritance before he has a chance
David Star Jordan once offered to
the young one of the best wishes I -
could share with any youth hunting a
way to his future. Said he, under the
title “True to your Afterself,” these
incisive words:
“Your first duty in life is to your -
afterself. So live that the man you
ought to be may, in his time, be
possible, be actual. Far away in the
years he is awaiting his turn. His
body, his, brain, his soul are in your
boyish hands. -
“He cannot help himself. What
will you leave for him? Will it be a
1 Carter, who seemed to commit one reached Portland, he stopped in
Buffalo, N.Y.; Hartford, Conn.; and
In the current congressional
election campaign, 45 of the 89 women
resource rather than avoiding it as
. . foreign and fearful. ..
From the moment surbur ban kids.
women office holders from local
township councils up showed that
women have a more “humanistic" *
outlook." They are more likely to
No surburban survival skills
year-old hold a job when she can’t
always get to it?
Rochester, Minn., Carter came face to
face with the split and reminded his
audience that it was just such
devisiveness that cost Hubert
Humphrey the presidency in 1968
"I would like to urge you, if I don’t
do any thing else while I’m here, to
remember Hubert Humphrey, to .
remember what happened to him
when our party was divided, to
remember what he stood for to
remember his friends and commit .
yourselves now to give the Demo-
cratic candidates a tremendous
victory on Nov. 7," Carter said
- The president’s speech was just
what party campaigners in Minnesota
thought was necessary, said ar aide to
Vice President Walter F Mondale,
who has been campaigning heavily in
the state and is familiar with the
Democrats’ problems then-
early days in the White House, is now Lynn, Mass. In each city, the
By BELLA ABZUG
Pacific News Service .
(Bella Abzug is a former
Congressional representative from
New York and co-chair of the National
Advisory Committee for Women
When the 96th Congress convenes in
January, the 100-member U.S. Senate
probably will have reverted to its
status as the most exclusive rich
There is little sense of outrage about
■ an all-male Senate or a largely male ' restricting abortion rights.--
A survey by the Eagleton Institute
of Politics at Rutgers University,
conducted among thousands of
By
= W
tim
ma
R
elec
Thu
sist
wag
whom turned out to be able
2 legislators, that widowhood became
the suffrage amendment to the one of the surest routes to Congress, the House seeking re-election and
Constitution was ratified, women More than a third of the 100 women several women candidates running in
began trickling into Washington But who have served in Congress were
the trend never got past the rivulet
can’t raise much money. . expect me to vote for a woman just.
Not many women are encouraged to------because she’s a woman" response
run for office by party leadership or
open contests - are considered likely - cumbent member of Congress spends
towin. The 24 women running against close to $1 million to defend his seat.)
incumbents are not given touch Also, more and more millionaires are
chance of succeeding though upsets running for office. In my off-election
are possible. year race for a House seat last
to win and they can't win because they counter the defensive 'You don ! .
exist in every suburb. There is also as
----------- great a difference between families as
suburbs do a better job at teaching between the suburb and the city,
kids how to do a back flip or hit a home Yet I think there is something ad
run. than teaching them surviva mirably self-assured about a child of
skills. 11 who can make his or her way on the
For the past several weeks ve streetcars. There is something strong
talked with suburban families from and experienced about an adolescent
Boston to Kentucky. 1 keep hearing whose world includes daily
parents complain that the suburb is a associations with adults from the
home land where their children have range of occupations and races and
nothing to do except to be children
They are worrying about whether
their communities are better at
Ba
Po
An
en
An
__Ma
De
Te
Te
are born to the moment they’re reborn It’s odd, but I think true, that these
with a driver's license, too many are suburbs, built to free children from
umbilically attached to the parent — the confinements and stress of the
shuttle service For years of week- cities, have a set of specific emotional
days they belong, to a community dimensions that both confine and
that’s largely limited to a peer group shape the direction of their growth as
Their sense of responsibility can be_______radically as that of a bonsai tree
dwarfed by geography: How, does a
ten-year-old run an errand when the And maybe that's no laughing
store is 10 miles away? How does a 15- matter
current city manager Chris
Hartung.
People who work with Owen
will tell you he never has a cross
word and is always more than “By myself, I have ac-
willing to pull a little more where complishednothing,” he said,
its needed.
—City Council members and Maybe so, Jack, but without
other staff members rely on his you,many more would have
experience . and his incredible accomplished nothing as well.
Tuesday morning at a meeting of
the Texas Chapter of the
American Public Works
Association in Fort Worth.
Owen has worked for Denton
since 1965, primarily directing the
landfill and street operations, but
his duties have spread elsewhere.
He served as interim city
manager between the resignation mis comment.when women became wives to their
of Jim White and the hiring of-----------In his acceptance of award, houses and men hugged the highways
Owen credited the many people — for the sake of the children. They
he has worked with since were as much period pieces as Ozzie
beginning public service in 1946 in and Harriet. -
Edinburg as deserving the award. :__- Each home came with one essential
appliance: a housewife. In these
sprawls women were, and are, the
In the Senate campaign, Sen. February, my Republican opponent,
Humphrey chose not to stand for, heir to a supermarket fortune, out-
, election and Sen. Allen lost in the spent me three to one, and he won
primary. Of the two women who . narrowly. He spent #330.000 in about
survived Senate primary races, Jane three weeks.
Esking, a Tennessee Democrat who Women candidates are often caught
spent #100,000of her own money to win in a Catch 22 — they can’t raise much
nomination, is up against the probably money because they're not expected
clubs or the “old boy" network The
political establishment, big business
and the unions don’t seek out women
candidates and rarely help those who
run on their own.
Most women nominees run in woman m any office if We ever get to
districts their parties feel are almost the stage w here thousands of women
impossible to win. If the districts look are able to run for election, voters will
winnable, prominent male politicians finally have the same opportunity to .
move into the race. On the infrequent shop around for an acceptable woman
occasions when a party encourages a candidate as they now have with male,
woman to run for office, it’s usually candidates. ■
fora token raceor because the leader- Fairness aside, does it make any
ship is using her to compete against a difference whether we have more
woman with a chance of succeeding women in Congress or in the judiciary
Even when party officials are (their numbers there are pitifully
professedly neutral in primary small) or even (don’t hold your
contests, the experienced "pols" — breath) in the White House? I suspect
who can provide the knowhow and the that women as a whole would be less
money — tend to work behind the inclined to vote for expensive new
scenes for the male candidates. missiles or neutron bombs. They'd
Women bear one additional burden: probably think the money was better
They’re expected to be morally, In- spent on making our cities livable or
tellectually and physically superior to providing child care centers for 1
— and better looking than - the working parents. During the height of
the Vietnam conflict, an analysis
, showed that the majority of women
members of Congress, Democrats and
Republicans, opposed the war. In the
their difficulties and lending their overriding political problem brought organization, the DemocraticFarmer-
to touch it? This is your problem in campaigns the prestige -of the Carter to Maine: Hathaway’s battle Labor Party- has been split in, a
life, a problem which is vastly more presidency. According to Carter, Hathaway
to you than to any or all others. It In two states, Minnesota and Maine, helped bring- down the nation's
comes before you today and every he was particularly adept. unemployment rate and Hathaway
day, and the hour of your choice is Carter’s aides say that the president won’t be swayed by a powerful
the crisis in your destiny.”-— Philip was speaking off-the-cuff in, both committee chairman
Walker situations, working from his own It was all aimed at fending off the
House voting to deny Medicaid
benefits for abortions an action that
exclusively affects women. Nobody
exclaimed at the irony of women
having to watch the ERA extension
debate in the Senate from the balcony ,
which is where we came in two cen-
turies ago. Aside from the efforts of - support busing and less likely to
the National Women's Political advocate capital punishment. They
Caucus, the Women’s Campaign Fund are more responsive to the needs of
and the National Women's senior citizens and. measures
Educational Fund — all devoted to promoting maternal and child health,
increasing women’s participation in A Gallup poll in September 1975
government — none of the national reported that 71 percent of Americans
reform groups or 'liberal feel the country would be governed as
organizations has gone out of its way well or better with more women in
to encourage women to run or assist Public office, and 73 percent said they
them in their campaigns, would vote for a qualified woman for
In arguing for the necessity to nave president. Eighty percent said they
significant numbers of women in would vote for a woman in Congress.
Congress - a goal that I would con 1 governor or for mayor.
sider non controversial in a self- Too bad that only a small minority
respecting democracy . I ericans ever get the chance to
respecting democracy " I often en- vote for a woman. *
But the conditional is seldom
needed - Owen’s memory rarely jokes that never came, humming
serves him anyway but right. He stanzas of "What Have They Done To
can quote the number or feet or Her Book?," I thought about that
street that was paved the date peculiar American creation the sub
some niece of eauinment was . to’all that is urban. Are the suburbs schools, other children.
v2r some stud! obsolete? Aren’t they even funny Well, it’s no news bulletin to say that
purchased, the year some study anymore? this lifestyle came with problems for
was made, on and on. A check in These subdivisions-without -side- adults. But now, up to our ears in
the city files generally confirms walks were the products fo the fifties mortgages and our hours in road time,
his comment, when women became wives to their we’re even questioning the trade-offs
for our kids. Suburbs may be a good
place for children to “be,” but a lousy
place for them to grow up. ;
On any scale of what they call child
development, we rank high the values
of self-reliance, coping, respon-
sibility, problem solving. This is the
only service industry. They are the stuff of self-confidence. But the
men’s club in the world. Its noisy
neighbor, the 435-member House of
Representatives, is expected to in-
clude about the same number of
women it has now —18 — give or take
a few. 4
The absence of women from the
Senate and their slight presence in the
House is one of the most glaring
deficiencies in the supposedly
democratic government of a nation in
which women make up 51.3 percent of
the population. But indignation about
this lopsided state of political affairs
is neither rampant nor even evident
among the leaders of the Democratic
and Republican parties or good
government groups.
, It remains easier for a millionaire
than for a woman to get into Congress.
At last count, 18 senators admitted to
being millionaires.
The current imbalance reflects the
male-dominated nature of politics .....................
from the, founding of - the American Ac T was eauinn to Wil Rual Thorndike “V’lot women utoh the kitchen
republic For the first 129 years of this Wd3 09WIND DIN I wROUT CIRC KHICHEN,
, nation, it was easy to keep count on the thn th man Pho whole damn mute 1
because there were no women at all in an The ilcXl I Dung y KNOW, W TOR CPC whole CmACURI):
Congress. Montana, one of several '
states that granted women the right to their predecessors did; they were remal ning dominan t factors in
vote before 1920, elected the first appointed as temporary replacements electoral success ,
4 woman representative in 1917. She for husbands who died in office.
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Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 80, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 1978, newspaper, November 3, 1978; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1655246/m1/4/?q=architectural+drawings: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.