The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 37

Guv Wright 6, 1966 -iris Jf. Examiner-Pag 37 Dick Nolan iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiii City Doesn't Know How ISItOTIIER JUNIPER r.MiN AM) IIEAH IT llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 1 H'vv Investigated Onl of (i Job IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIW4IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH -fl 1 1 jj I. 1 of "It's not that I'm outraged at a public debt 639,734,862. It's a generation that calls 000,000,000 for short that infuriates Well, theie goes HIS no-hitter Charles Denton 1 Jfc vj Hie! I llllt IJLIJ lllltV Under present methods of polite bookkeeping, even a saint could wind up with a rap sheet that would haunt him the rest of his life. Or even a non-saint, like you or me.

Let's say your neighbor's car gets stolen and a peculiar chain of circumstances makes you the number one suspect. The police arrest you for 'investigation." Id a matter of hours they realize they have the wrong man and turn you loose. Is (hut the end of it? Not by a long shot. You now have a rap sheet. A San Francisco police number.

A State Criminal Investigation Division number. Even an FBI number. Your name is right there in the files, along with John Dilhnger and Pretty Boy Floyd, and there's nothing you can do to wipe it out. What's more, if you apply for a job that requires even routine bonding, that rap sheet can haunt you worse than a whispering campaign that you have quit beating your wife. LT.

DANTE ANDUEOTTI. head of the Police Community Relations Division, brought the matter up the other day as another reason why poor kids have trouble getting jobs. (The higher crime rate in poor neighborhoods also means a higher arrest rate, i Quite apart from the current btish-beatiug for jobs, simple justice demands that this system be changed. In a society that pretends to believe a man is innocent till proven guilty, there is simply no justification for placing a lasting stigma on a man for an arrest that never even led to a trial. This is far from an academic risk, as a reporter friend of mine could tell you.

A couple of years ago he was sent to a hospital to get a story and wound up in a hassle with the hospital administrator, who was trying to shield an influential patient from publicity. It was a phony charge, eventually dropped, but that reporter's fingerprints are now on file from here to Washington. AS WITH MOST THINGS, there is another side to all this. Well-kept police records are an essential tool for fighting crime. Not everyone whom the cops arrest and turn loose is innocent.

Sometimes they have the right man, but they don't have enough evidence to convict him. If the same man keeps turning up as the most likely suspect in the same kind of crime, patterns develop that are the nuts and bolts of police work, and it's unreasonable to ask the cops to tear up the rap sheet each time they fail to make a case. There is, however, no bona fuie reason why anyone else should have access to these records, including employers and bonding companies. On reflection. I would vote San Francisco the American city least likely to succeed in solving Us racial problem.

This is not pessimism, but realism, and to understand the thesis will require some ranging back Into history and forward into extrapolation. San Francisco was founded on the naked greed of pirate capitalism. Greed, hedonism and lust put little old Frisco on the map With the rough edges knocked off and a little polish applied. Frisco is still Frisco, shaped according to the heart's desire of the Big Buck Boys who dominated and still dominate our town. What the Big Brokers want, they get.

And what they have got, at last. Is the very model "of 'the least workable urban complex on the American continent: Manhattan West, complete with glittering towers and festering slums. IN Sl'CH A CITY there is only one sin, and that sin Js poverty. There is only one salvation, and that is money. A brothel keeper can become an admired San Francisco institution: All madame must do is make enough money at her trade.

Racketeering can be respectable, so long as it is kept "within the family" and out of the hands of outside hoodlums. Backet money properly invested can create the democratic duke the civic leader. What happens in this kind of city when social stirrings produce a Federal slum clearance program, just ai mi instance? The question that immediately arises at the power centers is, "Who's going to make the Big Buck out of this?" You do not make the Big Buck by tearing out slums and replacing them with cottages for the poor, with perhaps a bit of land around them for the good of the soul. VOU TEAR OCT the slums, all right. And then you calculate something grandiosely referred to as "the best and highest use of the land." Meaning what will return the highest profit to the bankers and the builders and the brokers.

And also, what will shape The City according to the best plan of the "best" people. Land hunger is a recurring theme In the legend of The Old West, and here is land beyond hunger, land to slaver over, in the ery heart of a metropolis. Land acquired by Big Politics for the Big Brokers, in great, sweeping tracts. On this land go the new buildings. The luxury housing on sites too good to waste on the poor: the shopping centers too posh for the poor to patronize; the office buildings wherein the poor do not have the skills to work; the garages too expensive for the poor to park in, even if thev It.

id the occasion to do so The displaced poor, now mostly Negro poor, ejected from the scene of future grandeur, immediately become the victims of a swarm of small brokers operating, In some cases, with the aid of the Big Brokers. ALL THE BROKERS, big and Little, know the profits that are to be made by overcrowding as many rent payers as possible in slea.ily renovated old buildings making up new slums There is a lively trade in such buildings; inflated appraisals, phony loans, ruthless rents finance the speculators The poor pay, and xroan. anil occasionally even riot In (he streets. Hunters Point finally shocks The Old Gray Mayor, and even startles tho Good Gray Tycoons. They are obviously astonished at the elementary physics of compression creating explosion, and their reaction is of a qunintnoss It is as though Jamie Watt were to appear on i ne scene ill this atomic age ami wondoringly announce 1 1 10 discovery of the steam engine More on this tomorrow-.

I signaled the bartender for a refill. "Sure you won't have one? Make you feel better," I ottered. "Not me, man," he said with mock horror. "You see the story in the papers about this being the cirrhosis capital of the country? It's the fourth biggest cause of death. You don't see acid on that list, do you'' So why don't they outlaw booze?" "I heard the argument," I said, "and you know it's a phony as well as I do.

Acid can drive you right out of your skull. It's dangerous." "You ever been in a drunk tank? Or a DT he demanded. "Have you He shook his head. "No, but I've been to Third and Mission And how often do you heat-about an acid-head killing somebody with a car?" "YEAH, but if as many people used acid as drink liquor, you'd have just as many problems." I argued Listen," he said, "it as many people used acid as hooe mi wouldn't have a law against acid Morality is what the majority does; immorality is what the minority does. "The same goes for cigarets.

You know what's second on that death list? Cancer! But you don't have any law against cigarets. And don't tell me they're not habit forming, either." He fired one up as if to prove it. "Well, anyway you don't think the new law ill change much? I asked. "It may keep the amateurs home." he said, getting up to leave. "Where you going?" He grinned crookedly.

"Would vou believe Oakland" I want to see if I'll like it." When he'd gone, the bartender came over and pointed to his still full glass. "He I nodded Boy," hp said, "he sounded like a real character." "A first class nut," I agreed. "Give ine one more lor the road, huh?" My friend Malcolm was moodier than Frank Sinatra at a monastery when he joined me at the bar. He asked for coffee, settled for 7-l'p, pointed at my vodka martini and said wrylv: "Man, don't vou know that stuff will kill you?" If you were making travel posters for North Beach or the Haight-Ashbury, Malcolm would be your poster boy about 25 with longish hair, brooding brown eyes and a wardrobe consisting mainly of an old corduroy jacket, olive green Levi's and Mexican sandals. He works only when the spirit moves him the spirit being his landlord loves jazz and folk-rock, pretends to love poetry, talks a good game of philosophy if you don't go deeper than Kerouac and gives his profession as student if anybody asks him, especially a cop.

He's also the only authentic acid-head 1 know, which accounts for both his depression and our meeting. The subject was California's new law against LSD. "RIGHT NOW all the sources I know are so far underground they must be growing fuzz instead of ducking it," he shrugged when I inquired about the repercussions. "But they'll be back after the first heat wave. Only the price will be up, I guess.

It'll be just like Prohibition." He laughed. "How about that? Needled acid. You'll start out for a nice trip and wind up in Oakland." "So what's the mood on Acid Alley?" I asked. Malcolm watched the bubbles climbing the side of his glass. "Well, there's no joy in Swingsville, if that's what you mean," he said.

"I mean, you figure the people who made the law are knocking acid without trying it. What do they know?" COURT WORDS are a different thing, of course. They deal with acquittals and convictions. But police records that deal only with investigations are meant for crime-hunting, not job-hunting, and they are no one's business but the police. All this is so self-evident that there should be no need to belabor the point.

Instead, in this election year, there should be quite a line-up of State Assembly candidates volunteering to sponsor such a law. I shall be glad to hear from those who are willing to make this a plank in their platform. Kenneth Rexroth Berlin's 'Soft' Ballet ijmmni Niamey Sydney J. Harris A Decalog For Parents 7-7 IiHlismminale Diclionarv "Macbeth" is nowhere, that nowhere occupied by things like "Nabucco." It is overwhelmed by the choruses, the relations between the principals are all reduced to static tableauv. The Berlin cast did not help by singing in the old stand-and-deliver style of (' aruso and Nellie Molba.

Macbeth charged around like a young bull in a china closet. Lady Macbeth confused yelling with acting, which was a pity, because she has a fine voice tor the role otherwise. Only Peter Lagger as Banquo turned in a satisfactory, all around performance. Best of all were the sets, ominous Bronze Age constructions like modern sculpture- the late Wilfred Zogbaum for instance and crazy projections for the witches and the hallucinations, like a bad trip at a rock dance. Why can't we break the stranglehold of the scene painters' union and have tilings like this in America? Zogbaum lived in San Francisco.

Did he design our "Macbeth," years ahead of this Berlin fellow" He did not, nor has anybody connected with the opera heard of him to this day, I'll wager two groschen. Coffin's Needle BERLIN We went to the Berlin Ballet for the first time, and saw two fairly new Cranko choreographies "L'Estro Armonica" with music of Vivaldi, and the redesigned "Firebird" for which Stravinsky has considerably rewritten the score. It was an impressive evening, but my impressions need very definite qualifications. The present Berlin Ballet has been created out of the ruins by the devotion of a few fanatically dedicated people, led by Gert Reinholm and Tatiana Gsovsky. This year, Kenneth Macmillan, who more than any other person is responsible for putting the British Royal Ballet into the first place formerly occupied by the Kirov, has come over from London to help.

This situation, and the nature of the available material, must be understood before the Ballet can he evaluated properly. THE VIVALDI is a leotard ballet designed to show off technical proficiency. Balanchine, or the British, or even the San Francisco company, could give it great snap and thrill. Unfortunately, the Berliners simply do not have all that much technique to show off. They do, however, make the most of Cranko's fascinating and sometimes amusing additions to the standard vocabulary.

This Is a ballet for dancers trained down like fine race horses, and the company Is still too soft. What they do is meet the problems with intelligence where they cannot meet them with great skill. "The Firebird," of course, is a showy ballet where technique can be covered by drama and spectacle. I must say that this production was certainly dramatic and spectacular. And again, the dancers and the direction, and even the changes in Stravinsky's already drastically changed score, showed great intelligence.

This is what ballet needs today everywhere more brains, of the kind it had in the days of Diaghelieff. The Berliners have the brains, give them another year of hard, hard, hard work in the classes and they can be one of the world's leading companies. NEXT NIGHT to see Verdi's "Macbeth." The librettists who Verdi hired to rewrite Shakespeare gave him only one first class piece "Otello," which a lot of people think is better than Shakespeare. As drama the opera ANDY CAPP By Harold Coffin We see by the Congressional Record that they're trying to pack the Cabinet. Ry creating a Secretary of Transportation.

Congress figures the only thing that can slow down today's traffic is government red tape. Everybody who isn't speeding to get there from here is hurrying to arrive here from there. With so much transportation on our highways these days there's hardly room for the ambulance to get to the scene of the accident. The reason you haven't seen any of those new electric automobiles on the highway, it takes time to make a long enough extension cord. Reprinted by request A church conference on "Parents and Children" has asked me to contribute a few lines to its symposium, since I am unable to attend in person.

Knowing full well that almost all advice on child-rearing is futile, I am nevertheless tempted to suggest the following Decalog for Parents: Thou shalt honor no other gods but God. steadfastly refusing to make thy child a minor deity in the household. Thou shalt make no promises that are broken, whether these be promises of pleasure or promises of punishment; for unless thy child learns to respect thy word, he will not respect any person. Thou shalt teach thy child by example, and not by precept; for a parent who teaches a child religion and morality and yet lives by greed, passion and hypocrisy must expect that his conduct will be followed and his counsel ignored. Thou shalt worship the Sabbath communally, with (hy family, and not seek solitary pleasures which plunge each member of the family into social and spiritual isolation when they should be most together.

Thou shalt instill no fears into thy child, but rather impress upon him that love casteth out fear; and that he who commits no wrongs because of fear is merely weak whereas he who pursueth righteousness because of love is truly strong. Thou shalt help thy child accept the variety of mankind with joy and wonder in God's creative originality; and not breed in him that terrible falsa pride of superiority, which stunts and twists the personality of man. Thou shalt be not too much a parent, allowing thy child freely to make his own mistakes, not protecting him unduly from the painful consequences of his errors. Thou shalt not expect nor demand love from thy child simply because thou art his parent; but thou shalt try to win his respect as a person by justice, humor and understanding. Thou shalt not force thy child to develop in thine own image, but assist him in becoming the best kind of person his own nature requires; for we must not judge a child by others, but only by his own potential.

Thou shalt look daily Into thine own heart and examine thy motives; for when thy motives are unpure, love curdles into possessiveness, and thy child is no longer a creature of God. but an instrument of Man's misguided vanity. The new "Random House Dictionary of the English Language" continues that tradition of "scientific" lexicography begun six years ao with publication of Webster's Third International That is, the Rill) is a product of Structural Linguistics which conceives of a dictionary as a reporter of language rather than an arbiter. Thus, instead of such pejorative labels as "Dial." or "lllit." used in pre-Webstcr's Third days, R1ID employs terms like "Standard" or "Nonstandard," which wiuie implying adherence or variation from the norm definitely does not tell users of the Nonstandard that they are wrong. EVEN SO, R1ID takes a stronger stand on soma entries checked than did the hopelessly "objective" Third.

"Ain't," for instance, while receiving the ambiguous Nonstandard label in the III ID, is not quite the product of permissiveness the Third encouraged. used orally 111 most parts of the U.S. by many cultivated speakers esp. in the phrase ain't Webster; should he shunned by all who prefer to avoid being considered One has more difficulty accepting Nonstandard as applied to such a malapropism as "irregardless," which the R1ID first attacks as a redundancy, then defends as "perhaps (the) result of attempting greater emphasis" on the part of a speaker. A forthright "ungram." would be appreciated, but of course judgment is outside the concern of modern linguists.

The lack of qualitative distinction. Irritating enough on such matters, becomes more confusing when extended to definitions. For example under "communist" the noun there are four definitions, three of which are generally agreed upon (an advocate of communism, a party member, a Communard) regardless of politics. But the fourth simply says, "a person who is regarded as supporting politically leftist or subversive causes." IT IS NOT the inclusion of this definition that will throw any uninitiated dictionary user, but its undifferentiated conclusion (communist as per se subversive) does little to make intelligent distinctions-which I would have thought was the very purpose of all those numbered variations. As between Webster's Third and the Bill) one can make one's own "scientific" evaluation, by which the IllII) seems to justify the optimism of its publisher who has ordered a first printing of 150,000 At 13Vi pounds for $47.50, the Third costs a buyer $3.50 a pound.

The RHD (SWi pounds, $19.95 until Jan. 1) is just over $2 a pound More on this new el ere nee work tomorrow. Ry KEG SMYTH i a -V vi THANKS, DOC -NOW GWE ME THE SCIENTIFIC NAME SO A CAN IFTHEcv ANYTHIN THE 1 JUST TELL Mt WELLTO BE MATTER WITH ME DON'T WHAT IT IS IN I FRANK, VOU'RE HIDE IT BEHIND Ty ENGLISH juSt PLUMB LAZY SCIENTIFIC CTt I VcA-t JLl METOR-y Gjfo TELL THE MISSUS? Q-6.