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

Page 33 text:

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.

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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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- NEWS - WORLD Sadot and Begin Talking Peace On November 21. 1977, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt ended an historic journey to Jerusalem and returned to Cairo after pledging with Menahem Begin, leader of Is- rael. “No more war. Sadat, hailed as a “hero of peace, said in his final statement to Israel's cabinet in Jerusalem: “Let us raise two slogans — no war. and security. In the past 30 years, Egyptians and Israelis have fought four wars. The Egyptian President had risk- ed his political future and the uni- ty of the Arab world to speak to his enemies in the capital. Prime Min- ister Begin responded with a sim- ilar sentiment. We have decided no more war between our nations. We will establish peace and live in peace. Sadat also said that there would be no compromise on Arab de- mands for the return of territory captured in 1967 or on the estab- lishment of a Palestinian home- land. Begin said the visit was a real success for both countries and for the cause of peace. Wiiat part does the United States play in the Egyptian-Isracli sce- nario? According to Richard Steele in an article in Newsweek Maga- zine: Sadat's bold steps took much of the initiative away from the U.S. in the Mideast negotiations. Bather than the comprehensive process Carter pushed for. the Egyptians and Israelis were negotiating most- ly with each other, and the Admin- istration saw the virtues of the ap- proach ... Washington’s new role was to ensure that they kept talk- ing — to bolster Sadat's initiatives. urge Israel to be forthcoming and lobby the recalcitrant Arabs and Russians to join the (iiaJogue to- ward an eventual all-over agree- ment. It remains to he seen how successful the U.S. is in this trou- bled region. ■ Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Gandhi Arrested Indira Gandhi was THE power in India for 11 years. In March 1977. Mrs. Gandhi was turned out of office along with the Congres- sional party by the Janata party coalition. Her final 21 months in power were under emergency laws. After openly daring the new In- dian Government to arrest her, Mrs. Gandhi was suddenly obliged on October 3 when officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation en- tered her New Delhi home and wish- ed the former Prime Minister off to stand before a magistrate on charges of corruption in office. The magistrate ordered her re- lease. however, saying the govern- ment under Prime Minister Morarji Desai gave insufficient grounds for detaining her. Though the government appealed the magistrate's decision, support far Gandhi was evidently still strong in India. Across the nation, demonstrators came together to cheer the woman who formerly was their controversial leader. u Jim Hummel (AP) drawing of Israeli P.M. Menahem Begin and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat. 30