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w, n:-- - - --Jimmy Ward ongressman James D. Martin of Alabama has in/ . serted in the Congressional .,. Record an interesting col• umn written oy Don MacLean of the Washington D a i 1y News on a timely subject. It is the newspaperman's reaction to .Pxesident Johnson's pointed warning that riots might erupt in Washington. if Congress doesn't approv,e the President's plan to provide political h om e
rule fo.r the District of Coh1mbia.
Mr. MacLean wrote:
By now, the Presidenj
doesn't need the likes of
me to tell him how poorl:>j
conceived were his re
marks about the possibili~
of a r i o • here. The edi
torialists and, I'm sure, his
advisers. hav,e a 1r e a d }I
d o n e that. My persona
view is that what the President said was the greates
flame - fanning act since
Nero and his fiddle at
Rome. What I want to do
today is (1) tell the Presiden.t what it is like to live
in the mouth of a cannon
and (2) thank him for
making it more likely that
some nut will pull the trigger.
I live about 30 blocks
from the White House, in a
neighborhood ailed Mount
Pleasant. (In contrast to
many of L. B. J.'s leading
Jiberals, who live safely
ed awa · Marylal'ld
or Virginia.) There's no
ghetto of any k i n d in
Mount Pleas t, not even
a white one. I have never
had a n t h i n g but the
friendliest relations with
my neighbors, be they Negro or white. In short, we
are a happy mixture of
people who get along just
swell. The riots in Los Angeles made all of us nervous, because, in truth,
none of us wants any trou1ble.
HERE'S HOW IT IS
Jf~
here is a serious rate of
V vi;lent crime in our area.
But it affects e v e r y o n e
eqpafiy. The crimes have
caused many of us to take
precautions. After several
attempts were made to
break into my house, I surrounded it as best I could
with a 6-foot fence. After a
girl running from an attacker pounded on my
d o o r one night seeking
safety, I called the police
and the next week bought
a ~un. I figure that something worse may happen
ano1her night, and I want a
gun if he has one. My wife
suggested watchdogs, and
I got two Gennan shepherds.
You don't know it is?
Well, on Saturday night in
Mount Pleasant, it is worth
your life to walk to the
tore. An elderly man was
killed for 2 in the bright
unlight. while washin~ his
car. A man was shot out
by my mailbox. Manv a
night we've watched ·from
a econd floor window as
gangs of men have battled
n the alley with board
and pipe·. Ever hear the
•·thunk ' a p i p e makes
when H 111
a tiuman
ead'.' The sound carric
qu
a di t~nc . What is .it
1
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