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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 9,1968
Driver Improvement Clinic
'We could take away their licenses'
By STEVE HAYNES Kansan Staff Writer
It begins with a mimeographed letter from the Motor Vehicle Department.
"Refer to our file 'DC' . . ."
it says, "... our files show you have been convicted of three moving violations. ... you are invited to attend a Driver Improvement Clinic. ... no one attending the clinic will be caused any embarrassment by your presence there. ... if you do not attend, you drivers license will be suspended." The letter is signed: L. A. Billings, superintendent.
The small yellow slip attached to the letter says the invitation is for 1:45 p.m., September 30, Auditorium, basement, State Office Building, Topeka.
Most people accept.
Auditorium, basement, State Office Building, Topeka is a small room, about twice the size of a big B & G truck.
There are more than 40 people in the "auditorium" already—and there's a line.
Two men sit at the door, checking in the guests. One of them, his name plate says, is J. A. McGinnis, assistant chief drivers license examiner for the first (eastern Kansas) district. The other is also an assistant chief examiner, but he leaves.
Next is the main event. The Sermon. H. E. Fleckenstein, also an assistant chief examiner, is in charge now. If he looks like a cop, it's because he was.
Before leaving, though, he passes out a booklet with the instructions: "Fill out the front and back, but don't open." Party games, yet.
Twenty years, he says, he spent as a Kansas trooper. Before that, he was a county sheriff somewhere west of U.S. 81.
He begins by welcoming the crowd—thanking them for kindly accepting their invitations—and assuring them the department was not kidding about their licenses.
With the fervor of an old-time evangelist, he tells about the wrecks he has seen in the 25-old years as a peace officer. About the mangled six year olds and paralyzed young mothers.
The audience, of course they're mostly boys under 20, there are only eight females seems to think it corny. Maybe it is.
Fleckenstein doesn't think so. And he saw those wrecks.
what is wrong with the people of this country," he asks, "when they can't watch out for their children?"
"Why must 52,500 of them die each year on the highways of this nation? Why must 4 million by injured?" The wise kid in the third row does not have an answer. Neither does anyone else. At the time he had to tell
About the time he had to tell the mother about . . .
What is wrong, anyway?
And it is corny. Isn't it?
About the drunk who was sitting on the Union Pacific tracks, somewhere out in God's country, a hundred feet from the nearest road, his back wheels up in the air, but still keeping the speedometer right at 60.
About...
And now, the film, "Anatomy of an Accident," a Bell System production. About a phone man who was a big wheel in the company safety program and knows all about safe driving. Only he kills himself—and his kid. He comes back (on the third
day, we suppose) to find his wife and daughter selling off the house and furniture.
Just like an anthropology class "Wake that young man up back there," Fleckenstein shouts.
Lights. "The booklet we gave you as you came in is a true-false test. You have eight minutes to finish it." McGinnis says.
And maybe it is anthro .
The questions. Triangular shape—"This is a stop sign. True or False?"
Round shape—"This is a railroad sign."
30 possible points. No one scores less than 26.
"The film had a nice moral, didn't it? Hope you liked it. Thanks for coming . . . any questions?" he asks.
And the obnoxious old woman in the back row has several. Everyone seems tired of listening to Fleckenstein, now they can listen to her.
The wise kid in the third row has some too. He's here on a bum rap. So are the others. Aren't we all?
Fleckenstein, of course, means
what he says. He's spent far too many years listening to people's excuses and picking up after their mistakes.
The wise kid in the third row and the lady in the back don't get it though. Corny. Sentimental. Bum rap.
"My son was going to the hospital with a police escort and . . . . " she whines. " . . . and this stupid cop wouldn't . . . "
The kid says.
"Maybe cops do get a little hard," Fleckenstein says, "when you see what . . ." And they do, too. After 25 years, who wouldn't?
Fleckenstein, of course, means what he says. He's spent far too many years listening to people's excuses and picking up after their mistakes.
The wise kid in the third row and the lady in the back don't get it though. Corny. Sentimental. Bum rap.
So the kid gets in his '57 Chevy with mags and all, and the old lady in her one-owner '49 Dodge. And they leave.
"We don't know if these things do any good," McGinnis
War speech boosts Hubert
NEW YORK (UPI)—Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey has taken a lead over Richard M. Nixon among voters who watched or read about his television statement on the Vietnam War, according to a new poll.
Sindlinger & Co. reported Tuesday that of 1,804 Americans of voting age in 48 states it questioned by telephone Friday through Monday, 703 knew of Humphrey's adress in which he promised to stop bombing in Vietnam if the North Vietnamese agreed to neutralization of the Demilitarized Zone.
Among the 703, Sindlinger said, 37 per cent now "most wanted to see" Humphrey elected president, 29.9 per cent wanted Nixon, 13.7 per cent wanted third party candidate George C. Wallace, 12.0 per cent had no opinion and 7.3 per cent wanted none of the three candidates.
Among the 1,101 who had not watched, read or heard about the statement, Nixon still led with 37.1 per cent favoring his candidacy compared to 26.1 per cent for Humphrey, 199.4 per cent for Wallace, 7.2 per cent with no the presidency.
Sindlinger, a Norwood, Pa., firm specializing in market analysis, said 357 persons told its interviewers they watched Humphrey deliver his statement on television and 478 read about it in a newspaper, indicating that 132 did both.
JAKARTA (UPI)—The water hyacinth, a water-clogging weed, grows so thickly in the Indonesian island of Java it forms floating islands so stable that the farmers grow rice on them.
Hyacinth in Agriculture
Sindlinger conducts its polls by long distance telephone from New York. The numbers called are chosen by a computer chosen to make a representative sampling based on sociological data.
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says afterwards, "but we hope they do."
"We're trying to be nice," he adds. "We could just take away their licenses."
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