(3 of 4)
Sir: Three cheers for the Ford Foundation! It is time someone began teaching Americans their native tongue [Feb. 18]. But why stop with the American Negro? Slurred and mispronounced speech is one of the characteristics most frequently noted by foreign visitors among Americans. Classes like those you describe should be available to all students with poor speech.
JOHN M. BRENNAN
Port Jefferson, N.Y.
Sir:
We wondered, as we drove South last December, when we would notice dialectolalia. It happened in Tennessee, when the gas-station attendant responded to my "Fill 'er up" by saying, "Hahtaste?" In a Florida state park the ranger said, "Ahmtored. Hadahordnot."
GEORGE JOHNSON
Wausau, Wisconsin
Sir:
It is too late for the Ford Foundation to save the U.S. from so-called Amos 'n' Andy accents. Dig the President! Dig
Gershwin! Dig all the rock 'n' roll beat groups! Pick up on all the bestselling novels! Because I am one of them millions of "can-not-be/shall-not-be/integrated or (Uncle Ralph Bunche) assimilated," I figure it's best to talk, walk, sing and swing like a true nigger! It is like my music, jazz. It's personal, and the sounds often change from nigger to Negro and from colored to Afro. That's our sound. It's our contribution to the world, it's pure Afro-American. It's beautiful. 'Taint necessarily so that our sounds have to go.
TED JOANS
jazz poet en route to Dakar
College of the Air
Sir:
Your story on radio's vitality [Feb. 18] fails to mention college radio. While most college operations are limited to the campus, many are expanding. My own station, the country's oldest college station, has turned dream into reality: we have expanded to a 20,000-watt stereo FM station to serve Southern New England with public affairs and music programs. College radio is on the move—I believe that many of tomorrow's radio executives are getting their start at college stations rather than in broadcasting schools.
FRED BRACK
Program Director WBRU
Brown University
Providence
Prof's Pride
Sir:
I appreciated your excellent piece on the Berkeley, Calif., Police Department [Feb. 18]. Every word of it is correct. I have special pride in the department because I am the sole remaining member of the University of California group that helped Chief Vollmer establish a modern department. Soon after Vollmer (a former mail carrier) became chief, he consulted Professors Jessica Peixotto, A. M. Kidd and me. Dr. Peixotto was a member of the State Board of Charities and Corrections and taught criminology; Professor Kidd taught criminal law; I, formerly at Stanford, had also taught criminology and been chairman of the probation committee of the Juvenile Court of Santa Clara County. We drafted plans for the department and gave lectures on criminology to Vollmer's staff.
IRA B. CROSS
Retired Flood Professor of Economics
Berkeley, Calif.
Acting It Out
Sir: