Somebody Else's Backyard

Richard W. Paul, 43, is a white-collar worker at a General Electric plant in Pittsfield, Mass. One of six children of a Lithuanian immigrant, he grew up in Worcester. He fought as a Marine in World War II in the Pacific and can still do 400 sit-itps. He lives with his father-in-law, his wife, who also works at G.E., and his eleven-year-old daughter. His concern with such issues as welfare and dissent impelled him to seek, and win, a seat on the Pittsfield city council.

ONE of my brothers has cerebral palsy, but he still works. Work is part of your life. I can remember even my mother washing sidewalks. I can remember when we were on welfare, how ashamed we were to have to go and stand in line to get a grapefruit, vegetables, juice and potatoes. This was WPA. You had a card, and my father earned so much food because he had to work. So we got the feeling that welfare was O.K. to a degree. You had to do something for it then. But today, you're just on welfare; it's a profession --almost an honorable profession.

The young people are probably looking for something that tells them why they exist, but a few go too far. These are the kids of the wealthy people. They can take the time off. But they tee you off. Maybe you envy these kids because they are smarter than you were, or because they have more opportunities. But what nauseates the average guy is the long hair and these goofy costumes. Those people are not scared of Communism, even though it exists. I always feel that it must be a big left-wing movement that is supplying all this money and causing all this trouble, trying to ruin our particular way of life.

I don't think that they have the right to encroach upon the schools, the rules and regulations. I get enraged when I see a man like a dean of a university being held literally a captive in his own office. I don't think these kids understand war. All they know is that people are being killed. So what? There are people being killed on the highways, and what do we do about that? Look at the crime rate today, and what do we do about that?

The young people are saying, "Why should I have to go to war? This is a free country."' Well, it's not that free. Nothing is free. Why should I have to go to work? There have to be rules. There have to be regulations. Everybody should give a part of their life to the military. I've seen too many people being let go, getting deferments that they really didn't deserve, too many kids going to school to get a deferment who didn't really want to go. And some poor guys who can't afford to go to college have to go into the service. This is very unfair.

There is a movement in this country to discredit our nation. I was born here. I appreciate this country. I came from a poor family. I try to mind my own business. I go to work and hope the job will last, but I'm getting squeezed. The middle people, they're being told by the poor that they have to put up houses for them, they're being told by the rich that they have to support this program to build houses for the poor. I know, O.K., the poor might benefit, but the rich guy, the so-called do-gooder, he sounds so morally fine but doesn't know what the hell poor is. I'm angry because I keep getting kicked around. I'm getting squeezed by the Urban Coalition, these bankers, everybody who thinks they are doing these poor people a favor by moving them into somebody else's backyard--as long as it isn't their backyard.

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