Street Corner Conservative
Rodgers, D.F.
Book Review/D.F. Rodgers Thoughts of a Journeyman Wordsmith Street Corner Conservative is not a good title for attracting readers who might flinch at the word "conservative." But the book well...
...and he did well...
...Gavin's main contention is that "liberalism," riding high for forty years, has failed the country and, more particularly, the "urban ethnic...
...He put them in print with clear, simple, supporting proofs, of which I may have been dimly aware, but had never before fully considered...
...Bill Gavin is a craftsman...
...And as the crucial Presidential election of 1976 approaches, neither party has heard the cries of the middle class, much less the ethnic worker...
...For the author, William Gavin, has contributed something toward pinning down the elusive definitions of our terms, "liberal" and "conservative...
...This irritation put aside, in a slim 146 pages Gavin has given many people much to think about...
...but I know better...
...He's a Journeyman Wordsmith...
...And to the Republicans: "When are you going to welcome us 'ethnic types'into your rapidly dying party by understanding that many of your economic principles are subject to change...
...When I opened the cover of the book, I didn't know Bill Gavin...
...A country founded by "ethnics" is arriving at its two hundredth birthday with its ethnic heritage in danger of extinction...
...And, by God, maybe we're a hell of a lot better than our The Alternative: An American Spectator February 1976 27 built-in inferiority feelings allowed us to think, in this WASP society...
...For whatever reason, he chose to change the names of the parish, the priests, the nuns, and the streets...
...For the city Catholic, he has stirred up a great deal to consider and reflect upon...
...It is somewhat confusing, because people from Boston, Kansas City, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland, St...
...Gavin points up the frustration of today's life with Big Brother, as the government grows each day more demanding and less understanding...
...To a whole generation of suburban-raised children of urban-raised parents, what an opportunity this is to get a start on the task of discovering "who you are" by finding out whence you came...
...If any election campaign worker hasn't read Gavin's book,.I would turn him out if I were the candidate...
...A strong case is made that neighborhoods are truly an extension of the family, the very cornerstone of civilized existence...
...Political leaders took him for granted until recently, but now condemn him as "racist" for opposing the forced busing of his children toschools outside their neighborhood...
...The common values he pointed out include moral standards, faith in God, views on social rights and obligations, desires and goals for me and mine...
...He was in his element talking to me, his own...
...But the book well merits reading by those of every political persuasion...
...I described Gavin as a Journeyman Wordsmith...
...Gavin writes: "I believe that much of the furor that has accompanied the busing battle during the past few years might have been avoided if Supreme Court Justices had been given a seminar in Neighborhood Realities...
...Gavin has just touched this whole issue of the family and could do well at pursuing it on its own...
...If "liberalism" has led us to our present condition of high crime rates, destroyed moral standards, weakening of the family, failure of education, decaying cities, cynicism toward neighbor and government, and a world ready to go up in smoke, then I'm not a liberal...
...The revolt of the working class and middle class families against forced busing for racial balance is a predictable result of neighborhood pride and could possibly have been avoided if neighborhoods had been understood for what they really are—not geographical entities—but spiritual and social realities to be tampered with only at great risk and peril...
...But still I say: must we not be liberal in caring for the unfortunate among us...
...t says to go back to the basics —the Three R's, morals, and rewards for work...
...To the educators, it is a warning to shape up...
...If your party remains that of big business, ivy league patricians, and snobbery, you'll only get our votes once in every generation when the Democrats get carried away with a McGovern 'repeat.' " If ever a book had timeliness, it's Street Corner Conservative...
...He obviously came from the Bronx, probably no more than two blocks away from me...
...I guess he's all of us...
...He got to me because he exposed many of my personal thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and dreams as unspoken and heretofore unrecognized bonds with my people, my beginnings, Street Corner Conservative by William F. Gavin Arlington House $7.95 and my whole growth...
...Any discussion involving the terms "liberal" and "conservative" finds me in great need of a score card...
...To the elected or "would-be" elected official, it offers an opportunity to break away from the media-created image of Archie Bunker, and instead to understand a whole people, take them at their word, and begin to hear their cries for help—before it's too late...
...Bill Gavin is an Irish Catholic, born and brought up in Jersey City, who, having left home, is now returning with his own political message to his own people...
...he shows the damage done to the two main pillars of the urban Catholic substructure—the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party...
...To those who make laws and administer justice the message is vital: there are few things in human existence less tolerable than injustice...
...Finally, there are special and urgent messages to those who are dedicated to preserving the two-party system...
...28 The Alternative: An American Spectator February 19...
...Louis, and Philadelphia are telling mehe's someone from their old neighborhoods...
...You seem to notice us only when we desert your arch-liberal unthinkables and vote Republican...
...If you're an Irish Catholic, city-raised, then "this is your life...
...for, indeed, I am not exactly sure what that is...
...His origin, his values, his goals, and his self-understanding are up for reappraisal...
...Politically, however, I am not quite ready to accept what Gavin apparently is...
...Halfway through, I knew that the Jersey City bit was a cover story...
...To the Democratic Party: "For the past ten years you have forgotten us...
...If you're an Irish Catholic, suburban-raised, then these are your roots (and the differences are negligible for urban Catholics of other nationalities...
...If he reaches the non-Catholic and non-ethnic audience that he should, then he could be on his way to the status of Master Wordsmith...
Vol. 9 • February 1976 • No. 5
