WE'RE ALL BOZOS...

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Friday's (Oct. 19) Crimson carried an article on the H-R Shuttle Bus which seemed to me very pessimistic in tone. My major objection is to the impression that there is little sense of community on the bus. I find it much easier to talk to strangers on the bus than I do at many other student gatherings (the Union at lunch, faculty sherries, etc.). The reason is that the bus, a goofy-looking vehicle, naturally attracts your sympathy if not your affection. Its novelty is an ice-breaker. The bus drivers may describe themselves as loners, but as any hitch-hiker who has been picked up by the king of the loners--the long-haul truck driver--can tell you, loners are often the most friendly people going. Jack, who knows me by my first name, is a jokester and friendly story-teller. Although I may look like a clown and invite razzing, I have been teased in a good natured way by the other drivers. In short, I think those drivers are perky turkeys. They may be turkeys for taking a monotonous job, but it certainly has not ground down their personalities to the lonely drones that were pictured in the article.

Ride the bus sometime when it gets packed with 43 people again and see if the bus isn't also filled with chatter, giggles, smiles and stories of filled phone booths. You should have been with us the time two junior high toughs had stalemated themselves in a fight which had reached the point of verbal threats and hair pulling. It really appeared that they did not want to keep fighting but did not know how to get out of it without losing face. So, we asked Jack to stop, we all piled out and pulled them apart (they barely resisted), and then we went on home: service to the community. I call that community spirit.

For many years, it has been fashionable to make fun of mass transit while GM and Ford assault us with their million dollar seduction jobs. For the Crimson to abuse a bus is to further encourage people to use individual transit (to drive cars and take taxis), meaning more pollution, more dependence on foreign oil, more asphalt, more parking lots, etc. We should use our college years as a chance to establish good vibes with mass transit and develop less environmentally destructive transportation habits. Charles G. Garlow '74