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Politics Becomes Personal Texas Lawmakers Have Made Themselves Part of Women’S Most Difficult Decisions

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Politics Becomes Personal Texas Lawmakers Have Made Themselves Part of Women’S Most Difficult Decisions PERRY MUSCLES THE LCRA | GUATEMALA’S ARCHIVE OF TRAGEDY | SCIENCE VS. RELIGION IN GLEN ROSE 05 |APRIL 20 | 2011 | 2012 POLITICS BECOMES PERSONAL Texas lawmakers have made themselves part of women’s most difficult decisions. IN THIS ISSUE ON THE COVER PHOTO BY MATT STEEL LEFT Two sisters watch the exhumation of their mother and four small siblings. The sisters were present in August 1982 when soldiers shot their relatives, but they managed to escape. They spent 14 years in hiding in the mountains before resettling in a new community and later requesting the exhumation. Near the village of San Francisco Javier, Nebaj Quiché, 2000. PHOTO BY JONATHAN MOLLER 12THE LONG ROAD HOME by Saul Elbein Prosecutions, mass graves and the Police Archive provide clues in the deaths of thousands of Guatemalans. THE RIGHT NOT TO KNOW IT’S ALL ABOUT THE by Carolyn Jones water, BOYS The painful choice to terminate a by Mike Kanin OBSERVER 08 pregnancy is now—thanks to Texas’ new 20 Is Gov. Perry trying to take over sonogram law—just the beginning of the torment. the Lower Colorado River Aurhority? ONLINE Discuss the Texas REGULARS 25 BIG BEAT 37 NOVEL APPROACH 42 POEM sonogram law 01 DIALOGUE It’s Hard to Be Latina Harbury’s Fight for Alone and see readers’ 02 POLITICAL in Texas Human Rights by Damon V. Tapp reactions to INTELLIGENCE by Cindy Casares by Robert Leleux Carolyn Jones’ 06 TYRANT’s FOE 43 STATE OF THE MEDIA first-person 07 EdITORIAL 26 POSTCARDS 38 EAT YOUR WORDS Where’s the Line account (more 07 BEN SARGENT’s Tracking Creation Still Waters Between Journalist than 1,100 LOON STAR STATE in Glen Rose by Emily DePrang and Source? comments), 24 STATE OF TEXAS by Robyn Ross by Bill Minutaglio and read our 39 BOOK REVIEW coverage of the 30 DIRECT QUOTE A Public Wake for a 44 FORREST FOR THE TREES demise of the Fighting AIDS in Texas Texas Troubadour Demographics No Women’s Health as told to Sarah Angle by Brad Tyer Longer Destiny for Program at Democrats www.texasobserver.org 32 CULTURE 40 PICTURE SHOW by Forrest Wilder Lessons from the Bernie Packs Folksiness New Deal But Little Depth 45 EYE ON TEXAS by Cecily Sailer by Josh Rosenblatt by Melanie Burford A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES since 1954 OBSERVER VOLUME 104, NO. 4 DIALOGUE FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger Abuse Can Happen Anywhere EDITOR Dave Mann As a survivor of childhood abuse, my heart goes out to the children described in the MaNAGING EDITOR Susan Smith Richardson “Heritage of Abuse” story (March issue) who were victimized. Words cannot ade- PUBLISHER Piper Stege Nelson MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Jen Reel quately convey the harm that was done to them. WEB EDITOR Jonathan McNamara But as I read the article, I was deeply troubled by its message that the abuse was STAFF WRITERS Melissa del Bosque, Forrest the result of the conditions at the Homestead Heritage community. I am not a Wilder, Emily DePrang and Patrick Michels member of Homestead Heritage, nor have I ever been. But I know several members CIRCULATION MaNAGER Candace Carpenter of the community, and I know that at least some of the claims in the article were BOOKKEEPER Krissi Trumeter ART DIRECTION EmDash false or misleading. COPY EDITOR Brad Tyer Looking beyond the specific claims, though, I found an even greater cause for POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye FICTION EDITOR David Duhr concern. The article reinforces the myth in our society that child abuse is the result CONTRIBUTING WRITERS of certain cultures or beliefs, sometimes characterized as cults. … The horrible real- Hannah Carney, Lou Dubose, Saul Elbein, Alex Hannaford, Steven G. Kellman, Joe R. ity is that child abuse, including sexual abuse, happens in every community. Lansdale, Robert Leleux, James E. McWilliams, Bill I hope that Texas Observer readers look beyond the sensational claims in the Minutaglio, Josh Rosenblatt, Ellen Sweets, Brad Tyer, article to examine their own families and communities. The Texas Department of Andrew Wheat CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRapHERS Family and Protective Services has information on the signs of abuse and how to Kelly Lynn James, Sarah Lim, Alan Pogue, Matt Wright-Steel report it (txlo.com/stopabuse). only when each one of us takes responsibility for CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Michael Krone, Alex Eben protecting the children in our communities will the problem be properly addressed. Meyer, Ben Sargent Judith (the author’s last name was withheld at her request) TEXAS DEMOCRACY c a m e r o n FOUNDATION BOARD Lisa Blue Baron, Carlton Carl, Jen Cooper, Melissa Jones, Susan Longley, Jim Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, The Truth about Let There Be Light Gilberto Ocañas, Bernard sometHing is really wrong witH tHis picture Rapoport, Ronald Rapoport, Homestead Heritage Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo (“To Avoid Blackouts, Texas Regulators Plan to Rodriguez, Sharron Rush, my family was in [Homestead Heritage] for five Artificially Boost Profits for Utilities,” March 8, Ronnie Dugger (emeritus) years when I was a teenager, and I can person- texasobserver.org). Why not re-double efforts to OUR MISSION ally attest to the truth of this article (“Heritage put solar panels on every building, beginning with We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to of Abuse,” March issue). Thank you, Alex houses, NoT businesses, to make the state more the truth as we find it and [Hannaford], for telling it like it is. I grieve over the energy self-sufficient AND save the grid without the right as we see it. We lives and the families that have been damaged, and raising consumers costs. It would also create a are dedicated to the whole I grieve over people I love very much who are still in ton of jobs. Kelley Smoot Garrett truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of the group. God has been faithful to heal and restore p o s t e d at fa c e b o o k . c o m humankind as the foundation in my own family and has blessed me beyond my of democracy. We will take wildest imaginations, and it is my prayer that oth- orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we ers will find the healing, joy and freedom that only overlook or misrepresent the He can give! Leah Leach truth to serve the interests of p o s t e d at texasobserver . o r g the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Sound Off CONTACT US 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas [email protected] 78701, (512) 477-0746 or comment on facebook.com/texasobserver and texasobserver.org APRIL 2012 THE TE xAS oBSERvER | 1 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE THE CRONYISM Beat Prescription for Profit on marcH 1, texas usHered in a bold new system The pharmacy benefit managers act as middlemen in to repay pharmacies for their Medicaid customers’ this new system. They, of course, take a little profit prescriptions. for their troubles. Used to be, Texas reimbursed all pharmacies at When the Legislature considered the new plan LEARN how pharmacies are the same rate, based on a price list posted online. For last year, independent pharmacists warned it would losing out at txlo.com/pbms each transaction, pharmacies got a $6.35 dispensing run them out of business. They would be backed into fee. Simple enough. money-losing contracts because they can’t buy drugs Under the new plan, the state contracts with a at the same wholesale rates as big chain stores. But handful of managed care organizations, which, in proponents of the new system said the state could save A change in Medicaid turn, hire outside companies called pharmacy ben- $50 million a year by handing over Medicaid pharmacy policy is putting pharmacies out of business. efit managers (PBMs) to negotiate lower rates with reimbursements to managed care. The state Health ISTOckPHOTO pharmacies, and pass the savings on to taxpayers. and Human Services Commission (HHSC) pegged 2 | THE TE xAS oBSERvER WWW.TExASoBSERvER.org POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE projected savings at $56 million over two years. WAR-ON-THE-POOR FILES TRIVIATEXAS With former Rick Perry staffers Mike Toomey, Last spring, the Ann-Marie Price and victoria Ford lobbying on their Galveston’s House Texas Legislature behalf, the pharmacy benefit management com- passed House panies got their way. State officials said there were Divided Bill 15, the safeguards in place to ensure that nobody lost cov- tHree and a Half years after Hurricane ike controversial erage and no pharmacies were run out of business. wrecked Galveston, an ugly brawl over public hous- law that requires “Any company that sets the rates too low to ensure ing still consumes the island. Even though a legally women to have our clients have that access will end up losing its con- binding agreement mandates that all 569 govern- a sonogram and tract with the state,” HHSC spokesperson Stephanie ment-subsidized apartments destroyed in the storm hear a description Goodman told The Dallas Morning News. must be rebuilt, opponents are determined to drive of the fetus before Even after the program’s first week, results government-subsidized housing out of Galveston. an abortion. In were impressive. They say that rebuilding public housing would hurt total, 88 state In South Texas, a few independents like Mom’s the housing market and makes no sense in light of an lawmakers either Pharmacy in Weslaco shut down after the program’s anemic job market. coauthored first day of implementation. The McAllen Monitor Many island residents believe the opposition to has been following the closings in the Rio Grande rebuilding is little more than a social engineering the bill (in the valley, where 400,000 of the state’s 3.2 million experiment driven by racism and fear of the poor.
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