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Show r i 1 A I V,ah Chr0IlUle. Friday, July 31, 1970 , 'Mediaman! ' 3 Agnew's tactics make him the 'Ugliest American' By NICK SNOW Well, friends, it happened again: No sooner did I get that last Mediaman column col-umn in print than its very topic is at the top of the news : Chicago and that outdoor festival got a number of people worked up around this place. The debate seems to be surrounding these issues: How practical Was it for the City of Chicago to be engaged en-gaged in such enterprise? Why didn't Sly and the Family Stone show up? And why did those spectators go on a spree? Bringhurst, the Sage of the Games Desk, says he chooses to wait until the real story comes out in Rolling Stone. I'm inclined to agree: The mass media, both printed and electronic, that I tuned in on for information infor-mation about the incident were obviously unacquainted with the group (i.e., "a rock and roll group called . . . Sly and the Family Fam-ily Stone . . .") and the effect its music has on audiences. No one, in fact, mentioned men-tioned whether or not Sly was even in Chicago when the fighting broke out. Rolling Roll-ing Stone will clarify that in a few weeks. Meanwhile, Chicago will have no more outdoor rock and roll concerts. It's really a shame. Seems to lend a shade of credibility to ,vhat all those people have been saying about the real troublemakers in Chicago back in August of 1968, the ones who crossed state lines with "intent to create a riot" and who, with the help of some goons on the police force, succeeded. And it came into our living rooms in living color and made Chicago a dirty word. So a number of months later, after it had dismissed charges of brutality against the policemen, the Justice Department turned around and registered charges against eight people, cited as "ringleaders" of a conspiracy, and indicted them on the infamous in-famous Rap Brown amendment. There's another book on that trial that just came out. It follows on the heels of "The Tales of Hoffman" (Bantam), "Contempt!" "Con-tempt!" (Swallow) and "Conspiracy" wviviviviTiirrTfri'ivivivivivr (Dell), all of which are available from Larry at the College Bookstore. But the important difference in "Verdict!" (Third PressDelacorte) is neither the frightening interpretations by Joseph Okpaku or the drawings by Verna Sadock (many of which appeared on Huntley and Brinkley) but the combination of these two elements as lasting reminders of what went on in that courtroom. Since cameras are not allowed in court, the artists move in with pen and try to reduce to two-dimensions the atmosphere atmos-phere of what goes on. Verna Sadock has done a magnificent job. "Verdict!" is the sort of book our grandcliildren will be able to discover in some corner of the attic, leaf through and understand almost immediately the horror and apprehensions we all must feel. If, that is, we leave grandcliildren. Or attics. (Next week, on Tuesday, will be two flms on Chicago, one being "Yippie!" as produced by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Hoff-man. Admission is free and, believe it or not, it is in the educational interest. Showings Show-ings are at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the Union Little Theater.) "Verdict!" might even appeal to Spiro Agnew. The pictures are in black and white and he coulde let loose with his crayons, haw haw . . . Somebody came into the office this morning with the idea that some benefit can be derived from the attitudes directly traceable to the behavior of our vice-president. "No one man has done more to unite our generation," he reasoned. "If a movement is going to succeed, it needs either a common martyr or a common snemy. Agnew is someone for us all to hate." And that great revolution, wherein ivhite college America picks up arms, swarms off the campuses and eradicates all evil and oppression will punch out Mr. Agnew. Yep. Nope. There's a new disease sweeping America's Ameri-ca's bloated middle. No, that's not right; TTTTrrTTTTTrinMVIVrTTTTW'T'i'lvri the disease isn't new but the strain is. lis common name is Agnewism and its symptoms symp-toms can be manifest both by men wearing wear-ing hard hats on harder heads shouting, "Down with effete intellectual snobs languishing lan-guishing in halls of higher education and research, whatever them big words mean!" and by their opposite numbers musing about "bigoted redneck laborers" or "oppressed "op-pressed workers." Two opposites, both languishing in the light of publicity and having the times of their own small lives. It's all incredibly pat, right down to the slogans and songs. Like any extremist movement, they are perfectly right and anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. Anyone who criticizes what they do is in danger. And it is here that the vice-president, instead of following Richard Nixon's lead to "Bring us together!" (Remember that? Sounds pretty tempty now. Looks like the present administration is developing develop-ing a credibility gap), is doing his best to "Push us apart." It's easy for someone to say anyone off a college campus is convinced that all students are long-haired trouble-makers but how many of us are willing to admit we've become convinced thai. Middle America Amer-ica is characterized by bigoted, red-necked men with brush-coats, sunburned faces and hate in their eyes? Two weeks ago, during a break in one of the final sessions of the Writers Conference Con-ference over in the Business Lecture building, build-ing, I was approached by a gentleman who displayed a button he wore on his shirt and asked me, "What does that say to you?" The button had a number of faces, each with a different color, and the admonition: ad-monition: "I'm convinced we can still live together" or something like that. "Well," I said, "I get a message about equality, sort of like the early Civil Rights where integration was still the big thing." "You don't think it's still possible?" he asked. "I can't oppose integration as long as it doesn't threaten to obliterate or downgrade down-grade a person's cultural identity," I replied, re-plied, all the time trying to reason what a man attending a conference on business practices would want talking to me, a bearded slob in blue jeans and sandals. This wasn't your average guilty liberal, trying to ape those ten or fifteen younger than him by wearing bright shirts and spouting lines. Sitting here at the typewriter, I'm having hav-ing trouble remembering what the man looked like. I think he was a bit overweight, eyes looking straight at me, face perfectly clean shaven, shirt and slacks neither too bright or too austere. I think It would have been very easy to imagine this man as an "I'gly American," going through Europe with his Instumatlc around his neck and saying, "Gol, Martha, I'd sure like a hamburger." But for more than a moment, In the circular hall of the Business Iec(ure building, I discovered that this citizen of Middle America, this "I'gly American," can be very beautiful indeed. I owe that man an apology because I froze him out and was less than friendly as he made a special effort to cross years and communicate with me. Ho is an extraordinary extra-ordinary person and I hope I never forget him, or what he taught me. Middle America isn't populated by ugly people. The ugliest man I've seen has to be Spiro T. Agnew because of what he has done to widen the divisions in this country. "Agnewism" is as ugly as "McCarthyism" in its worst form, if only it teaches people who could be friends to be enemies. Agnewism Ag-newism closes minds and no one, but no one, is immune. In the face of the idea that Agnew somehow some-how has performed a service by polarizing various elements of this country (and bringing bring-ing their individual members closer together), togeth-er), I find myself stunned. And wondering just what good our being "together" will be if there's nothing left to stand on. TTTTT'T',i'nrTTVTl'i' If TTT'i'T'Wt'T'i'Y I |