BY DENNIS MURRAY

Will Rogers once said, "The worse things get, the harder we laugh." America has decided to back President Carter's Middle East peace treaty, and we're gonna have peace over there even if we have to shoot them to get it. It takes quite a sense of humor for the Arabs and Jews to understand that we want to promote peace with advanced weaponry. "You can't say civilization don't advance for in every war we kill in a new way." The wit of Will Rogers can still be related to today after 44 years.

Now that we've got a peace treaty with the world, and that we've eliminated the custom of smoking a peace pipe to get it, such as our American Indian's idiosyncrasy, we readily look at our own country's affairs and specifically the energy shortage. If we did have a war, we would probably lose because we don't have enough energy (according to the Arabs). Our nuclear power plants are rotting in their radioactive waste. And nobody wants to dig in the earth for that oversupply of coal that's said to be there. Whoever heard of an electric guitar converting to coal anyway?

Around here Chicago has survived the worst snow storm in its history: the local sports teams stink (say no more), we've got a woman mayor (say nothing at all), and the neighboring swamps and suburbs are preparing for a hot and mosquito infested summer. The most exciting news heard in Des Plaines was the fact that overnight, a population doubled, three bulldogs were born. They're expecting a nanny goat in the morning.

Now for the best laugh of all, Maine West High School! The senior class is awaiting the official document that says, go work buddy, or, as it is more commonly known, diploma. We feel Zepplin's "Whole Lotta Love," smell the electricity frying out Genesis's "Back in New York City," tasting The Allman Brothers eating a peach, hear Jethro Tull's "Songs from the Wood," and we see Frank Zappa's conceptual continuity.

I end this with a belch for all the cold beer that makes living in this civilization so wonderful.