The convention question

Biographies of New York Mayor and Congressman Fiorello H. La Guardia are rhetorical acts that affirm La Guardia as an American hero by establishing and vitalizing his image. The biographies differ to a great extent depending on whether a biographer had a professional affiliation with La Guardia. Writers not affiliated with him use documented sources, direct quotations, and personal observations, and emphasize the themes of the Puritan Ethic and Progress/Competitiveness. Those associated with La Guardia exhibit highly general, idealistic portrayals and dramatize La Guardia's image with the more mythic themes of success, equality of opportunity, morality, and pragmatic humanitarianism.     

The Davi 1969 Convention

Any European attempting to report on an American convention tends to have two major problems: firstly confusion, resulting from the large scale of the convention; and, secondly, an inability to identify himself closely with the social background against which the convention is set. This second problem was particularly apparent at this year's DAVI National Convention at Portland, Oregon, which had as it's pervading theme ‘Media and Social Crisis’: the ways in which the new communications media could help in coping with the ‘educational-social crisis’ which America faces. Certainly the problem of student alienation is one which we too have experienced (though one gathers the problem is more serious in America), but the way in which this is compounded by tensions between racial groups is outside European experience. However one cannot but admire the blunt, head-on manner in which the situation was put to the Convention members during the five general sessions, and the genuine attempts which were made to look deeply into the causes of the problems and see how the DAVI membership might move to alleviate the situation.