Vouchers Pay for Strip Mall Education Debbie Nathan on Laredo's

Michael King on Austin Thrillers

Vouchers Pay for Strip Mall Education

,;15.•$;,` EL SHAM! NEW HOPE TIA A ADEMY

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Debbie Nathan on Laredo's Colonial Pomp The Lege Rocks, Rolls, and Deregulates Ronnie Dugger on Political Dead Ends DIALOGUE

FIGHTIN' ILLINI I live in southern Illinois, which is a considerable distance from Texas, but am a longtime fan of Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower. I read Ms. Ivins' article in the Progressive about the dearth of investigative journals in these days and times. I sent for my sample of the Observer, and was very pleased, and even though the focus is on Texas, there is considerable overlap with the political and global problems that face the remaining states. Mainstream media is not really concerned about mainstream anymore; it's all about not ruffling corporate and lobby interests. Public television, public radio and a few newspapers and very few magazines have the gumption (an oft-used Texas description) to take on the "real issues," and I'm sure they see the shadows of the corporate nooses hanging over their heads. As Mother Jones urged, keep up the good fight and raise hell! I'll be there with you. John 0. Gilmore Anna, Illinois

COMBAT CYNICISM Please tell Don Graham, who reviewed Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line ("The Past is Teary," February 5), the reason the elderly Ryan visited the cemetery at Omaha Beach, where, as Graham takes pains to note, Ryan did not fight, is because he wanted to visit the grave of Captain Miller (Tom Hanks). Miller and his men saved Ryan. If Graham had stayed awake, he would have seen Miller's headstone, noting Miller died June 13, 1944, seven days after, Omaha Beach. Miller commanded Ryan, seconds before Miller died, to "Earn it!" (meaning Ryan's salvation). Graham denigrates any attempt`to depict war in film and asks "...how did (Steven) Spielberg know what the real war was like?" He notes Spielberg talked with historian Stephen E. Am- brose, who talked to veterans. The better question is, how does the superciliously .cynical Graham know what real war is like? Please ask Graham to detail his combat experience. . unions, academic freedom, dignity for African- passionately needed, as the Christian Coalition Robert Heard Americans, and, a living wage for Mexican- is dominating Republican Party politics, seek- Austin Americans — you were a Communist. ing to move government money into the Is it better today in Texas? If so, only a little. churches' bank accounts. And to know that Sam DorzGraham'responds: In the McCarthy days, they shot the messenger. Houston Clinton and Maury Maverick defended Happily, Don Graham has never been shot at — Now they buy him off. her in court! May they live in memory forever. so. far. All he knows about combat is what he I am the last of the "Big Four" who voted Otto B. Mullinax reads, not what he sees. Finally, citizen Graham against outlawing the Communist Party. When Dallas is fully cognizant of the fact that Captain Miller this legislation was first introduced, it had a saved Private Ryan, else the old boy wouldn't provision in it for the death penalty for mere have made the trip to Europe with his family to membership. CORRECTION look at the cross of Captain Miller. Duh. Spiel- Maury Maverick, Jr. "The Bush Beat" Gremlin has struck again, berg's cinema is clear if it is anything. • San Antonio dropping the final line of "Bush Beat," page 6, February 6. The final sentence should read: A MAVERICK'S FAREWELL 0, MADALYN! Unfortunately for Bush, a "balanced ap- Yesterday (February 11) Edgar Berlin, my I am indebted to Louis Dubose for his eye- proach" cannot provide a partisan political deskinate in the Texas House of Representa- opening essay on Madalyn Murray O'Hair, soundbite on education — nor can it appease tives for six years, died ,of prostate cancer in an atheist, which appeared in the February issue of the Governor's right-wing supporters, who Austin hospital. - . • The. Progressive. That woman dedicated her life remain desperately hooked on phonics. We were there during the worst of.the• Jpe to the principle of separation of church and state We apologize for the confusion. McCarthy era, when — if you believed in in our national Constitution. And she is now

2 •.; THE TEXAS OBSERVER • MARCH 5, 1999 THIS ISSUE ■

DEPARTMENTS FEATURES BOOKS AND THE CULTURE Dialogue Edgewood Under Siege by Jeff Mandell 8 Death and Life 25 The Lege is high on school vouchers, saying they will help Poetry by Tom Absher Editorial 3 students and force the public schools to improve. But vouchers The New Austin 26 Voucher Skin Game have already hit San Antonio, and the news isn't quite so upbeat. Book Review by Michael King by Louis Dubose

Pocahontas on . the Rio Grande by Debbie Nathan 12 JFK's Indoor Quarry 28 Left Field • In,which , our fearless correspondent travels to Laredo in search Book Review by Char Miller El Paso Web -News, Marsh of the true meaning of George Washington's birthday, the curious Signs,Bush Beat. Psychics & Us vs. Them 30 history of the Hispano-Indians, and how to sell a parade. Book Review by Edward Herman Wichita Falls Down Afterword 31 The Bad Bills Girl 16 Jim Hightower 21 Las Americas 24 The Lying Game Granny Pilgrim Salinas Bruja-ja 17 by Lucius Lomax Political Intelligence & Banana Wars by Barbara Belejack The Back Page 32 Molly Ivins 20 ObserVations 22 Getting Behind Uher Compassion for Whom? Dugger on the Democrats Cover photo by E.R.N. Reed

EDITORIAL Jumpin J1V1n• • at the Lege hile the warm February sun So this is yet again one of Ron Wilson's efore considering what Wilson said shines on the south steps of the moments — and it promises to be way over to the February 16 voucher rally, it is WCapitol, there occurs a brief ex- the top, like the many public moments that B worthwhile to set the scene, to draw change that helps illustrate how • voucher have by now defined him as a caricature of what the public schoolteachers Wilson rou- politicswork in Texas. • • a "bad" black legislator. If someone in the tinely beats up on might call a sociograph. "Hey, niy- • main man. How are .you, Mexican-American caucus stands up and Imagine yourself facing north at the end brother?" Lieutenant Governor RiCk Perry warns that cutting education funds will re- of the long promenade that leads up to the asks Houston . Democratic Representative sult in delinquency, Wilson tops that with a Capitol. Stage right is Melinda Whatley, Ron Wilson. "flow are.' y ou,' _brother?". threat that "black kids are going to come the lobbyist for James Leininger's Texas Perry is a fifty-year old, right-wing, white, out into the, suburbs where you think Public Policy foundation. With her are sev- rural Republican: frOni• Haskell,. and 'while . you're safe and get you." If a Republican eral nondescript white men from Putting some black folks might find his jive 'a bit legislator 'says the teachers' lobby has a Children First or the Coalition for School

condescending, .the Main Man thinks it's vested interest in opposing voucher legisla- Choice, groups that Leininger has under- . fine. In fact, he-has been-invited to lend the tion, Wilson agrees — and walks to the written to work on a voucher program that imprimatur of black political establish- lectern at the front of the House to deride would take tax money from public schools ment to a private school voucher "move- school administrators, teachers, their pro- and give it to parents to pay for tuition in ment" funded by the Christian Right fessional associations' lobbyists as "pimps private schools.

particular, , one white San Anionio. multi- and bloodsuckers, living off the blood of At stage left are the real lobbyists hired ' millionaire . who dedicated ten, years and little children." If Al Edwards wears a by Leininger. Former legislator and Bush. millions • of dollars to dismantling the sports coat and jeans, 'Ron Wilson wears a legislative liaison-turned-lobbyist, Cliff state's civil justice system, electing the sports coat and leather pants. From con- Johnson; Ann Richards' former spokes- most anti-plaintiff, anti-consumer Supreme cealed weapons bills, to the lottery, to person Chuck McDonald; and Reggie Court in the nation, and recruiting and vouchers, to sartorial and rhetorical excess, Bashur, a longtime Republican operative funding conservative Christian candidates Ron Wilson is always the guy out front — who has been involved in party politics in legislative races. Dr. • James Leininger always the Main Man. And today, like since before he worked for Governor Bill also- loaned $1 million to Rick Perry's cam- Rick Perry, the Main Man is working for Clements. (Bashur says he is only "doing paign (while handing: out $1,000 political "The Man." Perry isn't the brightest guy to publicity" for the voticher group.) contributions . to, minority 'representatives ever preside over the Senate, but he knows And where you are standing, at the north such. as .Wilson). A .few minority 'leaders; that Wilson will be useful in advancing. end of the broad sidewalk in front of the like the minority students bused into James Leininger's voucher agenda. And Capitol, is what in South Texas they call Austin for the Y event, 'are essential to the Leininger is the man whose money put raza,' the people. In this case, raza — the success of the right's voucher agenda. Perry in the position he now holds. grass of this putative grassroots movement

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 3 V

— has been brought to Austin by a front of the Capitol — the people that Bivins — who actually have the political Leininger group and led across downtown taught those kids. That is a shame! Shame! power to pass a bill, if it is to pass. Bivins by white men who use their cell phones to Shame! Shame on them! will file his bill "soon," he says. I ask him keep in touch with Leininger's in-house lob- "Let me tell you, there's some folks up what sort of conditions will be attached to byist Whatley. here that care about you. We goin' to work tax dollars moving from public to private In a larger sense, what we have here is until we get blue in the face and until our schools. "The students will be required to sit George Bush's "new coalition" — in a pre- knuckles are raw, trying to get this program for the T.A.A.S.," he responds. Will the carious triangle that has money and power done. Kent Grusendorf right here worked schools be required to admit all applicants, on the west, the Christian right on the east, his head off," Wilson said, referring to the offer special education services, hire certi- and at the dead-center-south apex, the eth- dour Arlington Republican who has been fied teachers? Will there be any Texas Edu- nic minorities the party is "serving." an implacable opponent of equity funding cation Agency role, any other state require- It is to this latter group, most of them el- that would provide money for the state's ments attached to the money given to public ementary and middle-school children from poorest public schools. "You need to thank schools? Bivins, a courtly Panhandle St. John Bosco Catholic School in San An- him for that. This is not a popular position. rancher/businessman, answers the questions tonio, that Ron Wilson is prepared to give a We going to do it. We going to work to get with one succinct word: "No." civics lesson. Wilson steps up to the mike it right. Because, the future leaders of this Asked the same questions, Perry — who and the children stop their "school choice, state are sitting right here. But let me tell has just told the crowd that he knows that school choice" chant to listen. you what. If we don't give them an educa- competition created by public-funded pri- "What are they afraid of?" Wilson asks, tion, they won't be. They'll end up in vate schools will improve public schools setting up the public school teachers he T.D.C., they'd rather lock 'em up than — says that "certainly there will be ac- will knock down a few sentences later. teach 'em. We not goin' stand for it. countability. There will be accountability "Are they afraid that it's going to work? "Now's the time to draw a line in the dirt." measures — as we debate the bill we will Are they afraid that it's going to show that The children cheer, although some of be more specific about that." And before they haven't been doing their jobs? Are them look a bit bewildered. Rick Perry has Bivins walks back into the Capitol, he they afraid it's going to show that they just promised them he will fight for a raise promises a "carefully crafted experiment" don't really care? Well, maybe they ought for public school teachers, told them about with vouchers. to get some other jobs, then." competition, and vowed to fight for vouch- While the public awaits the Legislature's He continues: "In the paper in Houston, ers. Teel Bivins has promised them that he decision (and there is a chance the bill will the other day, the Houston Chronicle, they will file a bill. And Ron Wilson has just told get no farther than the committee to which had a report card, talk about how all them that public school teachers ought to be House Speaker Pete Laney, a voucher oppo- schools did on T.A.A.S. There's some publicly whipped in front of the Capitol. nent, assigns it), James Leininger has begun schools in there that had a 17 percent pas- When Wilson is finished he stands around a private voucher experiment of his own, sage rate on the math test. We ought to take for a few minutes. But the press pack is those people out and cane 'em, right here in drawn to Perry and Amarillo Senator Teel See "Vouchers," page 21

VOLUME 91, NO. 4 The Texas Observer (ISSN 0040-4519/ USPS 541300), entire contents copyrighted, A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES 1999, is published biweekly except for SINCE 1954 a four-week interval between issues in January and July (24 issues per year) by the Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 Editors: Louis Dubose, Michael King non-profit corporation, 307 West 7th Street, Assistant Editor: Mimi Bardagjy Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Associate Editor: Karen Olsson E-mail: [email protected] Office Manager: Ayelet Hines World Wide Web DownHome page: Production: Harrison Saunders http://texasobserver.org . Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, Texas.

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4 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 LEFT FIELD

Interviewed by e-mail, editor Vargas Sticking it to Gannett in El Paso said the Courier hopes to become "the few weeks ago, Left Field received a voice for local El Pasoans ... and to pro- plaintive note from El Paso, praising mote interaction with our readers by ADebbie Nathan's Observer story on publishing their comments. We hope to the lackluster performance of the El Paso be the newspaper of the people." The Courier will emphasize local and re- Times ("Where No News is No News," Jan- El Paso Internet Courier uary 30, 1998). "We could not agree with 'YOUR ALTERIIAT1VE NEWS S0111/CE' gional news, Vargas said, but also plans MUT FAC/Z to publish statewide commentary from you more," wrote Joe Vargas. "After the 11211i attinallaleiLlu The 3- tersaAlarglacaLtankkArk )1121411.4.1, krikui..X2.1.31634Y Wex/6 ef.IsKt an independent perspective. Ad revenue MEMEM N Herald Post ceased operations, we felt very MIAMI ROM: NR ME& is not yet enough to sustain the paper, frustrated that El Pasoans had no other al- tift*FICUtt 17,EAMS1291' tOttil an-stuns but it's building steadily. "What started ternative but to read a newspaper only con- Olt`IXL,OfitS ninkaka MMITQl out as a small publication has evolved cerned with its own interests. The El Paso 25fOlifa ?AramMEM into a full-blown daily newspaper," con- Times is clearly not interested in reporting 9.3:91,ea 24,SICTY eso PDX alum& tinued Vargas. "We are currently in the news that matters ... and this leaves El Pa- 5.1.1.MISISTS. AMUR 4TMCNST REXCEIMaliX process of building a staff that will em- Ragrall/I Ownor Martin. Fatiore./ Hems Dies at 7l soans in the dark." TS1111116211 MOW ly .)-le staff Mal phasize real local opinions, and who will Vargas, a local businessman and civic 3.4.1.11g3ISME )—Richard E. Martin, 71, owner end general manager of Martin Funeral Homes In El Paso died MIME Thursday. Tun Stars Pdall1VX not be influenced by controlling eco- activist, wasn't content to stay in the dark. 4OVE1717112347 £.5648.171M MA41= nomic factors." It was the same note In September of 1997 he had founded an war ue Police SearOliPoi'Min Who Stole DPS Trooper'sWetriele on-line classified ad service, then began .:.VOKOKSW:00:66: struck in his earlier letter, in which he adding local news. In response to readers' called for "a publication [that] recog- nizes the importance of reporting news suggestions Vargas is now publishing and independent, impertinent voice that ing Guns Off At Bars — Don't Become A that matters, unbiased, and without re- editing the El Paso Internet Courier, a should at least goose the lackadaisical Law Enforcement Official," reporter gard to 'special interests.' Vargas is fledgling daily newspaper on the Web bunch over at the Gannett-owned Times. Nicole Vargas recounted a couple of un- inviting readers, especially in the El Paso (www.ep-ic.com). The publication's small In a recent edition of the Courier, ed- happy incidents involving local officers. area, to send comments and to alert the staff is turning out a mixed bag of local bul- itor Vargas blasted the City Council for Meanwhile, film reviewers "Paul and Courier to news that won't be covered letins, editorial opinion, and pop culture considering a monument in honor of the Juan" each contributed their "two cents" elsewhere ("[email protected] "). reviews, along with a smattering of local murderous seventeenth-century Spanish concerning Mel Gibson's Payback: "I "We would like El Pasoans to know the ads and web links. While it's not yet pol- conquistador, Juan de (Mate. Under the give Payback 4 cigarettes," wrote Juan, truth." + ished or wide-ranging, the Courier has an admonitory headline, "If You Like Shoot- "'cause I don't want it to beat me up."

INTERVIEW: Emperor of Signs Though Stanley Marsh may be more widely known for Cadillac On the Signs Ranch — the line of old Cadillacs planted tailfins-up along The Dynamite Museum is the name of a group of people, all Interstate 40 — the Amarillo television station owner has equal. Anybody who wants to can join. It's mainly college- made a greater alteration to the local landscape by ig- age guys, and mainly men because in order to be in it niting the Dynamite Museum, the group responsible you have to paint the signs, take them to people's for putting hundreds of signs along roadways. houses, and install them, digging 'the holes and The project began in 1992, when Marsh, re- pouring the concrete and so forth.... acting to a "Road Ends 300 Feet" sign, We don't want to say things that are un- graced the highway with his own yellow clear [on the signs].... We. don't want to diamond reading "Road Does Not say things that are murky and don't End." He next put up a "Dinosaur make any sense. We don't want Crossing" sign at a road cross- some kind of science fiction gob- ing, then a "Beware of Low- bledygook, and we don't want Flying Airplanes" sign, and jokes, like "You Are Here ultimately a great Saus- Now." It's art in time and space. surean proliferation — of We might take a quote from a signs bearing pictures, or Hank Williams song, and the quote phrases such as "A Honey Pot," "We might be fine until you , saw the way it Used to Go Shoplifting Together," and looked on the sign, and then we would dis- "Lead Poisoning." There are currently tort: the quote to look good on the sign. hundreds of the markers around Amarillo, Sometimes' the color fooks wrong. We know most of them in front yards. The Dynamite Mu- from experience that turquoise and lavender don't seum includes Marsh, Jackie Anderson, Brad Hol- show up as distinct colors when. you're driving along land, Jamie Adams, Scott Garner, Bobo Marshall, the road and your windshield's dirty. You've only got a and a man who's officially changed his name to Come See "Signs," page 6 Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 hen fifty-seven current and former congresspersons signed on as mem- W bers of the Draft Bush 2000 committee last month, they declared the Governor "the perfect person to lead all Americans into the future." But who among us knows what the future holds? Will George W. Bush even heed the committee's call to run for Presi- dent? The dull wait has dragged on for months, and Texans — nay, all Americans — still lack an answer. Time to consult the professionals. Political gan said. She had already delivered the concerned about the finances of Texas. radio spots and a horoscope column in soothsayers have just about made Bush's goods on Bush to a local TV station — He's working out financial things in the Gateway magazine. "My impression is announcement for him, but what say the "he's in a place of controversy right now," state of Texas. I'm picking that up. Since I that he's very indecisive. I pick up that he's people's pundits? "I think he is [going to she said — but agreed to do an over-the- haven't sat with the man physically I don't indecisive, for the next five or six months. run] but he'll keep delaying, let it build up phone card throw for Left Field. ("It's a know for sure." I do feel that he will run for office, and I do to a crescendo, a wave of support," said little better method," she explained.) Other than Finnigan, all the mediums see a win," she said. Describing her meth- Joe Nicols, an Austin psychic and palmist "Is George Bush going to run for presi- contacted by Left Field predicted that ods, Sandoval said she doesn't use cards who makes predictions using a pendulum. dent, is George Bush going to run for pres- Bush would run next year. Oddly or other implements. "It's my own intu- ("I say a prayer and surround myself with ident, is George Bush going to run for enough, the most cursory reply came ition, my own psychic impression that I positive energy' while letting the pendulum president," she murmured. "He sure is from our one paid informant, Dallas of pick up on it. It's a gut instinct, a feeling swing, he said.) restless about it." After a moment, with a the LaToya Jackson Psychic network. for it," she said. "Take Elizabeth Dole, if Remarkably similar was the initial pre- note of surprise in her voice, Finnigan re- "Why are you asking me this?" he asked, my energy pulls toward Dole, I don't think diction of Ycenna Finnigan, an Austin as- versed herself: "I don't think he will this and then drew three tarot cards: justice, she's going to win, but if it pulls toward trologist. "There'll be more delay, he's time! He might next time around." A temperance, and the moon. "This is a George Bush, I get that he will win." going to stay wishy-washy and make sure money-related card indicated the delay, yes," he said curtly. With friends like these, who needs the Clinton situation blows over, and then she said. "It's a concern of his, having Finally, we turned to Grace Sandoval, consultants? Cosmos to George: announce go with the groundswell of support," Finni- money he needs to run, or it could be he's an El Paso psychic who has her own already. +

"Signs," from page On Distributing' the Signs We have a stack of signs; we don't make them to order. We go and say chance for one central image, so somebody wants to put a cowboy we have fifty made, we show people polaroids, and if they don't like rounding up cattle, you better put a cowboy just rounding up one them, they can wait until we make more.... We've got four or five cars cow. You just glance at it. We don't have anything political, reli- [distributing the signs on Saturday afternoons], and a sound system. gious, or smutty — too smutty — but that's just because we're in In. addition to the four guys that work, th.ere'll be fifteen people at Amarillo, Texas, and we don't want to be religious or political.... lunch — there's a carnival aspect. The neighbors come out. We do sometimes run into stick-in-the-muds who think they own The signs are not as prevalent in the part of town that is more af- the diamond shape — the people who run the small towns right fluent. My opinion ... is that the signs are riot class distinctive, but in around Amarillo. At any rate, you own the diamond shape just like I the parts of town where people have gardeners, and fancy lawns and do. It's in the common domain. The sign in your yard is the most im- petunias and snapdragons, [they think] it takes away from their portant of all the freedom of speeches, because it's where you live. So lawns. My mother does not have one. There are more signs in parts of if you put a communist sign in front of a big mansion it's different town where the yards are okay, but more of the people are not gar- than putting it in front of a lean-to. deners, and there are people who may park their car in their yard to

6 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 AS FALLS WICHITA.. . . he children's-book wars are not lost momentum, although the controversy over in Wichita Falls, but for the continued to rage in the letters column of Tmoment the score is tied, 1 to 1. On the Times Record News. February 16, the city council voted 4 to 3 The church groups returned to the city to approve a resolution allowing citizens council in January, with a proposal to re- to petition the city library to re-shelve se- strict any book to adults-only if 300 people lected children's books in the adult sec- (i.e., a couple mid-sized congregations) tion, where they will remain available to petitioned to do so. That was defeated, but all patrons. A previous resolution (de- the revised version, which would simply feated 4 to 3) would have restricted such move challenged books to the adult sec- books to adults only. tion, won the swing vote of councilman The trouble started last summer, when Don Johnston. Although no books are Christian groups, led by the First Baptist named in the law, petitions are quickly ex- Church and the smaller fundamentalist pected against Heather Has Two Mom- Rephidim Church, objected to the library's mies and Daddy's Roommate, and the possession of two children's books about library may have to add staff just to confirm gay-parented families: Heather Has Two petition signatures. "My staff is going to be Mommies and Daddy's Roommate. buried in petitions," library administrator Ministers from both churches condemned Linda Hughes told the Times Record News. From Daddy's the books as implicitly "promoting "I'm wondering where I'm going to get the Roommate. sodomy," and demanded their removal. money to do this." Opponents consider the Promoting "The Bible says a homosexual and lesbian law an exercise in gay-bashing, and the sodomy? lifestyle is wrong and God pronounced his first step to more restrictive regulation. death penalty upon them," said Rephidim They note that the law does not provide for pastor Ron Ellingsworth. any reversal of a book challenge, or even Being gay is just one more kind of love. Proponents of the book ban in Bible- an opposing petition. belt Wichita Falls may have expected an Left Field spoke to the anti-censorship the town. We're trying to fight it." Nicholas The Coalition will continue to fight cen- easy victory. But their opponents included Coalition organizer Stormy Nicholas just noted that her group has its own religious sorship battles locally and across the state. not only the North Texas American Civil before the February council vote. She said support. "First Baptist is probably the Observer readers interested in supporting Liberties Union, but also several coun- the battle is not yet over, and expects the biggest church in town, but twenty-five the Coalition can contact the Wichita Falls cilmembers, Mayor Kay Yeager, and a 400-member organization to fight the new other ministers — Methodist, Presbyterian, Coalition Against Censorship, P.O. Box 1863, newly-organized Wichita Falls Coalition law. "This town has a very large religious Catholic, you name it — published a letter Wichita Falls, Texas 76307 (940) 767-2100; Against Censorship. The censorship drive background, and they tend to let that run in the paper opposing the censorship." e-mail: [email protected].

THE ROAR OF THE STORM

work on it on the weekends. I do not think the affluent people in town want to pay moncy for a little book. You can't carry in a cold beer for dislike the signs, they just think it's inappropriate in their yards.... god's sake, and art is made to be appreciated by men drinking beer Of course there are a certain number of stick-in-the-muds who don't on a hot afternoon. Then you get to the art and it's got this great big like the signs. There are two ways to make a town nicer, one is to have gold frame around it and it's says Made Possible By Mrs. So and So, more nice people move there. The way to make Amarillo, Texas, nicer is and there's utter silence — you can't even pop your bubble gum.... just to run all the soreheads down to Lubbock. That's why we have a The Dynamite Museum puts art every place. sign that says, "If you don't like these signs, Lubbock is 120 miles south." And, "Buddy Holly died to get out of Lubbock." There are a lot On the Dynamite Museum of soreheads in Lubbock. Amarillo got all the nice people. Amarillo ap- 1 don't think there are any members of the Dynamite Museum who preciates eccentrics. Amarillo cherishes its own, Lubbock eats its own. are not romantics at heart. No one else is putting up signs in their We're building a system of unanticipated rewards. The signs come hometown for no other reason than that it's a nice thing to do on a as a surprise, just like Cadillac Ranch.... When you conic upon them, Saturday afternoon.... We're bigheaded about that. And we don't it's not like some crummy art museum where you have to go in and hate people who like art museums. We certainly prefer them to the • you can't smoke a cigarette and you go past the docent, and see if you people who show off in their Cadillacs on a Saturday night. +

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7

FEATURE Edgewood Under Siege BY JEFF MANDELL his is a terrible slap in the face for our teachers and our community." Karen Rodriguez, for sixteen years a teacher in the Edgewood Independent School District, and currently president of the Edgewood Classroom Teachers' Association, was describing the Horizon Scholarship program. The privately funded Horizon program provides tuition vouchers to selected low-income students in San Antonio's Edgewood district. Horizon is the largest voucher effort to date of the Children's Edu- cational Opportunity Foundation of America, which boasts smaller voucher programs in forty American cities. As C.E.O. sees. it, providing "parental choice" vouchers to students from low-income EL SHADA1 NEW HOPE families, like most of those in Edgewood, is a first step in U.S. ed- CHRISTIAN ACADEMY ucation reform. But Rodriguez, like many of her Edgewood col- millgsTBIEs leagues and parents of current Edgewood students, has a very different perspective. Edgewood is 'one of the poorest school districts in the state, and was the plaintiff district in the lawsuit to require more equitable statewide funding. In principle, C.E.O.'s Horizon program is available to any E.I.S.D. student eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches; more than 13,000 of E.I.S.D.'s 14,000 students qualify. There is, however, a catch. Scholarships are awarded only to students who (1) meet the financial criteria, (2) live within district boundaries, and (3) are already admitted to a private school. Often, the effect of the third stipulation is to exclude potential students from scholarship eligibility. In practice, private schools do not have the legal obligation, the A School of Leadership (formerly El Shadai Academy) E.R.N. Reed willingness, or often even the capacity to accept certain students public schools must educate as a matter of both law and tradition. I went to private school, but I really wish my parents had sent me Students with special learning needs — due to dyslexia, emotional here. I'm concerned about Edgewood losing money, but somehow problems, attention deficit disorder, physical disabilities, bilingual Edgewood will find a way. We know they will not back down from requirements — are not generally welcomed at many San Antonio helping our kids, no matter what." private schools. Some schools lack the staff and equipment to care C.E.O. San Antonio Program Director Teresa Treat dismisses for special needs students; others simply do not accept students concerns over special needs programs, noting that fourteen special- who require extra attention, or who are not already performing at or needs students were accepted into private schools and are receiving above grade level. In other words, many students who would most vouchers this year. (A total of 837 students are using vouchers.) benefit from specialized attention are automatically excluded from According to Treat, no parents have notified C.E.O. that they were the Horizon program — and will remain the responsibility of the unable to find a school for their special-needs child. But in fact, of public schools. the special-needs students Treat cited, several receive therapy each afternoon for speech problems — at E.I.S.D. schools. The district na Pinedo, for example, had scoured San Antonio for a private receives no tax money for the therapy it provides to students who school that would accept her daughter, who is confined to a attend private schools. By continuing to help those students, wheelchair and suffers additional medical problems. E.I.S.D. is in effect forced to subsidize C.E.O.'s private program Pinedo's daughter must attend a school staffed by a registered — and divert funds from its own remaining students. nurse. "I called all over San Antonio," Pinedo explained, "and no More dramatically, the district stands to lose more than $4.5 mil- one would take my daughter, because they don't have the special lion in dedicated state funding for next year, because of students needs programs." Pinedo herself had gone to private schools as a lost to the Horizon program. (Another $2 million will be lost be- girl, and had negative perceptions of E.I.S.D. But finding no alter- cause two major housing projects in the district recently closed, native, she enrolled her daughter at Coronado-Escobar Elementary forcing many tenants to relocate.) Voucher proponents respond — and says she has been pleasantly surprised. "I support this dis- that therefore Edgewood has that many fewer students to educate, trict 100 percent. I see a lot of good positive things going on here. but the district insists the situation is not that simple: Edgewood

8 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999

Am repiti._4e - I 4"--ssair- A Students at Edgewood's Coronado-Escobar Elementary School E.R.N. Reed must operate the same number of schools, run the same number of recognized for student performance. Faced with dramatic state buses, maintain a central office staff, perpetuate the special-needs funding cuts, the district will be hard pressed to sustain that programs students require, and also provide services for some stu- progress. dents who spend most of each day at private school. Moreover, because school funds are allocated based upon the pre- hether or not the schools can continue to improve with sig- vious year's attendance, even if every student currently accepting a nificantly less state funding is only one of the district's voucher were to return to Edgewood next year, the district still structural problems. Edgewood, west of downtown San would be funded for 1999-2000 based on the number of students en- Antonio, is a relatively small district; Kelly Air Force Base occupies rolled right now. The expected shortfall is already evident, as the dis- more than a third of its area. Edgewood's population is more than 95 trict has tried to prepare for the loss. Rodriguez admitted to feeling percent minority, and the annual per capita income is just over pinched in her supply budget this year. But Hoelscher Elementary $5,000. Local property tax revenues are so low that more than 89 per- principal Virginia Kinney insists that the funding crunch will not cent of the district's per student funding comes from state and federal lead to fewer educational options for students: "I can't ever see us funds. (In stark contrast, San Antonio's wealthiest district, Alamo consolidating programs, because those have a direct impact on our Heights I.S.D., receives less than 3 percent of its funding from state students." She added that Edgewood would go without new roofs or and federal sources, and can still afford to send over $1,300 per stu- reduce staff before cutting back on student-centered expenditures. dent to the state for redistribution to poorer districts.) The imminent The funding loss will come at a crucial moment: immediately closure of the air base is not likely to improve the situation. after the district finally acquired sufficient money to enhance and Even with the base operating, E.I.S.D. is the largest area em- expand its educational programs. Edgewood recently opened mag- ployer. So the expected cutbacks will inevitably mean lost jobs — net programs in math and science, and fine arts, and established ad- mostly in secretarial, custodial, food service, and other non-teacher vanced placement programs in its high schools. The new programs, positions — for students' families. This is what Rodriguez means combined with Edgewood's significant improvement in T.A.A.S. when she insists, "There are a lot of implications. This isn't just scores and dramatic lowering of the drop-out rate, earned recogni- about students going to private schools; it's affecting a wide spec- tion from the National Education Association last year. In the past trum of the community." Given that the second largest employer in five years, Edgewood has gone from having nine of its twenty-six E.I.S.D. is the H.E.B. grocery chain, the loss of those jobs can only schools declared "low performing" by the Texas Education exacerbate the cycle of poverty in Edgewood. Agency, to having no low-performing schools and three campuses Edgewood's poverty is very much an issue in the "scholarship"

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 9 program — C.E.O. America's president Fritz Steiger acknowledges that the district's economic conditions were the primary reason for placing the Horizon program here. Yet according to many Edge- wood parents, their economic circumstances often render Horizon scholarships virtually useless. For example, to receive a scholarship students must be eligible for federal free or reduced-price lunch programs — but many private schools do not themselves participate in the federal programs. Working parents also note other hardships: the additional cost of books and/or uniforms; requirements to sell raffle tickets and/or participate in mandatory fundraisers; required parent "volunteer" hours; the necessity of private transport for students to and from schools often far from home. E.I.S.D. also provides supervised places for students before and after school. Asked about these issues, C.E.O.'s Treat responded, "Transportation has not been as big of an issue as we anticipated." Dolores Salinas' greatest concern is more general, and reflects her awareness of Edgewood families like that of Ana Pinedo. "If we all get vouchers and send our kids to private schools, then what will happen to the kids who are left?" Treat hardly paused to consider the question: "We hope that all schools, public or private, will improve if they need to. But our concern is not with Edgewood In- dependent School District. What happens to Edgewood is sec- A Family Faith Academy (previously Chino's Dugout) E.R.N. Reed ondary for us." that is, they receive their education by helping at the Academy) work with the older students, less as teachers than as coaches. "It's resumably primary for C.E.O. is what happens to John their education and their work," Rhodes explained. "We're here to Rhodes. Rhodes is a tall man with neat gray hair, penetrating coach them, to tailor the work for them and to help them remove pblue eyes, and a raspy voice; you could easily mistake him obstacles, but they have to take responsibility." It is exactly this for a golf pro. But Rhodes is a local suburban pastor, and founder talk of responsibility couched in explicitly Christian ideology that of Family Faith Academy, one of two new private schools to open drew Ilene and Albert Gonzalez to enroll their daughter Desiree at in Edgewood this year. Rhodes is a newcomer to the educational Family Faith. Albert spoke repeatedly of "one-on-one education," scene, and does not claim to be an expert educator. Rather, he finds but Ilene insisted, "My main concern is that Desiree loves the Lord himself at the Academy because of the coincidence of a parental and loves speaking of the Lord. It's an added plus that she gets request and the Horizon scholarships. When a parent in Rhodes' more attention here." Asked about other private schools in San An- congregation complained of not having a Christian school avail- tonio, the couple cited familiar concerns: book fees, uniform ex- able to her, Rhodes began praying about the possibility of opening penses, transportation problems. such a school, and "vouchers were a sign from the Lord to locate in Only a mile or so from Family Faith Academy, in the dilapi- Edgewood." (It may also have been a sign from C.E.O., which dated Edgewood Square shopping center, sits another private awards larger stipends to schools within the district.) Christian school that opened this year: the Edgewood School of So Family Faith Academy makes its home in a dark, low build- Leadership. The School of Leadership (which had been "El Shadai ing, with bars on the windows and a pay phone just outside the New Hope Christian Academy" until it changed ownership in early front door. Before Rhodes came along, the building had been home February) is sandwiched between a beeper shop and a florist. to Chino's Dugout — the last in a series of bars that formerly oc- Jim Billman, the School's principal, looks much more the busi- cupied the premises. Rhodes jokes about how glad the landlord nessman than John Rhodes, and has much more of an educational was to see him. Inside, the school is light and airy, the freshly- background. Billman already operates three schools in Galveston, painted walls covered with drawings and Bible verses. The main has strong curricular ideas, and believes firmly in standardized room features study carrels along the perimeter, providing each testing. Whereas Rhodes declared Family Faith to be a losing student with a place to work, and a large table in the center for proposition financially, Billman left no doubt that his School is an group interaction. Off to one side is a smaller room, brightly deco- investment, and one that he expects to garner a return. At the mo- rated with phonics wall charts, that serves as the classroom for the ment, the School has only five students, but the storefront can hold youngest students. Those youngest kids — currently there are five forty, and Billman anticipates being booked before semester's end. — learn to read through phonics and passages from the New Tes- Like Rhodes, Billman spoke of an individualized approach, point- tament. The older kids (second grade and up) work on individual- ing to the study carrels that he installed in of the store front. He ized curricula, setting goals for themselves each day in math, read- echoed Rhodes' savage attack on the whole-language system of ing, social studies, science, and Bible. Their performance is judged reading education, affirmed the importance of phonics, and went by whether or not they meet those goals. on at length about the importance of teaching morals. Billman' s Rhodes and his two teenage sons (who are "home-schooled" — schools use the widespread "School of Tomorrow" Christian

10 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 curriculum, and he shares copies of those materials with Rhodes' $4,000 per student, the same student represents a $5,800 loss to Academy. the Edgewood district — and to the students who choose to re- Billman believes his curriculum will "meet the need for more in- main in public schools. dividual attention" and "fill in all the learning gaps kids come in Many of the parents who volunteer in Edgewood schools trav- here with." The school gives all new students diagnostic exams to eled to Austin in early February to share their perspectives on identify their "gaps," and the teaching stresses fundamentals. "We vouchers with the Legislature. More than a hundred parents from spend a lot more time on the basics — we demand mastery." Bill- E.I.S.D. participated in the lobbying effort, telling their stories to man has high expectations of what he can accomplish: "We trans- lawmakers, who are considering a "pilot" voucher program (which form kids." would include the state's major urban districts). Ana Pinedo de- As with students, so with schools. Billman dismisses the argu- scribed her visit as emotional. She explained to legislators that pri- ment that private vouchers might harm E.I.S.D, and scoffs at the vate schools did not have the facilities for her disabled daughter. amount of money Edgewood spends "outside the classroom." For Dolores Salinas told her representatives, "C.E.O. discriminates. him, that's simply wasted money: "Our society decided bigger is They picked only certain students to invite. They are insulting our better, but that's just wrong." Billman says his school will provide community." That charge refers to C.E.O.'s apparent practice of leadership not just for students and families, but for the district as targeting only favored students to move out of Edgewood, in effect well. "Our hope and our prayer is that this voucher program causes leaving the public schools to deal with more difficult cases. a working coalition, where our success will help show Edgewood C.E.O.'s Treat denied that the Foundation solicited any particu- how to do better. They will hopefully emulate us." Rhodes had a lar group of students, although she allowed that certain schools similarly dismissive, if more ethereal, take on the voucher contro- might have sent targeted mailings containing Horizon applications, versy. Opponents, he said, "can be real mad at Leininger [Dr. and that those schools might have received selected-student lists James Leininger, major funder of the Horizon program] or who- from C.E.O. For its part, C.E.O. almost went out of its way not to ever the bogeyman here is, but I'm telling you that God knows alert the community at large about its program. Although the Foun- these kids are here, and He's not for vouchers or for public schools dation held a kickoff press conference and published an application — He's for kids. And He'll keep the parents accountable." in the San Antonio Express-News (which is among the program's official sponsors), there were no town meetings, no block walks, no ccountability is also importantrt to Edgewood parent Frank phone banks, and no informational tables outside supermarkets. Baledez. He sees no reason to flee public schools that he According to Treat, no further publicity was necessary. Yet C.E.O. thinks are doing well: "The voucher is new, not proven, has not accepted enough applicants even to fill the 1,000 private has no track record. There's no documentation that it's better than school seats the Foundation determined were available in San An- public schools yet. Until there's evidence that vouchers are better tonio. than what Edgewood's offering, I'll wait." Baledez spoke while Neither the underwhelming parental response nor the withdrawal cutting out laminated illustrations for bulletin boards at Hoelscher of 5 percent of the participants in the first semester has dampened Elementary. Across the district, Edgewood parents volunteer so C.E.O.'s enthusiasm. C.E.O.'s own report on the program's first regularly and in such large numbers that every school has a large few months strains to explain some of the unimpressive numbers: and well-utilized parent workroom. When the N.E.A. recognized "The most compelling aspects of the Horizon program are not cov- Edgewood's rapid improvement, the intense level of parental in- ered in this ... report of figures, statistics, and events." Instead, volvement was a factor cited. C.E.O. cites "the true facts of the childrens' [sic] success" as Hori- Many of the volunteers are even fiercer in their defense of Edge- zon's standard for evaluation. Those facts will presumably become wood schools. Mary Ann Arocha, who graduated from E.I.S.D., re- clear over time. In the meantime, C.E.O. continues to tout the pro- cently returned to the area just so her children could attend district gram. The Foundation has asked researchers from the University of schools. Anna Badillo is tired of people underestimating Edge- Virginia to conduct an "independent evaluation" — but the result- wood: "We've got great teachers here. People think the kids won't ing proposal outlines a project to measure not student achievement, learn just because it's a poor district, but the teachers and schools but parental satisfaction. Measuring student achievement would be here are just as good as anywhere else." problematic — Horizon does not require private schools to adhere C.E.O.'s statistics suggest that most Horizon parents agree, at to any curriculum, to administer any standardized tests, or to meet least about competing public schools: of the 837 students who any other common educational standards. initially accepted vouchers (forty-one have since returned to E.I.S.D.), only six used those vouchers to attend non-religious or the present, the challenge presented by the Horizon pro- schools. Early on, C.E.O. claimed its program would promote gram has brought the Edgewood community closer together. choice within the public schools, but thus far only two students FWhile some worry about how E.I.S.D. will cope with a have used vouchers to attend other area public schools. In San slashed budget next year, many remain confident that the district Antonio, the largest group of Horizon students is now attending will continue to improve. Kinney, the principal who led Hoelscher Catholic schools (443), while the rest moved to schools spon- Elementary to become a T.E.A. recognized school, speaks with a sored by other denominations. In other words, most of the fami- soft certainty: "I suspect we'll see those [Horizon] kids back. For a lies seeking vouchers did so to support religious education for lot of parents it's a 'grass is greener' thing. Once they actually get their children. And while the Horizon program means up to their feet wet, they'll come back," ED

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11

FEATURE Pocahontas on the Rio Grande BY DEBBIE NATHAN one Star, John Sayles' 1996 movie about race and ethnic relations on the Texas-Mexico border mixed up Anglos, Chicanos, Native Americans, and African Americans in odd sit- uations ranging from murder to incest. Laredo didn't show up in the film, though, and Lthat's a shame. If Sayles had taken his cameras there in February, he could have scrapped the brother-sister sex and the sheriff homicide. He could have substituted something

even weirder: the city 's George Washington's Birthday festival. The annual shindig ran from February 6 to 21 this year, and always stops, squats, bends her head to the floor, thrusts out a bit of cleav- brings together locals and hundreds of thousands of out-of-town age, and then, like an ungainly giraffe, recovers her standing posi- visitors. Most are content to watch a parade, listen to popular tion. In deb circles, this maneuver is dubbed "the Texas bow." Un- Latino bands, and burn their guts out at a jalapeno-eating contest. known elsewhere in the United States or Europe, it is routinely A very select few Laredoans, though, lend the festival its true char- performed at society balls from Corpus Christi's Buccaneer Days acter. Mostly Anglos and light-skinned Mexican Americans, they to San Antonio's Coronation. But it's a special feat for the Laredo dress their daughters in clothes that cost as much as a year at a pri- Marthas, whose gowns weigh up to eighty pounds. They are so vate college. Then they present the girls at debutante pageants, and wide and unwieldy that to get to the pageant and parade, the girls perch them on parade floats that enchant mostly dark-skinned hoi must be strapped into tractor-trailer rigs. polloi on the sidewalk. Newcomers to Laredo often find these rituals bizarre, and won- To imagine the frocks these border belles wear, forget traditional der where they came from. For years, town leaders responded that dress like serapes or mantillas. Instead, think like a ten-year-old girl the revelry has been going on for ages, and is derived from a natu- doodling in class. In your mind, draw the fattest, billowiest jellyfish ral, civic urge to instill patriotism by honoring our first President. you can and put a valentine heart in the center. Top it off with velvet, During the past few years, however, a growing group of people — taffeta, tulle, brocade, and mink. Finish with pearls, sequins, and from outsider academics to hometown htjas — has taken a fresh bucket upon bucket of beads. Voila! You've got a Martha Washing- look at Laredo's peculiar relationship with George Washington. ton Colonial Pageant and Ball gown. This is the dress worn annually They've been digging into the commemoration's past, examining by one Laredo socialite officially designated as the First President's the backgrounds of its boosters, and mapping how its festivities First Lady. She leads the pageant, along with a male partner who have changed through time. plays George Washington. In addition, a court of debutantes poses as In the process, the critics have shed light on more than an iso- eighteenth-century European princesses, countesses, and rich Amer- lated city festival. Scratch the surface, they say, and the Washing- ican ladies who supposedly were the real Martha's friends and ac- ton celebration is about racism in South Texas. And not just op- quaintances. Unofficially, these girls are known as Marthas, too, and pression of Mexican Americans by Anglos. Investigation of they also wear colonial fantasy gowns. Laredo's February rites reveals that on the border of yesteryear, Then there are the Pocahontases. Think of a new doll: North both Anglos and Latinos sometimes united in the exercise of ex- American Indian Princess Barbie. Glossy, dark hair, perfect treme prejudice. One group they vented their bigotry on was Na- makeup. Vegas-plumed headgear, ermine white leather, gossamer tive Americans. The other was African Americans. This nasty bit silk, fur, pound upon pound of hand-sewn bugle beads, designer of history lies behind today's debutante balls and parades, and may moccasins. Just as with Martha Washington, only one Laredo girl be hard to believe — after all, isn't Pocahontas, herself Native each year is chosen to be Pocahontas. But she also has a retinue of American, a star of the show? Yes she is, but things are seldom Indian sub-princesses in similar costumes that cost thousands of simple on the border. That's why it's interesting to consider what dollars apiece. The Pocahontas debs have their coming-out party at the Washington's Birthday critics have to say. the Laredo Civic center. They take the arms of handsome, strutting young men dressed as Indian chiefs. At a later parade, the whole PALE FACES IN RED DRAG crew rides gorgeous horses, which are outfitted with breastplates as Newcomer Dion Dennis was one of the first people to ask questions. elaborate as their riders' costumery. He came to Laredo in the early nineties to teach at Texas A&M In- The Marthas also use the Civic Center, and they pull out all the ternational University, after knocking around the country, spending stops at a black-tie affair, where the stage is a dazzling reproduc- time in the Rajneesh cult in Oregon, and finally earning a doctorate in tion of Mount Vernon and the music by Haydn and Mozart. As interdisciplinary studies in Arizona. These days Dennis is a sociology each Martha is introduced to the audience, she glides regally down instructor at U.T.–San Antonio. He says that "to teach, you have to a runway, then joins a winsome manservant in colonial breeches understand how your students perceive the world." But in Laredo, the and tights. At the climax of the young woman's promenade, she world every February was a mystery. So Dennis began researching

12 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 braves, collecting pouches of wampum, and striving to reach the highest degree of Red Men status: the title of "Sachem." Dennis didn't stop with this information. Investigating the Order of the Red Men, he found that the group reinforced class, racial, and gender divisions in frontier societies. Membership in the Red Men, Dennis learned, was confined to upwardly-mobile white males. No females need apply, much less Asians or Africans — or Native Americans. At a time when this last group was being slaughtered and penned into reservations by white men, white lodge brothers were pushing their own racial superiority and machismo by glorifying phantom images of noble red warriors. White men, in other words, were acting like drag queens. Anthro- pologists see this cross-dressing all the time. A old example in U.S. culture is the minstrel show, in which Caucasian performers darken their skin to feign blackness, and in so doing humiliate blacks and elevate whiteness. Modern-day powderpuff football is another in- stance, where men don cheerleader outfits and women wear jer- seys, the better to remind each other how much more fitting it is to assume their "proper" traditional roles. Seen this way, Laredo's early Washington Birthday fests weren't simply Anglo attempts to introduce U.S. patriotism to a population more at home with Cinco de Mayo festivities. To Dennis, the cele- brations were fundamentally a ritual enactment of white superiority over the darker peoples of the border. In 1997, he published his ideas in C-Theory, a journal that circulates mostly in cyberspace and can be found at www.tao.ca/fire/ctheory/0005.html.

BORDER BLANCOS Around the time Dennis was publishing his analysis, another Courtesy Senator J. Zaffirini A Judith Pappas and Carlos Zaffirini (Martha and George, 1963) scholar also was studying the Washington fest. Elliott Young (who the George Washington's Birthday festival history. now teaches at Lewis and Clark University in Portland) was work- He quickly found descriptions of the first event, in 1896. A ing on a Ph.D. in history at U.T.–Austin when he started research- group of prominent local men got together to honor the first presi- ing how Mexican Americans in Texas created their identity in the dent. To start things off, they dressed up as Indians. Then they nineteenth-century, Anglo-dominated borderlands. As Young staged an elaborate piece of street theater that had the town mayor delved into old Laredo newspapers and historical accounts of the gathering his police force to confront a fierce group of attacking Red Men activities, he found material supporting Dennis' theory Yaqui tribesmen. The event quickly became institutionalized, and about racism. Consider, for example, this description of entertain- within a few years, this is how one Laredo newspaper described it: ment provided at the enactment of a Red Men battle: As i f a bolt shot from the sky, from three different directions In- The intermissions between the acts were filled by a coon song dians all painted and bedaubed with tomahawks aloft. with sung by Mr. Jerome G'Sell ... and the audience was delighted savage yells, swarmed upon the plaza and charged with a dare when Mrs. L.S. Andrews in the costume of a negro girl, ap- devil spirit right into the muzzles of the guns that were in readi- peared on the stage and sang "Little Alabama Coon." ness to defend the city and its honor. For fully ten minutes the And from an editorial: battle raged ... mingling with the yells of the Yaqui Indians Heavens and earth, what are we coming to? When a darkey is which drowned out the shrieks of the wounded. permitted to intimate in a crowd of white men that he is their Curious stuff, but what did it have to do with George Washing- equal...and escape a horsewhipping, it is time for the Caucasian ton? Digging some more, Dennis discovered that Laredo's town fa- race to resign and let the niggers run the country. thers had been members of the Improved Order of the Red Men, a Clearly, Washington's Birthday in Laredo was at least partly kind of Masonic lodge started in North America in the eighteenth about putting down African Americans, and Young also learned that century. A chapter was established a Laredo in the 1890s, when the black people had been the targets of recurring racial violence in the town's longtime Tejano population was confronted with an influx area at the turn of the twentieth century. One such incident happened of newcomer Anglos. In the early days of the American Revolu- in 1899, after Laredo policeman Jose Cuellar arrested and brutally tion, the Boston Tea Party rebels had been Red Men — that's why beat a black soldier for "escorting a Mexican woman who had so- they masqueraded as Indians when they attacked the British ships. licited his company." As this incident shows, it wasn't only Anglos George Washington was also a Red Man. Hence his adoption by who demonstrated racist behavior towards African Americans. the Laredoans, who spent their time in the lodge imitating Indian However, before the Civil War, Texas slave owners had lived in

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 13 fear that their property would flee to the borderlands. Slavery had been abolished in Mexico, and Tejanos often helped blacks escape south to freedom. By the late nineteenth century some race roles were reversed, as African-American soldiers were sent to South Texas to suppress Tejano rebellion against Anglo mistreatment. Most African Americans on the border were military men, and Te- janos often deeply resented them — even though Anglos treated poor Mexican Americans no better than they treated black people. But life was often different for rich Tejanos, as their membership in the Improved Order of the Red Men suggests. The organization was for whites only, yet in Laredo, some Red Men had Spanish surnames. Researching further, Young found that at the turn of the century, Laredo Latinos were considered white if they had enough land, money, and political clout to convince Anglos they were deserving. This was possible because in Laredo, Anglos never completely dispossessed Tejano ranchers and merchants as they did elsewhere in South Texas. For generations, Tejanos and Anglos in Laredo have socialized, spoken to each other in two lan- guages, and intermarried. Like the Red Men, the ritzy Martha Washington Pageant was always dominated by people with Anglo surnames, and still is. But many families are ethnically mixed, and Spanish names also appear on the debutante list. From all this history, Young has concluded that in South Texas, it's not enough to see race as a simple conflict between Anglos and Mexican Americans. As he and other scholars are lately discovering, Eddie Rios/Laredo Morning Times "whiteness" isn't a fact. It's an idea — an iffy one at that, and in past A Laredo's Mayor greets Pocahontas, 1998 generations it was often determined by how much wealth a person buckskin affair; one man recently recalled that when his daughter had. Rich Tejanos often labeled themselves white, and sometimes played the role two decades ago, he spent a mere $50 for her dress united with Anglos in oppressing African and Native Americans. and $75 to rent a horse. That simplicity started changing in the early eighties, when DANCES WITH CHICANOS Laredo's emerging Latino middle class began organizing to trans- All this goes a long way towards explaining the peculiar origins of form the populist Indian maiden into a glitzy debutante who could the George Washington bash in Laredo. But it still doesn't account go head to head with the Marthas. By the end of the decade, play- for Pocahontas. It's one thing to parody tomahawk-wielding saving Pocahontas or a member of her court meant confecting elabo- ages and sing "coon" songs. But it's quite another to hand an In- rate clothing that replaced the earlier, simple buckskin dress. dian the keys to the city, as Laredo's mayor traditionally did to Today, costumes cost $5,000 and up. And they never depict Co- Pocahontas after his troops' unsuccessful battle with the Red Men. manches, Apaches, or other tribes with real ties to Mexican Amer- And for years the Indian Princess also rode at the head of the pa- icans. Instead, the dresses are fantasy knockoffs of the Onondaga, rade with Martha. Both Dennis and Young have studied Pocahon- the Tlingit, and similar faraway groups with no historical connec- tas and her history in Laredo. She originally tended to come from a tion to border life. These days, even the debs' horses are exotic: ranching family and was a good horsewoman. She played a leader- many are fine breeds, such as Appaloosas, and the ornamentation ship role in the George Washington celebration because her beauty they sport adds to the Pocahontas bill. Only a certain class of supposedly had prompted red and white men to lay down their Laredo Latino families can afford such a potlatch. arms and make peace. The story had little surface logic, though, Those who can, though, are making a symbolic statement, ac- because Laredo's Indian princess was almost always Anglo. But cording to scholars Dennis and Young. By displaying their daugh- Young points out that Pocahontas has always had a deeper mean- ters as Pocahontas and other Indians from distant places, middle- ing for many whites who regretted the genocide wreaked on Native class Mexican Americans are telling Anglos not to fear Latinos' Americans. In American culture, Pocahontas comforts that bad evolving economic and political power. Recent pageants have fea- conscience. She is the Indian who married John Rolfe. She repre- tured soothing music, and Pocahontases singing sweetly about the sents not conflict between whites and Indians, but unity; not war, healing qualities of Native American spirituality and medicinal but peace and benign healing. herbs. "Don't be afraid of us indios mexicanos," they seem to be By the seventies in Laredo, the Pocahontas role was being filled murmuring to an edgy Anglo world. "We were in this land before by Latinas. This makes at least some cultural sense, given that you were, but we won't hurt you. We're only here to help." Mexican Americans have a good deal of Native American ances- try. Latina Pocahontases, however, were no match for the rich DEBUTANTE REFUSENIKS Martha Washingtons, The Indian Princess' getup was a modest All this analysis is fascinating, but it's socked away in obscure

14 THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 journals (such as Western Historical Quarterly, where Young's article appeared in the spring of 1998). So few Laredoans ever see it. According to Laredo historian Stan Green, even when his neighbors have complaints about the George Washington festival, almost no one speaks of them openly. But two Laredoans have openly raised doubts about the affair. Both are women, and one, Marfa Eugenia Guerra, is herself a former Martha. Meg Guerra publishes the independent monthly newspaper Lare- Dos. She regularly runs news and photos of the debs at pre-festival parties and in their pageant regalia. Yet Guerra is nonplused by what she perceives as growing conspicuous consumption and competition among participating families. Moreover, since childhood, she has thought that George Washington and Pocahontas were an odd pair of symbols, especially for a community that is 90 percent Mexican-American. Guerra has registered her dismay via satire. In an article poking fun of her own role as a teenage Martha Washing- ton a generation ago, she calls herself and her sisters debutontas — in a bilingual pun that adds "tonta" or "dummy" to the "debu" pre- fix. Another of Guerra's pieces is titled "Colonia Ball." Using names of Laredo neighborhoods, it invents a deb from each, dressed in a costume representative of real life in the barrios. In a parody of society columnist writing, Guerra oohs and aahs about one imagi- nary deb's dress: "Teeney-tiny little Border Patrolmen fashioned of embroidered green polyester peeked from the edges of the Rio

Grande's banks. The costume also featured a tiara of miniatures of A An early Pocahontas Courtesy Webb County Historical Association government issue heavy earth moving equipment and little Army Corps of Engineer soldaditos and soldaditas." cally, may exacerbate tensions. The Marthas are still mainly Ang- Debbie Haber also questions the Marthas and Pocahontases. The los, and the Pocahontases for the most part are Latinas. When they daughter of a Jewish father from the Middle East and a Latina interviewed Laredo deb families a few years ago, Haber and mother from Texas, Haber was raised in Laredo but currently is Young found that Indian Princesses were still considered to have working on a film degree at U.T.–Austin. By the end of this year, lower status than First Ladies. Even so, Pocahontas traditionally she hopes to finish and begin distributing a documentary about her rode at the head of the parade. hometown's George Washington craze. She has titled it Laredo: Not that commercialism is anything new. As historian Stan Border on the Edge, because, she says, "there are many edges Green points out, the Washington festivities have for generations there. It's on the literal edge between two countries, between been hyped by local merchants and power brokers. Businesses classes, between races." hyped the celebration to fill the shopping hiatus between Christmas In the video, Dennis and Young present their analyses. But and Easter. City fathers hired trains to bring in the entire Texas Haber talks with many other people, too. She shows debs having Legislature, to garner political chips for Laredo in Austin. In the their hair styled, well-heeled matrons reminiscing about their glory forties, Nelson Rockefeller helped with parade publicity, as part of days as Marthas, and politicians (such as Ann Richards and George efforts to promote the World War Thera "Good Neighbor" foreign W. Bush) who've journeyed to the festival to win support of Mex- policy with Mexico. icans and Mexican Americans, and dole out political spoils. Per- But these earlier efforts were gentle compared with the ruthless- haps most disturbingly, Haber shows Laredo's common people, in- ness of the new marketing. Recently, Anheuser-Busch took over cluding its children. None have even the most cursory historical or sponsorship of the grand march through town. That brought slick critical understanding of why they're spending so much energy public relations efforts into the picture. Market-research oriented venerating George Washington. "Because he has a parade," ex- planners concluded that snowbirds and other tourists would be con- plains one little boy. Haber would like to see Laredo develop a fes- fused by an Indian girl leading a parade for George Washington. So tival more representative of its people. She thinks it's too late to Pocahontas was deposed from her place in the front of the line. banish Martha Washington and Pocahontas. "But what are all those Will she and the Marthas duke it out for top spot? Will Indian dark-skinned children thinking when they look up at all these white chiefs trade blows with the colonial manservants? Will Sojourner people on floats? Let the children who are sitting and watching — Truth's ghost throw her own punches? let them be in the parade!" For answers, check the listings for Lone Star, the Sequel. And

Guerra sees inclusiveness coming. She applauds the recent addi- keep watching Laredo in February. ❑ tion to the festival of events such as a golf tournament, which raises scholarship money for local Latino students. But the new populism Debbie Nathan is a reporter at the San Antonio Current, where a has been accompanied by a growing commercialism that, ironi- version of this story first appeared.

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 15 BAD BILLS The Cop Said So... 7v) THE MARK FUHRMAN BILL stop and produce identification and proof rather than on the streets. The Judge's bill is S.B. 460: Ken Armbrister, D–Victoria of insurance will have to wear a uniform. a lose-lose proposition: it puts kids on the They say Texas is the laboratory for bad And no driver or passenger should be held streets and the school district's average government, but we can't take credit for up for more than ten minutes while waiting daily attendance money back into the every wrong answer to public policy's to pass through the roadblock, which itself state's general revenue coffers. toughest questions. In some cases, like should take no more than two minutes. Armbrister's Senate Bill 460, we're just After asking you to produce a driver's li- ROCKET IN MY POCKET? bottom feeders in the channels of constitu- cense and proof of insurance for no reason H.B. 1165: Suzanna G. Hupp, R–Lampasas tional corrosion. In early February, a fed- other than the fact that you are out driving Want to know if that's a gun in the pocket eral appeals court in Virginia — probably your car, no officer could ask you to per- of the strange man next door, or if he's just the most conservative circuit in the country form a standard sobriety test — unless the glad to see you? Under Hupp's proposal, — stepped out of right field to attack the officer has a reasonable suspicion that you for a fee you could ask the Department of Miranda decision, the landmark 1966 are inebriated. Public Safety if he has a permit to carry a Supreme Court ruling that required law en- concealed weapon. Hupp, a Central Texas forcement officials to read a suspect his or FONICS AND SCIENCE! chiropractor and Arabian Horse Breeder, is her rights at the time of arrest ("You have H.B. 1129: John Longoria, D–San Antonio already the N.R.A.'s poster girl. Here's yet the right to remain silent," etc.). The Vir- Not so much a bad bill as a dumb one, another notch in her concealed weapon. ginia court based its ruling on a largely for- "Judge" Longoria's stealth phonics bill em- This bill would only further conceal the gotten 1968 federal crime law — never en- braces the right-wing panacea described by handgun in your neighbor's pocket. forced because of its suspect Governor Bush as the product of the "the constitutionality — that would allow pros- most up-to-date science: phonics." Accord- FREE KINGWOOD! ecutors to use confessions given freely by ing to H.B. 1129, school superintendents S.B. 1129: Jon Lindsay, R–Houston suspects, whether or not they had been in- must ensure that "curricula is based on sci- Every session generates bills purporting to formed of their right to remain silent. Legal entific research for elementary reading, limit the growth of cities, but actually lim- scholars are calling it the most serious spelling, mathematics..." and "staff devel- iting their ability to control growth or threat to Miranda in thirty years, and a opment in the use of curricula based on sci- annex suburban areas — although subur- likely decision for the Supreme Court. entific research for reading, spelling, and banites work in the city, use city services, Never one to wait and see, Armbrister mathematics" would be required in all of and pay few city taxes. Lindsay's bill is seized the moment to file a Texas version the state's public schools. For elementary aimed at Houston and perhaps Dallas, as it of the Cop-is-Always-Right Bill, which teachers, "the use of educational methods applies to municipalities with a population would simply strike the reference to the and curricula based on scientific research" of 1.5 million or more. It would require the Miranda warning as it pertains to oral con- will be required. What's all this science got city to hold an election in an area to be an- fessions. Early praise for the bill came from to do with reading and spelling? You have nexed and would prohibit annexation if a Lite Guv Rick Perry. If Armbrister has his to sound out most of the bill's words before majority of potential annexees reject it. The way, and the Supreme Court does overturn you get to the line about "scientific research city could not annex any portion of the area Miranda, Texas cops will be ready, note- and morphographic spelling" (i.e. phonics) for ten years following the election. ❑ books in hand. — the pedagogical method the Right promises will stop the decline of Western If you have a likely candidate for Bad Bills, WHAT PROBABLE CAUSE? Civilization while it provides children with please fax the Bad Bills Girl at (512) 474- S.B. 398: David Sibley, R–Waco word-attack skills to get them past the 1175, or e-mail "observer@ texasob- Part of the gradual Latin Americanization T.A.A.S. test. server.org ". of U.S. public policy (which includes lot- Longoria, a.k.a. "Judge Longoria," has a tery in lieu of taxes, starving public educa- second education bill, to ensure that a stu- tion while encouraging private schools, and dent expelled from one school district can- PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS not transfer to another. Current law permits limiting citizen access to courts) this bill Join the Texas Civil Rights Project would make police roadblocks routine. But local school districts to decide whether they $25 a year. not to worry: there are limits built into Sib- will admit students who transfer in after ex- Volunteers needed. ley's stop-and-search law. Before a road- pulsion. Longoria's H.B. 1178 doesn't even 2212 E. MLK, Austin, TX 78702. block can be set up, an officer of at least the allow a school that wants to accept an ex- Call (512) 474-5073 rank of lieutenant would have to authorize pelled student the option of the placing the for more information. it. The officer who will first order you to student in alternative learning settings

16 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE ►

LA PAZ ,EN TEXAS. El Paso Rep Norma sition to extremist groups, and given that Chavez walked from El Paso to Sierra the demonstrators were given permission to Blanca, part of a large protest of the now- demonstrate despite their obvious extrem- defunct Sierra Blanca nuclear waste dump. ism, the newspaper postulated that Luzhkov While most of the session's dump-related might be setting up a straw group which he legislation consists of bills that would make will publicly put down sometime in the fu- the T.N.R.C.C. permitting process more fa- ture. vorable to industry (see "Up Uher's," page 32), Chavez offers a creative proposal de- ATHEIST ANTIQUERS ATTACK. A spirited signed to keep toxic waste dumps off both band of atheists descended on the town of sides of the border. The second-term house- Comfort February 20, to bid adieu to the member is fine tuning a bill to incorporate limestone monument that went up in the the La Paz Accords into Texas law. The Ac- town park last summer. (Shortly after the cords, negotiated but not ratified as a treaty arrival of the monument, intended to honor between the U.S. and Mexico, are often in- the German Freethinkers who settled parts voked but rarely applied, because they lack of the Hill Country, a couple of local resi- the force of law. ,One La Paz provision dents circulated a petition and placed ads in would prohibit the siting of toxic waste dis- local newspapers decrying the "monument posal facilities within ninety miles of the to atheism" (see "Up Against the Rock in Mexico-U.S. border. If passed, Chavez's Comfort," November 6). The town has bill would amount to half a treaty, codifying since decided to replace the large hunk of • Norma Chavez Jack Rehm an agreement that will protect 1,200 miles limestone with a different hunk of lime- of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. $150,000 on officeholder accounts for Jus- stone. According to Hill Country Free- Even if it fails to pass, the La Paz bill will tices. Two Republican Justices — Greg thinkers member and invasion participant focus the Legislature's attention on the en- Abbott and Craig Enoch — are said to be Julie Fisher, roughly forty people (many vironmental ravages along the Rio Grande. well over that limit. Any such restriction wearing t-shirts reading "The Great Atheist would likely be welcome to lawyers sick of Invasion of Comfort, Texas, 1999") and COVER CHARGE. For those who missed the paying at the Courtroom door. one atheist dog conducted morning exer- GOP boat before the November elections, cises in the park, then split into teams to ac- amnesty is here — for a price. Some newly- TEXIANS IN RUSSIA. Last month, an Ob- complish their friendly takeover of local elected Republicans, including Lieutenant server reader currently enduring winter in luncheon establishments. Governor Rick Perry and Supreme Court Moscow reported that she'd seen some cu- Fisher reports being well-received at one Justice Harriet O'Neill, sent letters to finan- rious footage on the evening news — restaurant, Arlene's. After lunch, she con- cial backers of their opponents, inviting demonstrators at the city's U.S. embassy, tinues, the atheists went antique shopping those individuals to contribute to the vic- wearing Klan robes and cutting Texas off a in downtown Comfort, and "a few good tors, post-election and posthaste. O'Neill map of the United States. Turns out these buys were made." Their mission ended invited supporters of her Democratic oppo- were members of a Russian far-right group, with ice cream at Ingenhuett's General nent, Rose Spector, to attend her sending- the Navi Society, expressing their "solidar- Store. They plan to return next year. ❑ off party, and to leave a donation on the ity with the national independence strug- way out. The event raised $60,000. gles of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Northern That money now resides in O'Neill's Mexico, the Hawaiian Kingdom, the island coffers, as she is not up for reelection until of Guam and other Pacific Ocean islands, NATIONAL WRITERS 2004. Technically judges use their office- Puerto Rico and [American] Indian territo- holder accounts (leftover campaign funds ries," according to the English-language UNION plus any new donations) for conference weekly Moscow Times. The demonstrators We give working writers a fighting chance. travel and professional development. Crit- held up placards reading "Kill the U.S." and Health insurance. Solidarity. ics contend, however, that in reality judges "The U.S. is a Prison of Peoples," smashed Journalists, poets, commercial writers. build their accounts to intimidate potential a television, and ended with cries of "Glory Austin, James Bryce (512) 454-6788; election opponents. Following an election to Russia." Houston, Paul Jennings (713) 861-7416; during which Republican candidates for Curiouser yet was the suggestion made Fort Worth, the Court outspent Democrats more than by the daily Kommersant after the event: five to one, this concern is front and center. that the demonstration was in fact all but Alice David Rains (817) 429-4410; A court-appointed committee studied endorsed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Dallas, Diane Elliot (214) 826-7084. the issue, and Texas Lawyer reports that the Luzhkov, as a means of scoring political E-mail: [email protected]. committee will recommend a cap of points. Given the mayor's past vocal oppo-

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17

If 'CI 1 I. / BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income Life Insurance Company Chairman of the Board and Aild EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 2608 WACO, TEXAS 76797 (817) 772-3050 Chief Executive Officer

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ordon, in the Jan seeing "a ly little cash, e state subsidizes. ousing costs a typical income. But even in a have some money. Wa strips of roofin 'liege professors subsist dreci customer S,, s ome, ITO told, moonlight as discussing prices and the de: who serenade tourists in the old avenue and give a leafy awning to t fight. All the merchandise I saw was homema wn. The Most Cubans, judging by those with whom I talked, think were individual displays of fruits and vegetables, including some ex things are getting better. Slowly. Hardened by adversity and rec- otic wares rare to North American grocery shoppers — yucca root, onciled to reality, they cling to hope. papayas, guavas, shallots, and capotes (a melon-like delicacy). Most fresh vegetables are quoted at prices that would be cheap Jim Wright the former Speaker of the House, visited Cuba in December by our standards. Newly picked limes and grapefruit went for less as part of an American delegation, This is the third in a series of articles than three cents a pound. Fresh pork, depending on the cut, var- on his visit: the first appeared in the Observer dated February 5,

MARCH 5. 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 MOLLY IVINS Compassion in Action ince we're right here in the heart of compassionate conservatism, it seems like a good idea to check and see how it's going so far. First rat out of the trap, as it were, our new Republi- S can Texas Senate, led by our new Republican Lieutenant Governor and urged on by our Re- publican Governor, passed a very compassionate $45 million tax break for the oil and gas industry. So on the evidence thus far, we'd have to say that compassionate conservatism looks a whole lot like the old mean, nasty conservatism we're all used to. (Mean, nasty conservatives were always giv- dustry, and copper prices are down, but dents pay the greatest percentage of state ing tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. In there is no targeted tax cut for copper pro- taxes, the highest-income Texans benefit fact, that was pretty much their main thing.) ducers. Senator Mario Gallegos said he had most from exemptions on sales and fran- Governor George W. Bush's first com- a steel plant in his district shut down a chise taxes. I must admit that this report passionate move was to declare an emer- while back, and no one offered targeted tax amazed no one. gency, so the $45 mil tax break can go into relief to his constituents. Meanwhile, according to a recent article effect immediately upon full passage. Veterans of previous downturns in the in the Houston Chronicle, just as our gover- Now, notice that this tax break is not for oil bidness know what usually happens nor was urging Texans to "rally the armies of the owners of great big oil and gas wells. It when the price falls so low that it's not compassion," a new study showed low-in- is for the owners of small oil and gas wells. worthwhile to keep a low-producing well come residents doing worse than the national Tiny. Itty-bitty, really. And I for one have running: they cap the wells until the price average in just about every way. no trouble at all endorsing the compassion- goes back up. According to a January 1999 report by ate thought that anyone who can't get more This has worked well for both Texas and the Urban Institute, a higher percentage of than fifteen barrels a day out of a well when O.P.E.C. But the owners of these itty-bitty, our families — four out of ten — live on the price of oil has dropped below $15 a teeny-weeny oil wells say they never will small incomes. A larger percentage reports barrel for three months running should not pump again if they have to shut down. My- a lack of health care and concerns about have to pay the state all those taxes on it. self, I'd say that depends on how high the whether they can afford food. And I fully appreciate how much the oil price of oil goes, but I wouldn't want to be The Lone Star State has: and gas industry needs this compassionate accused of cynicism. ■ More parents with housing difficulties. help from the state. Woman and girl, I have Under the doctrine of the new compas- ■ More children in families that have trou- been listening to the oil and gas industry sionate conservatism, we citizens are sup- ble affording food. explain why it needs special tax breaks for posed to show "personal responsibility." ■ More residents in fair to poor health. the better part of four decades now, and it is Which I guess the owners of the teeny-tiny ■More children and adults who lack health clear to me that the industry needs these oil wells did, on account of their lobbyists insurance. breaks when times are bad (as they are certainly were active at the Capitol, which This also amazed no one. How nice that now) and when times are good (as they is one way to take personal responsibility. things are going to be very different under

have been and will be again) and when And then if personal responsibility does- compassionate conservatism. ❑ times are only middling. n't suffice, we're supposed to apply to The sponsor of the tax break in the Sen- "faith-based" help groups. Here, I'm sorry Molly Ivins is a former Observer editor and ate, J.E. "Buster" Brown, explained sim- to say, the oil industry has not followed a columnist for the Fort Worth ply, "The oil industry is hurting." And script. The Texas Independent Producers Star-Telegram. Her latest book is You Got there's nothing like pain in the oil industry and Royalty Owners Association was not to Dance With Them What Brung You. to touch off compassion in a conservative. faith-based, last time I checked. You may write to her via e-mail at Senator Bill Ratliff says that 1,687 oil What T.I.P.R.O. wants to do here is mollyivins @ star-telegram. corn. wells and 948 gas wells in Texas were shut dump an additional $45 million worth of down last year because of falling produc- tax liabilities on the non-well-owners of tion and high production costs. That's what the state, and let me remind you on whom A.C.L.U. usually happens when the price of oil goes that burden falls. According to the state CENTRAL TEXAS CHAPTER down a lot. comptroller's office, the poorest Texans invites you to our noon Forum True, there were some carpers. Senator shoulder a disproportionate amount of the the last Friday of every month. Fury's Cafeteria Banquet Room in Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso voted against state's total tax burden. In its biennial study Northcross Mall, Austin. the tax break; he said the economy in his released just a few weeks ago, the office Call (512) 459-5829 for information. part of the state depends on the copper in- found that while the lowest-income resi-

20 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 JIM HIGHTOWER The Pilgrimage of Granny D 'm in love. Hopelessly in love. Doris Haddock is her name, but she's called "Granny D" by her family and friends, and she's filled with the fighting spirit that makes America so great. She's an 89-year-old great-grandmother on her, people walk with her, rallies for reform pire, based in Cincinnati, includes ownership a mission. Her goal is to help get the cor- are held when she visits, and travelers who of Chiquita Brands, which produces beau- rupting power of big campaign money out pass her on the road invariably honk and coup of the yellow fruit in Central America. of politics. To rally public support, Granny shout, "Go Granny Go." Lindner has been in a long pout because he D is walking across America — all 3,000 She's a Granny with both an 800 number wants the Europeans to buy his bananas, but miles of it. "Call me crazy, call me God- and a web site, so if you want to follow her instead they've been buying from their for- sent," she says. "I am on a crusade to create travels, know when she's coming to your mer colonies in the Caribbean. So Lindner a groundswell for campaign finance reform town, or get her petition, go to grannyd. has gone to Washington, enlisting everyone to eliminate the cancer [of big money]." corn, or call (800) 298-2182. from Bob Dole to Bill Clinton to threaten the She flew from her New Hampshire home Europeans with a trade war if they don't start out to California in late December, then GOING BANANAS FOR TRADE buying from Carl. began walking east from Santa Monica on America's trade policy makes about as He has such clout in Washington be- January first. She plans to average ten much sense as a rooster wearing socks. cause the one thing Lindner produces more miles a day as she treks through California, For months, the Japanese and others have of than bananas is campaign contributions. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, flagrantly dumped steel into the U.S. market, Indeed, when Dole was running for presi- Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, selling it at prices beneath what it costs them dent, he flew around in Lindner's corporate West Virginia, Virginia — and finally, to produce it. Not only is this illegal, but it's jet. Lindner also gave $500,000 to the Clin- sometime next November, to cross the Po- also a crushing blow to our own steelworkers ton re-election effort one day after Clin- tomac and walk straight up Capitol Hill to and their towns — yet the milquetoast Clin- ton's top trade official filed a formal com- the halls of Congress. There, she'll deliver ton administration has done little about it. plaint against the Europeans on behalf of thousands of petitions that she will have Contrast this to the full-fledged war Chiquita bananas. Three years later, his ba- collected along the way. dance that the Clintonites have been en- nana war has escalated to the point that "I'm traveling as a pilgrim," Granny D gaged in over another commodity: bananas. Clinton is imposing 100-percent tariffs on says. She's asking people for a meal, for a Our country has marched to the brink of an such European goods as pecorino cheese

warm place to sleep at night, and, of all-out trade war with Europe over bananas and cashmere sweaters. ❑ course, to sign and spread her petitions. Al- — even though the U.S. produces no ba- ready, support is building for this unique, nanas and no U.S. jobs are at risk. Jim Hightower's talk show broadcasts heartfelt crusade — local media pour out, Well, there is one U.S. job attached to ba- daily from Austin nationwide. Find him at townsfolk gather at the city line to escort nanas — Carl Lindner's. His corporate em- www.jimhightower.com.

"Vouchers," from page 4 Ron Wilson was attending school in cess to funds that the Texas Constitution Houston when that group of Mexican- guarantees, now finds its students and their providing money to anyone who will leave American plaintiffs filed suit demanding daily attendance allotment from the state se- the Edgewood I.S.D. in San Antonio to at- something close to equity for their children duced away by a private voucher system de- tend a private school. Edgewood is the San San Antonio's Edgewood schools. There is signed to prepare the way for the public sys- Antonio school district that inspired enormous symbolic meaning in Dr, tem that Wilson is shilling. Demetrio Rodriguez to go to court in 1968, Leininger's attack on that particular district, One of the members of the Edgewood fac- with a claim that because of inadequate which has a history of using its meager re- ulty, who thirty years ago worked with par- funding his children couldn't get a decent sources well, and is hardly the lowest-per- ents preparing their equity lawsuit (and who education. Rodriguez's granddaughter was forming school district in San Antonio. has since gone on to considerable distinc- a senior at Edgewood's John F. Kennedy (South San Antonio I.S.D. and Harlandale tion), told me in a recent conversation that High School by the time the case made its I.S.D are actually "more deserving" of voucher politics are based on a model the way through the federal courts and to the Leininger's private voucher program, which Mexican-American community understands: Texas Supreme Court, which found the state Jeff Mandell examines in a feature that be- "We've seen this happen to us before. Its system unconstitutional, and ordered the gins on page 8.) the same old story. They tell us, 'We're Legislature to write a law that would pro- Beyond the symbolic value of Leininger's going to do this to you because it's good for vide funding for school districts whose tax program, there are fiscal consequences for you. We're going to fuck you because it's base left them without adequate funds. Edgewood, which, after finally winning ac- good for you.' And then they do." — L.D.

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 21 OBSERVATIONS The Politicians vs. the People BY RONNIE DUGGER Cambridge, Massachusetts azing upon the barely twitching cadaver of the Texas Democratic Party after what Lou Dubose aptly called its suicide last fall ("Running Down the Ballot," December 4), my Gthoughts run back to the moment when Democratic Governor Ann Richards committed the most significant act of her public life, appointing Shakespeare-spouting Bob Krueger to the United States Senate from Texas. Lloyd Doggett, a paragon of public service ing for nothing, for Governor, and is bone up on all the state and local elections, who is rising as a leader even in that pol- sidling into position now to repeat his fa- and even those of us who try can't trust the luted Congress, was presiding over the ther's eight years in the White House. The slant from the corporate TV stations and Texas Supreme Court. She did not even net result of the recent pseudo-liberal corporate dailies. Little wonder that in a phone him to ask if he was interested. Na- Democratic surge in Texas politics is that foundation study last December, among tional populist leader Jim Hightower was our state can lay claim to having the two fifteen local TV news topics rated by view- chattin"n' chewin' away for plain folks in worst senators in the nation — Phil Gramm ers according to their interest, the weather the same town with her. She did not phone wins one of the black ribbons no contest, ranked first, and stories about local and him, either. Nor did she select, for this most although I suppose Jesse Helms still vies state elections ranked eleventh. important of all her appointments, any of with Hutchinson for the second one. the liberals or moderates in the Legislature What were the high-I.Q. statewide can- ooking things over from a little way or the Texas delegation. Instead — in the didates and their high-I.Q. (and higher-dol- off, one would think the question in act which defined her governorship and all lar) consultants thinking, going into last Lmany well-informed Texans' minds by itself cancelled out the good deeds she November — that the Texas electorate now might be: how long are we going to did in fact do for the people — she sent to would erupt in revulsion against the terri- take these sellouts and beatings before we the United States Senate Bob Krueger, the ble Republican trio? But where was their quit this game and start a new one? Here veteran of service from Texas in Congress own star, Ann Richards? She had turned up comes the millennium. Are we going on who had the most reactionary voting record on Sixty Minutes as a lobbyist for the filthy into the twenty-first century trying to jab of any Democrat. When she really had a tobacco companies. Their new candidate this same old dead horse into life? Molly chance to set the tone of Texas history, she for governor stood for ... some good Ivins and Jim Hightower spoke last month ran with the wolves and Lloyd Bentsen. things. Their new candidate for lieutenant at the organizing meeting of ProTex, an at- We had had the uprising of the liberals in governor made Willie Horton an honorary tempt at an umbrella organization for pro- the late fifties, until John Connally was Texan for the duration of the election. And gressive Texans. Let's hope it's a fresh shot and lionized. The true hero of this up- so it was that last November the Demo- start at a new thing, though we must won- rising was Ralph Yarborough, who, eerily, cratic Party received what it deserved from der how bold it can be with Ford Founda- was the butt of Ann Richards' cruelest the people of Texas — a total wipeout for tion funding. In any case, Texans are jokes throughout the period. Then we rode every statewide office. ornery enough, and enough of them are a little higher during the deep liberal/pop- Even as we shouldn't "sanction" (much populist enough, to light out across town ulist surge of the late seventies and eight- less bomb) the people of Iraq because they — and across country — to start a really ies, epitomized by Hightower at the Agri- have a mass murderer for their dictator, we new and multicultural movement that will culture Department. But Jim opted not to shouldn't blame the people of Texas for stand for the public good. carry the insurgent movement into a race their disgust against the recent procession We have, it's true, come a long way (as for the Senate with him, and when Ann of statewide Texas politicians still calling my optimist friend Fred Schmidt of Freder- Richards had to put up or shut up — she themselves Democrats. Even against all the icksburg — who died on February 14 — shut up. stacked odds of big money and the control- never tired of stressing), since the Observer Krueger of course then lost to Kay Bai- ling corporate media, the people elect started up in 1954 with fake-Democrat ley Hutchinson — why should a Democrat, about a fifth of the members of the House Allan Shivers and segregation-forever even one who loves Shakespeare, bother to and a third of the state senators who still Price Daniel in the governor's mansion. go out and vote for an enemy of whatever stand and fight for everyday people. But we should have learned a lot more by is left of the values of the Democratic But by now real day-to-day people now than we have. One does not go on Party? President Bush's son George, stand- should be tired of losing so predictably for playing, for all one's life, against a stacked ing for nothing, beat Richards, also stand- so long. Most of us just do not have time to deck. One does not go on listening, for all

22 a THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 of one's life, to the predictable lies of the posed association with what Dugger incor- counter-violence will define all that hap- same political sellouts. The attention-lov- rectly calls Maoism." That, too, would be pens and all that follows. The nonviolent ing politicians who have committed suicide owning up to the truth of an untruth. Dick revolutionaries in Russia in 1917 who tried in the name of the Texas Democratic Party Reavis, in another letter, said I "appar- to work with the Bolsheviks, for example, are not, after all, the people themselves. It is ently" justify my decision not to validate waking up as mere tag-alongs on October time for people to build our own new mod- Davis' own just-made decision to hire 25, 1917, committed the fearful error of els for our working lives and our own new Reavis as his associate editor on grounds bolting a climactic national conference movements, free not only of the major cor- that in 1969 Reavis was a Maoist. That, against the Bolsheviks, and thereby simply porations but also of the government and too, is wrong. turned the fasces of power over to the most the two political parties which they own. As I've written previously in the Ob- violent ones. server (though only when pressed), before Liberals, progressives, populists, radi- POPULISM AND RACISM I hired Rod I asked him whether he favored cals, or those on the Right, who believe in Speaking of populism, though: Last August the use of violence at that time to cause so- nonviolence, but who knowingly work Scott Spear of Madison, Wisconsin, in a let- cial change in the United States. He said he with those committed to violence, become ter to "Dialogue," recommended shunning did not, and I then hired him. In 1981, be- patsies of the violence they oppose and turn populism because "these movements have cause of my analysis of a column of Rod's history over to the violent ones. If I believe continued to exhibit nasty tendencies to- in the Observer, I asked him the same ques- in nonviolence in the American situation wards racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, tion again. He said he could no longer an- and don't stand in forthright opposition to a sexism, and anti-intellectualism." That is swer the question with a No. That was why person committed to violence — if I let true of, say, George Wallace "populism," or I fired him. More-Radical-Than-Thous guilt-trip me David Duke "populism," or Pat Buchanan I had heard, not from Rod, that he had into silence and passivity on this gut ques- "populism" — but these were failed attempts just hired Reavis, but Reavis had not yet tion — I am a coward. ❑ of racist nationalists to wrap themselves in a gone to work. I did not know until I read fetching garment. The only authentic Ameri- Doug Rossinow's book that Reavis had Ronnie Dugger was the founding editor can populist movement — that of the Farm- been a Maoist, nor (obviously) did I know and publisher of the Observer, and is ers' Alliance in the late nineteenth century or care about Reavis' personal life. I founder and national co-chairman of the —was no freer of racism and anti-Semitism doubted Rod had the authority to hire Alliance for Democracy. than any other large cross-cut of the popula- Reavis without my knowledge or consent. I tion then. But C. Vann Woodward judges regarded Reavis as a good writer, but I that it had the best record of striving for in- strongly disliked what I knew about his terracial justice of any large American move- politics at that time and decided, in the con- ment until the 1960s. We must seize the text of the situation, that he would not join ANDERSON & COMPANY word "populism" and the values of populism the staff. His having been a Maoist had COFFEE back from the bigots, racists, and assorted nothing to do with it since I didn't know it. TEA SPICES nuts because, as Lawrence Goodwyn, its his- I have been on the liberal/progressive/ TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE torian, says, it was the only mass movement populist side in American politics since I AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 in the history of the United States which de- was sixteen or seventeen, and I want to 512-453-1533 nied the legitimacy of corporate rule in a continue to make my position very clear on Send me your list. democracy and which invented and fought this point. The subject is not whether vio- Name for an anti-hierarchical economic system. lence for social change is justified in a The populists I run with — we call ourselves given situation; that depends on the situa- Street twenty-first century populists, everybody ex- tion, and people on the Left, however so- City Zip cept bigots welcome. cialist or radical, or on the Right, however racist, nationalist, or fascist, make different VIOLENCE VS. NONVIOLENCE decisions on the question of using violence As James Simons, the Austin attorney, said to cause change. Once someone or some in his letter in Dialogue responding to my group has decided in favor of the use of vi- Mathis & Co. review of Doug Rossinow's book on the olence, anyone opposed to violence who C.P.A., 20 years' experience new left in Austin and Texas in the sixties works in coalitions with that person or or- in tax, litigation support, and seventies, I am not the issue ("Failing ganization, or follows them, or joins them and other analyses. History," February 5). Neither is Greg Olds; in actions, becomes a cipher, a tool of the nor would I "admit" the truth of Simons' people for violence, because in the confer- 4807 Spicewood Springs Road guess why I fired Greg, as James challenges ence, or rally, or demonstration, or when Bldg. 1, Suite 1105 me to do, since his guess is wrong. those who are set on violence decide the Austin, TX 78759. Simons also wrote that I should own up moment for the revolution has come, they (512) 231-0550. to firing Rod Davis "because of his sup- will be violent, and the violence and

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 LAS AMERICAS Babes, Bones, Brujas and Banks! BY BARBARA BELEJACK "We set up house and I embarked on the torturous path of maintaining a double life. I could do it. I was a man of power, no? ... It seemed perfect... We were Mr. and Mrs. GOmez Gutierrez.

The Mr. GOmez Gutierrez in question is United States with undeclared excess cash, alas, a miracle was not to be. At least not yet. none other than Raul Salinas de Gortari, a and it now appears that he had been paid Ratll was convicted and once again, the U.S. recently convicted murderer staring at a off to keep the Salinas family name out of media strained to portray yet another Mexi- fifty-year sentence for the death of Francisco the investigation of his brother's murder. can president as a reformer, describing Ruiz Massieu, a leading party official and Enter Pablo Chapa Bezanilla, another ener- Ernesto Zedillo as a statesman leading an former Salinas brother-in-law. The quote getic crusader. Chapa Bezanilla looked like "unprecedented and historic transition to comes from the Mexico City daily El Fi- a "tough New York cop," and the belea- democracy." Is it okay to convict someone nanciero, leaking what are purported to be guered presidency of Ernesto Zedillo re- just because they are scum? Was this a deci- pages from Raul' s unedited memoirs. Raul ceived a much-needed boost in 1995, when sion based on law or politics, aimed at keep- portrays himself as suffering from a case of the President backed a Chapa Bezanilla ing the self-exiled former president at bay Donjuanismo, the thrills of a double life — order to arrest Rail Salinas. and appeasing a much-maligned citizenry? false passports, casas chicas (little houses) There's still one missing link — Manuel Was it likely to launch another round of for the mistresses. It was the "vertigo of Munoz Rocha, a Tamaulipas congressman bloody power struggles? power," that led him astray, after his life and Raill Salinas crony, whose legislative Raul may or may not have killed his for- changed dramatically when his younger district lies just across the border from the mer brother-in-law Francisco Ruiz brother Carlos became the presidential can- Lower Rio Grande Valley. Muiloz Rocha is Massieu. But there is just one more thing, didate of the Institutional Revolutionary believed to have organized the hit, and had- and as the late great Cantinflas would say, Party (P.R.I.) on November 4, 1987. n't been seen since the day after Francisco alli evil el detalle. Purported, of course, is the operative Ruiz Massieu was killed. And now, things The Raul Salinas case is not about babes, word here. During the four-year investiga- get really loopy — beginning with Maria bones, brujas, and brothers. It's about banks. tion there has been a constant flow of leaks Bernal, one of Raul' s former girlfriends, Citibank funneled Raul' s millions to to the press, many of them involving babes, whose first public appearance was in a Switzerland, through the offices of "private bones, and brujas (witches), proving once photo (leaked to a Mexico City newspaper) banker" Amy Elliott in New York. A Swiss again that some of the most innovative fic- of her straddling Radl on the prow of a investigation has charged Raill with money tion in Latin America is written in the of- yacht. Maria is an acquaintance of Doi% laundering; a G.A.O. report issued last fall fice of Mexico's Attorney General. From Francisca, a.k.a. "La Paca," a chunky clair- has come down hard on Citibank. There has what we've seen so far, Ratll's written a voyant who led investigators to an un- been an on-again, off-again U.S. Justice De- snoozer. But then, how to compete with the marked grave on one of Raul' s estates, partment investigation into Citibank. Charles original political telenovela? To recap where La Paca had divined that the body of Intriago, a former prosecutor and publisher briefly: Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu was Senator Mutioz Rocha was buried. The of Money Laundering Alert, warns that the once married to Adriana Salinas, the sister bones turned out to belong to a relative of statute of limitations is about to run out. Nev- of Raul and the now-disgraced former La Paca; rather than collecting a reward, ertheless, last year the Justice Department President Carlos Salinas. He was also a for- she went to jail for her part in the hoax. and Federal Reserve gave their blessings to mer governor of Guerrero, and a top party Chapa Bezanilla fled the country, was ex- the merger of Citibank and Travelers Insur- leader in the PRI, who was cast as a re- tradited from Spain, and eventually was ac- ance, creating "Citigroup" — the kind of in- former — despite a few literal skeletons in quitted for his role in the highjinks. Manuel stitution that, in economic parlance, is "too a closet too small to hide the many truths he Murioz Rocha is still missing. big to fail" (i.e., too big to get nailed). A U. S. lived with. His 1979 divorce was always And so it came to pass that just hours be- congressional committee is supposed to be described as "messy" or "bitter" — for rea- fore the Pope's plane was scheduled to looking into the activities of Citibank and the sons made obvious when he was posthu- touch down in Mexico City last month, a whole business of "private banking." But mously outed. The man originally in small crowd of reporters gathered outside committee members are too busy right now. charge of investigating Francisco's murder the high-security Almoloya Prison to await Too preoccupied with babes, Donjuanismo, was his own brother, Assistant Attorney the decision of Judge Ricardo Ojeda Bo- and the high crimes and misdemeanors of the

General Mario Ruiz Massieu. Mario, too, horquez. Paulina Castanon, Raill's Cather- "vertigo of power." ❑ was cast as a crusading prosecutor out to ine Deneuve look-alike wife (who also had a avenge his brother's death, warning omi- run-in with the law after trying to withdraw Barbara Belejack is a writer living in nously that "the devils were on the loose." $84 million from Swiss banks), clutched at Mexico City. He was later arrested trying to enter the an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. But

MARCH 5, 1999 24 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER BOOKS & THE CULTURE

Patient Murray, female In Recovery off the O.R., where patients regained consciousness in beds with wheels, festooned by I.V. poles, tubes, and life-support gear, a woman in her sixties came out of the cloud of anesthesia. She opened her eyes, Tree of Life . breathing hard, one breath When I caught to the next, to the next, my first trout, as if she were numbering them — cleaned, cooked, and and then she exhaled in a sigh, ate it with my father her eyes rolling back on a stream bank showing the whites like moons. in Colorado, I remember fingering A voice spoke: "Patient Murray the lace of bones went out" — then nurses and interns joining head to tail, began disconnecting that soft white tree the metal trees upon which M3% long descent into trouble canopying her bed, preparing it the fish's life with family, friends, for another's use. had been hung. and my draft board Such speed, such efficiency. began on that rainy afternoon In military school as I watched the crosshairs Something should have been done when it rained of the sniper's rifle at her death, some courtesy, they showed us World War II enclose each man's head some grace, a pause — training films: and explode it. so her soul, how to recognize syphilis, its long work completed, how to dig a proper foxhole, Enemy soldier. could make its way and how to be a sniper; Too young to grasp it, out of the body slowly, which enemy soldier I could only imagine with dignity, to shoot first each man as someone like myself, like an elder. when three are walking a kid, his best stories unlived, single file still spread out ahead of him in an open field. in that field, or hidden among the branches of the tree of bones growing inside him.

—TOM ABSHER

om Absher was born in Kansas, and raised in Texas from the Ohio State, and The Calling, from Alice James Books. Welcome age of four. He still thinks of San Antonio as home base, home, Tom! T even though he now lives in Vermont, teaching literature —Naomi Shihab Nye and creative writing at Vermont College. His most recent chapbook, The Invisible Boy, won the 1998 Hi- The Observer's poetry page is partially funded through a grant biscus Award with the Writers' Voice, judged by Gerald Stern. from the Austin Writers' League, in cooperation with the Texas Absher has two other books of poetry, Forms of Praise, from Commission on the Arts.

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 25 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Austin Powers Mary Willis Walker and James Magnuson: Two Novelists on the New Texas BY MICHAEL KING ALL THE DEAD LIE DOWN. By Mary Willis Walker. Doubleday. 308 pages. $22.95.

WINDFALL. By James Magnuson. Villard. 220 pages. $22.95.

What temptations can a place possess? — Dave Oliphant, Austin

t's a mixed blessing that Austin has finally become what its namesake and founder once envisioned, in the poet's phrase, as "this city of light and learning." Blessed with friendly Ipeople and natural beauty, and still buzzing with energy and possibility, Austin is now Constance Ashley besieged by real estate hustlers, swarmed by silicon carpetbaggers from California nist of Walker's first novel, Zero at the political criminality drifts inexorably into and Taiwan, and betrayed by venal politi- Bone, had a less adventurous and less glam- her family history and out to West Texas, cians from Odessa to D.C. New money orous occupation: dog trainer.) Cates is a and then abruptly shifts back into the con- scars its hillsides, floods its highways, and nineties heroine, a divorced woman in early temporary Austin scene. thrives on the cheap labor that has roiled up middle age with a nearly grown daughter. The plotters are attempting to head off a from Central America, southeast Asia, or Not a detective herself, she has an ongoing pending gun control bill (upon reflection, simply the East Side. As a city, it has affair with an Austin police lieutenant, who perhaps the most unconvincing aspect of reached that critical mass of population and assists both heroine and her creator by pro- the story), but to Walker's credit the money that creates both vitality and squalor viding crucial information and passion at novel's topical politics set a sharp back- — which means it is ripe and ready for strategic intervals. And in the Ross McDon- drop without overwhelming her tale. In- melodrama. ald tradition, Walker's plots tend to be indeed, even the treatment of weaponry is Onto this stage step Mary Willis Walker terwoven and reverberating — a story that ambivalent, for although Walker quotes ap- and James Magnuson, Austin novelists seems to be about some present crime in- provingly another Molly (Ivins) on the alert to both the possibilities and dangers of evitably echoes into the past, and gathers folly of private gun ownership, Molly life in the new city. Walker has now pub- the detective (or in this case, the journalist) Cates' close work with a handgun proves lished four novels of detection and sus- into its rhythms and history. indispensable in her own defense and in the pense, set primarily in Austin; Magnuson, In All the Dead Lie Down, the present unraveling of the plot. Equally important is director of U.T.-Austin's Michener Center crime is potentially a garish one: a shad- the bag lady, Sarah Jane Hurley, who ap- for Writers, is returning to the novel after owy paramilitary group is plotting to deto- pears first as a leering apparition of ten years of writing for television. In their nate toxic gas into the Legislature, killing drunken dereliction, and then grows into a sprightly and inventive fictions, both au- everyone present. (Walker's titles are from free-standing character with her own his- thors have something to tell us about life on Emily Dickinson, who proves a surpris- tory and tale to tell. Indeed, Sarah Jane these increasingly meaner streets. ingly gothic thesaurus.) Cates hears of the (a/k/a "Cow Lady") becomes almost liter- Walker's Austin is home to Molly Cates, plot one day from a drunken bag lady, but ally a stand-in for the unknown Austin — a magazine writer ("Lone Star Monthly") while she is skeptically pursuing that story largely. invisible to the reporters, the au- who finds herself repeatedly at the center of she finds it linked with her own past, and thorities, and the traffic jams full of well- spectacular and complicated crime stories. the mysterious death of her father when she dressed people who matter. (Katherine Driscoll, the Cates-like protago- was a teenager. Her search into apparently As they walked, the woman continued

26 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER MARCH 5, 1999 to talk nonstop about finding Cow Lady the money — only to realize he hasn't got thing, she looked frozen, her eyes open, in the rain and bringing her back to life the slightest notion what that might mean. but lusterless and vacant as a pike's, but and healing her. Just past a decrepit ser- He confides in the sort of people who might somehow that hadn't loosened her grip vice station, she turned into what looked know, and soon they're looking to launder as she trolled upward in the sacred like an ancient parking lot with patchy, him out of his fortune. water, her Mardi Gras beads drifting cracked asphalt. Uncut grasses and Like Walker, Magnuson follows his nar- around her neck like eels. weeds nearly obscured a NO DUMPING rative into his protagonist's interior, al- As that passage suggests, Magnuson is sign that stood on the corner. At the though he is less interested in catching the after deeper fish than just Ben's big score, rear, a driveway of crumbly cement led back to a wild overgrown area that looked more like the Amazon jungle than South Austin. They stepped over a low cable meant to keep cars out and followed the driveway to where it ended in a dirt path. Molly looked back and was amazed to see that civilization had dis- appeared. They might have been miles from the city, instead of a few hundred yards from a busy urban intersection. I know that intersection, along Barton Springs Road; one of the important small pleasures of reading hometown novels is recognizing the landmarks. But another is discovering unfamiliar places, unknown neighborhoods. Mary Willis Walker's novels are adept at taking the mystery genre and investing it with lively new significance, and taking up Austin and finding a surprising world where the familiar road ends. Martha Ferris

he driving wheel of James Magnu- crooks than in capturing the slow break- and Windfall is less a novel about money son's Windfall is less explosive than down of Lindberg's spirit. The professor is than about the harsh light money shines on Ta mass assassination, but equally also a Thoreau scholar, perhaps on the verge men's hearts. It is also about the new Austin melodramatic: as the book opens, Ben of a crucial discovery about the notorious — every roadway, office, and landscape is Lindberg, a young English professor at falling-out between Thoreau and Emerson. readily recognizable, and in speaking of the U.T., stumbles upon a fortune hidden near The shadow that fell over that historical book the author is frank about his home- his home. (It's in South Austin, where this friendship becomes a premonition of the town target. "I feel that Austin in the 1990s kind of thing is rumored to go on all the shadow that has fallen over Lindberg's life. has become the emblem of something," he time.) By the signs, it's a massive cache of It's a-device that neatly links the inner and told an interviewer, "the place where every- stolen or drug money, but Lindberg can't outer worlds of the novel, and it even pro- one wants to move, the All-American boom resist taking, first a bit, and then all of it. vides the occasion of the professor's downtown, a city where you can protect the en- Since we're all lottery players these fall: one of his part-time graduate students is dangered salamander and still make billions days, Magnuson's grand joke is to turn also a small-time hustler, and the teacher in high tech, a city that's all sunshine and no what looks like a fairy tale into a thriller. foolishly turns to the student for advice shadow.... [But] I hope to create a portrait of He gives the luckless Lindberg what he about dealing with his windfall. contemporary Texas that is much more dis- thinks he most wants, and then watches the In a dream Lindberg sees Thoreau, turbing and shadow-ridden than the pictures unhappy results. English teacher salaries sounding the frozen Walden Pond. The created by rah-rah publicists." being what they are, and the true "owners" water at first seems bottomless, but Thoreau It's a pattern that's as old as American lit- likely to be thieves at best, Lindberg can't brings up, out of the dreamer's spirit, a erature, and indeed the country that spawned get rid of the money, and he can't really nightmare of the first innocent victim of the it. The newcomers arrive in an undiscovered spend it. He's afraid to tell anyone about it, teacher's avarice: an old woman slain by paradise, only to find that it's as fallen a even his wife, and other than small those searching for the stolen money. world as the one they left. How could it not amounts for car repairs and athletic shoes, Finally Ben saw what Thoreau in- be, when they brought their dark hearts along the money becomes as oppressive to him as tended him to see. Clinging to the stone with them? The newest waves of Austin set- Poe's telltale heart. Like a character in a at the end of the sounding line was the tlers are only beginning to imagine what mystery, he decides he needs to "launder" old woman. She was not alive. If any- these two novelists already know. ❑ MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE There Was Something About Mary Another President, Another Woman Another Country BY CHAR MILLER A VERY PRIVATE WOMAN: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer. By Nina Burleigh. Bantam. 307 pages. $23.95.

ack Kennedy was a city slicker. "A well-manicured golf course, perhaps, or an immaculate lawn doing double duty as a touch football field" was about as far "as he could Jcomfortably remove himself from the urban amenities without wondering what the hell he was doing, and worrying about making a fool of himself." Which is pre- cisely how he felt, remembered good friend Ben Bradlee, when he visited the LBJ ranch in Johnson City. Afterwards, Kennedy confided to the executive editor of the Washington Post that he had been appalled when Johnson hauled him out in a limousine to a "carpeted blind to shoot deer that had been driven toward him." This was no marker of manhood with which the ur- bane New Englander was comfortable. He was much more adept at hunting bi- pedal, indoor quarry. His womanizing (ru- mors of which had led Bradlee' s father, A Mary Pinchot Meyer Corbis-Bettmann LLC. during the 1960 campaign, to ask him if Kennedy was a "fearful girler") has only than I can understand it. I can see how it psychedelic sex in the presidential manse. gained in legendary status since his assassi- was physically possible, but the taste for Top that, Lyndon; beat that, Bill. nation (a notoriety that miffed the ever- risk and the belittling of the women in- competitive LBJ; he was at pains to assure volved boggle the mind." o this crude, introductory foreplay, friends that he had had more women by ac- Imagine just how dumbfounded he was journalist Nina Burleigh would ob- cident than Kennedy ever had had by de- when he discovered that his sister-in-law, Tject. A Very Private Woman does sign). This bit of penis envy aside, Jack Mary Pinchot Meyer — the subject of this not depend on or revolve around the sala- was nimble. The presidential swinging new tell-all biography — was one of cious revelation, she insists, for "early on" began at the 1961 inaugural balls: allegedly Kennedy's lovers. More stunning is the later she had concluded "that Kennedy war- he slipped away with actress Angie Dickin- allegation that she and the president smoked ranted only a single chapter in Mary's life"; son — not once, but twice — for a celebra- reefer in the White House. (They inhaled — she cut their relationship down to size, be- tory fuck. Other glam figures of stage, three joints, no less — with Kennedy declin- cause "it seemed to me that in a full life of screen, or society — most famously Mari- ing a fourth, purportedly quipping, "Sup- forty-four years, there was more to the lyn Monroe — made their way to his bed pose the Russians did something now.") The woman than a relationship with one man, (or he to theirs), an obsessive display of Red Menace apparently never entered his even if he was the president." That's a vir- sexual energy that stunned pal Bradlee. Of mind in 1962, when shortly after one of tuous posture, and accurate enough: there Kennedy's many reported affairs he later Mary's visits with Timothy Leary, the pair is more to this book than the Meyer- wrote: "I can believe it now more easily supposedly dropped acid prior to a spot of Kennedy affair.

MARCH 5, 1999 28 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER But Burleigh's claim to have written a bi- schools, as did Jack, and appropriately they interpretative failure is the book's conde- ography about a woman who just happened first met at a Choate mixer; later, while scending voice. Rather than take seriously to sleep with Jack Kennedy is also a tad Mary studied at Vassar, they moved in one the lives and beliefs of those who crowd disingenuous. As the subtitle suggests, her another's orbits, though they did not date. her text, Burleigh resorts to easy platitudes study depends heavily on our understand- Their lives briefly intersected in San Fran- that give us little insight into her subjects ing that Meyer had been a "Presidential cisco in May, 1945, when they attended the and by extension is dismissive of them. Mistress." So does the book's success at the conference that formed the United Nations; Burleigh's less-than exact commentary on cash register depend on the timing of publi- Mary's new husband, Cord Meyer, a Washington's Color School, with whom cation. How convenient that A Very Private wartime hero like Kennedy, was a member Mary was associated both through her art Woman, which officially (and so sensi- of the American delegation. The self-im- and her affair with Kenneth Noland, and tively) came out on the thirty-fourth an- portant Meyer (then infatuated with world her superficial analysis of therapeutic and niversary of Meyer's 1964 murder, hit the federalism and soon a player at the newly spiritual fascinations that swept through bookstores smack in the middle of a most established C.I.A.) refused Kennedy's re- the Georgetown elite, are of a piece with public inquest into why (and how) the cur- quest for an interview, an episode that in some silly declarations about American rent Chief Executive failed to keep his pants fifteen years would lead the once and future culture generally. Do we have to be told, all zipped. Bantam saw reflective profit in ex- president to reject Meyer's quest for a seat evidence to the contrary, that the fifties ploiting Clinton's dirty laundry, and that, I at the Camelot roundtable. But beyond that were a "convention-worshipping" time? suppose, explains the volume's rushed feel, tiff, how important were these conver- cluttered prose, and uneven editing. gences? Not very, except in this respect — he trite merges with the truly awful There is another, more significant liter- they are a literary tease that won't be con- when Burleigh opens her book with ary reason to question Burleigh's insis- summated until this background moves Tan account of Meyer's murder. No tence that hers is something more than a into the foreground. one knows exactly what happened on the "kiss-and-tell" bio. Even though the When it does so in the book's lengthiest afternoon of October 12, 1964, as she Meyer-Kennedy dalliance is not the book's chapter, "Jack and Mary" (note the order- walked along the Chesapeake and Ohio sole subject, it is at the core of the volume's ing of names), the choreography of their Canal towpath, nor can anyone articulate organizational structure, and serves as its coupling is recounted in some detail. what she felt at the moment of death, but central narrative device. Drawing on her reportorial skills, Burleigh Burleigh, like her Bantam publicists who scoured White House logs to determine hype Meyer's demise as "one of the endur- ary Pinchot was born into a family when Mary visited the presidential abode, ing mysteries of the past three decades," that at least superficially resem- and under what pretext, then compared knows no shame: Mbled the Kennedys — the Pin- these entries with Jackie Kennedy's travel The first bullet to her head would eventu- chots were socially well-connected, politi- schedule — et, voila, the First Lady was ally have killed her but didn't immedi- cally engaged, and nicely well-off. In 1920, out of town when the extra-marital romps ately.... As she lost consciousness she prob- when Mary was born, her father Amos was transpired. As for the context of the initial ably saw white. There are so many shades deeply involved in leftist movements, un- seduction, however, Burleigh fails her sub- of white — cloud white, shell white, sail derwrote The Masses, and was an ardent ject: Mary apparently spurned a presiden- white, sand white — but this was like no proponent of free speech, in the defense of tial advance in early November 1962, but white she had ever known, more painful which he helped organize the A.C.L.U.; her ten days later, "Kennedy's offer to send a than the blinding white of the sun. She fell. mother, journalist Ruth Pickering, ran in White House limousine to Mary's town- The gun was applied to her shoulder blade, the same circles; uncle Gifford, a house proved irresistible." A really big car and the bullet tore through her aorta, turn- Rooseveltian progressive, would soon win — that's all it took for her to go supine? ing everything black in one breath, shutting election as a reform-minded governor of This image of easy virtue clashes with out color, and leaving her dead body to po- Pennsylvania. By the late twenties, how- Burleigh's portrait of Meyer as an exem- lice and to the speculation of the ages. ever, her parents began to shift to the right, plar of the emerging New Woman: a per- The only question I have is why I con- a political migration that accelerated son of independence and spunk, who had tinued to read on, for I knew on page throughout the Depression; their growing, divorced her pompous and abusive hus- twelve what I would know 295 pages rabid hatred of Roosevelt would match band and endured the loss of a darling later: in granting Mary Meyer so little dig- Joseph Kennedy's animus for the President child; an artist who was as experimental nity in death, Burleigh makes a mockery and the New Deal; Mary and Jack had a lot with her palette as she was with her life. of her attempt to recover the life of A Very in common. Kennedy was her conquest as much as she Private Woman. Ei They shared this, too: inherited wealth was his. sheltered them from the vagaries of the But Burleigh does not say this, perhaps a Contributing writer Char Miller is a mem- American economy and provided them sign that she doesn't quite know what to ber of the history department at Trinity with the best education money could buy. make of Meyer's behavior (a casualty of University. Mary attended exclusive secondary this Age of Lewinsky?). Complicating this

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29 BOOKS & THE CULTURE We Are Not Worthy The Wars Between the Authorities and the Rest of Us BY EDWARD S. HERMAN HIDDEN AGENDAS. imposed by the rapacious military bullies in By John Pilger. power, the large gains they make available to New Press. oil companies and other businesses prepared 400 pages. $18.95 (paper). to share the loot, and the connivance of Aus- tralian, British, U.S. and other freedom-lov- his is a wonderful book — alter- ing powers (and their exceedingly compliant na ely gripping, humorous, inspir- mainstream media) in helping the looters. Pil- ing, painful, and most importantly, ger's interview with the U.S. tourist en- enlightening. One of Pilger's criti- trepreneur, James Sherwood, whom he isms of the mainstream media is its pushes to justify lavish tourist operations in a Tfailure to look behind obvious facts, for country of terrorized and exploited people, is larger context and meaning. Pilger meets his once again simultaneously hilarious and sick- own standard well, as he consistently puts ening. But it also enlightens the reader, by facts into historical and critical context. To demonstrating the ruling elite's mindset and cite only one example: he recalls the Irish with the killers. The victims are officially facile powers of rationalization. famine, during which British Lord Trevelyan "unpeople" — Noam Chomsky and I have Pilger provides particular depth in his ended Irish relief ostensibly "to prevent the called them "unworthy victims," in contrast commentary because he not only uses rele- people from becoming habitually dependent with the "worthy" victims of enemy powers, vant documentary sources — he has been on government," and he places Trevelyan's like the Cambodians under Pol Pot or cur- there. He has talked to both the people and remarks next to Tony Blair's (and his minis- rently, the Kosovo Albanians. The main- unpeople, and often made his own docu- ter Frank Field's) effusions against welfare stream media regularly fail to give unpeople mentaries (Cambodia, Burma, East Timor). dependency and the need for "hard choices." intense publicity, or express great indigna- First-hand experience also strengthens his The historical juxtaposition reflects the shift tion over their victimization. This permits the analysis of the British media: his descrip- from nineteenth-century economic liberal- dominant interests to do their dirty work tion of Robert Maxwell and his operations ism to contemporary neoliberalism. unimpeded, with attention and indignation is outstanding. So is his devastating ac- Pilger' s book also enlightens by showing reserved for "worthy" victims. count of the rise and triumphs of Rupert how economic, political, and media forces Pilger has crushing accounts of the sellout Murdoch, Murdoch's relations with both work together in explaining social outcomes. of the labor parties in Australia and Great Thatcher and Blair, and the Thatcher-Blair Globalization has strengthened the forces of Britain in their dealings with Indonesia and devotion to the "defense" establishment. capital, which (with the help of the main- Burma. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and s book deals often with people and stream media) have taken greater command more grossly Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, and movements of resistance: the Liverpool of politics, ideology, and policy. These Gareth Evans, supported Indonesian aggres- dockworkers, Dita Sari and other Indone- forces have given neoliberalism a full head sion in East Timor without stint, and with a sian and East Timorese students and ac- of steam, with No Other Options available steady stream of lies and rationalizations. tivists, the Seeds of Hope direct action group — whatever the desires of ordinary citizens. Their constant finding of "improvements" in in Britain, Aung San. Suu Kyi and her sup- Despite nominal democracies, ordinary citi- Indonesian occupation policy, and Keating's porters in Burma, and individual journalists zens are "unpeople," and Pilger demon- pride in being patronized by the Indonesian and activists everyvvhere, many pushed into. strates that the system is well adapted to ig- mass murderer Suharto — "something of a resistance by the huge injustices being insti- noring and even crushing them. He provides father figure" — are humorous, even if at the tutionalized in the New World Order. These case after case showing that what capital same time sickening. Similarly, the turnabout resisters have not yet turned the tide, but Pil- wants, the political system will pursue, and of Tony Blair and Robin Cook from their pre- ger takes heart from their courage and re- the media will rationalize. His studies of In- election positions on arms sales to Indonesia silience. His magnificent book will surely donesia and Burma describe how the eco- to their in-power "realism" is funny in its help them fight back. nomic interests benefiting from these mur- gross opportunism, dishonesty, and derous regimes have caused British, hypocrisy. But the humor must also be quali- Edward Herman is an economist and media Australian, U.S., and other "Free World" fied by its deadly costs to the "unpeople." analyst. His' most recent books are tri.- politicians to lie, rationalize, and cover up se- On Burma, also, Pilger has an excellent ac- umph of the Market (1995) and The oldbal. . rious crimes, as well as their own connivance count of the immense system of forced labor Media (with Robert McChesne Y, 1997).

MARCH 5: 1999 30 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER AFTERWORD I, Liar BY LUCIUS LOMAX daily journal is a well-respected way of keeping track of your life: the credits and debits, the ins and outs, the wrongs, and the perceived wrongs. But if you really want to know where you're headed and where you've been — keep a daily record of the lies you tell. You may find, sooner than you think, that you've already arrived where you were afraid you were going. Truth and honor are spiritual virtues, but December 12, 1995: Someone gaVe me a recorded by my shaky left hand. Sometimes, also learnable skills — like a good outside story to read. Did not really understand it or in an effort to be scientific, a word or two of shot in basketball, you can work on them. appreciate it, but the author had made clear description was added to each entry, in order You only have to practice, and eventually that he expected praise, so that's what he to categorize the vices which had led to a you can be as "good" as anyone else. When got from me. particular lie in the first place. One decep- you are still young, such reassuring wis- But he had also given it to someone else tion might be attributed to "expediency," an- dom sounds fine — but as my fortieth to read, and she came over while we were other to "stupidity," and a third to "sex." The birthday approached, it was no longer talking. And she felt, also, that it was a con- results were not what you might think. much of a comfort. A pretty radical reform fusing piece — but she told the truth. An Of the forty-seven entries in which a was called for. The lies project wasn't just awkward moment. "cause" was included, only one, in fact, based on my belief that recording my lies Moral: Don't give my opinion of other was attributed to expediency, and only one would help me stop telling them — it's also people's writing. Or, tell the truth. (Actually, to opportunism. "Sex" followed one entry, my theory that vices of any kind usually were my comments really lies or merely an and "pussy" another — although the dis- don't run alone. Dishonesty is often paired, attempt to emphasize the positive?) tinction between these two motives is no for example, with laziness; and knowing longer clear to me. "Guilt and fear" also that a lie told today is a lie that has to be January 12, 1996: Another job interview. More recounting in detail of non-existent ex- claimed one entry. But there was not a sin- written down tonight would discourage me gle entry under greed. from the really stupid, petty falsehoods. perience because, apparently, people are hired almost exclusively on experience or ed- There were, however, twenty-seven en- The result was a thin black notebook, tries under "vanity." ucation — general ability is valueless. Was commenced in a spirit of great American The kind of vanity I found myself record- asked several questions about past job situa- optimism: If she kisses you, you'll turn into ing did not involve admiring myself in front a prince.... Save your pennies and you can tions and literally just made up stories one word at a time. It's scary, but I need a job. of a mirror — although appearance is an im- become a millionaire.... Anybody can grow portant consideration. This vanity is of the up to be president.... February 2, 1997: People ask me for biblical variety (cf. Ecclesiastes), through The following are not my worst lies of money. Usually tell them, "Sorry, I don't which we become obsessed with how others the last few years. Those remain confiden- have any change." The fact is, I do have view us as individuals. After examining my tial. I've kept them private, not because change but don't want to give it away. own record of deception, it's my theory that they were so terrible — neither profes- Shouldn't allow others to make a liar out of most of us lie whenever we fear that an out- sional dishonesty, nor anything having me. Just say, "Sorry." Am not really sorry, sider's view of us no longer resembles our much to do with money, or sex. Quite the but at least it's polite. own narcissistic view of ourselves. opposite. They are secret because they are Politics has given lying a bad name. April 6, 1997: that kind of agonizingly petty bullshit that Began a long discussion about Most falsehoods, like my own, aren't really most people would be surprised to learn sex with one of my coworkers. Ended by me about greed or expediency, or even sex. that any adult had bothered to lie about. But proposing to [have sex with] her. At one They're about maintaining the image we here are some of the rest: point made up some stories about girl I am want to project to others. October 12, 1995: Two representatives of doing -- all bullshit, designed to make [my Lies are about love, even if it is only the Naval Reserve Officer Training program coworker] jealous.... All in all, not a very self-love. came to my front door to ask for contribu- good night for the truth. tions or pledges to a golf tournament bene- September 11, 1997: Backpack was stolen. Austin writer Lucius Lomax maintains a fiting naval reserve officers' training. The Cops asked how long it was left unat- reputation for telling the truth, whatever young woman said they were asking for tended. Too embarrassed to say one hour; the consequences. $100. My response was that there is a guy in told them ten minutes. This essay is partially funded through a the building who plays golf and that I will grant from the Austin Writers' League, in give [the pledge] to him. Lie. Big lie. But The black book was well-maintained for cooperation with the Texas Commission on feel no guilt. One hundred dollars, no way! two or three years. Every lie was faithfully the Arts.

MARCH 5, 1999 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 31

t-J THE BACK PAGE Up Uher's "A question ain't really a question, if you know the answer, too." — John Prine on't tell House Speaker Pro Tern tune in the Tom Uher about environmental early eighties, permits. If you leave aside the when his dis- D input") under the purview of the trict was tar- Houston Ship Channel, Uher's District 29 probably hosts the highest concentration of executive director and/or the three geted for a con- chemical manufacturers in Texas, and T.N.R.C.C. commissioners. troversial Uher's recent campaign contribution re- Opponents of the bill, including underground "salt ports read like a page from the state's an- a "Right to Know" network com- dome" hazardous nual Toxics Release Inventory: listing PAC posed of more than 100 organiza- waste disposal site. contributions from corporate citizens such tions, held a press conference to Local opposition was as BASF Corporation, Dow Chemical, decry H.B. 801 as a sham that substi- fierce, and Uher joined Monsanto, and Eastman Kodak. All of tutes the opportunity to "vent emotions" the opponents in the which makes the veteran House member in the place of participation, and the lever- lengthy contested-case the perfect candidate to carry the center- age provided by a full and formal hearing. hearing that ensued. piece of the Texas Chemical Council's (They also point out that the Chemical "The applicant was sell- 1999 legislative package: House Bill 801. Council and its backers, including the ing a new procedure that ("If you can't get the Speaker, get the Texas Association of Businesses and hadn't been tested," Uher Speaker pro tern," explained Chemical Chambers of Commerce, do not seek to re- explained shortly after lay- Council lobbyist Jon Fisher). As they have move the right of regulated industries to re- ing out H.B. 801. "They in the previous two sessions, with H.B. 801 quest contested-case hearings when they were mixing up a [waste] the Council has targeted the Texas Natural disagree with T.N.R.C.C. orders.) The cur- slurry and pumping it down Resource Conservation Commission's rent process can be long and costly for all into caverns, salt domes. Then contested-case hearing process, by which parties involved, but in 1996 and 1997, it would supposedly solidify citizens and local governments can request fewer than 1 percent of permit decisions forever and not get away. Well, there's no a trial-like hearing before an independent were referred for contested-case hearings, way to know that," Uher said. Yet the administrative judge to contest a permit and perhaps half of those actually went T.N.R.C.C.' s predecessor agency granted granted by the agency. Last October's de- through the process. That's too many for the permit — or would have, were it not for nial of the radioactive waste disposal per- Uher. "Even if it's just one case that runs the contested-case hearing demanded mit in Sierra Blanca was the result of such over $1 million, that's not right," he told by Uher's non-industry constituents. a contested-case hearing. And an example the House Environmental Deregulation Although the case eventually ended up on of what's wrong with the process, accord- Committee February 15. Uher likened his appeal in state district court, it was the con- ing to Uher. "There was nothing wrong bill to a kindred effort to improve the tested-case hearing process that allowed with the Sierra Blanca site; people have state's business climate: tort reform. opponents to build their case against the said it's not safe, but it really is," Uher said. "We're talking about economic develop- company and the agency, according to Austin attorney Mark Lawless, who repre- "It was politics." ment," Uher said. "If our permit process The Chemical Council wants to replace becomes a real issue, and it's cheaper in sented opponents. If there had been no the contested case hearing with a less for- Alabama and Louisiana, then we've lost contested-case hearing process? "My gut mal, "non-adversarial" public hearing pro- jobs," he said. tells me the outcome would have been cess (with, they claim, "expanded public Some remember Uher singing a different different," Lawless said. ❑