Itt-Ott, 1977 (10. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1977 / 1. szám
THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION For 103 Years the South’s Standard Newspaper TUESDAY, JANUARY II, 1977 PAGE Í-A Bill Shipp Plains: The Victim of Election Has it been duly recorded that prcS ably the most orderly group of petitioners to visit Plains over the weekend was two busloads of Hungarians? This is not meant as a putdown for the Hungarians but to many of the others who came: The Clennon Kings, the prayer-in-theschools crowd, the ban the bombers, those protesting the Georgia bar exam, etc. they have found that the surest way to gain national exposure for their causes, worthy or goofy, is to visit Jimmy Carter's hometown, particularly on a Sunday when chureh is in session and the next president is in residence. So they push their way to the front of the crowd, mug the cameras, grant interviews and shove aside orderly delegations (such as the Hungarians) who came to air their grievances. The Hungarians paid $50 for a parade permit, brought the Carter family gifts and asked to be heard by a Carter aide concerning the alleged persecution of Hungarians by Rumania. They were particularly grave about the Transylvania problem. Now this may not be the No. 1 item on Jimmy Carter’s list of foreign policy troubles to deal with when he is finally sworn in as president. Nevertheless, if one believes the reports, from southwest Georgia, the Hungarian-Americans behaved themselves well, even to the point of resisting the temptation to punch out Clennon King who decided he had heard enough about Rumanians and wanted to discuss the spiritual future of Clennon King. By just about any definition, Clennon King qualifies as a shoivy crank and not much else. King who apparently is spending six days a week as a candidate for Congress from Atlanta and the seventh trying to crash the Plains Baptist Church demonstrates as much as anyone the problem with the overkill news coverage of Jimmy Carter, the town of Plains and everything around it By just about any definition, Clennon King qualifies as a showy crank and not much else. Anywhere else he would be ignored, arrested or committed. But here in the new president’s hometown, he is photographed, interviewed and treated as if he were at least a bishop, even if he is trying to disrupt a congregation that plainly does not want him around. I haven’t visited Plains in some months now. I am told it has taken on a carnival atmosphere, created by souvenir shops, arriving and departing celebrities, newsmen and crackpots. That is more than a little sad. I wonder if the people who erected that red-white-and-blue sign a few years • ago proclaiming Plains as the home of Georgia’s next governor and later as the home of the next president are still so proud of what Jimmy Carter has brought to their town. I think not. For Plains and its people -may have lost something they will not soon regain — the right to be left alone, not to be ogled nor molested by the loonies of the world. Perhaps when Jimmy Carter finally moves away and starts operating from the White House, little Plains may find some temporary peace again. But certainly the first family will want to return to its old stomping grounds on occasion, to be followed by the inevitable retinue of aides, guards, newsmen and Clennon Kings. And the town's peace and privacy will again disappear. 30
