Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1973 Page: 4 of 24
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1973 THE RIO GRANDE HERALD PAGE 4
A mighty wind has been stilled
ni
(EDITOR'S NOTE: BillMoy-
ers was press secretary to
President Lyndon B. Johnson
and later publisher ofNewsday.
He now conducts a public af-
fairs television program for the
Public Broadcasting System.
Moyers also is a member of the
board of directors of Harte-
Hanks Newspapers Inc.)
By BILL MOYERS
WASHINGTON — I was in Min-
neapolis, filming a public tele-
vision show with Chippena Indi-
ans, when the radio flashed the
news of President Johnson's
death.
As I walked into the tribal hall
one Indian, who knew that I had
worked for Mr. Johnson, pulled
me aside and said: "A mighty
wind has been stilled. I'm sor-
ry."
Lyndon Johnson struck people
that way. Friends, enemies and
strangers alike felt the force
of his enormous, restless en-
ergy. Like the Chippewa's
"mighty wind" he could be a-
wesome, capricious and inex-
plicable — his presence, as
Washington learned after 1968,
felt even by his absence.
I was drawn to him early. To
a generation of ambitious Tex-
an s Lyndon Johnson was as big
as the state itself and just as
promising. To a small-town
kid with an over zealous Baptist
conscience he showed how to get
things done in a hurry. We
were short on philosophy in
Texas, short on history, too.
On the frontier, which Texas
remained until late, life was
its own reason for living, ac-
tion its own justification. And
you didn't read a textbook on
how to climb the greasy pole;
you just started climbing. How
often I would hear him say:
"Don't just stand there, son,
get busy."
But power had a purpose for
LBJ. It was the way to deliver
the goods. If you shared in the
rewards (His mother, he told
me, insisted that "if you do
good, you'll make good."), so
be it; the "folks" were always
the real winners. The greatest
good for the greatest number^he
preached, and the largesse was
pouring in: rural electricity,
dams, highways, defense con-
tracts, space projects, aero-
space plants. "This is what
your government did," he told
his Hill-Country friends as he
patted a new REA building as
if it were a new-born calf.
His critics smirked when he
said that what most people want
"is a rug on the floor, a pic-
ture on the wall and music in
the house." Their criticism
bothered h i m least of all.
"Those SOB's got it all," he
said. "The folks I'm talking a-
bout don't even have the simple
decencies, and they outnumber
that slicked-down crowd" —
here he would wrinkle his nose
as if squinting through pince-
nez - "ten million to one."
So I wrote him for a summer
job. Later he told me the let-
ter was impertinent, my sug-
gesting that he was out of touch
with Texas young voters and of-
fering to help him reach them,
but maybe because he had also
been brash and not a little cocky
when he was 18 he told me to
come to Washington, sight un-
seen.
I flew there aboard an old
two-engine Convair, my first
trip east of the Red River, and
landed expecting to counsel the
mighty. Instead I would up in
a tiny airless room so deep in
the basement labyrinth of the
Capitol that one old senator who
had stashed his mistress in a
nearby hideaway got lost com-
ing back from a quorum call and
couldn't find her for hours.
I spent my first night in Wash-
ington -- from 5 p.m. to the fol-
lowing noon - completing my
first assignment for Lyndon B.
Johnson: addressing 100,000
letters to Texas voters one at a
time on an ancient machine op-
erated by pumping the right foot
up and down, like a sewing ma-
chine. I stopped only to go to
the bathroom and to assure
senator —'s girl friend, who
kept poking her tearful face in
the door to inquire how long
quorum calls ''•sted (I didn't
know), that he was certain to
return (I didn't know that, ei-
ther).
I emerged the next day squint-
ing in the light, hobbling on my
now-stunted right foot, and won-
dering how LBJ would reward
me. I soon found out. "I'm go-
ing to promote you to an upstairs
room," he announced. I re-
ported there immediately - and
got to put stamps on all those
letters I had just addressed.
Some reward.
Years later I told him how my
illusions had suffered those
first two days in Washington.
"Politics is stamps, spit and
shakin' hands," he said. Then
he smiled: "Besides, whom the
lord liketh, he chasteneth." Not
quite a literal translation, but
I got the point.
Throughout his career Lyndon
Johnson carried on that kind of
love affair with the nation, a
one-time school teacher from
Cotulla, Texas, forever trying
to instruct his charges.
He taught us that the nation
is "peepul," with names, faces
and dreams. He came to des-
pise the bureaucracy his own
programs created because they
started dealing in "categories"
and assigning numbers to human
beings whose names were Ha-
thie, Joe Henry, Fritz or Bet-
ty Lou - people who lived down
the road, across the Peder-
nales. Once he cut an HEW of-
ficial off in mid-sentence with
the outburst: "Goddamit, you
make those folks sound like
subjects instead of citizens."
Another time he ripped into a
group of government lawyers
who had drafted an Appalachian
assistance bill. "Who the hell
can read tills gobbledygook?"
he thundered. "But that's a
technical document, sir," one
of the men replied. The Presi-
dent gave him along, merciless
stare, then with his own black
felt pen he rewrote the estab-
lishing clause. "There!" he
said, holding the document out
before him with a flourish.
"Now they'll know down in Mor-
gantown what we're talking a-
bout."
As the Manila conference
droned to a close in 1966 the
President was handed a draft
on the final memorandum of
agreement. He was aghast at
its flat, sterile, polysyllabic
prose: "Come on," he whis-
pered, pulling at my sleeve,
and we left without so much as
an "excuse me" to the digni-
taries around the table. At the
door he stopped long enough to
whisper to the Secret Service
agent: "Don't let one of 'em
out until I get tack."
In the next room he handed me
a pad and his own pen. "Now
I want to rewrite that pream-
ble so it can be read in the pub-
lic square at Johnson City," he
said. We labored for an hour
while Marshal Ky, President
Thieu, Dean Rusk and other
assorted, perplexed person-
ages waited in the next room.
The President dictated, edited,
looked over my shoulder as I
added what I could, finally
picked up the pad, read silent-
ly, nodded, and stalked back
toward the conference room. He
stopped at the door and, wink-
ing at me, said: I want you to
leak to Smitty (Merriam Smith
of UPI) first. It getshome first
that way, and when ol' Judge
Moursund reads this he'll know
what we're trying to do out
here with his money."
He taught us there's no pro-
gress without some giving up.
that a nation of 200 million
will stagnate without compro-
mise. Some people scoffed as he
reached for consensus, charg-
ing him with trvinc to please all
the people all the time. But to
him politics meant inclusion -
"Noah wanted some of all the
animals on board," he said,
"not just critters with four
legs." If consent of the gov-
erned is essential to democra-
cy, to LBJ compromise was its
lubricant.
On the day I resigned we rode
around his ranch for hours.
"You were born over there with
those Choctaw Indians," he
said. "Bet you don't know where
the word 'okay' came from."
I didn't.
"Right from the Choctaws
themselves," he said. "It
meant 'we can agree now, if
you aren't so all-fired set on
perfection.' " If he had been
born in another time, I thought,
he would have made his living
as a horse trader. Instead, he
bent this remarkable talent for
getting agreement from dispar-
ate men to making things hap-
pen. He taught us, after years
of stalemate, that the legisla-
tive process can function.
Why, then, wasn't he willing
to compromise in Vietnam? The
irony is, he though he was.
"Well, boys, I've gone the se-
cond, third and fourth mile to-
night," he said after his John
Hopkins speech in 1965. He had
proposed a multibillion-dollar
rehabilitation program for In-
dochina, including North Viet-
nam, and he was convinced that
it was a bargain Ho Chi Minh
couldn't turn down. Another
time he made another offer, in
secrecy, and Ho again said no.
"I don't understand it," he
said, with a note of sadness in
his voice. "George Meany
would've grabbed at a deal like
that."
Therein may be the biggest
lesson Lyndon Johnson may
inadvertently have taught us.
We think of ourselves as a
broad-minded, good-intention-
ed, generous people, pursuing
worthy goals in a world we as-
sume is aching to copy us.
"Surely," the logic goes, "all
we have to do is offer them what
we would want if we were in
their place."
This is not a lesson in the lim-
its of power. Lyndon Johnson
knew better tham most the fra-
gile nature of power, its short-
comings, the counter-tides it
inevitably provokes. "Hurry,
boys, hurry," he would implore
his staff after his great elec-
toral triumph of '64. "Get that
legislation up to the hill and out.
Eighteen months from now ol'
landslide Lyndon will be lame-
duck Lyndon."
He knew the limits of power.
What he had to learn the hard
way, and teach us as he went a-
long, was something about the
limits of perception. What made
Lyndon Johnson such a unique
and authentic figure - half Tex-
as Hill Country, half Washington
— may have also been his un-
doing. He was so much a crea-
ture of those places ttiat he may
have shaped the world in their
image. And this image would
hem him in, causing him to see
others as he saw himself. It
was this that made him such an
American man when the world
was in reality reaching for
other models.
I don't know, tliis is conjecture.
What I do know is that Lyndon
Johnson was cut ten sizes larger
then any of us. This made him
coarser, more intemperate,
more ambitious, cunning, and
devious. But it also made him
more generous, intelligent,
progressive and hopeful for the
country. He was, inside, a soft
man - I saw him weep as he
watched television reports from
Selma, Ala: "My God,"he sai'd,
"those are people, they're beat-
ing. Those are Americans."
Inside, I don't think we had
what it took to prosecute a war
wholeheartedly, and in the end
he may yet teach us that demo-
cracy just doesn't have the heart
for those dirty little wars.
He's gone now, and history
will take a fuller measure of
the man than those of us who
served him. I suspect he would
have enjoyed what his fellow
politicans are saying about him
today. I know he would believe
them.
Our own relationship was
strained toward the close and he
died before the prodigal got
home. But he did more for me
than any man and I loved him.
Ill
THE
FAMILY
LAWYER.
Obstructing an Officer
Without any doubt, punching a
policeman in the nose would
amount to the crime of "obstruct-
ing an officer." But what about
the assorted lesser confrontations
that arise daily between citizen
and constable? Where does the
law draw the line?
Generally speaking, you may be
guilty of this offense even if you
do not resort to any force at all.
Take the case of a youthful
demonstrator who "went limp"
when the police ordered him
to climb into a patrol wagon.
Charged later with obstructing
an officer, he argued that he
could not be punishi I for simply
doing nothing.
Nevertheless, the court found
him guilty as charged. The court
said his refusal to obey a lawful
order not only delayed and ob-
structed his own arrest but also
delayed and obstructed the arrest
of others.
Affirmative action, of course,
is even riskier. Thus:
A motorist lost his temper when
he found a meter maid beside his
parked car, writing up a ticket
that he felt was unjustified.
First, he refused to accept the
ticket. Then, when the meter
maid tried to put it on his wind-
shield, he blocked her path and
deflected her arm.
A court concluded afterward
that these actions, added together,
diil constitute the offense of ob-
structing an officer.
This does not mean, however,
that a policeman has to be treated
with kid gloves. Reasonable re-
monstrance is within a citizen's
rights.
In another case, while a man
was being placed under arrest in
a tavern, his wife informed the
police—w ith vigor—that they had
no right to take him away. Still,
she did not interfere physically
with the arrest. Nor did she use
threatening language.
Haled into court for obstruct-
ing an officer, the woman was
found not guilty of any offense.
The court said:
"Policemen are no more exempt
from criticism than cabinet min-
isters."
A public service feature of the
American Bar .Association and
the Texas State Itar Association.
Written l>> W ill Bernard.
Mental Illness Affects
One Out Of Eight Persons
AUSTIN, Tex. — One of
every eight Texans is affected
by mental illness or mental re-
tardation, the Senate Finance
Committee was told Monday as
it looked at a request tor nearly
$429 million to treat those af-
flictions.
Dr. David Wade, state com-
missioner of mental health and
mental retardation, said al-
though his department's re-
quest for state money over a
two-year period is for $108.4
million more than the previous
two years, it does not provide
for any new programs.
"Mental health and mental
retardation constitute the great-
est health problem in Texas,"
said Wade. "Even famil} in
this state is touched, either
directly or indirectly by mental
disorders."
He said if an Alalama feder-
al court decision on hospital
staffing were applied to Texas,
it would cost the state almost
half a billion more dollars to
(are for the mentally ill and
mentally retarded. "We are not
ignoring the Alalia ma decision,
but we are choosing, instead, to
adhere to the staffing ratios
dictated b> Medicare and Medi-
caid," he said.
Wade also said a new state
school at Fort Worth for the
mentall) retarded "will be the
last such institution to be con-
structed in Texas....the lorn;,
lone waiting list- which not too
many months ago contained as
many as 4,000 names of Texas
citizens seeking help" -win be-
come a "relic of the past."
The "encouraging signs," he
said, are that "for the first
time in our history we dis-
charged 300 residents from our
state schools" to their commu-
nities "to tind jobs and lead
normal, productive lives. More
importantly...retardates...are
being served in con munity—
based centers without the need
for long—term, institutional
care." Part of the budget re-
quest was for a reserve fund.
"There is a [>otential emergen-
cy on any given day in this de-
lta rtment which operates 20 fa-
cilities housin; 20,000 residents
and 10,000 employes," Wade
said.
Nixon-Thieu
Meet Set
SAIGON — President
Nguyen Van Thieu will visit the
United States next month to
meet with President Nixon,
South Vietnamese officials re-
ported today.
Honolulu is the most likely
site for the meetim . the offi-
cials said.
Vice President Spiro T. Ag-
new. who arrived Tuesday for a
two-da> visit, met with Thieu
this afternoon to map plans for
the Xixon-Thieu meeting, the
officials rei>orted.
Thieu was reported preparing
a list of economic and military
requirements to present to Nix-
on. But he reportedly wants
even more to get a personal,
public indication from Nixon.
.
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Trejo, Raul. Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 1, 1973, newspaper, February 1, 1973; Rio Grande City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth194392/m1/4/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.