The Public Policy
economy, more or less: he never made strategic decisions about it. His patriotism, his nationalism, his conservatism, dance before the eyes: he was a conservative by attitude, not from...
...Last Tango in Paris: It won't go away...
...But this, it seems to me, is precisely what the Coleman Report indicates busing will not do...
...Jeremy: Light but sweet young love in Spraypaint Village...
...And, where he wanted to be, he was a man of extraordinary imagination, however much one might detest the direction the imagination took...
...This argument runs roughly as follows: "Look, if we just get black kids and white kids together at an early enough age, they'll learn that they aren't that different, really, and they'll get along and become friends...
...The nation, I think, should spare itself these traumas...
...If those tensions spring less from "misunderstandings" than from fundamental cultural differences, it would follow that busing, to be effective, must deal with those differences...
...That is Fame," whispered the little star...
...The Mackintosh Man: Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda, James Mason, respectively dreary, incomprehensible, and splendid...
...Hisssssssssss...
...I submit that the reason for this is that whatever else one may think of Louise Day Hicks, on this one she and her supporters are exactly right...
...In the school contest, almost all the candidates are going out of their way to express their deep concern for the children of Boston and their fervent belief that busing is bad...
...By The Alternative December 1973 19 "culture," he does not mean variations in hair styles and musical tastes...
...These ideas have a lot of sentimental appeal...
...Actually, of course, the phrase is not innocent at all--everyone knows that '%alance" is a good idea, and that "imbalance" implies that something is wrong...
...What one must realize, however, is that the process does not work in reverse...
...For some reason, however, a number of Americans are violently opposed to busing despite such arguments, and seem quite willing to live with the opprobrium that attaches to such "wrongheadedness...
...The American liberal in the seventies will, of course, have none of this...
...Everyone likes me and envies me," said the man, a year later...
...he refers instead to fundamental attitudes that affect the degree to which one can accept and become a part of a goal-oriented, individualistic society...
...for infants, teenie-beppers, and sub-thirty smartasses--eat your hearts out...
...Given all the problems that juggling creates, I think it's about time we quit...
...Somehow, it doesn't quite make it...
...Such is the finding of the Coleman Report, the product of a two-year study of the nation's educational system, authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
...Mzz~.z~z Kael's favorite movie of the century, almost...
...P a t r i c k Cosgrave ever, to figure out how forcing every school in a given system to have certain percentages of black and white pupils yields more "equal" education...
...Sargent doesn't want to let them do it...
...Meanwhile, the municipality itself cranks up for city council and school beard elections...
...Scarecrow: A1 Pacino and Gene Hackman as another odd couple, acting very well in a flick programmed to jerk every tear and arouse every tender passion...
...In Indianapolis, the Honorable S. Hugh Dillin, U.S...
...Unfortunately, this whole argument rests on the assumption that differences between the races are totally the product of misunderstanding and discrimination--and this is manifestly not the case...
...And all of us are told that the violent reaction against busing is yet another sign of something deeply wrong with American society...
...probably do so again...
...In Atlanta, the local chapter of the NAACP is being threatened with revocation of its charter for supporting a compromise school integration plan, again involving the busing of elementary school children, which the Association's national leadership feels does not go far enough in promoting the black/white pupil ratio which would be morally, socially, and constitutionally valid for Atlanta classrooms...
...But pronouncing the title is good exercise, and rearranging the letters makes for a scatological oath in Hindi...
...visionary, but old-fashioned...
...On Beacon Hill, the state legislature is deciding whether to override Governor Francis Sargent's veto of a bill which sought to suspend for a year the requirements of the state's Racial Imbalance Act...
...20 The Alternative December 1973...
...American Graffiti: 1962 hot-rods, the hop, rock 'n roll, four boys, their girls, a time of testing for all: the best damn nostalgia flick in a very long time...
...At bottom, racial tension in the United States is rooted in precisely such cultural differences...
...Something about espionage, diamonds--something like that, sort of...
...He kept the show he found on the road, and he healed and patched here and there as Nemesis crept up behind him...
...All busing does is change the racial make-up of the student body, and this turns out to have very little effect on how well the school deals with the results of culturally-based differences...
...The sophisticated among you have probably already figured out that the common theme in these little stories involves the busing of public school pupils to achieve what most of the nation's communications media innocently call "racial balance...
...But it is clear that merely pretending that the whole issue is a simple matter of juggling black/ white pupil ratios is leading us nowhere...
...That is Time," whispered the little star...
...Jesus Christ Superstar: Still hanging in there...
...Hicks has little to offer in these encounters beyond her maiden name (a famous one in these parts) and her vehement opposition to busing...
...The legislature passed the act a while back to promote both racial balance in the public schools and its own self-image as a progressive body of lawmakers...
...I Could Never Have Sex With Any Man Who Has So Little Regard For My Husband: Oh come now...
...Hicks do well because the number of such "wrongheaded" people seems to be rather great...
...Night Watch: Elizabeth Taylor hasn't looked so good in years, and her plight--Is husband Lawrence Harvey and her best gal friend, trying to drive her mad...
...Le Sex Shop: Hey meester, wanna see some feelthy pictures...
...Less than two hours of mostly splendid photography, athletic grace, commercial smoothness, a documentary that works...
...Or the week...
...If one judges equality by measuring the performance of minority students, the available data indicate that the racial composition of the school one attends makes very little difference...
...and more concretely, the differential achievement which follows from this cultural variation causes the less wealthy group to resent and envy the success of the richer one, which in turn fears and despises the poorer group's failure...
...Brilliantly drawn, viciously objectionable...
...Is she going mad...
...Similarly, the argument is not that because racial differences are bound up in cultural ones, the situations of blacks and whites in American society are immutable...
...Integration is important if our multi-racial society is to become truly one nation, and the schools provide an excellent place to develop that kind of cohesiveness...
...he does point out, however, that such differences are linked with race, and furthermore, that they are serious differences...
...He asserts that any such linkage must be due to discrimination, because for some reason he feels that discrimination is something he can change...
...The Governor, you see, considers himself a "creative Republican" (just like Senator Brooke of the same state), and he feels this is a good issue on which to demonstrate how much more enlightened he is than normal, dull, uncreative Republicans...
...Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro are splendid as Henry and his hopeless pal Bruce...
...Indeed, politicians like Mrs...
...As cultural differences become less linked with "Everyone likes me," said the man...
...many people like them so much that they feel the whole solution to racial problems must lie somewhere along these lines...
...HaAHHHHHH?I Ooooo-weeee...
...On the contrary, this author would be among the first to argue that those relative situations have become a great deal more equal...
...Its racial differences are rooted in complicated factors which the busing of school children to achieve "racial balance" will not remove...
...what's a little fault among friends...
...It is a curious feature This fall, a number of American cities are witnessing, once again, local variations on an increasingly familiar political theme...
...it merely states that the racial make-up of a particular school does not affect how well the school does this job...
...Yet he was an extraordinary man--ruthless, but generous...
...Banfield does not argue that such differences are caused by race...
...It is exceedingly difficult, howfraudulent in many ways, but with a streak of nobility...
...This is true even of the young lady who is the candidate of the "Communist Progressive Labor Party" --(although it is possible that PL opposes busing because they feel that forced integration will, in some way, delay the capital-R Revolution...
...George Jean Nathan race, racial integration in every area of social activity will perforce become more pronounced--as indeed it has in the past several years...
...For busing has become one of the most important tests American liberals apply in their continuing efforts to separate the good guys from the bad guys...
...This integration is a clear sign of greater cohesion in the society, and it is foolish indeed for society to attempt to slow or prohibit such a development...
...It is unfortunate, perhaps, that our problems in this area are more complex than the proponents of busing would have us believe...
...In other words, it does not follow that by "creating" integration with school buses and federal court orders one will also be able to create greater social cohesion and eliminate those fundamental cultural differences that threaten cohesion in the first place...
...Vincent Gardenia as the manager, and all the other supporting cast members contribute to a splendid cinema experience...
...Bruce Lee...
...The implications of this for the potential efficacy of busing as a means of easing racial tensions are fairly straightforward...
...Personally, I suspect this particular phrase is popular in liberal circles precisely because of those implications...
...Everyone despises me," said the man, a year later still...
...District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana, has handed down a ruling specifying just how much cross-district busing of how many public school pupils will make the racial composition of the different units of the Indianapolis Public School System consistent with Judge Dillin's vision of the requirements of the U.S...
...Now they want to hold back a bit because communities are running into budgetary and other problems in their attempts to comply...
...After conducting extensive and complicated tests that separated and analyzed the different factors affecting performance in schools, the Report noted that "School-to-school variations in achievement, from whatever s o u r c e . . . are much smaller than individual variations within the school, at all grade levels, for all racial and ethnic groups...
...The point is that whatever complicated processes are at work in promoting that equality, it is clear that "racial balance" in public school systems has very little to do with them...
...As Edward Banfie!d p~ints out in The Unheavenly City, the major differences between the raccs are cultural ones--the most crucial distinction being that inner city blacks tend to be radically presentoriented, as opposed to their future-oriented, gratification-delaying, middle-class white brethren...
...The taxes of their parents are used to pay for it...
...He believes that in a good society no social and economic differences can be linked with race...
...Legitimate parental fears about the safety of children who are thrust into these situations of cultural confrontation are passed off as racism...
...Someone really should make it sometime...
...n a t is Popularity," whispered the little star...
...OK, a '~appening," but don't expect to get your five bucks' worth...
...Or of the month...
...in other words, "the larger part of school-to-school variation in achievement appears not to be a consequence of effects of school variation at all, but of variations in family backgrounds of the entering student bodies...
...Bang the Drum Slowly: Friendship between two ball players, one goofy and dying, the other a star...
...Schneider's everything...
...This means that most of the variation in achievement could not possibly be accounted for by school differences, since most of it lies within the school" (emphasis added...
...In other words, one cannot expect to solve racial problems, rooted in culture, merely by thrusting the young of both races together in the nation's school systems...
...Chopppeeee...
...What is the major argument for busing...
...To be for busing indicates that one is "sensitive to the plight of American blacks," and is concerned with "ending discrimination in the nation's school systems...
...Legitimate parental aspirations to select the area in which one's children will live and attend school are casually dismissed as inconsistent with the dictates of "racial balance...
...The children of all those people who vote for Louise Day Hicks are forced to become the guinea pigs of this failed social experiment...
...Plot...
...Constitution...
...Unfortunately, these little delusions have rather pernicious results...
...This is not the comedy of the year...
...Now, this is a highly emotional topic, and accordingly, it is important to specify with precision what the above argument is and is not saying...
...Is her late husband come to haunt her?--offers possibilities for an interesting movie...
...Claude Beri's farce about the unsuccessful bookshop owner who bends with the times and turns to porn...
...Sssssss: A witless tale of men turning into serpents...
...Visions of Eight: Last year's Olympics, through eight directors' eyes: Arthur Penn, Milos Forman, Claude Lelouch, John Schlesinger, Kon Ichikawa, Juri Ozerov, Michael Pfleghar, Mai Zetterling...
...His patriotism, his nationalism, his conservatism, dance before the eyes: he was a conservative by attitude, not from principles...
...And finally, the above discussion is certainly not a brief for legally enforced segregation of any kind...
...And he believes that somehow, by making all the numbers come out "right" (be it done with "quotas" or with busing) he has solved whatever it is that makes those numbers come out "wrong" to him in the first place...
...Brando's rump...
...Even an upbeat mood, and a minimum of treacle...
...Hicks usually does quite well, and will of his career that a man bent on such ultimately radical change in the historical direction of his country was so content with the mushy amalgam of attitudes, policies, and complacencies which his country and his party accepted under his rule...
...Most of the critics hate it...
...It will take at least fifty years to assess him...
...The People demur...
...In the former, Louise Day Hicks is preparing for yet another session with the Boston electorate...
...Yes, there is probably a plot...
...In Boston, the action proceeds apace in several arenas...
...To be against busing is (like so many other things) a sign of one's insensitivity and/or racism, be it of the blatant or latent variety...
...Enter the Dragon: Ai-yeee...
...A proponent will almost certainly tell you that busing is necessary to promote ~'equal" education...
...Heavy Traffic: Cartoon full-length feature: vulgar, cruel, cheeky, not for your Bambi and Dumbo crowd...
...For us over thirty, a must...
...The store blooms, but his attempt at swinging fizzles...
...In part, the cultures do not mix because the implicit philosophy of each rejects that which is most valued by the other...
...In addition, says the Report, most differences in performance show up from the moment of entry into the school system...
...This one, for most of its duration, has all the chillies of Caspar the Ghost, but when the corpses do materialize, they are a sight...
...It does not assert that schools are completely ineffective in attempting to socialize different groups into American society...
...The proponent of busing will probably reply that even if forced integration does not yield substantial improvement in the performance of minority school children, it should be pursued anyway as a "social good...
Vol. 7 • December 1973 • No. 3
