Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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NEWS THE NATION Carter Close-up At the close of 1977. Jimmy Car- ter held 'll months as President of the United States under his belt. During those 11 months. Carter had seen many of his hopes frustrated and much of his innocence had vanished. His intentions had been good, but often too unrealistic to be practical. At the start of 1978, he resolved to make a similar but less idealistic set of dreams come true. In January of 1977. Jimmy Carter had taken his oath of office, his famous smile rePecting his eternal optimism. He was soon to discover the dis- couragements common to national leaders. At the end of 1977, Carter’s top- priority energy program was at a standstill in Congress, no con- clusions had been reached (nor were they expected in the near fu- ture) for his tax and welfare re- forms and unemployment figures were still unsettlingly high. Particularly significant in 1977 was the Bert Lance affair, which helped to undermine the President's reputation for integrity and hon- esty. Lance. Carter's director of the Office of Management and Budget, had several charges leveled against him by five federal agencies which put Carter, who had publicly pro- claimed his faith in his OMB direc- tor, in a bad light. In a gallup poll for Newsweek in September 1977. half the people be- lieved Carter tried to protect Lance too much and 26 percent said they had lowered their opinions of Car- ter's ethicai standards as a result of the Bert Lance scandal. But there were successes, even if the disappointments tended to take precedence in the news headlines. President Jimmy Carter. Among them were a $20 billion economic-recovery package, an employment act for the nation’s youth, a government-reorganization bill, a new energy department and some promising diplomatic in- itiatives. One of the problems with 1977, press secretary Jody Powell said in a Newsweek interview, was that everybody was too busy nudging this, kicking that, trying to get everything off the ground. We should have stood up early and said, ‘look, folks, this is going to be a hell of a year. We’ve got a lot to get cracking. Bear with us’. But nothing was said. and the results were obvious. Newsweek continued to say that the basic workaholic Jimmy was the one thing that hadn't changed during his year in office. But he had learned one im- portant lesson, that is, the perils of trying to do everything at once — and the difficulty of getting any- thing done at all. ■ Fighting Gays Anita Bryant, singer and former beauty queen, learned public hatred in 1977. Her anti-homosexual cru- sade has made her notorious, par- ticularly after her successful at- tempt in June to repeal a Miami ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals in the housing and job markets. Heady with her victory, Ms. Bryant sought to start a national campaign against ho- mosexuality. At one place, her stance on the issue earned her a pie in the face. Ms. Bryant has written a book. The Anita Bryant Story, subtitled: The Survival of Our Nation’s Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality. ■ Flood Disaster In November of 1977. after five inches of rain fell on Toccoa, Georgia, a dam hurst, sending a 30 foot-high wall of water roaring into the Georgia Valley. Thirty-eight people at the Toccoa Falls Bible College perished, trailers were to from the ground and cars floated away. The dam was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of a large amount of water — water it should have been able to constrain. The Toccoa tragedy should never have happened. It was another in a series of indicators that the Dam Inspection Act passed by Congress in 1972 was not being properly en- forced. The Army Corps of Engineers conducted an inventory of the na- tion's dams listing 9,000 as high hazard , meaning there could be substantial loss of life and property if any failed. ■ Al‘ pho«ot courf» y Onto- Dully Time» 28

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The Laurel Trrr Srolo Secretary DoLores State's Secretary Tucker Fired Monitor Secretary of the Com- m°nwcallh C. Da Lores Tucker be- conic the new vice-president of Broadcast station WYIS in Phoe- nixville, PA, in December of 1977. It jvas the second time Tucker was in 0 neivs during the year. The first 'vas when Gov. Milton Shapp fired or in September for her use of •s ofe employees in writing her pub- lc speeches. The speeches earned 1 uckcr close to $60.000. flicker, thoroughly dissatisfied With'that as the reason behind her ormination as secretary, retaliated Y Saying Shapp dismissed her So e V f°r political reasons. I ennsylvania‘s Governor Mllion Shapp. Stale College’s Republican Mayor Addison. Addison Elected In November 1977. 53 percent of the registered Centre County voters turned to the polls for local elec- tions. There are seven Hcpublican and 11 Democratic precincts in State College. In the most publi- cized local election. Republican Municipal Councilman Arnold Ad- dison defeated Democrat Greg Stewart in the race for Mayor. Mayor Jo Hays did not seek re- election. Three Democratic Munici- pal Council members were also chosen — Ronald Abler. Dorothy Lennig and Ingrid Holtzmun. In an upset. Richard Sharp, a Philipsburg Democrat, was elected Centre County fudge over District Attorney Charles Drown. m Johnstown Flooded Nothing can be as awesomely de- structive as the forces of nature at raging work, as Johnstown resi- dents learned last summer in the hardest way possible as the Con- emaugh River overflowed its banks, sending a lethal supply of water into the city. fuly 20 article in a local newspaper read. Eight hours of rain swelled creeks over their banks today, isolating many com- munities and pouring a waist-high torrent into this southwestern Penn- sylvania city, which was almost wiped out in the infamous John- stown Flood of 1669. As a result of the '77 flood, over 2.000 people were left homeless in Cambria County alone. By the day after the flood's onset. 32 people were known dead with more bodies yet to be discovered. When cleanup got underway at least 36 more bodies were found and estimates of property damage had reached the $200 million mark. Gov. Shapp declared a state of extreme emergency for the John- stown area and 7 over western counties. Many groups, among them VISTA volunteers. Mcn- nonites and the electrical workers’ union, worked to clean up flood debris. One VISTA volunteer noted that the flood had ripped the walls off an apartment building, leaving apartments intact. The city has had flooding problems since 1889. m Jmf. “! r Dam which broke, unleashing raging waters through the Johnstown area. riint n III T)I mutiny G'nlfr Daily Time 27

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Cross Country ... Although 1977 had its pleasant points, throughout the year death and disaster were splashed across the front pages of newspapers and the covers of maga- zines. On a hot midsummer's night in New York City a bolt of lightning struck electrical equipment and plunged the city into darkness for 25 hours, causing chaos and disorder to run rampant. Early in February disaster struck an- other of the nation's large cities when a Chicago Transit Authority elevated train fell to the sidewalk in the downtown loop, killing 12 persons and injuring 160 others. The crash occurred during a Friday night rush hour. Moving far north to Deadshorc, Alaska, the trouble-plagued oil pipeline was shutdown three times in 16 days. Twice in less lhan a month a truck hit a section of the line, the second time caus- ing 4,000 gallons of oil to spray from it. An explosion was the cause of an ear- lier shutdown and was blamed on hu- man error.” People in the 1977 news included mass killer Gary Gilmore who caused a capi- tal punishment controversy with his crimes rather than serve a life-time sen- tence. His death wish was met in Janu- ary when he tossed down a drink and faced a firing squad. After a six-month manhunt New York City police captured another killer, David Berkowitz. Calling himself Son of Sam,” Berkowitz mur- dered six young people at the request, he said, of a dog. A myriad of celebrity deaths were in the 1977 news (see page 35), among them actress Joan Crawford, silent film star Charlie Chaplin and Senator Hubert Humphrey. m From lop loft: Anita Bryant: Gary Gilmore; Chicago El-train crash: Liz Carpenter. Rosalynn Carter. Betty Ford. Elly Peterson at ERA rally; K'eiv York City daring and after Jnly blackout.