POLITICS OF CHOICE Pg. 4

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES NOVEMBER 10, 1989 • $1.50

A Modest Proposal The Candidates React to Bill Hobby's Income-Tax Speech The Westmoreland Affair How The Houston Chronicle Beat the Post to a Post Story

Nuclear Family

The . PUC Picked an Industry Sweetheart to Audit Comanche Peak

Also: Michael King on Ishmael Reed and Oscar Romero as Remembered by a Friend DIALOGUE

Le Probleme what made us great, Red China vs. Taiwan, Americain don't you imagine? More than 25 years ago I)TIRE •TIX AS I was as shocked to see Carpetbags and The "Flag-Burning in Texas" issue of the Scalawags having a meeting in a motel in Observer arrived in Paris quite a while after Amarillo as I would have been to see server there had been contemptuous articles in the Communists there from Cuba. Now look A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES European newspapers about the proposed at them. And wrapping themselves in the We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to American flag protection laws and the death flag. the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values penalty for children and idiots. So that John Smith above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the when, reminded of the latest sorry Paris, France foundation of democracy; we will take orders from reactionary American image campaign, I none but our own conscience, and never will we over- asked a center-right French friend what Did the look or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. would happen if I attacked a Tricolor she Right Thing Writers are responsible for their own work, but not didn't know what in the world I was talking for anything they have not themselves written, and in about at first. But what if I burned the Congratulations on the 9/29/89 issue; it is publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we French flag or shit on it in the street? "Then, excellent! I was especially struck by John agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. my dear," she replied, "I would send you Bauer's insightful and (I hope) prophetic SINCE 1954 to kindergarten." You've heard about the piece describing the growing division in the Publisher: Ronnie Dugger French and their sense of proportion. Texas (and Southern) Democratic Party; and Editor: Louis Dubose There's an example for you. And then, by the visceral and passionate review of Do Associate Editor: Allan Freedman having had the real Fascists, I don't think the Right Thing, Spike Lee's book and Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka Editorial Intern: Karen Speed most Europeans want to act like them all movie, by Michael King. Professor Bauer Calendar: Elisa Lyles these years later. makes me glad to be a Democrat in Texas Washington Correspondent: Mary Anne Reilly On Japanese television two weeks ago an in 1989; and Mr. King has just about Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, convinced me to see that disturbing and Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, John Henry Faulk, American environmentalist was asked if it Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, Bill Helmer, was true that Americans considered the thought-provoking movie again. James Harrington, Amy Johnson, Michael King, Japanese a more serious threat to their Furthermore, he has helped me crystal- Mary Lenz, Dana Loy, Tom McClellan, Bryce survival than environmental problems. What lize some thoughts about it into a question: Milligan, Greg Moses, Debbie Nathan, Gary he ought to have answered is that the bad because of the very adult dilemmas and Pomerantz, John Schwartz, Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh Bush-Baker Sunbelt bankers are a much moral issues raised by the movie, should Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, scarier threat to whatever nice people like it be "X"-rated rather than "R" so that only Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler to think the American flag stands for than adults see it; or, on the contrary, should Davidson, Houston; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, it be mandatory viewing for all Jr. and Sr. D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia, hardworking Japanese and ozone holes put Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, together. Bad Bush-Baker Sunbelt bankers High social studies/civics classes, with class Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; don't care what you do with any flag and discussions involving panels of black and George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, neither do their hard, climbing Texas white students to follow? Considering recent Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury wives. They wouldn't have any events here, perhaps a start would be a Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Monthly Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James problem with cute rolls of Jasper Johns flag mandatory viewing by all Westlake High Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey series toilet paper in every cute bathroom, Students, with LBJ, Lanier and Reagan Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; family and guest, in Houston, Washington students participating in the discussions. Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg; Robert Sherrill, and the Bahamas. And why should they after Al Lindsey Tallahassee, Fla. all? I don't decorate with the flag myself, Austin Layout and Design: Layne Jackson Typesetter: Lana Kaupp but it's a matter of taste. It's not what these Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic crooks do with American flags that bothers Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. me. CORRECTIONS Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, The first and only time I ever "met" Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, (shook hands with) friendly George Bush In W. Gardner Selby's October 13 Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, was in the lobby of a Ramada Inn in review of Ann Richards's Straight from Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods. Amarillo around 1962. I always remember the Heart, the final sentence of the Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson them as having a convention going on for second paragraph of the review should Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom John Birch Society members or followers have read: Cursory acceptance of these Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons of General Edwin Walker, but it was Development Consultant: Frances Barton statements might lead us to see the folksy probably really just for the Texas Richards as an iron lady after all — and SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $27, two years 548. three years $69. Full- time students $15 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, Republican Party. Of course they amounted just tough enough, as another Democratic and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University to the same thing in those days, more or Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current candidate for governor says, to be guy. subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no less. Mr. Bush was to speak. The We regret the error, which occurred one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. Republicans didn't even fill up the Rotary in production. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/UPS 541300), Club banquet room. I doubt if there was Almost equally regrettable was the ©1989, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the so much as a reporter from the Amarillo incorrect spelling of Austin attorney Texas Observer Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, newspaper, in which case we will never Elliot Naishtat's last name, on the Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Second class postage know what that earnest, Ivy League-style paid at Austin, Texas. October 13 Political Intelligence page. conservative from Connecticut told the tiny POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS Naishtat, a veteran utility player with the OBSERVER. P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765 group of angry right-thinkers. Communism Observer softball team, is a Democratic just 90 miles from our shores, how to keep candidate in the District 49 House race. your empire from declining, free enterprise,

2 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 EDITORIALS o, bpisE eTE rv..S er „,

NOVEMBER 10, 1989 Politics of Conviction VOLUME 81, No. 22

FEATURES Austin spending $630 million to provide 25,000 ILL HOBBY might not have earned new prison beds, says a great deal about A Scoop in Houston . B himself a chapter in Profiles in his vision and conviction. Hance, a profes- By Allan Freedman 7 Courage, but the speech he made as he sional politician running for the Republican begins his final year in office has to be gubernatorial nomination, recently browbeat Imprudent Choices considered an important event in the political fellow candidate Clayton Williams back into By Louis Dubose 9 history of the state. It is true, as former the pack on the income tax question. When Republican Secretary of State Jack Rains Williams, a businessman who, in the Pollution Control Deferred told the Observer two days after Hobby's dominant cliche of the Republican party, has By Louis Dubose 13 speech to the Texas Association of Taxpay- created jobs and met payrolls, suggested that DEPARTMENTS ers, that "Bill Hobby is a politician who it might require a state income tax to fund will never have to face the electorate again." the war on drugs, Hance's shrill attack Dialogue 2 But Rains is only half right. Because forced Williams to publicly recant. Only Hobby's speech, in which he called for a Rains, among the Republican candidates for Political Intelligence 14 four percent state income tax, was another Governor, has been openly critical of one of several public stands that separates Hance's "ban it now" campaign. Social Cause Calendar 21 the Lieutenant Governor from the pack and "It's not an issue." Rains said of Hance's Books and the Culture that serves to define him as something more proposed amendment. "Kent came out with Shadowboxing than a politician. the ban on a state income tax. He likes to By Michael King 16 Bill Hobby has not always followed the talk about things that everybody favors. It path of least resistance. Hobby's support for won't cost a dime and it won't save a dime," Norse Code farmworkers' legislation obviously was not Rains said. Rains compared the tax ban to By Steven Kellman 18 a political move calculated to win him the Official English amendment, also The Sporting Life support. And though he was never depend- advanced by Hance. "What difference will By Scott McLemee 19 ent upon South Texas Hispanics to keep him it make?" Rains asked. "They are emotional Afterword in office, Hobby dedicated himself to the issues but they don't have much meaning." The Lord's Song passage of legislation and a constitutional Rains added that he too opposes a state in a Foreign Land amendment intended to provide potable income tax, but not by constitutional ban. By Julianne Lira-Powell 22 water and sanitary sewer systems for And Governor Bill Clements's no-new- hundreds of thousands of Texans who live taxes pledge is by now as tiresome as it in Third World conditions along the Texas- is predictable. Faced with a supreme court informed that there is no state income tax Mexico border. decision that requires equity in funding of in Texas. The result, according to White, How unpopular is the state income tax public schools, Clements's position would would be a larger number of businesses that Hobby proposed? It is a perennial only serve to weaken the strong and to relocating to Texas, a larger tax base, and anathema in the Legislature, particularly in strengthen the weak, as state funds are a greater source of revenue. "Now, I've the House, where the 70th Legislature easily shifted from property-rich to property-poor just told you how we can avoid a state passed a resolution proposing a ban on the districts. income tax. What other candidate has done state income tax. It is sufficiently unpopular As San Antonio Representative Greg that?" White asked. And he didn't even that no candidate for statewide office has Luna said, after hearing about the smile. ever proposed it. And only a few brave Governor's posturing, the state's system of State Treasurer Ann Richards is pitching souls, such as Representative Ernestine public education could not withstand what the old "broadening-the-base" argument, Glossbrenner, an Alice Democrat, Repre- Clements has proposed. "It is impossible," suggesting that the sin tax, taxation of sentative Ric Williamson, a Democrat from Luna told the San Antonio Express-News, cigarettes and liquor, will provide part of Weatherford, and former Wichita Falls "for all the schools in Texas to share the the solution during the next session. Senator Ray Farabee, have even dared to meager wealth that will be available. I can Richards does not, however, support a suggest that it might provide a solution to assure you that the House education commit- constitutional ban on a state income tax. revenue shortfalls. tee will not go for that." Luna is Vice Richards, who has also been closely Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance, Chairman of the House Committee on associated with Hobby, said that his pro- whose behavior regularly recalls Sam Public Education. posal of a state income tax will probably Houston's characterization of a political become a liability for Democrats running opponent as having "all the characteristics of HIS IS not to suggest that Democratic for election this year. a dog except fidelity," immediately cast T candidates are doing much more than Attorney General Jim Mattox is suggest- Hobby and his tax proposal in lupine — holding the future at bay. Former Governor ing that a state lottery will close the funding rather than canine — terms. "The wolf is Mark White recently told a group of gap. Mattox claims a lottery will generate at the door," Hance said, within an hour University of Texas students that the answer more than $600 million per year, enough, of Hobby's November 2 speech. to the state's revenue shortfall lies in he contends, to fund up the state's public That Hance would tell the Austin Republi- advertising in the Wall Street Journal, The schools (rather than funding down by can Forum on November 3 that he is calling New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. maintaining existing levels of appropriations for a constitutional amendment to ban a state Through these, and other large-circulation and redistributing the wealth). He has income tax, then in the same speech propose dailies, businesses across the nation can be incorporated the "yes to lottery, no to

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 income tax" into his campaign logo. "I and important function. (Aid as he departed returns. (We would also argue that with the think our fragile economy cannot withstand he kicked the chair out from under Jim introduction of an income tax, the sales tax an income tax," Mattox said. Mattox added Mattox, offering a broad outline of a tax should be reduced along with property that for many years Hobby has been talking. program to compare to Mattox's lottery taxes.) "behind the scenes" about a state income proposal.) Never before has someone of The speech that Bill Hobby made on tax. Hobby's stature publicly advocated an November 2 was an event of such historical So there you have it. Three variations on income tax. Speaking as both the state's significance that we have reprinted it in its a single theme. This is not to suggest that most powerful elected official and a recog- entirety. Read it, perhaps in the spirit of Democratic candidates should embrace a nized leader in the business community, an East German dissident, allowed at last state income tax as their campaign issue. Hobby has made the future more approacha- to hear the truth, not from a coreligionary, In all likelihood it will not be considered ble. His speech makes almost all of the most but from the government itself. And then until after 1991, when reapportionment is compelling arguments, except to note that consider how unfortunate it is that this man's out of the way. unlike the sales tax, state income tax name will not appear on the ballot in 1990. But Bill Hobby has served an essential payments can be deducted from federal tax (5.0 page 5) L.D. Politics of Choice

OVERNOR BILL Clements must of incest or rape. The 216-206 House vote Hance favors severe restrictions on abor- G have been watching the news from was significant, since the House has never tion. If Hance doesn't start waffling on the Tallahassee. The Governor once promised been as friendly to the pro-choice movement issue, his Democratic opponent in the to include legislation imposing new restric- as has the Senate. Just last year, abortion general election could use it against him. tions on abortion rights on the agenda of rights supporters lost a similar House vote The implications for the Governor are even a special session. But Clements has backed by 216-166. more immediate. Clements's office denied off. And his decision not to include the Bush would later back down from his that the Florida battle played a role in the abortion issue in any legislative special initial suggestions that he intended to allow decision not to include abortion restrictions session has angered many of his New Right more liberal use of federal abortion funds, on the agenda of any upcoming special allies. The Florida debacle has put Clem- but not before he made it clear that abortion- session. But something changed Bill ents, not to mention the Texas GOP's rights activists in a Southern capital and Clements's thinking on the issue. current gubernatorial frontrunner Kent recent pressure from Congress were putting What has changed the political climate Hance, in a difficult spot. him in a jam. is a modest political awakening brought By now the political fate of Florida An unnamed Bush senior adviser, quoted forth, ironically, by Ronald Reagan. In Governor Bob Martinez should be on the in The New York Times, brought the returning more power to the states, Reagan mind of every New Right politician in the President's position on Congressional nego- shortened the distance between government country. An already wounded and weak tiations over abortion funds into focus. "I and the individual. .It is now easier for voters Martinez had staked much of his political hate this issue," the White House staff to see public policy decisions as having a future on a special legislative session he member said. direct impact on their lives. In Florida, it called to impose restrictions on abortion The people who are making the difference is a shorter ride to Tallahassee than to rights. Martinez wanted to appear tough and now are not so much the revitalized old Washington. change the public perception that he was hands, but the recent converts, like a Of course, the price for such new weak and indecisive. The pressure was on. Republican woman in Virginia who voted democracy has been too high. Strategies on Every major news magazine and daily for Douglas Wilder for governor because how best to deal with the Supreme Court's newspaper in the nation described the of his stance on abortion. reversals of civil rights — not to mention Tallahassee special session as the first major The outcome of the Virginia election the loss of much-needed federal funds, and state-based abortion battle to follow the could hold an important lesson for Texas the devastation wrought by housing policies Supreme Court's Webster decision — a gubernatorial candidates. The campaign is — have yet to surface. But in Reagan's third decision that allowed states more freedom noteworthy for at least two reasons. If term, people seem to be issuing in an age in limiting access to abortion. And news elected, Wilder will be the first black ever of new responsibility. And many of these magazines and dailies dutifully filled their elected governor in the United States. If he new movement converts are discovering that news holes with stories of Martinez's defeats his Republican opponent, J. Mar- elected officials bend not only when treated political defeat. shall Coleman, he will have done so with well by high-priced lobbyists; genuine The formula behind the special session the support of a pro-choice constituency. political movements that begin outside the that fizzled isn't difficult to understand, Wilder has hammered at Coleman's anti- system do make a difference. State legislators cowered when confronted abortion positions while repeating his own Movement politics are so circumscribed with highly organized populist opposition. pro-choice preferences and the issue has it would be premature to count on the Not only did pro-choice forces spend more bolstered his standings. Even if Wilder does changing tide in abortion rights to carry than $100,000 on print and television media, not win (the election was held on the day other issues with it. But what sets recent they also managed to attract more than the Observer went to press) he has used a events apart from other resurgences in 10,000 marchers to the state capital for the gutsy strategy that by all accounts resulted political activism is where the battle was largest demonstration ever witnessed in in increased support at the polls. fought and won. Politicians at the state level Tallahassee. If a black can wage such a hard-fought are much less insulated from public pres- Following the Florida session, the na- and serious campaign in the cornerstone of sure. They are more responsive to constitu- tional political landscape began to shift, and the Old Confederacy, and do so as a strong ent concerns and often less skilled at George Bush's holy alliance with the New pro-choice candidate, does that suggest that dodging voters who are genuinely commit- Right appeared to spell trouble for him. Texas Republicans are more vulnerable than ted to specific issues. What happened in Bush's problems started when the U.S. they might have imagined? Both announced Florida could provide some direction for the House voted to allow the federal government Democratic candidates, Ann Richards and waging of political battles in Texas. to pay for abortions for poor women in cases Jim Mattox, are solidly pro-choice. Kent A.F. 4 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 Hobby on Taxes A Speech by Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby

So many times, when we in government to clean up yesterday's dangerous dump- time how well Texas will compete with the faced unpleasant choices, business leaders sites. rest of this country. An investment in charted the course for a prosperous future. No one knows better how important these education today will pay dividends far into This association and your staff have been things are to a good business climate. More the future. There was a time to buy the oil willing to take the long view and address important, the failure of the state to provide filter that would have prevented an engine the problems that must be solved if our state essential services costs you money out-of- overhaul. Unfortunately, I am afraid we is to be competitive. pocket. now need an overhaul on the education I emphasize that, because it is the political There is a new growth industry at the engine. season and at least some of what we're entry level of employment in Texas — The Court in Edgewood vs. Kirby says hearing is shortsighted, silly or downright remedial education. Many of us in this room that we must bring equity to the financing impossible. I have always thought it difficult have to provide basic educational skills for of education in Texas. So to respond to the to improve education, criminal justice and employees. When a telephone operator court, we must address public school highways while reducing government spend- cannot spell; when a store clerk cannot add; funding. But we must be careful not to ing, but I may be just old-fashioned. when a carpenter or machinist cannot condemn our best schools to the level of The landscape is littered with measure; somebody has to teach them how the worst. Ultimately, this means that more exclamations of "no new taxes." This is to do these things. You used to be able to money must be spent to make the worst an old promise that has been used, abused, reject unqualified applicants and hire some- better. The court does not really talk much and broken in the last few years. one who could do the job. Today, industry about the quality of public education, but Considering that the phrase is worn out, is increasingly forced to provide the we know that is very much the problem. I suggest a new slogan for Texas. This is education that should have been done in our In solving this problem, however, it is not a slogan to put on license plates, but public schools. Industry is creating its own clear that more needs to be done than just one that might be helpful to our elected qualified workforce. And nationwide this spending more money. Anyone reading the officials in considering future budgets for costs billions of dollars. newspapers recently can see that we have this state. Security is another tremendous problem not yet succeeded in creating a public That slogan is "Pay Now or Pay Later." for business today. For some retailers, the education system equal to the growing It costs more to pay later. only problem bigger than merchandise demands of the workplace. S.A.T. As businessmen and women, you know walking out the front door with shoplifters [Scholastic Aptitude Test] scores dropped the kind of things that make a state attractive is merchandise walking out the back door this year. More than one-third of our high for your companies: a skilled and literate with the employees. The same problems school seniors did not pass the basic skills workforce, a strong infrastructure, good apply to virtually every industry. The test required for graduation. I certainly don't schools for your children, safe streets. criminal justice system today is inadequate have all the answers — and I will look to Currently, Texas is not doing a good job to see that crime does not pay. It hardly you as the consumers of Texas's education of providing these essentials for a growing cuts into the profit margin. product to help fashion the solution — but economy. I do not need to cite statistics to Similarly, businesses pay for the potholes I do have a few ideas. show you that we are near the bottom in in our roads through unnecessary vehicle Texas will never be able to compete in too many categories. repairs. They pay for inadequate health care the international marketplace with a school Just last month, the Texas Supreme Court through lost time. So you can take your pick: calendar that was designed around planting held the current method of school finance pay now or pay later. We can prevent some and harvesting crops. Students in Japan, unconstitutional. This is in addition to the of our problems before they get out of hand who have achieved a 99 percent literacy problem of graduating too many students or we can deal with the consequences later. rate, attend school for 240 days a year who are not able to compete in today's job Just as in the commercial, the cost to compared to 175 days for Texas students. market. The system is inadequate and overhaul the product of substandard schools We must have a longer school year. inequitable. is much greater than the preventative — Schools must be held accountable for the The Texas Department of Criminal ensuring that the students that come out of product they are producing. It was not Justice is releasing violent offenders, repeat the schools have some basic skills that will popular to suggest that our state colleges offenders, and hardened criminals every day carry them into the workplace and out of and universities bill public schools for the to return to the streets and probably commit the back alleys and crack houses. remedial courses they must now provide for new crimes. If taxes are the price we pay for a civilized high school graduates failing the freshman The list of problems, of course, goes on society, perhaps it is time that we re-evaluate academic skills test. However, once equity and on. Too many children get polio and how civilized we are and how civilized we in funding is achieved, the state has a right whooping cough, diseases conquered long would like our society to be. It is time to to expect quality and excellence. ago, because we don't provide adequate put the demagoguery aside. I believe that The state must clearly define high health care. For the mentally ill, the streets when we look at the condition of this state standards and measure whether a school's are often the least restrictive alternative today, we will find that there are worse evils students are meeting the mark. Schools that because we do not provide adequate commu- in the world than higher taxes. fail to educate kids should no longer be able nity care. The decision by the Texas Supreme Court to commit educational child abuse. Our roads and bridges are aging. Our air that the school finance system of Texas is The state has several options. One is to and water is increasingly polluted. We have unconstitutional presents both a problem and cut off state funding to failing districts. not solved the problem of how to dispose an opportunity. How well this state over- Another would be to follow New Jersey's of the waste we generate today, whether comes that problem and how well we use lead in seizing control of educationally solid, toxic or radioactive, much less how that opportunity will determine for a long bankrupt schools. The Jersey City school THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 board was recently disbanded and the six basis, so that the money could be redistrib- tax replacement, the burden of an income top administrators ousted. The school uted on an equalized basis. That might solve tax added to the current tax system. If an district will be run by a state-appointed the problem, since the tax burden; by income tax were used to replace the school master for the next five years. We could constitutional mandate, would have to be property taxes, even with additional funding ask state universities to run low-achieving equal, and the Legislature could then for education, many people would pay lower districts. In a low-income area of Boston, allocate the funds in a manner that might taxes. A personal income tax of 4 percent six schools were taken over by Boston be acceptable to the court. on a broad measure of income, even with University at the request of the local school However, does . that solution take full generous exemptions and deductions, would board. The university initiated a $20 million advantage of the opportunity that is pre- raise enough money to replace every dollar fund raising drive for the schools and is sented by this crisis? Is the property tax such of school property taxes and add almost restructuring all current education pro- a worthy part of the tax system that it another billion dollars per year to fund grams. deserves perpetuation in a revised structure? education. This would resolve the objections The Edgewood vs. Kirby opinion focused If we look to the tax equity committee of the court concerning the inequities of on the state's responsibility to provide an report, we find that the property tax is school finance. The overall equity of the efficient system of public schools. I think considered a large part of the problem in tax system would also be improved. It would we need to look at tearing down traditional the tax system as well as the education be more stable. It would be more adequate, walls in our system and see if we can system. since income taxes grow with the increase provide quality education more efficiently. The property tax is regressive, hitting in personal income. It would, I submit, be We need to start with vocational education. poorer taxpayers more heavily than the a considerable improvement for both the Texas has 66 public community college wealthy. It has been an unreliable producer education system and the tax system of this campuses and four public technical institutes of revenue in the 80's, as property values state. statewide. And yet we replicate many of have fallen. The tax complicates economic It is also true that no idea could be more the vocational programs they offer in our development efforts, since it applies to a unpopular in this political climate. The secondary schools. That doesn't seem greater share of business property in Texas Legislature is committed against it. Most efficient. than in any other state, making business pay statewide candidates will be forced to We have students in our public high a larger portion of it in Texas than in other oppose it. But if the idea of an income tax schools wasting a year or two sitting through states. The administration of the tax is is not put fairly and accurately into the unchallenging classes. Why not send them cumbersome and expensive, costing about debate about this state's future, we are on to rigorous college classes and allow $200 million per year statewide. And letting our children and grandchildren down. them to earn high school and college credit finally, the tax is unpopular, ranking at the If we refuse to even discuss the merits of at the same time? That seems a more bottom of all taxes in poll after poll. an income tax, we doom ourself to a solution efficient use of time and money. Ten years ago, our tax system stood on perhaps worse than the problem. Most of the problems of the current three legs: the property tax, the sales tax Representative government shouldn't be funding system are related to the fact that and the oil and gas severance taxes. Now, so handcuffed by political rhetoric that we local property taxes form the primary basis revenue from the severance taxes has cannot consider realistic solutions. We of school funding. The state contributes diminished to the point that they are the cannot debate the future of our state without about 41 percent of total public school seventh and eighth largest sources of considering the bedrock problem with a funding, but the majority of that is spent revenue, falling behind fuels taxes, the revenue structure that is unduly burdensome trying to equalize the inherent imbalance franchise tax and alcoholic beverage taxes. to business, the sector of our economy that caused by the property taxes. This leads me The sales tax at 2 percent, as it was provides jobs and income. to believe that we need to look beyond the passed, was all right. At eight cents it is Rest easy. The income tax probably won't property tax in finding a solution. regressive and onerous. It weights too even be considered during these special One idea that has been suggested is to heavily on business. sessions of the Legislature. It probably take this disequalizing tax away from the The franchise tax is a tax on investments, won't be considered until business takes the school districts and assess it on a statewide on equity. It is unfair, because it taxes only lead again and demands it. corporations and not partnerships and other It was business, after all, that took the business entities. It is counterproductive lead in backing House Bill 72 and reform because it discourages investments. of our public school system in 1984. It was complete personal and business insurance Is it time, then, to think the unthinkable? business that refused to financially starve Dare we utter the dreaded "I" word? A our public universities in 1987. It was ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY personal income tax should only be consid- business that took the lead in passing the 80S-A East 46th ered when there is a crisis or a consensus sales tax in 1961. It will be business that P.O. Box 4666. Austin 78765 on its adoption. I would call the funding charts the way to a more equitable tax (512) 159-6577 of the public schools a crisis. The problem system. is that there will not be a consensus until I have been in government for 16 years, someone takes the lead in creating it. and there has been progress during that time. The income tax in Texas has been the We've had successes in developing a water ANDERSON & COMPANY subject of the worst smear campaign since plan, in advancing our system of higher education and improving our schools. But COFFEE the days of Joe McCarthy. Willie Horton TEA SPICES looks like a paragon of virtue compared to let's be honest. In too many ways, Texas TIAN) JEFFERSON WAM the income tax in Texas. Those beliefs, that still ranks with the poorest states in the AUSTIN XASTE 78'731S public perception, are founded on more nation. 512 453-1533 confusion than facts, and it is time to talk The 72nd Legislature will address these Send me your list. about the facts. problems without me, and I suspect, will When most people in Texas think of the do just fine. But if we're going to debate Name adoption of a personal income tax, they the issues, there is one thing we should think of the federal tax, with rates as high demand — a fair, honest and complete Street as 33 percent. No state taxes income at those debate. As businessmen, you expect that. City Zip levels. Nor would. Texas need to. As taxpayers you deserve that. As voters, They think of a tax increase rather than you can require that. ❑ 6 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 A Scoop in Houston How the Chronicle Beat the Post to its Own Story

BY ALLAN FREEDMAN

HEN HOUSTON City Council- man Jim Westmoreland told a W racial joke to Houston Post reporter Andrew Kirtzman, the city hall reporter knew he had a potentially hot exclusive. But Post management initially decided to hold the story or, perhaps, to kill it altogether. The decision came back to haunt Houston's premier newspaper. The rival Houston Chronicle later scooped the Post in a page-one piece based in part on the original Kirtzman-Westmoreland conversa- tion. The Post appeared to trip badly. And the slip-up raises questions about why the Post, at least at first, backed off. Rumor that a Post story had been killed surfaced soon after the Westmoreland- Kirtzman exchange. Bob Sablatura, the Chronicle reporter who broke the story, initially heard rumblings from journalists and city-hall staffers. He was curious. The DAN HUBIG rumor was not specific at first. But the fact edly told Houston Post reporter Andrew remark for publication. that the rival newspaper in town had killed Kirtzman, 'The idea now is to name the "There was no question in my mind that a story encouraged him to press on; he also airport Nigger International. That way it he thought the conversation was off the thought he could be on to a good story. would satisfy all the blacks.' " record," Kirtzman said. "It was in the realm of gossip," Sablatura But he added, "In all honesty, I definitely said. "A number of reporters in the city IRTZMAN NEVER doubted he thought this was a potentially big story.There were talking about it." was on to a story. With city was never a question in my mind that it Sablatura's digging paid off. Kirtzman K elections weeks away, such a was a story." had already put in a round of calls to city comment was by any account destined to council members for reaction to land on page one. He also considered the EPORTERS OFTEN get their best Westmoreland's comments and had read. conversation to be on the record. Westmore- stuff in much the same way council members Westmoreland's quotes. land never said he was speaking off the R Kirtzman did. That's why at the Those quotes were noted by Sablatura's record, so Kirtzman, as any reporter might, highest level in politics press access is sources, who in turn provided the Chronicle considered the comment fair game. limited. The less time a public official reporter with details of Kirtzman's one-on- But Westmoreland quickly attempted to spends with a reporter, the fewer chances one conversation with Westmoreland. repair the damage and insisted to Post he has to slip up. It is not unprecedented Sablatura also confirmed the quotes with Editor-in-Chief David Burgin that his for officials to declare remarks off the Post sources. About a week after Kirtzman's remarks were off the record. Westmoreland record after a damaging statement has been exchange with Westmoreland, Sablatura had made his remarks to Kirtzman in casual made. And the standard call in such was ready to go to print. conversation at the City Council press table. situations should be to go with the story. Sablatura framed his story around the Westmoreland told Burgin that the tradition Public officials know the rules. Unless they exchange between Kirtzman and Westmore- around the press table was that all banter make explicit that they are speaking off the land; the city council member had made his was off the record. Kirtzman had been on record, even if they are operating under the remarks in connection with a proposal to the beat less than two months and West- assumption that their comments are not for rename Houston Intercontinental Airport for moreland insisted the new reporter didn't publication, a reporter must consider state- the late U.S. Rep. Mickey Leland. In the understand how things worked. ments public. second paragraph, we learn: Burgin said Westmoreland put the Post But Burgin insists this case was more "Westmoreland, who was elected to an at- in a difficult spot. He didn't doubt complex than dealing with a public official large seat, reportedly told at least one city Kirtzman's word that the reporter consid- who insisted, after the fact, that his comment hall reporter the airport should be called ered the conversation on the record. But at was off the record. Burgin considered it `Nigger International' to appease minority the same time, it was clear that Westmore- unusual that a public official would insist council members pushing for the name land had made his comment with the his comments were made in private even change." assumption that it would not find its way though he did not specify as much. Burgin By the fourth paragraph, the language is into print. Even Kirtzman does not doubt apparently treated Westmoreland's damage even more specific: "Westmoreland report- that Westmoreland never intended the control efforts as a straightforward attempt THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 protecting Westmoreland and why? Yet Burgin decided to hold off. He sought to place the story in a larger context, and Kirtzman was instructed to get reaction from local city council members before running the story. "We went back to three of four black city council members. They said it was no big deal." The Post still didn't have anything to hang the story on. As Burgin put it, if the council members had been upset, the story "would have been in the paper." The story was held again. "If you want to be ruthless, put it in the paper," Burgin said. "The circumstances here screamed for fairness." But it remains unclear if fairness or something else was at play in Post decision making. Burgin insists the paper was not attempting to cover for an apparently inept politician. "Anybody who says we are playing good-old-boy games is full of shit," he told the Observer. In fact, Burgin said the paper intended to run the story but was scooped by the Chronicle. After the story broke, the Post did stay on top of it. Westmoreland remained the number-one political story in Houston for more than a week. Even The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio ran their own versions of the story. But Kirtzman said, "I can tell you that I was under the impression at the time that they weren't going to use it." Post City Editor Margaret Downing did tell Kirtzman that the paper was considering using the comment in a profile of Westmoreland "but that we could not single out Westmoreland without profiling all the councilmen." DAN HUBIG "They weren't going to use the story I had written, but if we could find another to clear up a misunderstanding. Since "There was nothing said either before the context they were going to use it," Kirtzman Westmoreland honestly considered the conversation or after that it was off the said. "I just assumed that was never going conversation off the record, should the Post record," Burgin told the Observer. "The to happen." have granted Westmoreland the benefit of history at the press table is that things said He said his impression was that the news the doubt? at the press table were off the record." the Chronicle had the story prompted Post Too, Burgin said, public officials often management to reconsider going with it. make disparaging remarks that never make it "When I learned the Chronicle had it, they into print. Male politicians make sexist com- considered running it again, " Kirtzman ments. Why should Westmoreland's remark said. be considered any differently? It is clear that Burgin was concerned But Westmoreland made his comment in about the implications of the Post story. "It a clear political context and it was connected was a potential bombshell whether it was to a specific event — the airport debate. an election year or not," Burgin wrote in (TARP NINN) His remarks had clear political implications. a Sunday column. "Do we shatter And by lending credibility to Westmoreland's career when, as he now Westmoreland's position that conversations claims, he meant no harm?" Implications at the press table were off the record, the should be considered. Reporters often focus "Best Lodging Location for Post bought into pack journalism. Some on the stories they feel will have the most Fishermen & Beachgoers" journalists confirmed that off-the-record impact. But considering political implica- Group Discounts conversations were a tradition at the press tions in a decision to hold a well substanti- table, although Sablatura and Kirtzman deny ated story — it was clear that Westmoreland the tradition exists. That the Post could lend made the comment — is a risky proposition. (512) 749-5555 any credence to this line made the paper The Post put itself, perhaps unknowingly, P.O. Box 8 appear unable to steer an independent in the position of protecting Westmoreland. Port Aransas, TX 78373 course. Pack journalism allows politicians Many journalists are now questioning if greater control over news flow. And the the Westmoreland incident has revealed a Send for Free Gulf & Bay Post, perhaps unwittingly, granted a public much broader pro-establishment bent at the Fishing Information official considerable power over content. It Post. Would printing Westmoreland's com- also opened the door for criticism and ment have been ruthless, as Burgin suggests, embarrassing questions: Was the Post or just good journalism?

8 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 Imprudent Choices Did the Public Utilities Commission Hire a Pro-Utility Auditor? BY LOUIS DUBOSE Austin Ten years behind schedule and 1,100 per- Commission, said he has formed an opinion HERE WAS the fairness built cent over budget, the $9.5 billion TU project of Nielsen-Wurster. "But," Knowles said, in?" Duncanville Senator Chet has been a subject of controversy since 1974, "I'd rather talk about facts." The facts W Edwards asked, in an almost when Brown & Root's blasting destroyed suggest that Nielsen-Wurster is not the best plaintive voice. "Where was the bargaining part of the bedrock on which the plant was to choice to consider Texas Utilities' impru- chair for the ratepayers of this state .. . be built. Now that it appears the Nuclear dent expenses. In Georgia, the auditing firm What role did the public play?" Regulatory Commission is prepared to issue was hired in 1987 by Georgia Power to There were moments of comedy at the the first of two licenses required to start up conduct a prudence audit of the Vogtle I mid-August administrative meeting, when the plant, the PUC must determine how much Plant, an $8.697 billion nuclear generator the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of the money spent on construction was spent located at Waynesboro, Georgia. The convened to vote on a prudence auditor for prudently and can thus be passed on to Nielsen-Wurster audit turned up no impru- Texas Utilities' (TU) Comanche Peak ratepayers. dent spending, a finding that would have nuclear plant. "What role did Texas Utilities play in allowed the utility to include all of Vogtle Though there wasn't a lot to laugh about selecting the consulting firm of Nielsen- I's construction costs in the rates charged once Edwards began to question the com- Wurster?" Edwards asked. The questions to consumers. mission — while two commissioners strug- continued. What other utilities has the The Georgia commission rejected the gled to put the best face on a transaction company worked for? Will their role as an Nielsen-Wurster audit and retained their that could result in a rate increase as high expert witness on behalf of another utility own consultant, who determined that more as 37 percent (according to Merrill Lynch) (HL&P) in a rate hearing before the than one-eighth of the Vogtle's construction — Edwards first had to get past PUC Chair commission effect their performance? Did costs were a result of imprudent spending Marta Greytok, whose appointment he had the ratepayers, who will ultimately pay for and could not be included in the rate base. unsuccessfully opposed on the Senate floor. the plant through increased rates, have any The commission settled on $951 million in Observers smiled at Greytok's request that say in the selection of the auditor? Does imprudent costs. The sum has since survived Edwards produce a letter she had sent him, Nielsen-Wurster fear that a tough audit will a court challenge by the utility. and at Edwards's lack of cooperation. alienate them from the utilities for whom Greytok even demanded that Edwards read they frequently work? HE OFFICES of the auditing firm her letter aloud — to prove she had imposed that many claim is soft on utilities no restrictions on his right to speak before HE COMANCHE PEAK prudence T are filled with engineers and ac- the commission. audit, as described by commissioner countants who learned their trade crunching "Would you read my response for the T Bill Cassin, who has since left the numbers on projects that aren't exactly record?" she asked. When Edwards insisted PUC, is the basis of the "singlemost models of prudent management practice. he dicn't know where the letter was, important case, single largest case to ever S.R. Nielsen, the president of the Nielsen- Greytok persisted: "It's on a yellow sheet come before the public utility commission." Wurster group, will serve as director of the of paper that I sent to you. I would like Prudent costs incurred in the plant construc- Comanche Peak audit. As audit director, to have it." tion will be borne by rate payers, imprudent Nielsen will be responsible for quality "Do I have the right to speak, or do I costs will be borne by TU's shareholders. control and will also lead the "cost not?" Edwards asked. " . . . In the Senate Edwards said he does not believe Nielsen- quantification effort," according to a PUC we don't deny people and citizens of this Wurster can conduct a fair audit. memo. Among the nuclear project audits state a chance to express their views. It was a concern shared by Jo Campbell, listed on Nielsen's résumé is Georgia Perhaps that does occur here. I don't know, the only Democratic appointee on the three- Power's Vogtle I unit. frankly." member commission (Cassin's term has Patricia Galloway, an executive vice "This is a public meeting," Greytok said, since expired.) Campbell, over strenuous president of Nielsen-Wurster, who will reading from the letter that Edwards finally objections from the two Republican mem- "lead the project controls and schedule handed her. "However, as in the Senate, bers of the commission, raised her concerns quantification efforts" also worked on the it is not a town hall meeting. If you want about the selection of Nielsen-Wurster. She Vogtle I audit. Steven Marmaroff, a to speak, I'll recognize you within the claimed utility regulators she contacted in Nielsen-Wurster vice president who will framework of my earlier comments regard- other states had described the Delaware- direct the "start up investigation" at ing concern for not making political matters based firm as pro-utility. The unanimous Comanche Peak, was the project director a part of the meeting. I hope you are equally reaction to her inquiries about Nielsen- on the Vogtle I audit. John L. Owen, a sensitive to our staff and all their hard Wurster, according to Campbell, was: senior vice president at Nielsen-Wurster, work." "Where has the Texas PUC staff been; don't "testified before the Georgia Public Service When he finally addressed the commis- they know that this auditing firm has, in Commission on the management of engi- sion, Edwards raised a number of questions the last three years, developed a reputation neering at the Vogtle I power station," about the selection of the management- as being too close to the utilities?" according to the PUC memorandum. consultant firm, Nielsen-Wurster, to con- How close to the utilities is Nielsen- Georgia isn't the only state where duct a prudence audit of the Comanche Peak Wurster? Beverly Knowles, director of Nielsen-Wurster has alienated members of power plant. public utilities at the Georgia Public Service the regulatory community. The Seabrook THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 Rosson suggested that to conduct no audit is preferable to conducting a compromised audit.

N UNDERFUDNED public utility commission, Rosson said, makes A utility regulation almost impossi- ble. "Maybe we should just pose the question to voters in a referendum," Rosson said, "ask them 'should utilities be regu- lated?' " Ratepayers are assessed $25 million per year through their utility bills to fund the operation of the PUC and the Office of Public Counsel, Rosson told a House committee in May of 1988. Of that amount, "the Legislature presently sees fit to appropriate approximately $8 million a year and uses the remaining $17 million as general revenue. "It is not unusual for a single utility to expend more on one rate case than is appropriated to the commission for all operations for an entire year. And, of course, the utilities' expenses are ultimately paid by the ratepayers. The public should either receive at least the regulation it's paying for, or the assessment should be MARSHALL SURRATT lowered . . . " Rosson said. Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant During the last regular legislative session, Edwards sponsored a bill that would have Nuclear Plant in New Hampshire has Connecticut Consumers Council. "They moved some money to the commission to generated almost as much news coverage [Nielson-Wurster] didn't do that much to provide for PUC funding of prudence audits. as Three Mile Island. What it has not inspire the confidence of the consumer." Currently, audits are paid for by a generated, and may never generate, is He said he was disappointed by the Neilsen- "donation" that the utility makes to the electricity. For years the target of protestors, Wurster report. accounting firm selected to conduct the almost a decade behind in construction, and Texas ratepayers, like Campbell and audit. Edwards argued that as long as the billions of dollars over budget, Seabrook has Edwards, might also question the number utilities (ultimately the ratepayers) pay for already taken its principal owner, Public of old Seabrook hands on the Nielsen- the prudence audits, the utilities will control Service of New Hampshire, into bank- Wurster Comanche Peak team. Comanche the process. Edwards's bill passed in the ruptcy. Scheduled to go on line in 1981, Peak Project Director Bruce Garelick is a Senate but was killed in the House near the some doubt that Seabrook will ever produce former Northeast Utilities (NU) employee. end of the session. According to several its first kilowatt. Though it was originally During his eight-year tenure at NU, sources at the Legislature, it was pressure budgeted at $500 million, regional utilities Garelick, according to a PUC memorandum from Texas Utilities lobbyist Tom Locke in New England have already poured $6 prepared by Nielsen-Wurster, "represented that stopped Senate Bill 1757 in the House, billion into the Seabrook plant, according NU's joint ownership in the Seabrook where it was carried by Rep. Pete Laney. to Joe Rogers of the New Hampshire Nuclear Station Units 1 and 2 by providing Edwards requested the commission to Consumer Advocate's office. "Nielsen- project management, expert testimony and observe the spirit of the legislation and keep Wurster found only nominal imprudent prudence audit support." Patricia Galloway, the utility at arms length from the auditing expenses at Seabrook," Rogers said. "They who worked on the Vogtle Unit in Georgia, process. He claimed there was a built-in bias said it was 90 percent prudent. " According also served as project manager for the in a system that allows the utility to influence to Wynn Arnold, executive director of the Nielsen-Wurster review of the Seabrook the choice of the auditor. If the utility pays New Hampshire commission, the precise plant. Donald Laford, a Nielsen-Wurster $2.3 million for the audit, in effect hiring amount was $333 million of a $6 billion senior associate, who will "lead the procure- the PUC's expert witness for the rate-case total. ment effort of this audit," is a former project hearing the result will be predetermined, But Seabrook provides a rare opportunity consultant for EBASCO Contractors. Edwards said. "There is no way Nielsen- for comparison shopping. Because it is "Among his responsibilities, [with Wurster can be an unbiased adviser when owned by several New England utilities EBASCO] were performing studies and they are- being paid $2.3 million by Texas (recently, one bought another's interest at providing management guidance in the areas Utilities, the very firm they are trying to 17 cents on the dollar), Seabrook's problems of scheduling and cost control of construc- represent. Who are we kidding?" have compelled several utility commissions tion work at the Seabrook Nuclear Plant." The answer was provided early in the and utilities to conduct audits of their own. Peggy Rosson, who served on the Public hearing by PUC general counsel Bob Rima. Theodore Barry and Associates, working for Utilities Commission as an appointee of The commission staff is kidding no one: the Connecticut regulatory agency and Governor Mark White, suggested that the "We have a contract that is agreeable to following in the tracks of Nielsen- Wurster, "big eight" accounting firms are part of the General Counsel and agreeable to Texas discovered more than $1 billion in impru- problem, rather than part of the solution. Utilities, and agreeable to the consultant dent spending at Seabrook. How to reconcile "They make their money working for the [Nielsen-Wurster]," Rima told the commis- the $333 million in imprudent costs discov- utilities," Rosson said of the consultants. sion. ered by Nielsen-Wurster with $1,376.8 "How can they be expected to conduct Austin attorney Don Butler, who regu- billion by Barry and Associates? "It's an unbiased audits that take the ratepayers' larly appears before the commission on art, not a science," said Jim Neehan of the interest into account? " Like Campbell, behalf of intervenors in rate disputes, said

10 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 the process of selecting a prudence auditor But the passage to which Campbell timing differences" was construed by is so unfair it is laughable. "You know, referred was no laughing matter — at least Campbell to allow the PVVR practice, by it would have been nice if there had been not for consumers. According to Campbell, which auditors consider variables other than some consulting with the utility's custom- Edwards, and Butler, several sentences in those related to construction and manage- ers," Butler said. "But I don't know a damn the Nielsen-Wurster contract shift the ment decisions at the plant being audited. soul who participated on the side of the burden of proof of imprudent costs from For example, Ernst & Whinny, in a ratepayers. the utility to the commission. The auditor prudence audit of the South Texas Nuclear "The contract came down at four o'clock (follow carefully here), though paid by the Project at Bay City, claimed that if the plant on the fax machine of the Texas Utilities' utility, and subject to strict utility control had gone on line on schedule ratepayers Dallas law firm. One copy had the firm's would not have realized the advantage of fax number on it. It don't take a rocket the declining price of natural gas, since their scientist to figure out what's going on when electricity would have been produced by the utilities' lawyers write the contract," nuclear power. Thus, it was concluded, the Butler said. delay and concomitant cost overruns bene- Indeed, one version of the contract, fited the consumers. leaked to Anne Marie Kilday of the Dallas Other "timing differences," according to Morning News, included the number of one source at the commission, might include Texas Utilities' Dallas law firm, and the the fact that if the plant had begun generating hour that the contract was sent from Dallas. on schedule, one-third of its life would be Embarrassed commission staff members over today (it's designed to last 30 years). argued the law firm was helping out with Since the plant is still unused, the utility the preparation of the contract because the is now at least 30 (rather than 20 years) from understaffed PUC was unable to go it alone. replacing it. (By this logic, if the plant can The hour that the 112-page contract be kept unlicensed long enough it can pay arrived (less a 200 page appendix) became for itself without ever generating electric- a point of contention when Commissioner ity.) Present value accounting last year Campbell requested the commissioners failed its first court test, when the Illinois proceed through the contract at the adminis- Supreme Court remanded a case back to the trative meeting. "I hope we are also going regulatory agency "for further ratemaking through all of the contract, because there proceedings with regard to the prudence are many, many problems with the con- expenditures" involving the application of tract," Campbell said. " . . do you not PVRR. even desire to hear some of the problems Courts in Texas give broad discretion to with the contract?" regulatory agencies. "It is very hard, almost "May I speak?" Greytok asked. "I have impossible to get a rate case overturned in been through the contract. I have, again, court," Butler said. "So long as there are done my homework outside the body of this no obvious discrepancies. " And the courts, meeting, which I requested you to do on according to Butler, adhere to a very narrow numerous occasions. But you continue to ALAN POGUE definition of obvious discrepancies, insist on doing your homework with Chet Edwards Before the two-day debate on the Nielsen- everybody in the world here watching you. Wurster audit was over, observers might Now I don't think that's an appropriate way in the drafting of the audit contract and work have wondered if it had all been scripted to handle our business. There are a lot of plan, is still the commission's (and therefore by Moliere. PUC Executive Director Bob man-hours and lawyer-hours. And as I the people's) expert witness at the rate Orozco wept before the commission, Chair- pointed out before, the clock is running out hearing. person Greytok compared the $2.3 million here. You are deafened by the sound." "If Nielsen-Wurster concludes that a audit of a $10 million plant to the garbage When Campbell insisted on her right to decision or performance constitutes impru- contracts she negotiated over when she dissent, saying that there had been less than dence, Nielsen-Wurster is required to served as an unsalaried Mayor of Taylor 24 hours to consider the contract, and that identify decisions or performance within the Lake Village, Senator Edwards observed much of the day had been spent on scope of reasonableness that TU Electric that students in China were fighting for the commission business, she was told by the could have made or taken in the circum- same right to dissent that was denied to him chair, and by Commissioner Cassin, that a stances. Nielsen-Wurster will be required and to Commissioner Campbell, and Com- dissent was not appropriate and that she to identify and perform the investigative missioner Cassin called Edwards and Camp- could attach her written remarks to the work necessary to reach an independent bell vipers. proceedings. (Later, during the same meet- conclusion." The passage establishes a But opera bouffee this was not. In the ing, Edwards would forcefully remind standard unprecedented in utility regulation end, Texas Utilities got its auditor. And, Greytok and Cassin of a law that he and in Texas, according to Butler, the Austin it seems, they wrote the contract. Rep. Ric Williamson had passed, protecting attorney who represents intervenors at the "Expect a whitewash" Butler said. "They'll public officials' right to dissent.) commission. In fact, it is a standard unheard find a few thousand [dollars of imprudent Even as the meeting inexorably proceeded of in most states. "It violates a fundamental costs]. toward a conclusion there were moments principle in the philosophy of utility "I've been doing this 20 years now," Butler of comedy: regulation," said Joel Blau of the New York said, "and I've never seen anything this bad. When Campbell told Cassin that she had utility commission's consumer protection I've about concluded that we'd be better off

problems with several passages in the division. "The burden of proof always lies without a commission. ❑ contract, Cassin questioned her qualifica- with the utility, not with the regulatory tions, and reiterated his own. agency." "I happen to have practiced law three Edwards and Campbell raised another Exerpts from the testimony of former PUC times as many years as you have," Cassin point concerning an accounting concept Commissioner Peggy Rosson at the special said. "You always brag about your law known as the present value revenue require- interim committee on utility regulation re- practice." ment (PVRR). The phrase, "including form appear on the following page. THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 PUC Reform Excerpts of a Speech by former PUC Commissioner Peggy Rosson

Texas was the last state to conclude that concluded that all affected cities benefit and Unfortunately that didn't happen and so entities enjoying monopoly status in provid- in fairness the charges should be borne by we are here today and your charge covers ing an essential public service to captive all of the beneficiaries. Commissioner not only electric utilities but telecommunica- consumers required regulation. Most of the Campbell raised the issue again several tion utilities as well. What I have found problems I see confronting us now grow years ago. I opposed it then. I oppose it amazing, in listening to the testimony out of the fact that fourteen years later we now on the same ground of fairness. As presented to you, is that the overwhelming are still struggling with that basic concept. to interim reimbursement, it wasn't neces- underlying consensus presented has been In theory we have an act which should be sary when cases took a few weeks, now "yes, there are areas of concern, but please, sufficient tot achieve its stated aim; in that they take many, many months, it is make no piece meal changes to an act and actuality and practice we have a flawed act mandatory. The cities don't have the funds an agency whose decisions under that act and an agency which has never had the in their budget to advance. Their attorneys have a direct effect on every man, woman, legislative oversight and attention it de- and witnesses can't be expected to work for child, and business in this state." I urge serves, is chronically underfunded and months for no pay. Certainly the utility's you to heed that consensus. There are no understaffed, subject to greatly conflicting attorneys and witnesses do not. If interim easy answers of quick fixes. The Public signals and pressures from both the state reimbursement is denied in prolonged cases, Utility Regulatory Act calls for a compre- leadership and the Legislature and subjected participation is effectively denied as well. hensive system of regulation, fair to both to unrelenting pressure by the utilities. It As to rules to limit discovery, again this the ratepayers and the utilities. Please, is given more and more responsibility, less is something deserving thorough debate approach it only on that basis. Make the funding, told to base its decisions in before any action is taken. What we are recommendation to the 1991 Legislature that contested cases only on the record before seeking to achieve is fairness. The public we asked for in 1988. Give this matter the it and is then frequently criticized severely starts off at a disadvantage in that the utility full and complete attention it deserves. when it does, usually as a result of some has all of the information. It has been my Establish standing oversight committees, alleged threat to economic development. observation over the past twelve years that revisit the role of the staff, fund the agency, On May 27, 1988 I presented testimony, they do not provide it willingly, despite the however reconstructed, so that it can individually, and on behalf of then Mayor tonnage figures cited to you. In all candor, function effectively, establish guidelines for Jonathan Rogers of El Paso, to the House the name of the game is "catch me if you the selection of commissioners, urge the Select Committee on Statewide Energy can." Limiting the number of questions they Governor to choose well, urge the Senate Planning. In that testimony I covered many can be asked would not seem to be the best to confirm carefully, and when the commis- of the issues which have been brought to way to achieve fairness and serve the public sioners are acting in their judicial capacity, your attention in this proceeding, such as interest. The same holds true for streamlined allow no interference. qualifications for commissioners, the role proceedings. It may speed up the process I hope that's the course of action you will of staff, the conflict concerning the defini- from the utilities point of view and it may find appropriate. tion of public interest, the desperate need appear an appealing move toward effi- I'm sure that there were many occasions for long range planning, city jurisdiction, ciency, but is the public interest well served when my colleagues would have preferred and directives to the Commission concern- when the public is excluded from the not to hear what I had to say about the ing the performance of judicial functions, proceeding? actions of the majority. There were times among others, and I made many recommen- I have attached a copy of those recom- when I would have preferred not to have dations for change. For your information. mendations to my testimony. In the interest heard them out. But until now, to my Regarding city jurisdiction, city participa- of time I will not repeat, but do reaffirm knowledge, no commissioner has ever been tion_ and funding. This issue was debated those recommendations today. However, the denied the right to be heard and dissent on in 1975 and 1983. In each instance the most important recommendation I made to the record. I think that can be attributed Legislature recognized and respected the a select House Committee in May forms to the fact that we all understood the process, benefits to be gained from local regulation. the basis of the one I make to you today. we all had a commitment to the institution I concur in the testimony presented to you I said then: of government, we all understood that when by Don Butler, the City of El Paso and the three commissioners are acting in a body others supporting the continuation of local they are no longer individuals but "The jurisdiction and the right of reimbursement. . . . But, the message I bring to you today Commission," an institution, and that that The cities have played a major role in the is that the finest service your Committee could render to the people and to institution had to be protected if public regulatory process. The public has been well the future of Texas is to convince your colleagues in the House confidence was to be maintained. That served by their efforts. There are hundreds and Senate that the matter of energy regulation understanding and that commitment to the of contested issues in a major case, either and energy planning must be among your top principles of civility and dissent has been the Commission staff nor OPC can begin priorities in the next session if indeed our what has been missing recently at the PUC. to cover them all. I think it follows that economy is to revive and thrive in the future; It must be restored. In my opinion, the most if the cities were not effective in their that it is as critical and deserves the same effort pragmatic solution, under the circum- efforts, the utilities would not be so anxious and attention as education; and that nothing stances, is to insure that the next appointee to remove them from the scene. As to can be accomplished without effective, en- understands the necessity for these princi- reimbursement, it is of course vital and forced regulatory controls, knowledgeable, ples and is willing to commit, unequivo- should be maintained. As to surcharges, that committed legislators and regulators, and cally, to their practice. was done in the '70s. The Commission later adequate funding.

12 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 Pollution Control Deferred How two Texas Congressmen are Befouling the Air

BY DAN CARNEY Washington, D. C. examples of Bush's concern for the environ- EVENTEEN of the 18 Texas House ACKED BY millions of dollars and ment. Democrats signed a letter to Lieu supported by enough lobbyists to A competing amendment sponsored by S tenant Governor Bill Hobby sup- clog the halls of Congress, the Reps. Mike Synar, D-Oklahoma, and Billy porting Proposition Two, an item on the B November 7 ballot authorizing the Legisla- natural gas industry usually gets its way. Richardson, D-New Mexico, would have The campaign for industry deregulation, kept everything in the Bush plan and ture to spend $500 million on water and waged earlier this year, provides an example required most fleet cars in polluted cities sewer services in the poorest parts of the of their successful use of power. to switch to clean-burning fuels. While state. Of the total, $100 million would be But on the issue of the alternative natural gas could easily meet these stan- specifically targeted at colonias, develop- automobile fuels portion of President Bush's dards, it is highly questionable whether what ments along the Mexican border that are clean air legislation, the lobby's perform- the oil industry is touting as "reformulated" often built by unscrupulous developers and ance has been less than stellar. And, in this gasoline could. almost always look more like Third World case, the lobby's position could have slums than Texas towns. The lone missing implications that go far beyond the question T IS NOT often that a member of signature is that of Lower Rio Grande of who in energy will get rich the fastest. Congress prosecutes someone on Valley Congressman Kika de la Garza, the Afraid to offend Rep. John Dingell, the I charges of impeachment. In American chairman of the House Agriculture Commit- powerful apologist for Detroit auto makers, history only 13 judges, a President (Andrew tee. Does this mean he opposed the the gas lobby backed an amendment by Johnson, who was impeached but later measure? No, de la Garza says. "I strongly Texas Congressmen Jack Fields, a Houston- acquitted), and a cabinet secretary have been urge Texas voters to vote yes on Proposition area Republican, and Ralph Hall, a Dallas- impeached. Of these, only 12 were tried Two," he said. So why not sign the letter? area Democrat. This provision, written by and six (all of them judges) were convicted. De la Garza refused to discuss it, but Capitol Dingell staffers, benefits oil and auto Not surprisingly, it is hard to assess what Hill staffers from the Texas delegation interests more than gas interests and effect Dallas Congressman John Bryant's suggest that the answer has something to removes the teeth from the clean air plan. role as the successful prosecutor in the do with the letter's stationery, which comes "They waffled and whimpered, covered impeachment trial of South Florida judge from the office of Rep. Ron Coleman of their backsides and gave support to the auto Alcee Hastings will have on his campaign El Paso. Last year, de la Garza fought makers and oil producers," says John for state attorney general. By far the best against a Coleman plan to create a border Jennrick, editor of Natural Gas Week. known of three candidates for the post, commission which would address colonia Instead of requiring Detroit to make one Bryant gained even more attention from the problems as well as other issues. De la million clean fuel cars by 1999, as the Bush trial. Bryant says he has no intention of Garza said that an international commission plan would, the amendment, which has campaigning on the platform that a tough was not the proper solution to the colonia already passed a House subcommittee, impeachment prosecutor makes a good problem, at one point telling the Associated would only require the U.S. auto industry attorney general. The issue is simply too Press, "We've got about five commissions to have the capacity to build such cars. complex and remote from Texas to have and tasks forces . . . the Southwest Border Gasoline manufacturers would benefit be- a big impact, he says. Regional Commission, ambassador this, cause emission standards in Houston, Los But one of his opponents, Houston ambassador that . . . and the first thing they Angeles, and eight other smoggy cities attorney John Odam, sees the matter do is send an anthropologist to measure our would be so relaxed that conventional differently. From the outset of the impeach- heads." gasoline would not have to be improved ment proceedings, Hastings, in his state- De la Garza has also declined to co- much to compete with alternative fuels such ments and in rallies, tried to make a racial sponsor a Coleman bill that would have as methanol and natural gas. In fact, the issue of the case against him, saying that provided money for pilot projects for American Petroleum Institute admitted that he would not have been where he was had colonia improvement. Once, in what he the standards in the Fields-Hall proposal he been white. On September 29 Hastings thought was an off-the-record portion of an would not even improve present conditions. made his case against Bryant, at a meeting interview, De la Garza criticized his In supporting Fields-Hall, the natural gas of the Houston chapter of the Coalition of colleague's tactics "I don't issue press industry passed up an opportunity to both Black Democrats, charging that the he was releases. I do work," he said of Coleman. push its own product — vehicles that run the victim of Bryant's overzealous prosecu- tion undertaken for political aims. off natural gas and its derivatives — and This publication is availabk strengthen a bill that is one of the few In attendance at the meeting was Odam, in microform from University who said he did not seek an endorsement Microfilms international. and did not receive a formal one, but admits Call toll-free WO-521-304A. Or mail inquiry to: University Microfilms international. 300 North Dan Carney is a writer for States News that Hastings made it clear he was stumping Zeeb Rood, Ann Arbor. MI 41106 Service in Washington, D.C. for "anyone but Bryant." THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

V DEMOCRATIC Gubernatorial prohibits political endorsements." 1/0 HAVE TEACHERS forgotten Mark candidates Ann Richards and Jim Mattox Even though the current rules, as inter- White, the former Democratic governor are already sizing up outgoing Lieutenant preted by the attorney general, have been who many associate with TECAT, the Governor Bill Hobby's recent argument on the books for more than ten years, many standardized test that all the state's public for a state income tax. After Hobby came judges, some knowingly, have hidden school teachers were required to take as a out for the tax, both candidates let it be behind the outdated canon; this practice result of House Bill 72? Consider the known they aren't exactly jumping on a explains why it has been widely assumed remarks of Virginia Stacey, chair of the raise-new-taxes bandwagon. Richards, for years that judges can't endorse candi- Texas State Teacher Association political in an interview at an Austin political dates. It remains to be seen if the Mattox action committee. "Anybody who wants to gathering, predicted the Hobby tax pitch test teachers, who are college graduates, would play into the hands of Texas ought to have never run" Stacey said at the Republicans. She said Democrats are now annual meeting of the Texas State Teachers more vulnerable to GOP criticism of Association in Austin. spendthrift liberalism. Hobby could be standing tall on the issue, but Richard's said V JACK RAINS took a poke at his he's just presented the Grand Old Party with fellow gubernatorial candidates when he a political target. addressed TSTA's annual gathering in Meanwhile, Mattox is singing the same Austin. Rains, whose baritone became a old lottery tune and making some predictions household voice during the voter registration of his own. He said the Hobby tax stance drive he conducted as secretary of state, will benefit him most in the Democratic leaned into the mike, lowered his voice yet primary. "I think I'm the only one in the another register, and did what sounded like campaign who's unequivocally opposed to a one-man impersonation of the Kent it," Mattox told the Observer. He pointed Hance/Clayton Williams campaign: out that he's also the only candidate who " 'I'm against drugs and crime and that's has come up with a specific alternative my stand.' Then jail doors slam. I'm so tired funding plan — a statewide lottery. Richards of hearing politicians slamming jail doors. doesn't expect the Hobby position to be as They've worn out every jail door in the state big a plus for Mattox as he might like. She of Texas," Rains said. Rains was the only points out that she's also opposed to an Republican candidate to appear before the income tax. Asked how she would pay for teacher's organization. Both announced her ambitious education plan and anticipated Democratic gubernatorial candidates atten- new school costs, Richards said new funding ALAN POGUE ded. wouldn't necessarily come from one place. Jim Mattox In an interview, she wasn't much more V ONE DAY earlier, and 15 floors specific, although she has called in the past decision has opened the door for influential higher in the same Austin hotel, Kent Hance for broad-based increases in sin taxes. "I endorsements or a political backlash. Will slammed a few jail doors and made his pitch don't think it is a simple problem, and I members of the judiciary resent the attorney for the 25,000 new jail beds he claimed don't think you're going to have simple general's putting them on the spot? The could be financed by "economic growth," solutions." decision has already landed on the desks with no new taxes required. Hance, a of some judges, although the Mattox Democrat turned Republican, has been V THE STATE'S chief prosecutor has, campaign has so far not included the remade. Stiffer, more formal, and with new by virtue of his position, opened the door decision in any of its mailings, according glasses, he is beginning to look (and sound for some potentially hefty support in his to a spokesman. (The attorney general's —he's even more prosecutorial) like the gubernatorial bid. But Jim Mattox could office routinely sends opinions to elected Rudy Giuliani of Texas Politics. Loosen up, have done himself more harm than good officials affected by opinions.) Kent. in issuing a March 10 attorney general's What remains unclear is why state opinion that allows members of the judiciary Representative Senfronia Thompson re- V ANOTHER Democrat-turned-Re- to endorse candidates. Judges, particularly quested the opinion in the first place. publican is running against Judge Sam Democrats, have historically stayed out of Thompson said she was concerned about the Houston Clinton of the Court of Criminal the endorsement game. A judicial canon issue when local Harris County judges, Appeals. Oliver S. Kitzman, a state district adopted in 1974 by the Texas Supreme during the 1988 general election, endorsed judge from Hempstead, ran against Clinton Court was explicit, and many judges liked candidates. "I had a problem with that in the 1984 Democratic primary and got it that way. The canon made clear that because judges have frequently said they only 30 percent of the vote to Clinton's judges should not "make speeches for a could not become involved in endorsing," 70 percent. Kitzman has since seen the light political organization or candidate or pub- she said. She refused to be more specific. and now will run as a Republican, probably licly endorse a candidate for public office." She also strongly denied her request was in hopes of building some name recognition Some judges, whose endorsements could politically motivated or that she was helping to use in a race when Clinton retires. But have carried weight, relied on the canon to to open the door for Mattox support. Kitzman will have to do better this time. stay out of political squabbles. These Thompson has, however, issued a glowing Seventy-thirty name recognition can be members of the judiciary wanted to keep endorsement of the attorney general. "Jim worse than none, especially to the people their offices above mundane political fights. Mattox not only stood with us in our past who write the checks to fund political races. But the high court revised the canon in 1976, battles, he stands ready to fight them again Clinton says that he has no intention of and as stated in the recent AG's opinion, and again as our next Governor," she said retiring. "nothing in Canon 7, as currently worded, recently .

14 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 An American Tragedy

BY IRVING HOWE

The following is reprinted, with permission, from the Fall Everyone with eyes to see is coming to recognize that 1989 issue of Dissent, 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. beneath the surface of affluence and the ideology of the 10017. "free market," there is taking place in this country a I want to mention very briefly — not discuss, not steady, grinding process of social decay. Drugs, violence, analyze — a few matters that we will be returning to poverty, gangs, homelessness, shootouts are but a few in future issues of Dissent. They are central to our of the symptoms. Malaise, disintegration, pathology, moment. "underclass" — these are some of the key words. The A few facts, perhaps known but worth repeating: reality is a terrible dehumanization, the worst we have • Nearly one out of every four residents in New York known in fifty years, and only Kojak seems able to cope lives on an income below the poverty line, which in 1987 with it. And only on television reruns. was set by the federal government at $11,611 for a family Is there a single solution to this complex of troubles? of four. In 1988, 23.2 percent of the New York City Probably not. Could there be a complex of programs population lived below the poverty line. that might alleviate this social disaster? Unquestionably. • A study by the National League of Cities discloses Would it cost a lot of money? Yes. Might some of it be that poverty in America's cities has grown more wasted? Probably. But when you read about vast concentrated and persistent over the last two decades. Pentagon "overcosts," you don't feel so bad at the The proportion of the poor living in metropolitan areas possibility of spending a little extra to cope with the decay rose from 62 to 70 percent in 1985 — an increase of of the cities and the people who live in them. Government 7.6 million people. officials, from the conservative Bush to the liberal Cuomo, • In the Times Square subway station, reports the New keep talking about "budget crunches." And some York Times (March 10, 1989), a rush-hour crowd .kept intellectuals refer sagely to the "limits of social policy." stepping across a sleeping man who lay "stark naked." No doubt there are limits, but it might be . a good thing One woman with a sense of decorum "paused to cover at least to approach them. his buttocks with a Saks Fifth Avenue shopping bag." This is the single greatest set of social issues — really, • The rate of killings due to "drug wars" has risen moral disgraces — facing American life today. In future astonishingly in Washington, D.C. Over 300 people, issues of Dissent, over the next year or two, we're going mostly blacks, were shot last year, within walking to try to tackle them. No, we don't have all the answers. distance of the White House presided over by a But we'll have some. At the very least, we'll try to stir gentleman who wishes a "kinder and gentler" America. up some feeling, some concern, some thought. This — • William J. Bennett, yesterday the education boss, together with discussion of the remarkable changes has been appointed "drug czar." Little if any additional occurring in the Soviet Union — seems to us the central funding will be provided the czar, who will have to get theme for the months ahead. Stay with us. by on eloquence.

BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income Life Insurance Company Chairman of the Boast, and EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. SOX 206, WACO. 'TEXAS 76703, 617.772-3060 Chief Executive Officer

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Shadowboxing Ishmael Reed Lands a Few More Punches BY MICHAEL KING

THE TERRIBLE THREES locate his own literary roots elsewhere, for You read about the effects of the drug By Ishmael Reed example in homeboy novelist Chester operation on the psychological well-being of New York: Atheneum, 1989 Himes, who also contributes a pugilistic the children in Oakland. You really don't have 180 pages, $16.95 epigraph: "A fighter fights, and a writer to read; your daughter and the children on WRITIN' IS FIGHTIN': writes." the block have nightmares about it. Drug Thirty-Seven Years of Boxing on Paper Well, okay already — this kind of literary dealers show up in their poetry. By Ishmael Reed posturing usually signifies at least a trace The scene is spreading throughout Oakland. New York: Atheneum, 1988 of testosterone poisoning, and Reed kids No matter what the people in the Junior 226 pages, $18.95 himself now and then on his own "black League, the Lakeview Club, the ballet and male paranoia." But I remember a cartoon symphony boosters may say about image, HE CHIPS on Ishmael Reed's shoul- from a few years back on the distinction Oakland is in a state of war against drug between paranoia and common sense, with fascists, and for the time being the drug fascists ders are beginning to get very heavy. have gained the upper hand. T He has always been a combative a punchline that responded to the question writer, and thus the title of his book of "What if you believe people are out to get This essay haunts much of the book, for essays, which has almost nothing to do with you, and they really are out to get you?" one begins to think of it as the historical the sport of fisticuffs, and everything to do — "Chances are you're black." That is to context within which Reed's more directly with literary/cultural wars. Emblazoned say, like another American original, Bugs literary essays take their stand. And when with invocations from Muhammad Ali and Bunny, Reed never does battle unless he's his novels evoke a cataclysmic atmosphere Larry Holmes (Ali inspired the book's title, been messed with first — and like Bugs, of contemporary city life, it is from the but Reed feels a closer stylistic kinship with he generally scores a knockout: inside, and not with the prissily racial the craftsman Holmes), "Writin' " is the The truth is, although Reed's essays do disdain of a Saul Bellow or a Tom Wolfe. best introduction to Reed's nonfiction, exhibit a real talent for polemic, the fighting although his most important talent is as a posture doesn't really fit him very well. In HE OTHER ESSAYS weave in and novelist of brilliantly comic imagination. In person a gentle bear of a man with a out of the various controversies Reed the reminiscence that opens the collection, tendency to plumpness (which in the past T has pursued over the years: the "Boxing on Paper: Thirty-Seven Years he has noted resignedly is the sign of a zest "multicultural" traditions of the American Later," Reed addresses acutely his own for life), Reed's true genius is forgivingly continent vs. the monocultural impositions representative historical predicament, as a comic, with a razor's edge of satire against of established institutions; the hypocritical man and a writer: vanity and corruption and hypocrisy. The racial politics of the major parties; the racial man's favorite holiday is unapologetically malevolence of much mainstream pop A black boxer's career is the perfect Christmas, and his patron saint, Black Peter, culture (e.g., Hollywood). Reed was partic- metaphor for the career of a black male. Every ularly vocal, and somewhat isolated, in his day is like being in the gym, sparring with the dark bringer of gifts and harmony. impersonal opponents as one faces the So it is that in this collection of essays outrage at Stephen Spielberg's version of rudeness and hostility that a black male must and occasional pieces, the most affecting one Mice Walker's The Color Purple, and what confront in the United States, where he is the is a personal evocation of his Oakland he believes are the film's vicious slanders object of both fear and fascination. My neighborhood ("My Oakland, There is a against black men. The controversy is difficulty in communicating this point of view There There,") with humorous tangents on recounted here ("Stephen Spielberg Plays used to really bewilder me, but over the years the various places he has lived, the Howard Beach"), and Reed is at some pains I've learned that it takes an extraordinary difficulties of old-home ownership, the to distinguish Walker's novel from what he amount of effort to understand someone from dangers of being a black man passing sees as the greater sins of the film, but in a background different from your own, through white neighborhoods, the ordinary fact I think the film is only too true to the especially when your life doesn't really depend pleasures of community. Unhappily, this novel's simplistic, pop-feminist and danger- upon it. And so, during this period, when essay (written in 1983) is paired with one ously sentimentalized version of black life. black males seem to be on somebody's written last year, after his beloved neighbor- On this matter, Reed has pretty much endangered-species list, I can understand why hood had fallen under the siege of the crack remained a voice against the roaring wind, some readers and debating opponents might cocaine armies. It has been a devastating and he sees the film as representing a have problems appreciating where I'm coming transformation; the two essays provide a dangerous malevolence in the culture as a from. kind of capsule memoir of too many whole. Reed is not, of course, the first American American inner-city neighborhoods in the author to take a liking to the boxing last decade. Unlike most such lamentations Like the black bear and the North American metaphor; though he would abjure the one reads, however, written by suburban wolf, the black male in the United States has comparison, Hemingway and Mailer most commentators and reporters, Reed's direct been the subject of dangerous myths that often, immediately come to mind. Reed would experience of the neighborhood and its as in the case of the bear and the wolf, lead personal history lends a real sense of the people to shoot first and ask questions later. Michael King is a Houston freelance writer. complexity and desperation of the drug war. No black man, whatever his class, is exempt 16 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 from superstitions about black men, a situation Threes, running a gypsy cab for a living alien in league with invaders; and so on. that causes anxiety and that probably accounts and acting as impromptu Against this dismal array, Black Peter has for the fact that black men suffer dispropor- "king"/ombudsman/free-lance legal de- some power, and some success, but suffers tionately from cancer, strokes, heart attacks, fender to his working-class neighborhood. what seems like a failure of will. At first and other stress-related illnesses, including But he is largely peripheral to the main intending to save the world and put an end suicide and murder, which are now being action, involving Washington plots and to the pretensions of Santa Claus, he viewed in the same manner as disease counterplots and the continuing corruption manages to help a few lonely and desperate epidemics. of American government and society. The people, and then returns to a Caribbean My disagreement with feminists and "terribles" have proceeded apace, and hermitage. As the book closes, the villains womanists [Walker's preferred term] is that another Christmas finds the government are still very much in power (this is the they have, out of ignorance or by design, usurped by racist Christian demagogues, "late nineteen-nineties"), and the Terribles, promoted such myths in the media, a situation and the streets filled with the desperately "which have plagued the nation since that adds to the problems that black men face poor and homeless, written off by their Dallas, November 22, 1963," rage on and in everyday life. leaders as "surps" (surplus people). on. Reed has been much misrepresented and Reed's earlier novels were filled with In 1989, who can gainsay Ishmael Reed? maligned for arguing this position, often in frankly sexual celebration. Often his central After the recent earthquake, I found myself journals that take no other notice of his characters, men and women, were distin- wondering about that once-happy Oakland literary contributions, but use him only as guished by their eager sensuality, and by neighborhood, and whether the gods had a straw misogynist to dismiss. A few weeks their defiance of the sterilities of corporate now decided to finish what the crack ago, he had a long letter in The Nation "Judeo-Christian" culture (Reed prefers Isis merchants and the politicians had begun. defending himself against misrepresenta- and Osiris). But the contemporary wars Reed says elsewhere that he has planned tions in that journal, and The Village Voice between men and women have apparently a "Terrible" trilogy; little of the first book's is always on his case, usually in the person worn him out. Reckless Eyeballing was an defiant spirit has carried over to this one, of some prominent black feminist brought irritable and finally tiresome defense of and one wonders if, in the final installment, on just to beat him over the head. black men against charges of sexual/cultural he can bring himself to be even remotely transgressions. In The Terrible Threes, a optimistic about the future of his home, his O PUT IT BLUNTLY, whatever his few years down the line, Nance has given country. Satire, even the strongest and peccadilloes, and he is a very quirky up sex entirely, having gone celibate after nastiest, thrives on possibility — else why T writer with a prickly sensibility, he his wife divorced him and went on the talk- bother? It's a dark holiday season, when doesn't deserve all this crap. He has written show circuit (e.g., the "Okra Hippo" show) one of our fiercest and best writers goes a series of novels (and a solid body of to trumpet their private life and blast his looking for a joyful noise in the nation, and poetry) as original and important as any putative sexual sins. There is no sex to speak finds only the taste of ashes. ❑ published by an American of his generation, of, and precious little human community; four in particular that are central to the an evil wind blows through the country, and experience of our time (Mumbo Jumbo; The no one appears able to stop it. (Sounds, Last Days of Louisiana Red; Flight to indeed, too much like what we know and Canada; The Terrible Twos). Since The fear as home.) East Dallas Terrible Twos (1982) there has been a real There are villains galore: President Jesse darkening in Reed's fiction. The recent Hatch (Jesse Helms/Orrin Hatch?), involved Printing novels, Reckless Eyeballing, and now The in the plot to nuke major cities and blame Terrible Threes, have a grim and uneasy it on the Nigerians; his chief of staff, air that depresses rather than energizes. Reverend Clement Jones, a right-wing Company Early on, Reed's comic and satiric optimism preacher with an evil robot/assistant and an consistently overcame the most malevolent undead-Nazi adviser (he hitchhiked back Full Service absurdities of American life. His heroes — with Reagan from Bitburg); Kingsley Scabb, Union Printing tricksters and shape-changers derived from an old money New Englander who plots to African-American mythology and other seize the government back from these sources — had a kind of intrepid, quick- pretenders; Bob Krantz, former honcho now (214) 826-2800 witted insouciance that got them through the on the run, who may in fact be a space 211 S. Peak • Dallas, Tx 75226 worst of times; now, they hang on grimly at the margins of the culture. It may be that the strain of all Reed's self-defensive controversies is beginning to show; on the Data Processing • Typesetting • Printing• Mailing other hand, it may also be that the contemporary dissonance of American culture is beginning to overwhelm our best writers' attempts to chronicle it. So it is with Nance ("Anansi," i.e. the trickster/storyteller/spider) Saturday, the mock-detective hero of The Terrible Twos. Saturday swam ably through the hysterical contradictions of American civilization (at FUTURA 200 years, as immature and contrary as a COMMUNICATIONS, INC 2-year-old), while the plague years of Reaganism produced "the Terribles," and 3019 Alvin DeVane Suite 500 only the Christmas ingenuities of "Black Peter" (the true spirit of Christmas, for Austin, Texas 78741 whom Santa Claus is only a commercial Fax 512.389.0867 pretender) saved the country from outright 512.389.1500 dictatorship. Nance returns for The Terrible

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 All111•11111111V Norse Code BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN ERIK THE VIKING are supposed to ravish the women in the daughter of King Arnulf, who reigns Directed by Terry Jones villages they sack, but Erik confesses that benevolently over a land promised eternal COMMUNION Directed by Philippe there has to be some mutual affection before harmony unless a sword draws blood upon Mora he can discharge his duty. It is not that rape its stones. Thus, weapons are not welcome can never be a joking matter, but this piece on Hy Brasil, a sort of nuclear-free zone F Scandanivian-American communities is limp. before its time. The Hy Brasilians are irenic were as organized and militant as other However, most of the film is an adventure isolationists, sublimely oblivious to strug- ethnic groups, Erik the Viking would fantasy that seems to take itself more gles in the outside world. However, inevita- I bly, Erik's arrival draws swords and blood, be greeted with as much enthusiasm as a seriously than most viewers will. Low revival of Amos 'n' Andy or the Fito production values, in which matte shots are and the prophecy for Hy Brasil is fulfilled. Bandito. With one exception, its as obvious as the model boats, make it hard Prissy King Arnulf refuses to recognize the Norsepersons are brutes, sots, and boors. for even a child to become lost in the wonder imminent danger and flee the destruction of The exception is Erik (Tim Robbins), a of it all. George Lucas or Steven Spielberg his island Eden. "It's not happening!" virginal Viking who has had enough of might have made something marvelous of declares writer-director Jones, who also looting and pillaging, the principal pastime the fanciful screenplay, but Jones uses it plays Arnulf, as his entire production sinks, of men in his society. "Where does it all sententiously, to try to communicate an appropriately, into the sea. get us, grandpa?" he asks a white-tufted allegory in an awkward Norse code. Though ancient played by Mickey Rooney. It gets his sentiments are dovish, his tale is anything INEMA can entertain, inform, of- them entrance to Valhalla is the credo of but disarming. fend, disturb, inspire and even a belligerent culture in which it is a disgrace Erik's valiant efforts to bring an end to C persuade; but it cannot prove. Movie to die of old age. war are opposed from the outset by the magic can conjure up anything, even a Erik wanders off to a mountain cave to gnomish Loki (Antony Sher), a blacksmith's talking rabbit named Roger. When Philippe seek advice from Eartha Kitt, i.e., a apprentice who convinces his master Keitel Mora directed Howling II & III and The sorceress named Freya. She tells him that, (Gary Cady) that, if Erik is successful, it Beast Within, he wanted to terrorize us with in order to put an end to the violent, will end their business by drying up demand invented horrors. But communion, his latest benighted Age of Ragnarok, he must sail for the swords and axes that have made them film, makes different claims on our atten- west beyond the edge of the world and sound prosper. Beware of the military-industrial tion. Most stories require a certain suspen- the Horn of Resounding three times. Most complex and of the machinations of Loki sion of disbelief, but this one demands a of Erik the Viking follows the epic journey and Keitel, in league with Halfdan the Black veritable Verrazano of suspension. Based on that the young man and his rowdy crew (John Cleese), a neighboring blackguard Whitley Strieber's nonfictional account of undertake in order to bring peace and light who derives inordinate pleasure from his encounters with unearthly creatures, to a savage, sunless world. A pacifist flaying, garroting, and decapitating. In a Communion purports to be a true report. parable, the film is a medieval mystery and kind of primitive version of Stealth technol- Mora claims to have had similar experiences a modern mess. ogy, Erik dons the Cloak Invisible and while staying at Strieber's country retreat It is hard to know what to make of it jumps aboard Halfdan's warship, blithely in upstate New York. So, too, does Ed all, particularly when assorted Vikings slaughtering most of his enemies before Conroy, a San Antonio journalist whose new speak fluent modern English with a variety realizing that he is as visible and vulnerable book Report on Communion is a sympathetic of English, Scottish, American and South as the gaps in the script. study of the claims that Strieber makes in African accents. Though the project recon- Erik the Pink is accompanied on his his bestseller. I do not doubt their sincerity, vened several Monty Python alumni (writer- voyage by Harald the Missionary (Freddie but, never having met Strieber's little blue director Terry Jones, producer John Jones), a Christian priest who has failed to men in the flesh, or whatever passes for Goldstone, actors John Cleese and Charles convert a single heathen in 16 years' dermal insulation, I can only report what McKeown and designer Richard Conway), residence in Erik's native Ravensfjord. The I saw in a movie. Erik the Viking lacks the pervasive goofiness journey takes them all to Valhalla, where What makes Communion so compelling, of their most famous collaborations. The an encounter with the Norse god Odin, a if not convincing, is that its characters pass film does feature a few effective gags—a nasty little brat disdainful of intrusive through the same stages of denial, evasion, chorus of cherubic young men and women mortals, does more to spread Christian fear, anger and awe that most of us would whose musical performance is utter cacoph- doctrine than all of Harald's Bible-thump- likely experience if our lives, too, were ony, an Oriental slavemaster who rails at ing. The religion of the Prince of Peace disrupted by things undreamt of in Horatio's his European charges in disdainful, subtitled triumphs because of Erik's swordwork and philosophy or our own. Whitley Japanese: "You who have never committed the fact that Harald inadvertently lands a (Christopher Walken), a successful novelist, ritual suicide in your life." But too much boat on the heads of their infidel enemies. is a bit more affluent than most of us, and of the humor is as savory as the closeup The film's most idyllic moments occur he lives in a comfortably up-scale Manhattan of a seaman disgorging his lunch. In the far from the dusky frost of Ravensfjord, on apartment with loving wife Anne (Lindsay film's opening sequence, Erik desists from a quasi-Aegean island named Hy Brasil. It Crouse) and sensitive young son Andrew rape, explaining to his intended victim: "I is there, beneath the radiant sun and beside (Joel Carlson). However, during a hard day just think it's a little bit crude." Vikings the cerulean sea, that Erik finds true love at the video display terminal, Whitley loses with the most beauteous of the flower hours of work when the word processor children who inhabit the place. Played by suddenly goes blank and erases a disk. Steven G. Kellman is professor of compara- Imogen Stubbs, a young actress to watch, "Could be the computer turned off for a tive literature at The University of Texas preferably in 1988 summer's unjustly reason," he says to Anne, half-jokingly. at San Antonio neglected A Summer Story, Aud is the only Whitley, Anne, Andrew and two hip

18 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 friends of the family, Alex and Sarah, drive Streiber presumably bought his country claimed that the world would be a better upstate to spend a few days at the Striebers' house with the handsome proceeds from his place if the film were widely viewed. The rural retreat, a secluded country house with novels Wolfen and The Hunger suggests that special effects within and beyond an elaborate security system. During the he has always had a vivid imagination for Communion are not nearly as powerful. But night, the building is bathed in strange the macabre, though it does not resolve the perhaps it is a critic's pardonable fancy to illuminations. Whitley awakens to glimpse question of whether Communion is inven- regard memorable films — even if nothing an alien face, and Andrew, in his room, tion, delusion or visitation. When born- more than celluloid strips flashed at 24 screams. "I want to go home," says middle- again Jimmy Carter saw a special screening frames per second — as masks of God. Each aged Alex in the morning. Who would not of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at leaves us still asking: Who is that masked say the same? the White House, he described it as a stranger? But, though Whitley drives them all back profound religious experience and pro- 0 to the city, inexplicable experiences con- tinue. Whitley is visited in the early hours by assorted beings, including mobile masks and little blue men who inject something into his skull. He is carried out of the bedroom by unearthly beings. Anne is angry at what she takes to be Whitley's self- The Sporting Life indulgent fantasizing and berates him for frightening their son. One night, back at the Cricket, Revolution and C.L.R. James country house, Whitley stalks an alien with his shotgun and almost kills his wife. Anne delivers an ultimatum: either he seek medical care or their marriage is over. BY SCOTT MCLEMEE When the doctor can find nothing physi- cally wrong with Whitley, except for a C.L.R. JAMES: THE ARTIST AS yet James is a biographer's nightmare. He mysterious incision behind his ear, she REVOLUTIONARY moved from continent to continent through- refers him to Janet Duffy (Frances By Paul Buhle out his long life; his voluminous correspon- Sternhagen), a psychiatrist who specializes Verso, 1989 dence is now scattered among individuals in rape. ThOugh he does feel violated, 197 pages, $13.95 around the world. Much of his writing was Whitley at first resists her therapy. "I think published under various pseudonyms in I'm hallucinating" is his initial strategy to L.R. James is best known in this radical journals with relatively small audi- diminish the trauma. But, under hypnosis, country for his history of the ences. Several of his books after The Black he recounts the bizarre events, and we, in Haitian slave revolt, The Black Jacobins appeared in tiny editions which fell a flashback, see them vividly again, as Jacobins (1938), long available in a Vintage quickly out of print. For years, some of authentic as anything else on a commercial paperback. But when James died in London his most important works circulated in screen. on May 31, he left a large and diverse photocopied or mimeographed form, from Dr. Duffy rejects the explanation that her legacy: work in fiction, political theory, hand-to-hand, among activists. patient is psychotic. "I have a dozen patients sports writing, philosophy, and cultural And most daunting of all, there is the who have all reported seeing the same things studies, in addition to his better known matter of James's personality, which by all you have," she declares, and cajoles studies in Caribbean and Black history. The accounts was extraordinarily powerful. Whitley and Anne into attending a session term "Renaissance man," often used to From talking with old Trotskyists who knew of her alien abductees mutual support group. describe James, fails to capture the range James 30 or 40 years ago, I can attest to "This isn't a joke," insists one. "These and the special qualities of his work. A more the impossibility of getting a dispassionate visitors are real." And the painful fitting comparison might be with some account of the man. He drew adulation or earnestness of their testimonies is enough Victorian sage, perhaps Thomas Carlyle: hostility, students or enemies — and little to convince Anne, if not the skeptical combining enormous learning with a prolific in between. viewer. and rhetorically skillful pen, such a figure Paul Buhle belongs in the camp of James's Ultimately, after going off alone to spend brings the resonance of history to bear on admirers. At the end of his biography a night communing with the aliens, Whitley current political and cultural issues. And like C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary, makes his peace with the paranormal. "It Carlyle, James was a frequent public he even calls himself a "disciple" of the would be narcissistic to consider ourselves lecturer, often speaking extemporaneously older man, albeit one "as heterodox and alone in the universe," he tells Anne, while for hours with virtuoso brilliance. James's independent-minded as he [James] could both wander about a contemporary gallery students included numerous figures who hope for." Buhle edited the first anthology whose images are no less uncanny than what became prominent in Third World politics, of James's writings in 1970, published as Whitley has seen. "There are many faces such as Kwame Nkrummah and Jomo a special edition of the SDS journal Radical of God, masks of God" is the way Anne Kenyatta, and among his friends he could America. Like the anthology, this first full- comes to terms with what has occurred. name Paul Robeson, Leon Trotsky, and length biography of James is a labor of love. "I think they gave you a gift," says Anne Richard Wright. His influence continued in The author seems to have read everything to Whitley. "You'd better use the United States even after his expulsion James published, even his contributions to it. "Communion is, of course, an attempt to during the McCarthy era. James's brand of the internal discussion bulletins of radical use that gift, a self-begetting work that libertarian socialism appealed to black labor groups. The book draws heavily on inter- recounts its own genesis and culminates in union militants in Detroit and to young views with those who knew James during its own creation. When we last see Whitley radical intellectuals uncomfortable with the his years in the United States, and also on Streiber, he is sitting at his computer trying Mao-chic dominant among some SDS James's letters to his second wife. to find the words to describe what we have factions. By far the strongest section of the book all just been through. Such a figure demands a biography. And is its opening chapter, recounting James's Eerie electronic music by Eric Clapton early life in the Caribbean and his formation heightens the movie's tension in ways that Scott McLemee is a writer living in within the culture of Trinidad. Buhle remind us it is a movie. And the fact that Washington, D.C. provides the backdrop by discussing the THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 culture and history of the region, painting enthusiastic about calypso and the traditions one of his most creative periods. a vivid picture of the turn-of-the-century of carnival. By the time he left Trinidad James wrote political essays which antici- Caribbean. Out of this backdrop, the figure for England in 1932, James had become an pated much of what the New Left later took of young C.L.R. James emerges. His father active participant in Caribbean politics and up under the name of "participatory was a teacher and his mother a voracious culture, joining or helping to form various democracy." He studied Hegel and pro- reader. At an early age James discovered radical-nationalist groups and artistic associ- duced a brilliant, if somewhat bizarre, Vanity Fair, rereading it constantly up to ations. He edited and contributed to their analysis of the philosopher's Science of the age of 14; he often said that Thackeray periodicals, and wrote a number of short Logic. He drafted a book, provisionally rather than Marx made him a radical. In stories and the semi-autobiographical novel, called "Notes on American Civilization," school, he studied classical Greek and Minty Alley, which marked the beginnings which included a remarkable effort to treat Roman literature, particularly the master- of modernist Caribbean literature. popular culture (detective fiction, comic pieces of oratory; in the school library, he Settled in London, James supported books, soap opera) seriously and without devoured Romantic poetry and the prose of himself by covering cricket for the condescension. Out of this manuscript came Victorian novelists and essayists. Manchester Guardian. Someone gave him a much shorter book on Herman Melville, Yet despite his precocity, James grew up a copy of Leon Trotsky's monumental interpreting Moby Dick as a prophetic without a sense of alienation and self- History of the Russian Revolution, and in allegory of twentieth century totalitarianism. consciousness. He enjoyed cricket as a short order he had read everything available By the time the totalitarians did finally get player as well as a spectator, and was by Marx and Lenin, and thoroughly famil- to James — expelling him in 1953, at the iarized himself with the dispute between height of McCarthyism — he clearly thought HET TEXAS Stalin and Trotsky. His skills as a writer of the United States as home. b Buhle does a good job covering the and orator soon put him in a leading position within Trotsky's British following. He also development of James's thinking during this 0 server met with a number of African students in period in the United States. And yet there Britain, with whom he founded the first pan- is something missing in these chapters. Available at the following Africanist group, the International African James's life in the United States was filled locations: Service Bureau, in 1937. In addition to with complex love affairs and inner turmoil, writing The Black Jacobins, James compiled as well as intensive study and writing. But A History of the Negro Revolt, translated while James the theorist and writer is well Bookstop Boris Souvarine's biography of Stalin from represented, in concise and instructive 6406 N. 1-35 the French, and produced a scathing paraphrases of his American-period writ- Austin historical account of the Communist ings, very little of James the man comes International's policies under Stalin. through. He seems to disappear entirely into Crossroads Market On a U.S. lecture tour in 1938, James the shadows, or behind accounts of his found that American Trotskyists had paid books and efforts to build a revolutionary 3930 Cedar Springs little attention to African-American issues. party. Dallas To remedy this, James arranged a meeting In later life, James abandoned his activity FW Books and Video with Trotsky, then in exile in Mexico, to as Marxist organization man. He became work out a policy and course of action. The something of an elder statesman without a 400 Main, at Sundance transcripts of this meeting show that James state — an educator and a living link with Square was hardly a fawning disciple. It is Trotsky the past for younger radicals. A chapter on Fort Worth who concurs with James more often than James as "Pan African Eminence Grise" not. covers his role in the 50's and 60's as an Bookstop Within a year of this meeting, James and advisor to various Third World revolutionar- 2922 S. Shepherd Trotsky parted ways in the last major dispute ies and as an activist in Caribbean politics. of the old Russian revolutionary's life. The book's conclusion shows James the Houston Trotsky held that the Soviet Union should octogenarian in his apartment in Brixton, Guy's News Stand still be defended politically, albeit critically, England, surrounded by much younger despite the recent purges and other disasters black activists who looked after him. Buhle 3700 Main Street of Stalin's rule. James was among those in presents his picture of James in his last years Houston Trotsky's American following who held that in an account of a personal visit. Something a new ruling class had emerged and the of the old revolutionary optimism is gone. College News Soviet Union had become exploitative and Like his friend, E.P. Thompson, James 1101 University reactionary. began to suspect that modern civilization, with its nuclear weapons and ecocide, might Lubbock AMES spent most of his 15 years in have outlived its potential for hopeful Daily News & Tobacco the United States developing the change. Yet to the end, James continued 309-A Andrews Highway political consequences of his theory "to recognize in age-old resentments against that the Soviet Union was "state capitalist." privilege of every kind a glimmer of Midland The two chapters in which Buhle surveys universality awaiting escape from confine- James's work during this period are, it ment. " Sun Harvest No.2 seems to me, the crucial portion of this Throughout the book, Buhle's thesis is 4904 Fredericksburg Road biography. It was certainly a difficult period that James was chiefly a literary artist who San Antonio to research: "Writing under a half-dozen became a revolutionary. More specifically, pseudonyms, living the somewhat shadowy he argues that James's aesthetics and his life of the small Marxist group leader, he politics alike embody the spirit of Caribbean Student Center firmly abandoned the semi-celebrity status popular culture — especially the vitality of Midwestern State University he had achieved in Britain as a cricket carnival, with its joyous violations of class 3400 Taft Boulevard journalist and prominent Trotskyist spokes- boundaries and morality and its rich, Wichita Falls man . . . No part of his biography has plebeian creativity. remained so obscure." Yet this was also This argument seems to be supported by

20 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989

some, though not all, of James's work. His thesis that portrays James as a man of letters. encyclopedic and boundlessly energetic refusal to treat sports and popular entertain- James had planned to write a second novel James was an instructor to three generations ment with condescension defmitely set him when he landed in England; but as he later of Third World leaders. labor activists, and apart from most Marxists. In his brilliant put it, "Fiction-writing drained out of me intellectuals. And his most creative work volume on the history and culture of cricket, and was replaced by politics." Almost represents an effort to provide a "social and Beyond a Boundary, James wrote, "Trotsky immediately upon coming to the United cultural link" between the sometimes insular had said that the workers were deflected States, he formed a faction within the world of left politics and the "outside from politics by sports. With my past I Trotskyist organization. Now, faction- world" of popular culture and social history. simply could not accept that." He saw leading is a full-time job and leaves little To anyone interested in a this truly perfect continuity between his love of Greek time for artistic work. Except for the remarkable figure, C.L.R. James: The Artist literature and philosophy and his passion for occasional critical essay, James appears to as Revolutionary is a book to read, despite sport. In the same book, he explained, have abandoned literature as a field for its imperfections. Eventually, James will "Those who laid the intellectual foundations creative work for quite some time. require a longer biography. A Victorian of the Western world were the most fanatical It seems that, upon becoming a radical "life and letters" compilation, at least the players and organizers of games the world activist, James became a teacher, like his size of a triple-decker novel, would be most has ever known." All of James's work, father before him. As Buhle explains in the fitting of the subject. But Buhle acknowl- including his more abstruse texts on Marxist chapter on James's youth in Trinidad, "Next edges from the start that his book is not theory, resonates with his artistic sense of to the schoolteacher in the small village only the definitive statement; the enormous range the potential for popular creativity — the the priest and minister were held in higher of James's work, Buhle writes, "will require energies of which he first discovered in esteem. The schoolmaster educated on all a large collective scholarship barely under- calypso, cricket matches, and the costumes fronts, for all ages, and in that sense way." Still, the author has done pioneering of Mardi Gras festival-goers. represented the social and cultural link of work in that scholarship, to which his book Still, there are problems with Bulge's the villager to the outside world." The is a distinctive contribution. ❑

SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR

REFUGEE ASSISTANCE daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, BOOK DRIVE November 13, 1933 • First recorded sit- 1846-1848, will be displayed at the Poet/Novelist Sandra Cisneros has down strike, Hormel Packing Co., Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. organized a book drive to provide Austin, Minnesota. The exhibit, scheduled from November reading material for detainees held in the November 14, 1916 • Margaret Sanger 18-January 14, considers the Mexican Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested for operating a birth control war as the advent of a new Detention Center in Laredo. Cisneros clinic. communication, when lithography and recently visited the center to conduct November 17, 1973 • President Nixon photography joined the written word to interviews for a work in progress and says, "I am not a crook." provide an eyewitness reports of the war. was disturbed to find few books or November 21, 1966 • National Organi- Prints and sketches that have some reading material. Books and magazines zation for Women (NOW) founded. eyewitness connection to the war and in English or Spanish for adults or November 22, 1963 • President Ken- were reproduced from actual sketches children are requested. Some detainees nedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. made at the battlefield are included in are held for up to two years. For the exhibit. Many are products of information call Leander L. Bethel, soldiers and naval officers who Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, participated in the invasion of Mexico. Laredo, at (512) 723-3424. Mail material Amon Carter's collection of Mexican to Laredo Refugee Assistance Council, War daguerreotypes, the largest known P.O. Box 3338, Laredo, Texas 78044- collection of its kind, will provide some 3338. of the displays. For information about the exhibition, call (817) 738-1933. L.A. PRINTS In conjunction with the exhibit, Texas IN AUSTIN Christian University will offer six classes The work of Los Angeles painter Delores on the Mexican War, or the Invasion -Guerrero Cruz will be displayed in Yanqui, as it was described in Mexico. Austin at Galeria Sin Fronteras, 1211 E. Classes are scheduled for November 7, Seventh St. An opening reception is The Mexican War Overview; November scheduled for Saturday, November 11 14, The Mexican War and the First from 6-9 p.m. The Galeria Sin Fronteras Foreign Correspondents; November 28, exhibit, titled "L.A. Prints: A Collective Invasion Yanqui, The Mexican Serigraph Exhibition, will be displayed Perspective; December 5, from November 11-January 13. For Daguerreotypes of The Mexican War; information, call (512) 478-9448. and December 12, Prints of the Mexican. War. All lectures are scheduled from 7 MEXICAN WAR to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. Cost is EYEWITNESS LOUIS DUBOSE $38.00. To register, contact TCU Lithographs, engravings, and In the I.N.S. Detention Center Extended Education at (817) 921-7134.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 0 21 AFTERWORD The Lord's Song In a Foreign Land

BY JULIANNE N. LIRA-POWELL

law and taught there for nine years. He continued to advocate workers' rights and legal reform in his country, despite two more jailings and constant police harass- ment. In 1968, he attended a spiritual retreat directed by a Catholic priest who would have a powerful impact in his life and the lives of many others in El Salvador. Rev. Oscar Romero, who directed the retreat, was later named Archbishop of El Salvador. "He was very charismatic and visionary. But many of our talks were of a spiritual nature and not politics," Figueroa remem- bers. Their paths would continue to cross in later years. As General Secretary of the University of El Salvador, Figueroa considered it his duty to speak for social and political reform. But the government, impatient with his criticism, forced him into exile in 1972. He fled to Costa Rica where he joined Gui- llermo Manuel Ungo, his law professor and political ally, and Jose Napoleon Duarte. Ungo is one of several recognized leaders COURTESY OF JOAQUIN FIGEROA of the political left in El Salvador today. Detail from retreat photo: Joaquin Figueroa, second from left on back row; And Duarte would ultimately return to El Oscar Romero, third from left on second row Salvador and by a military junta seize power and become the nation's president. He asked HE FLIER READ: "Know These But in El Salvador, such an announce- Figueroa to serve as Minster of Labor but Communists." Below individual ment, factual or not, constitutes a death Figueroa declined. "I knew that Duarte T photographs of several young men threat. Every student whose photo appeared would not be able to control the military were brief descriptions of each one. "He on the flier immediately went into hiding and that any effort towards human rights traveled to Cuba to specialize in the bombing for several months. Their families' lives would be a sham," Figueroa said. of bridges and churches," one line said. became a constant nightmare, with But in El Salvador, Figueroa continued That was a line describing a young plainclothes policemen watching their to meet occasionally with Romero. "Father University of El Salvador law student, houses. Elba said that she began to mistrust Romero helped me understand and accept Joaquin Figueroa. The year was 1962. people. many things I didn't understand about Twenty-seven years later Elba Figueroa, The flier was produced by the Salvado- myself, about my exile," he said. "When Joaquin's wife, recalls that time with a rean National Police to harass students who he was named archbishop, no one expected mixture of amusement and pain. Joaquin were organizing laborers in the city. more or less of him. But the strife in our Figueroa was ordained as a Lutheran Eventually, the police captured Figueroa. country forced him to take a stand and he minister in the United States in 1985. He He was held incommunicado in a dark cell began to say things that we, the social now serves as pastor of San Lucas Lutheran while police interrogated and tortured him. reformers and advocates for human rights, Church in Austin. The experience so damaged his eyes that had been saying all along. Then is when "Bombing churches and bridges. Not he would be required to wear glasses I realized that The Pueblo became fused with Joaquin. And he's never been to Cuba," thereafter. It also cost the couple their first God; when the clamor for social justice Elba said while taking a break from church child. Elba, who was three months pregnant, united with the Christian mystical. service preparations. miscarried. "Father Romero retrieved the faith in Sitting in his office in Austin, Figueroa God that I always had but had lost. I didn't Julianne H. Lira-Powell is a writer and talks about his past. He graduated from the know it back then, but that is when I found human-rights activist living in Austin. University of El Salvador with a degree in my pastoral mission."

22 • NOVEMBER 10, 1989 N 1978, Rutilio Grande, a Catholic archbishop, Figueroa said, was charismatic, priest known for his work with the almost transcendental. "You just had to be I poor, was killed. A grieving Romero near him to know and feel his holiness, his called on Figueroa, who was working with almost biblical presence," Figueroa said. Nsp the Human Rights Commission of El The film, Figueroa told the audience, was Salvador, to investigate the murder for the fairly accurate. "But I do have some Society of Jesus. Rev. Rutilio Grande had corrections to make," he said. "First of all, been a Jesuit priest. Figueroa set up an I don't ever recall Romero being in jail. investigating committee, whose findings It could have happened, but I don't RAT ONAL pointed to right-wing death squads linked remember that." The film showed Romero to the Salvadorean military. The death of locked in jail for a short time where he was Rutilio Grande, and others that followed, tormented by the screams of a fellow priest forced Romero to speak out against the who was being tortured. indiscriminate murders and disappearances "Also," Figueroa said, "the film tries that were becoming more common in El to imply that another Catholic priest joins Salvador. It was Romero's speaking out, the guerrillas in armed struggle because he "The Texas Observer, the bible Figueroa recalled, that eventually led to the loses hope that the Salvadorean government of Lone Star populism . . .." archbishop's death. will reform and stop murdering its popula- —The Washington Post In 1980, after Oscar Romero was gunned tion. That is not true. Yes, there are some down while saying mass in a small chapel, priests who have joined the guerrillas, not May 1989 Joaquin and Elba Figueroa knew they had as guerrillas, but to do pastoral work." to flee with their children while there was Rev. Jose Inocensio Alas, the priest who still time. They understood that if the was portrayed in that role, occasionally political right could assassinate an arch- travels to the United States and has visited bishop in a church and in front of witnesses, San Lucas Church in Austin. Alas lives in they could kill anyone. Destiny would prove Nicaragua where he works on economic them right. Between 1980 and 1989, 70,000 development projects. In the film, Alas Salvadoreans were killed by various opera- picks up a gun, tells a somber Oscar Romero tives of the Salvadorean military. that there is no other alternative, then flees With few material possessions, the to the mountains. Figueroas left El Salvador in March, 1980 "The Salvadorean Lutheran and Catholic eT.r.v. er and went to live in.Baton Rouge, Louisiana. clergy in El Salvador understand the people It was there that Joaquin Figueroa met the of El Salvador and realize that it is The Lutheran minister who encouraged him to Pueblo who often doesn't have an alternative 7Cb§ enter the seminary. Figueroa received his but to defend themselves," Figueroa said. Master's of Divinity degree from Iowa's Figueroa supports Jose Alas's efforts to Wartburg Seminary Program of the South- build a better life for the poor. west in 1985. In El Salvador, Figueroa's work was with When asked why he changed denomina- secular organizations. He helped found the tions, he said: "Son cosas de Dios (those Socorro Juridico, which later became the are matters of God). Denomination, for me, Tutela Legal and ultimately the Human didn't matter. What was important was to Rights Commission of El Salvador. In the do God's work. I had always prayed 'God, United States, s Figueroa continues to serve place me where you want me.' So he did." the same cause, through his ministry in TO SUBSCRIBE: Upon completing his studies, Figueroa Austin and his participation in a number of moved to Austin, where he became pastor organizations. He is one of several Hispanic 4 . of San Lucas. Lutheran ministers serving on the Central Although San Lucas now functions out American Taskforce, a recently formed of St. John's Lutheran Church's offices and national committee which advises the Name parish, the small Hispanic ministry has Evangelical Lutheran Churches of America grown and is raising money for its own (ELCA). With the help of this task force, facility. Its 65 members help the Figueroas ELCA is now preparing a policy statement minister to the city's Central American on the conflict in El Salvador and throughout Address community and to other Hispanics. The Central America. Figueroa also serves as church offers spiritual counseling, referral vice president of CRISPAS, a national services, and a food pantry. Occasionally, interdenominational group working to edu- they organize special fundraising appeals for cate visitors to El Salvador about conditions City State Zip individual families in need. Figueroa also there, and as president of the Lutheran started an Alcoholics Anonymous group for Association of Hispanic Ministries of Hispanics in the church community. ELCA. $27 enclosed for a one-year Recently Joaquin and Elba Figueroa saw Because his involvement in national ❑ subscription. the film Romero, produced by the Paulist affairs requires Joaquin Figueroa to travel, Fathers of the Catholic Church who re- Elba Figueroa, a pastoral assistant and quested that proceeds from first screenings student at the Lutheran Seminary Program ❑ Bill me for $27. in any city be donated to local groups of the Southwest, also works in the church. serving Central American refugees or "We want to help our people maintain working for peace in the region. Figueroa their pride in their heritage, to preserve their 307 West 7th, told an audience that attended the Austin customs and language, and to love the AUSTIN, TX 78701 premiere that he was impressed by Raul Lord," she said. Julia's portrayal of Oscar Romero. The

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texa.% Observer. P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765

Avocado Productions Presents BONNIE RAITT T1MBUK 3 Dallas-November 17 Majestic theatre Austin-November 18 City Coliseum San Antonio-November 19 Majestic Theatre

Sanctuary Proceeds to and National Sanctuary Political Defense Fund Asylum and local Benefit Sanctuary Concert Groups

Dallas, all reserved seats $20.50, $18.50-Rainbow Tickets Austin, reserved seats $17.50/$16.50, General Admission, $14.50-Star Tickets San Antonio, all reserved seating $18.501$16.50-Rainbow Tickets

CLASSIFIED

your mother, your daughters, yourself. SERVICES CLASSIFIED RATES: Minimum ten words. One time, 50C per word; three times, To join: P.O. Box 1256, Austin, TX 45C per word; six times, 40c per word; 12 times, 35C per word; 25 times, 30C DALLAS-AREA individuals, small busi- 78767. $15 to $35. per word. Telephone and box numbers count as two words; abbreviations and zip nesses, nonprofits — progressive, codes as one. Payment must accompany order for all classified ads. Deadline is FIGHT POLLUTION. Get paid for it. conscientious CPA seeks new ac- three weeks before cover date. Address orders and inquiries to Advertising Director, Clean Water Action. (512) 474-0605, counts. Harvey L. Davis, CPA, (214) The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th, Austin, TX 78701, (512) 477-0746. Austin. 821-1968. SICK OF KILLING? Join the Amnesty LOW-COST MICROCOMPUTER AS- Joe D. Nichols, M.D., and James more/sponsor. Receive handbook on International Campaign Against the SISTANCE. Tape to diskette conver- Presley. Send $3.50 (includes post- tenants' rights, newsletter, and more. Death Penalty. Call: Austin (512) 443- sion, statistical analysis, help with age, handling) to: Dr. Joe's Books, 5405 East Grand, Dallas, TX 75223. 7250, Houston (713) 852-7860, Dal- setting up special projects, custom 305 East Main, Atlanta, TX 75551. BECOME A CARD-CARRYING MEM- las (214) 739-8239, San Antonio programming, needs assessment. Gary (512) 680-2694. Lundquest, (512) 474-6882, 1405 BUMPERSTICKERS: "We're in deep BER of the ACLU. Membership $20. West 6th, Austin, TX 78703. doo-doo now!" $2 ea. ; 3 or more, Texas Civil Liberties Union, 1611 E. $1 ea. TX residents add 8% tax. bush 1st, Austin, 78702. PUBLICATIONS MARY NELL MATHIS, CPA, 16 years league productions, P.O. Box 52783, DRAFT REGISTRATION QUESTIONS? HOME STUDY COURSE in economics. experience in tax, litigation support, Houston, TX 77052-2783. and other analyses. 400 West 15th, Draft counseling available from Ameri- A 10-lesson study that will throw light #304, Austin, 78701, (512) 477- TRAVEL can Friends Service Committee, 1022 on today's baffling problems. Tuition 1040. W. 6th, Austin, 78703. (512) 474- free — small charge for materials. BACKPACKING — 2399. Write Henry George Institute, 121 MERCHANDISE MOUNTAINEERING — RAFTING. E. 30th St., New York, NY 10016. Outback Expeditions, P.O. Box 44, CASA MARIAN ELLA, A SHORT-TERM FREEWHEELING BICYCLES. 2404 San Terlingua, TX 79852. (915) 371-2490. SHELTER IN AUSTIN for refugees from INSIDE INFORMATION. Subscribe to Gabriel, Austin. For whatever your oppression in Central America, needs Texas Weekly, largest Texas political bicycle needs. ORGANIZATIONS volunteers for clerical tasks, tutoring, newsletter. Sam Kinch, Jr., editor. Straight, salty. $120 annually. P.O. WATCH REPAIRS & BATTERIES. Band LESBIAN/GAY DEMOCRATS of Texas stocking and storing food and clothing, Box 5306, Austin, TX 78763. (512) repairs. 35th & Guadalupe, Austin, — Our Voice in the Party. Membership and legal and medical help. Financial 322-9332. 452-6312. $15, P.O. Box 190933, Dallas, contributions and donations of food, 75219. clothing, and household items are LONE STAR SOCIALIST, send $0.45 A TEXAS BARGAIN — THE BOOK that welcome. Call (512) 385-5571. stamp: P.O. Box 2640, Austin, TX launched the Natural Food Revolution: TEXAS TENANTS' UNION. Member- 78768. "Please, Doctor, Do Something!" by ship $18/year, $10/six months, $30 or NOW . . . equality for your sisters,

24 • OCTOBER 27, 1989