University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

A Few Facts About Williams

Robert Gillmore's column of
October 28 is one of the best pieces
of humor your paper has published.
In fact, I'd rank Gillmore with
Buchwald. I fear, however, that due
to his high level of sophistication,
many students who are ignorant of
the facts might take Mr. Gillmore's
column seriously. Accordingly, I
have appended a few facts on the
Williams candidacy:

ITEM: Last spring, students
interested in working for Williams
were asked not to come to a
Williams for Congress picnic. Seems
some old line Democrats were
there, and Williams was afraid
they'd be offended. (The students
were offended instead)

ITEM: Veterans for Peace
approached Williams headquarters
with an offer to work for Williams
but were put off again and again.

ITEM: Several students I know
approached Williams through peace
organizations formed after the
strike. The students were told by
Williams officials they would be
contacted. They weren't, and after
Williams began his anti-student line,
they didn't renew their offers.

ITEM: Williams radio spots
have been aimed largely at "student
unrest."

ITEM: The lead paragraph in
Williams' campaign pamphlet reads:
"Murat Williams believes it's time
to get tough with extremists who
mislead America's young people
into acts of violence and
destruction. He believes a radical
minority has used youth
involvement as a cover for its own
violent aims, and he wants these
extremists stopped now. Bombings,
vandalism and seizure of public
buildings (Italics mine: He means
Maury Hall, folks) are crimes and
should be dealt with as such. Murat
Williams believes we must provide
opportunities for the large numbers
of responsible youth to participate,
etc., etc."

ITEM: Murat Williams'
campaign sheet, The Williams
Records, features — an article on
page four entitled — "Murat's No
Liberal." It quotes a fictional old
country woman as saying. "You
vote yore way and I'll vote mine,
but just don't you come and tell me
you done voted for Kenneth
Robinson because Murat Williams is
a liberal. Because he ain't."

ITEM: Williams, one of the
leaders in a student strike for peace
in 1935, has tried to publicly deny
his role. (Ya just don't wanta be
connected with them students, ya
know)

QUESTION: How can any
political candidate who traces in
the current fear being whipped up
by Nixon and Agnew expect any
student to work in his campaign?
(If William's concern right now is to
"get elected," then his prime
motivation once in office will be to
"stay elected.")

This garbage about "student
arrogance" and "tiny radical
minorities who mislead students" is
an affront to all concerned
students. They are tired of being
told that they are arrogant or naive.
To quote Kenneth Kenniston:

"To maintain that youthful
unrest is 'symptomatic' of
something other than the sorry
state of the nation is to reveal a
motivated deafness to what
students have been shouting at the
top of their lunge."

Perhaps Mr. Gillmore should put
down his Steven Kelman and his
New Republic for a while and take
a short course in reality.

* * *

I find it odd that the Cavalier
Daily finds it necessary to endorse
the candidate who has emerged as
the unchallenged master of political
duplicity in Virginia's 7th
Congressional District.

Murat Williams, prior to his
current candidacy, found no reason
to apologize for his staunchly
liberal credentials attested to by his
State Chairmanship of the Eugene
McCarthy presidential campaign.
Yet, Congressional Candidate
Williams deliberately distorts his
political posture in a district
considered generally conservative.
Faced with the task of winning
election, Murat Williams has hewed
a course more than just perceptibly
right of center. His chameleon-like
political transformation challenges
even that of New York Sen. Charles
Goodell who moved in the other
direction on the political spectrum.

Typical of the techniques of the
Williams campaign was his recent
assertion that the labor force of
Winchester Republican candidate J.
Kenneth Robinson's home town)
was experiencing an 11 per cent
unemployment rate. Official figures
of the Winchester Unemployment
Bureau show that Winchester with a
labor force of 10,000 has 200
unemployed. This two per cent rate
of unemployment is well below the
national average.

The editorial endorsement of
Williams was not the only article on
the 7th District contest in the
October 28 CD. Robert Gillmore
supports Democrat Williams tossing
in the statement by James Reston
decrying "dunderheads" in
Congress. Apparently, Mr. Gillmore
feels the character of Congress
would be improved by adding a
dunderhead whose sense of public
honesty justifies the forming of
political views to meet those of the
prevailing electorate.

Mr. Gillmore concedes that
Williams is likely to be defeated on
Nov. 3 and offers the undeniable
observation that "the loss will be
significant." It will be significant in
that the voters of the 7th District
will say "no" to the political
dishonesty of a Williams and will
elect Ken Robinson, a candidate
who speaks consistently and
straightforwardly on the issues at
hand. And Murat Williams can
return to plowing his fields and
raising his cattle.

* * *

I would like to thank Mrs. Howard
J. Thomas for her opinion
about Harry F. Byrd Jr., but I am
not sure I understand her reasoning.

Mrs. Thomas astutely made
the observation that, "our state and
nation have problems." She then
logically deduced that government
officials need to have, "the right
principles and sound judgement to
help solve those problems."

However, this erudite woman
loses me when she declares that
experience in the government is
also a needed qualification. I am
inclined to suspiciously feel that
this "experience" is more like an
acquired ability to straddle the problems
and still maintain the status
quo.

Some people are content with
the way things are. They are lucky.
When they "face the facts", they
see that "our state and nation have
problems" and that is all. It is
understandable that these contented
folk don't want to jeopardize
their social esteem and principles in
the light of change.

And the problems? Well, some
of the principled politicians learn to
be consistent in their endeavor to
solve the problems, but they fear,
perhaps, solutions, for there is a
possibility that changes would have
to be made to make solutions.

Don't take me harshly, Mrs.
Thomas, for I thank you for your
opinion. It only seems obvious to
me that you didn't take your examination
of Harry Byrd far enough,
"A vote for Byrd, A vote for
principle. A vote for more of the
same, for those of us who are
happy the way things are."

* * *

From the information gleaned in
the C.D.'s article in the October 26
issue, we decided to investigate the
plight of the Mary Munford girls.
Arriving in high spirits, ready to
alleviate the boredom of the
deprived girls, we sat in the lobby
as suggested by the C.D. and were
thrown one quick smile by the only
female in sight (who had a date).
After several minutes, during which
time this couple moved to the other
lounge, we decided to embark on
phase II of the C.D.'s plan.

Moving into the office we were
cheerfully greeted by the (female
impersonator?) receptionist who
pronounced us "lecherous loons"
and proceeded to throttle one of us
in search of a cigarette. Since our
entry we had been under the keen
surveillance of an obviously
discarded mattress in the guise of a
policeman, which grunted
intermittently.

Finding that a facebook was
unavailable, we were pondering our
options when the ravaged young
beauty behind the desk began
buzzing rooms at random. Not
wanting to seem pessimistic, we
eagerly awaited the girl next door,
but, much to our dismay, not even
Mom or apple pie showed up. The
girl who was buzzed, we were
surprised to learn, was engaged. At
this we left the office, briefly
encountering what appeared to be a
pair of ninth-grade rednecks, who
upon questioning revealed that they
were both "writing papers" but
would be glad to send down more
of the same. Our dreams, and
needless to say, our egos shattered,
we bolted for the door, never to
return.

* * *

I have just been informed by a
usually reliable source that The
James Gang and The Paul Butterfield
Blues Band are scheduled to
appear in concert on Openings
Weekend. Although the aforementioned
groups are probably very
good, I still do not consider them
to be the first class bands which the
U.Va. student body has come to
expect. They certainly cannot be
mentioned with such groups as The
Band, Sly and The Family Stone,
and Grand Funk Railroad.

The consensus of opinion is that
the Homecoming concert was a
bust. A repetition at Openings
could prove to be disastrous. Although
there may be more important
things to worry about, the
concerts surely are of some importance
to the student body. With
such universities as V.C.U. and
U.N.C. having bands which are really
popular (i.e., It's A Beautiful
Day, Richie Havens, The Moody
Blues, Chicago), it seems that The
University of Virginia could book
much better bands than those
which have appeared this year and
those which are scheduled to
appear.

It is true that The Guess Who, a
good well-known group, were here
for Band Day, but Band Day is not
even a big weekend. Why not get
one great band instead of two lesser
ones for the big weekends?