| Show Time For Class MY POLITICAL OPPONENT IS ISA ISA ISA A REINTERPRETED REINTERPRETED Name calling epithets are less less rambunctious ram ram- rambunctious these days than they used to be Political partisans ot of the Civil War era preferred labels like scoundrel scoundrel scoundrel drel traitor and baboon These were picturesque que words that matched well the loud voices big cigars and checkered vests And the target of you ou cur sir knew what we was likened to He was insulted perhaps but he didn't experience the hurt bewilderment of ot the reactionaries and the fellow tell ow travel travel- travelers travelers travelers ers of ot our day As November 7 approaches politics Is 18 In tho saddle again ag n. n and ana the th mud Is 1 I flying The Man on Horseback Is smeared smear smear- smeared ed and the man on the fence has to give the dry cleaner a a. ring too The bad I words tend less t tt revile revUe and more to Insinuate And words that sound good to some sound bad to others I Such a a. word Is liberal Some see him as a a. man without firm convictions convictions others see a a. spendthrift In the I exchequer still others are affronted aUr by bya a a. wool the pink Those who ac accept ae- ae aeI accept I the label see themselves as pioneers I of progress as Men of or Good Will Wf In the haze created by the uncritical I blend of or such partisan pictures with newsprint and Wind on Capitol Hill the light of or definition might be most wel wel- come A few tew years ago the man who Is most frequently called Americas America's fore fore- foremost foremost foremost most stylist in informal prose defined liberal Ubera by making a comparison with witha a dogs dog's life IlIe The man was E. E E B B. White and ho was writing in New Yorkers Yorker's Talk of the Town Tho The liberal greets with enthus enthus- enthusiasm enthusiasm enthusiasm the fact of or the journey as a n dog greets a mans man's invitation to take a walk And he acts in the dogs dog's way too swinging wide racing ahead doubling I back covering many miles mUes of ot territory that the man never traverses all in the I spirit of ot inquiry and the zest for truth He leaves a crazy trail but he ranges I far beyond the genteel old party he walks with and he is usually In a better bet bet- better better ter position to discover a a. skunk The dog often otten influences the course the man takes on his long walk for tor sometimes a dog runs Into something so arresting that not even a man can quite Ignore it it and the man deviates deviates j i ia a clear victim of or the liberal intent of or j his dumb companion I When the two of or them get home and and d I flop down It is the liberal the liberal the wide wide- wide wide-I ranging dog who dog who is covered with bur bur- burdocks burdocks bur I docks and with Information of a a. special sort on the out places Often I ineffective In direct political action he heIs' heIs heis Is Is' the opposite of or the professional re revolutionary re- re I f for unlike the latter he never feels he knows where the truth I lies but Is full of or rich memories of or orI places he has glimpsed it in I Whites White's interpretation Interpretation of the liberal spirit is partisan to the extent of ot devo devo- tion His personification personification rather rather dog- dog idea to have ot of of an appears I been a labor of love Conceivably it too too could become a rich memory of places II I he has glimpsed it in to the reader of this part of the paper Many a a. highway through scenic areas I has viewpoints where the traveler may turn off ot his motor and enjoy the vista and ho no doubt returns to his 40 mph Journey with a segment of memory en I I experience Classrooms libraries wherever lIbraries wherever men communicate and learn learn have have their I glimpse spots where verbal draperies I t part to give searchers for truth a a. vision of creatively organized facts t ts and ideas These places might be uncomfortable armchairs in the third row of Room or that spot In the library where we knelt to reach the second shelf shel from the floor In such places Homo sapiens might ranging dog and his find |
