Show Student Page 13 Life Monthly Review I Point of view by 1968 there were over 90 million firearms in civilian hands Americans take their own lives at the average rate of more than Half of the 20000 per year suicides use firearms to accomplish their purpose The gun culture is obviously not about to change and one of the genuine miracles of the violent 1960's was that so few demonstrators were armed Accidental deaths and -- death by certain diseases are violent Ecological violence has not been curtailed to a meaningful degree Solutions are expensive and demand a reorinetation of priorities Maybe that's what the rebels of the 1960's were trying to say If so it appears that they failed But what about our present situation? What is the promise of American life? What is the legacy of a decade of foreign war and domestic revolution? It is of course an energy crisis real or contrived an energy crisis It will be interesting to watch and see if the profit margins go up as the supply diminishes Standard Oil Utah Power and Mountain Fuel continued will survive and prosper coal Another legacy of the violent sixties is the man who will lead us M through the Johnson's Nixon Lyndon on has Vietnam "credibility gap" been matched by Nixon's inability to tell the truth if he knew what it was Oh that he had kept his promise to the California press in 1962 Since 1946 he has been America's albatross and thank God for the 22nd amendment There is little doubt in my mind that he will bluff his way through crisis-Richar- d him and his margin we deserve Utah Power and Mountain Fuel will survive and prosper The billions of gallons burned on the thousands of air missions over Indochina will be missed We will tighten up our belts walk more eat less work in a cooler climate and- - be better off for it The positive side of the energy crisis is that it has revealed what gluttons we really are Yes violent gluttons who eat more ride more and die from heart failure more The amazing thing to me is that it took so long to stun us into reality Nature can only handle so many air conditioners so much asphalt and give so much wood gas and There is little doubt in my mind that he will bluff his way through the path of deceit and fraud For electing him and Agnew by a sixty-fort- y interesting to watch and T see if the profit margins go up as the supply diminishes Standard It will be Oil the path of deceit and fraud For electing him and Agnew by a sixty-fortmargin we deserve y him and his In jail or out they are ours There is a positive side to Watergate and that depends on us and Congress If we are willing to break up the government and business political oligarchy then Nixon's antics and tactics will be worth it If big business and their millions are driven out of party politics then the hassle has merit That is the price Tapes payoffsr buggings Mitchell Agnew Stans and indicted rampant a scene! My prediction concerning the future is best summed up by two authors - Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll Near the end of this illustrious life a bitter and disillusioned Mark Twain wrote concerning his own species: "Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities war He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to exterminate his kind He is the only animal that for sordid wages and help to will march out slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel" I— Twain's philosophy transcends national bounds but his observations are especially relevant to contemporary America "Man is the only Patriot He sets himself apart in his own country under his own flag and sneers at the other nations multitudinous and keeps uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries and keep them from grabbing slices of his And in the intervals between caompaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the 'universal brotherhood of man' - with his mouth" To postulate that Twain's quotatioln can be used as a rationalization for violence is an yet it tells us something about ourselves Man has always had a difficult time dealing with other men and with over-simplificati- nature What has been learned from the 1960's and its Nixonian aftermath? A recognition of what America is and an unwillingness to do much about it Perhaps Lgwis Carroll said it for many: "I see nobody on the road" said Alice "I wish had such eyes" the King replied fretfully "To be able to see Nobody And at such a I distance too" i' |