'MONTHLY' AT 20: ONE HAND CLAPPING Pg. 6

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES APRIL 9, 1993 • $1.75

MICHAEL ALEXANDER DIALOGUE

Deal with Krueger cal unknown," but covered the campaign of Jose Angel Gutierrez, the most progressive I read your article that supported a political candidate in the race, but whom the daily unknown over Senator Bob Krueger. press has neglected. For an endorsement Wrong, wrong, wrong. in the race, see page 3. This sounds like a passive-aggressive A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES approach that I have heard all too often in We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to Gun School the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are liberal circles. dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all It is asserted that the Senator is just a RE: "Bad Bills," March 12 issue— interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation Republican in disguise. There are several Did I just hear the sound of a knee jerking? of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent differences. Take, for example, the issues of Though I do support the Brady Bill, I the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater gays in the military. Even a relative moder- have to wonder if passage of H.B. 100 [to to the ignoble in the human spirit. ate like kowtows to allow concealed weapons] will unleash a Writers are responsible for their own work, but not hoard of yahoos on . For the past sev- for anything they have not themselves written, and in pub- the Religious Right on this issue. Many of lishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree you readers may not be gay like me, but it eral years, has had a law exactly the with them, because this is a journal of free voices. should be clear that this is a major facet in same as the aforementioned "bad bill." I don't recall any news stories about an SINCE 1954 the politics of exclusion that is endemic in this country. I would go as far as to say that increase in Florida of shootings over traffic Publisher: Ronnie Dugger the Religious Right must be a major priority mishaps, parking spaces, etc. (Of course, I Editor: Louis Dubose haven't heard any stories about the Florida Associate Editor: James Cullen for liberals up through the year 2000. Sen. Layout and Design: Peter Szymczak Krueger is clearly pro-choice — a cosponsor crime rate magically dropping, either.) Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka of the Freedom of Choice Act; he moreover The most rational story about guns and Bad-Bills Girl: Mary O'Grady gun laws I have read so far was "Firearms: Editorial Intern: Carmen Garcia. voted for the Family Leave Bill — I cannot Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren say these things for any of the Republicans. No Right is an Island" by Joe McConnelly, Burnett, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, The GOP has three strong candidates and in the Whole Earth Review No. 77. Besides Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen pointing out what shell games bans on cer- Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Deborah voters who vote in every election come hell Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie or high water. The Democratic Party has tain weapons are, McConnelly suggests Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh. one candidate with adequate name-recogni- treating guns as we do cars; owners would Editorial Advisory : David Anderson, Austin; tion and a rank-and-file that is flukey about have to pass proficiency tests to get permits,. Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Nso; Chandler and shoolkids would take gun ed. Davidson, ; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; going to the polls. Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Rick Potthoff, Houston Houston; Rupert() Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Yes, Sen. Krueger has a record as an eco- Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; nomic conservative, especially when he rep- NO Hoe George Hendrick, Urbana, III.; Molly Ivins, Austin; resented the 21st District [San Antonio and Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, It's nice to know that Molly Ivins (TO Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye the Hill Country]. That is District 21 and, to Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, a lesser extent, Texas *as a whole. I am prob- 3/26/93) doesn't share the Texas hangup on Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, ably an economic moderate. I would be gun ownership. Now could she get rid of her Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. content to soften this state's tradition of lais- thing about rattlesnakes? These reptiles, per- sez faire in economics, but pursue a firm secuted mainly for their habit of defending Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread themselves when attacked, have a place in _ Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- laissez-faire policy on cultural issues. terlang, Alan Pogue. Sen. Krueger has a, solid academic back- nature. No and, please, no hoes. As Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, ground. He was dean of arts and sciences at religious zealots have amply proved, being Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, bitten by a rattlesnake usually requires seri- Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Duke University. He is, of course, an emi- Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan nent student of Shakespeare and will bring ous effort. Assailing one with a hoe is about Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. a command of the English language to the as good a way as any to make it happen. Senate. A. C. Hall, Dallas Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Whoever is elected this year is sure to Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Don't Dump on Me Executive Assistant: Gail Woods win in 1994. Voters have a way of re-elect- Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons ing incumbents. It is important to break the A note of thanks to you and Ms. Debbie Development Consultant: Frances Barton hammerlock that the Religious Right has on Nathan for her great story ["Love in the the Texas GOP, and this can't be done by SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time Time of Cholera: Waiting for Free Trade," students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and letting a second Republican be elected. TO 1/15/93] — warm and enlightening. bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl.. 300 N. 'Loeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48 I 06. Any current subscriber Maybe you recall a time (1946) when My only regret is that I thought so much of who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. Wisconsin Democrats crossed over into the article that I mailed my copy to a friend INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas hides and, for the years 1954 through 198 I,The Texas the GOP primary and knocked out Bob in Odessa. Observer Index. Lafollette Jr. Joe McCarthy got elected and Ms. Louise Crow's letter [Dialogue, TO THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents copyrighted, 0 1992, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval kept on winning until he died. 3/12/93] and complaint was quite amusing. between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) Scott Tillinghast, Houston. To use the coarse, vulgar phase "dumped on" 477-0746. Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, as an euphemism for "shit on" to describe her 34)7 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Editor's Note: We presume the writer refers deeply offended sensibilities does get one's to "Border Blaster Claims Left Field," TO attention and make one wonder. 3/26/93, which did not "support ... a politi- Blewett Davis, Abernathy

2 • APRIL 9, 1993 EDITORIALS T HE TEXAS server

Similar Senators APRIL 9, 1993 VOLUME 85 No. 7 en Senator Phil Gramm takes to the rent budget debate, Gramm said the Clinton WV Senate floor to defend "our nation's Administration intends to tax the elderly on seniors" from taxes on their Social Security.; potential income they could get from renting FEATURES income, as he did on March 23 — in what their homes, which according to a news story the Times described as "a fierce in "had no basis in fact Free Trade: Economic Gunboats volley of riolitiCal potshots from but was meant to stick in the craw of the By James Ridgeway 5 Republicans" he speaks as if he has no television viewers." • record on the issue. • Except for the vote on the Family Leave at 20: He does. Bill; it's kind of difficult to tell one Texas One Hand Clapping In 1981, as a House member and co-spon- Senator from the other these days. Ann By James Cullen 8 sor'of the succeSsful Gramiri-Latta substitute Richards appointee Bob Krueger has main- to the budget bill, Gran.= was co-author of tained a low profile on the floor, avoiding Topwaters and Shiite Baptists a provision that eliminated the then-$122 per debate while voting against President By Molly Ivins 14 month minimum Social Security benefit. Clinton's economic package. When you hear When in the same session a House reso- on drive-time news that either three or four lution strongly urged "that the necessary steps Democrats voted against the President, you DEPARTMENTS be taken to ensure that Social Security ben- don't even have to buy the following day's efits are not reduced for thoSe Currently receiv- New York Times to know that one of those Editorials 3-4 ing them," Gramm was on the losing side votes was Krueger's. Jimmy Carter could pro- of a 405-13 pro-elders vote. Opposing the vide the betting line on Krueger's votes. When Bad Bills 1.5 amendment was more than anyone in the Krueger was Congressman from New Texas House-delegatiOn could stomach, as Braunfels, he steadfastly voted against Carter. Las Americas anti-tax Republicans like Bill Archer, Jack Yes, Bob Krueger is the only one of 100 Disappeared in Guatemala Fields, Tom Loeffler and even Ron Paul voted' U.S. Senators facing an election in May. And, By Louis Dubose 1.6 in favor of it. Phil Gramm stood alone in the yes,' if elected, the Senate Democratic lead- delegation, with 13 of 435 Hciuse members: ership will housebreak him — somewhat. Books & the Culture By the time the House got around to restor- And, yes, he might be posturing to cover The Greying of South by Southwest ing the minimum Social Security benefits that his right flank, in a Senate campaign against By Brett Campbell 1 8 Gramm-Latta had intended to rerhoVe; most Bailey Hutchison, Fields, Barton, and others. Republicans had also lost the stomach for But with doctors, ATF agents and cult mem- Together Alone going after "our nation',s seniors," as the bers dying in Pensacola and Waco, Krueger Movie review by Steven G. Kellman 20 House voted 404-20 to restore benefits. Again, might have actually gotten away with a prin- Deliberate Indifference Gramm defined, the extreme right, voting cipled or even neutral stand on the Brady Bill, Book review by Robert Elder 21 against restoring minimum benefits. Of the which is backed by Clinton and would require Texas delegation,, only Archer and Paul joined a waiting period before the purchase of a Portfolio him. gun. Predictably he didn't, and we're Loyal Garner, Man and Myth Gramm was consistently anti-elderly when reminded of the rubber spine Lloyd Doggett Art by James Robert Pace 22 he moved on to the Senate, too. He voted used to represent Krueger in an earlier Senate against a 1986 amendment to restore full campaign. Political Intelligence 24 funding for Social Security cost of living The pragmatic in me suggests "holding my increases (COLAs). The amendment passed nose and voting for Krueger." That same Cover illustration by Michael Alexander 65-34, with Democrat Lloyd Bentsen vot- pragmatism, however, tends to erode the pro- ing for it. ; gressive wing of the Democratic Party — until When Republicans again prevailed in freez- Bob Krueger, Lloyd Bentsen and their con- ing Social Security COLAS in 1986, the vote sultants are the defining edge of it. of two Texans ensured that there would be I'll go with Jose Angel Gutierrez. The for- no increase in Social Security benefits, as mer Zav'ala County Judge and founder of ANDERSON & COMPANY then-Vice President Bush, presiding over the Raza Unida Party has staked out a clear COFFEE progressive position on most issues. "I would TEA SPICES the Senate, voted to break a tie. Gramm voted TWO .JEFFERSON $011A11E with Bush. have supported the [President's] budget AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 When New York Senator Daniel Patrick framework and stumped the state to explain 512 453-1533 Moynihan finally prevailed in restoring the why we need to tighten our belts," Gutierrez Send me your list. COLA's dining the 1986 budget fight, Gramm said. Governor Richards elected to impose voted "rio" in a 51-47 vote. On two more Bob Krueger, an ambitious and uninspiring Name similar votes taken during the 1986 session, state politician, on the nation. If a Republican Street Granim'voted against Social Security COLAs. wins, the Governor should be asked to explain City' Zip Once he was joined by Bentsen. her choice. Adding deceit to demagoguery, in the cur- —L.D.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 Talking Free Trade

ORPUS CHRISTI SENATOR Carlos uled a series of town meetings, informed by The agreement would include the creation of C Truan began a speech in San Antonio a fundamental question: Under what condi- a North American Commission on the recently with an anecdote -- of a time when tions will NAFTA work for Latinos? Environment and mandate U.S. access to Preston Smith was governor of Texas and the Their point of departure was polling in information about the environmental impact commissioners of Val Verde County refused Latino communities across the Southwest, of all U.S.-based companies operating in to make U.S. government surplus food avail- where they found that most Latinos support Mexico, within 100 miles of the Mexico- able to what they considered the undeserving NAFTA — but with conditions, according to U.S. border. poor. Hernandez. "In our polls and focus groups, Truan's account of Smith's response was we found that Mexican support Labor agreement. Capital flight to Mexico not surprising. The grandfatherly governor NAFTA because they see It as doing some- has much to do with low Mexican standards from Lubbock first didn't understand why thing for Mexico," Hernandez said. He added and wages (standards are more advanced in Truan showed up in his office to, protest. And that also recognize that Mexico than in the United States but are once the Governor did understand, he was "doing something for Mexico" could mean poorly enforced). A labor pact would encour- unsympathetic. It required a people's march they lose something themselves. age the translation of American investment to Del Rio, in which Truan and other Mexican- To make NAFTA work for Latinos, sev- in Mexico into higher wages and higher labor American legislators participated, to end an eral things will be required, according to standards, thus improving conditions for ideological boycott of the county's distribu- the pollsters and thinkers of the Southwest Mexican workers while slowing capital flight tion of surplus food. Food that cost the local Research Institute, and of the several other from the United States. A North American government nothing. groups in the Latino Coalition. Into the Labor Council would be established to imple- I don't know whether this was his intent, debate to which they were not invited, ment tri-national labor accords. but the subtext of Senator Truan's comment, Mexican-American political and business in the context of a meeting on the North leaders have injected the following sug- North American Development Bank. The American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), gestions: trade agreement, if approved, will be imple- suggested two things. One is that the eco- mented at a time when "government fiscal nomic consequences of NAFTA include the Investment in border infrastructure. Social capacity is strained and deficit reduction is potential of putting a number of people back services, highways, and communications sys- the order of the day." A "NADbank" could into lines, if not for surplus government food, tems along both sides of the border have provide direct funding to local governments, then for food stamps or unemployment com- lacked public and private investment for the private sector, and community-based orga- pensation. The other is that Mexican- decades. The maquiladora "twin plant" boom nizations. As envisioned, it would fund pro- American political leaders, at least in the of the past 15 years has heightened compe- jects based not only on financial viability, but Southwest, no longer speak in a plaintive tition for scarce public services on the environmental quality, effect on infrastruc- voice in fights over surplus food. NAFTA has Mexican side of the border. The Texas ture and on employment (including labor the potential to change that, too. Industrial Areas Foundation Network esti- conditions and skill and wage levels.) It would, The trade talk at the San Antonio meet- mates that over the next 20 years $20.7 bil- in other words, serve as a mechanism to imple- ing, sponsored by the Mexican American lion to $30 billion in public spending will ment the investment, labor standards, job Legal Defense and Education Fund be required along the border. training, and environmental policy goals pro- (MALDEF), the National Council of La Raza posed by the Coalition and other progressive and the Southwest Voter Research Institute, Employment and job training investment. forces working to amend the current trilat- can best be described as an attempt at build- If those who live along the border, where eral agreement. UCLA economist Raul ing a "Latino consensus" on NAFTA. While the population is predominantly Latino, are Hinojosa, a proponent of the bank who has the debate did not deny the potential danger to benefit from the increase in jobs that is pre- been working with the Industrial Areas of what is called free trade, but is actually dicted to occur there (losses will occur in other Foundation and the Coalition, recently was managed trade within three integrated national areas, including the manufacturing sector) job named to serve as an economic advisor to the economies, neither did it suggest that anyone training will be required. Hernandez cited San Clinton Administration, where he will be in panic and bolt. Antonio, where health care providers were a better position to promote the bank. "Bentsen "When we began to look at the treaty," searching out of state for skilled employees is the key to this actually happening," Hinojosa said Andy Hernandez, director of the because of a lack of adequate job-training pro- said of the creation of the bank. Southwest Voter Education Registration grams among unemployed and underem- Project, "we began to see that Mexican ployed, largely Mexican-American popula- By neither rejecting the treaty outright, nor, Americans living on the border are going to tion in the area. as Raul Hinojosa said, accepting the Bush be the most affected by NAFTA. If we're the Administration's prescription of "lowering most affected by NAFTA, we should have Environmental protection. Lax environ- barriers and letting it rip," the Coalition stakes the most to say." Hernandez said it also was mental standards, the absence of sewage- out something of a progressive middle ground obvious that there was something of a vac- treatment facilities on the Mexican side of the in the debate. Which is probably not a bad uum in the formulation of policy. Whether by border, and the extensive use of agricultural position, even for NAFTA opponents who exclusion from the process, or lack of inter- pesticides on both sides of the border have would avoid having no influence whatsoever est or organization, most Americans had no altered the ecological climate in the border if the NAFTA train pulls away and they're say in the debate. "We weren't invited. We regions. A parallel environmental agreement left watching it depart. It might even serve to invited ourselves," Hernandez said. could bring enforced Mexican environmen- keep some people out of food stamp lines. To crash the party, Southwest Voter sched- tal standards into line with U.S. standards. L.D.

4 • APRIL 9, 1993 Economic Gunboats

BY JAMES RIDGEWAY

Washington e flip side of domestic economic reform is international policy, and here the Thprospects for progress under Clinton are highly uncertain. Last week, the United States and Mexico began negotiations on side agree- ments to the North American Free Trade Agreement intended to address fears that the deal as it stands threatens the environment and jobs. And that's just at home. In the already-reeling developing world, the dam- age could even be more severe. Yet the Canadian and Mexican govern- ments, along with big business, don't want to see NAFTA changed, and Clinton himself has gone back and forth. Last week, nego- tiators tried to dodge the central issues by promising executive orders to appease the treaty's critics, but these don't have the bite of real regulations, and have just made the critics angrier than ever. Clinton probably doesn't have to pay much heed to them, but he will pay attention to House Democratic Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, who is demanding some explicit protections for labor. If Clinton doesn't deal directly with him, the Missouri Congressman BILL LEISSNER has promised to derail NAFTA on the House Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen floor, which would be a major embarrassment for the President. The fight over NAFTA, of course, is just complex regimen Bush left behind? It's hard mitted to electoral democracy. The country the tip of the iceberg. Along with the General to say. His domestic program articulates prin- was largely self-sufficient in food production, Agreement on Trades and Tariffs, or GATT, ciples that one could hope would be appli- had free education and health care, and in it makes up a fabric of rules and regulations cable elsewhere, such things as putting peo- 1980 boasted the lowest infant-mortality rate that form the underbelly of what George Bush ple first and investing in workers, along with and highest life expectancy in Central called the New World Order, spelling out the infrastructure for the future. But all of these America. outlines of the world economy over the next go by the boards in the restructuring pro- But, as in so many underdeveloped coun- century. grams of the Bank and Fund. And to get big tries, the underpinnings of Costa Rica's eco- In this new order, the World Bank and business to back a domestic reform package nomic success lay in the rickety commodi- International Monetary Fund are the mod- may require an even more reactionary trade ties business, in this instance coffee. After the ern equivalents of gunboats, forcing open for- policy. commodities crash of the late 1970s, Costa eign economies and pushing privatization, To understand what's wrong with current Rica's revenues sharply declined, while the eroding Third World government efforts to trade policy, one might consider the case of demand for imports by its rising middle and stabilize prices and production. Historically Costa Rica, which, thanks to the World Bank upper classes increased. The government's this has meant the stepped-up output of raw gang and Oliver North's basement warriors, response was to borrow its way out of the cri- commodities at prices set by the handful of has gone from being a relatively viable econ- sis from foreign commercial banks. Debt transnational firms that control them, along omy to being just another basket case. An payments mounted quickly, as did inflation. with the increased importation of foreign excellent forthcoming study by the When the bank loans were cut off, Costa goods, including food surpluses the United Development GAP, a non-profit organization Rica turned in desperation to the IMF and States and others have long sought to dump bringing grassroots views to bear on inter- World Bank, which grudgingly doled out abroad. national economic policymaking, sets out the loans in exchange for drastic reductions in Does Clinton actually oppose any of the hair-raising events of this small nation's the country's deficit and inflation rate. That decline. was financed by a 30 percent sales tax, which Unlike, El Salvador, Nicaragua, or hit the poor especially hard. Soon there were James Ridgeway is a staff writer for the Guatemala, Costa Rica had seemed to be further large reductions in outlays for hous- Village Voice, with additional reporting by an oasis of calm, generally prosperous and, ing, colleges and transport. Jimmie Briggs. since the end of the Second World War, corn- Then U.S. Agency for International

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 Development jumped in to make sure Costa matically increased. Another report indicates Although Summers signed the memo, he Rica toed the line. Under these new lenders that 37 percent of Costa Rican wage earners claimed it was written by an underling and and their program of "Agriculture for earn less than the nation's minimum wage. was misunderstood. Greenpeace and sev- Change," Costa Rica became ever more And public health has crumbled. The eral other groups opposed Summers' nomi- dependent on farm exports, only this time Development GAP report notes the govern- nation, but he was warmly received on the exotic exports such as melons for northern ment health budget fell 35 percent between Hill two weeks ago and there is little ques- yuppie markets. Reorganizing small farms 1979 and 1988, while real expenditures per tion he will be confirmed. meant cutting back on basic grains that had capita during that period were cut 45 percent. On the other side of the table, under the helped make Costa Rica self-sufficient to Health and nutrition services to the elderly general auspices of Secretary of State Warren begin with. The Food for Peace programs fur- and indigent have been cut 38 percent. There Christopher and with the blessings of National ther encouraged importation of basic food- has been an increase of intestinal parasites, Security Council Chief Anthony Lake, Dick stuffs, making the country ever more depen- rheumatic fever and alcoholism. Tuberculosis McCall, a former congressional aide has been dent on the U.S. farm surplus. and measles have spread dramatically, and placed in charge of a task force to reexam- At the same time, under the new agricul- incidents of malaria have risen to 1950s lev- ine US AID. tural programs, the various tax incentives, els. Now McCall is no Summers. He began as preferential interest rates and proceeds from What happened in Costa Rica is repeated an aide to Hubert Humphrey, who sought the sale of special export bonds mostly went over and over in the dreary statistics year after an early unsuccessful reform to the AID pro- not to small farmers but to five transnational year across the underdeveloped southern part gram in the 1970s. After Humphrey's death, corporations. And these programs had side of the world, so much so that it's come to McCall worked for Robert Byrd, the former effects: They led to a rise in the budget deficit the point where no matter how dedicated Senate majority leader, then for Senator John and to the introduction of deadly pesticides they may be to the ephemeral notion of "free Kerry of Massachusetts, and most recently such as paraquat, which in turn led to the markets," government bureaucrats and mem- for Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland. poisoning of water supplies and the death bers of Congress know something has got McCall had spent a considerable amount of of domestic and wild animals. Thousands to change. So there is momentum for a shift time in Central America and knows first- of banana workers exposed to DBCP com- in foreign economic policy. But it's compli- hand how AID programs got botched. During plained of health problems, including steril- cated by various political currents. the Central American conflicts of the last ity. On one side, there are the forces of for- decade, he was one of a handful of congres- The Costa Rican landscape, meanwhile, mer President Bush's New World Order — sional aides who provided access for the became strewn with maquila factories mak- the big transnational corporations organized movement against the war. ing electronic products and textiles for export around NAFTA and GATT, which hope to Within the next three months, under the to the north. Yet much of the new industri- get even more basic commodity production. aegis of Deputy Secretary of State Cliff R. alization would be conducted on a piece- out of the Third World, meanwhile opening Wharton•Jr., McCall is expected to reorga- work basis in the home by women who are it more systematically to the production of nize development priorities. In the best of cheaper to hire than men: goods at lower wages. both worlds that would mean not only a dras- Abetting Costa Rica's economic difficul- The idea in Mexico, after all, is not just to tic shake-up in AID but a reordering of ties was the Contra war in next-door dot the countryside with filthy maquila plants, American priorities within the IMF and the Nicaragua. Although Costa Rica prided itself but to shift farm productions southward from World Bank. for years on neutrality, the U.S. military cru- places like , freeing up land for the elly invaded the country to set up a south- expansion of urban cantonments, creating a Critics, such as Development GAP, advo- ern front. In all, U.S. economic assistance futuristic landscape for hundreds of replicas cate making AID independent from the State to Costa Rica between 1948 and 1980 had of suburban Fresno. Of course, one upshot of Department, possibly with its own board of totaled only $282 million, but fed by the covert pushing small farmers away from the basic directors appointed by the president. U.S. war against the Sandinistas, the figure production of grains is that sooner or later Ultimately, AID representatives would no skyrocketed to $1.33 billion over the next they will turn more and more not to melons longer be permitted to just shuffle papers in decade. or bananas but to dope, which truly offers Third World capitals, but would be stationed As the Development GAP report notes, some measure of survival. in regional cities and towns where they would "This massive U.S. economic assistance to And while the politicians all get off "polit- .be directed to respond to indigenous groups Costa Rica had let to the creation of what ically correct" talk about changing from fos- and interests. many observers are calling a 'parallel state.' sil fuels to alternative energy sources, the Yet whether McCall has the stature, let As budgets were cut, government agencies basic point of NAFTA is to open up what's along the backing, to attempt such sweep- privatized to reach macroeconomic perfor- untapped of both Canada's and Mexico's ing change is dubious. Any meaningful reform mance targets set under the adjustment pro- enormous fossil fuel base — coal, oil, natu- would put him in a kamikaze confrontation gram, US AID has funded private agencies ral gas — for U.S. exploitation. The idea is with Bentsen and status-quo Democrats on outside of state control to perform some of not to build internal markets within those the Hill and the World Bank. He is thought the same functions. For example, the Costa countries. to have Vice President Al Gore on his side, Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives, Within the new Administration, propo- but if the Administration's recent retreat on founded and funded by US AID, today has nents of Bush's New World Order are best toxic waste is any indication, that is next to the same role as the government's Center for represented in Lloyd Bentsen's Treasury worthless. Promotion of Exports and Investments, except Department through the personage of the that the Coalition has much greater funding Undersecretary for International Affairs des- Christopher and Lake are yet to weigh in. and is accountable to US AID rather than to ignate, Lawrence Summers, the former chief But given the Administration's record to date the Costa Rican government or public." economist of the World Bank. Summers is of tenuous reform, the most likely prospect The net result of "structural adjustment" best known for his smartass, college-boy is that Clinton will sell out the developing thus has been a decline in democracy. It also memorandum circulated in December 1991, world, giving the transnational corporations has meant growing instability and lower- well before the Rio conference, which argued exactly what they want abroad in order to win paid jobs. A recent confidential report by that it made good economic sense to export their support for his economic program at the Ministry of Labor shows poverty has dra- toxic production to the underdeveloped world. home. ❑

6 • APRIL 9, 1993 A public service message from the American Income Life Insurance Co. — Waco, Texas — Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Advertisement)

This is the second of three installments of Bob Kuttner's essay on the longstanding and largely justifiable disgust with Melman's "Pentagon the corporation in America. Capitalism," military contracting is one of our economy's few refuges Reprinted with permission from Dissent, Winter 1993 of long-term planning and is clearly a source of Schumpeterian inno- vation. Still others on the left, such as Charles Sabel and Michael Is Big Beautiful? Piore, have insisted that innovation (hence growth) flourishes at smaller scale via a different sort of networking that empowers skilled work- Thus, to review Berle and Means after sixty years is also to ers and relies on a kind of updated artisan model. review three long-standing debates in political economy. First, Within the economic priesthood, there has been for the most what is the relationship of size, scale, and market-power to dynamic part a studied ignorance of the relationship of size, economic con- efficiency, technical innovation and growth? Second, how can centration, technical innovation and growth. The great economic society best make sure that these benefits are broadly diffused? historians, such as Alfred Chandler, have pretty well demonstrated And third, how does a global economy, in which the market out- what Schumpeter inferred — major innovations have been made by runs the stabilizing instruments of the nation state, change the large firms that enjoyed market power, economies of scale and conversation? Before turning to the practical policy choices, one scope, and thus-an ability to reconcile the creation of the industrial must address the theory. lab with respite from the destruction of pure price competition. On the first part of this debate, left and right have often switched However, most economic theory has treated technology as a "black camps. The business right, for most of this century, defended big- box." In economic parlance, innovation is "exogenous" — the main ness, both in practice and in theory. The Brandeis left attacked it. economic problem is allocative. The wellsprings of innovation are In the New Deal era, however, as long as government was in friendly unknowable, at least by economists. hands and unionism ascendant, corporatism looked to many pro- Yet another body of work, pioneered by economist Oliver Williamson, gressives like a good way of converting giantism to social ends. In elegantly pursues the theoretical implications of the obvious insight the 1980s, it was the supply-side/hostile-takeover right that attacked that the marketization of every transaction is not exactly costless to the the large, bumbling corporation as inefficient. From yet another quar- firm — otherwise everything would always be contracted out. But con- ter, one major strand of the right — the law and economics school tracting out — buying rather than making — leaves the firm vulnera- — has attacked antitrust even as it vigorously defends competi- tion, on the bizarre ground that markets are so self-cleansing that ble to uncertainties, incurs transaction costs, and risks sharing knowl- any monopoly or price leadership will soon disappear. (Do these edge with suppliers who may not be loyal. Quite apart from the traditional people ever try to comparison shop for airline tickets?) notions of economies of scale and scope, or market power and rents, Some on the anti-trust left, meanwhile, continued to attack cor- Williamson's theory of transaction costs supplies yet another rationale porate giantism as both inefficient and undemocratic. A good exam- for why bigness may be functional and not just Adam Smith's case of ple is the 1985 book, The Bigness Complex, by economists Walter merchants conspiring against the public. Adams and James W. Brock, a kind of latter-day Berle and Means duo (who, remarkably, never cite Berle and Means.) Challenging A landmark 1988 essay in the Journal of Economic Literature, Schumpter and Galbraith, but as progressives, Adams and Brock by Giovanni Dosi, ("Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic offer hard-to-refute examples of the plain laziness and stupidity of Effects of Innovation", JEL., Sept. 1988, pp. 1120-1171) reviewed large corporate managers. They note the inefficiency of the once- every major work exploring the relation between scale and inno- heralded conglomerate movement. The sort of "planning" pursued vation, and concluded that to simply ask whether large size and mar- by General Motors, they insist, has neither been reliable for work- ket power facilitates technical advance poses too simple a question. ers nor constructive for society. Many on the moderate left, includ- Context is everything. Apparently, in some systems and some ing Seymour Melman, Edward S. Herman, Mark Green — and industries large scale and oligopoly pricing power are conducive most of the Marxian left — find the modern corporation an affront to technical progress; in other circumstances, innovation thrives to productive efficiency as well as to social justice. on atomistic competition. In agricultural research, for example, small However, others on the left have looked longingly at the stable, scale and atomized production did not provide fertile ground for dynamic, large corporations of Germany and Japan as well as the research into productivity-enhancing hybrid seeds, fertilizer, machin- social contracts they permit. A very provocative example of the ery, and so on; it took the U.S. Department of Agriculture to over- latter view is a recent monograph by Maryellen R. Kelley and Todd come this market failure. Dosi proposes that "appropriability" — A. Watkins, The Defense Industrial Network: A Legacy of the Cold the likelihood that the innovator will capture most of the fruits of inno- War (Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University; unpublished, forth- vation — helps explain whether size is conducive to innovation. coming from the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment). Kelley and Citing the work of Richard Nelson, Dosi notes that the process of Watkins argue that because of the atomization of American indus- innovation involves differing combinations of "proprietary and pub- try generally and the American antipathy to planning, the network lic forms of knowledge" that vary according to the conditions of dif- of Pentagon contractors stands out as of the few oases of planning, ferent industries. Software innovation may thrive in an Adam Smith- in which the security of long-term contractual relationships exist and style economy of thousands of independent producers; aircraft best-practice manufacturing techniques are diffused from Pentagon innovation may require oligopoly, market power, and government sponsor to prime contractor to subcontractors. This contrasts with presence if not government regulation. The "Schumpeterian hypoth- the general slowness of American small firms to adopt advanced esis" that innovation correlates with bigness is evidently valid for manufacturing techniques. Kelley and Watkins analogize the some industries, not for others. Public policy cannot afford to ignore American system of Pentagon contractors to the Japanese Keiretsu these conclusions, for the wrong kind of antitrust policy, the wrong — the intricate web of industrial networks. The Pentagon, they note, because of its demand for ever more kind of technology policy, the wrong kind of deregulation, the wrong sophisticated weapons, has long been committed to the promo- policy toward intellectual property, the failure to recognize the tion and diffusion of manufacturing technology. This is a pure case unacknowledged impact of the cold war on technological innova- of allocative versus dynamic efficiency; in a static sense Pentagon tion, will all have negative effects on American prosperity. Studied contracting is as inefficient as the economy gets — the home of hun- indifference to issues of innovation in the name of "free markets" dred-dollar hammers and six-hundred-dollar toilet seats. But despite is also a policy. NEXT: HOW TO INTERVENE

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 Texas Monthly at 20: One Hand Clapping

BY JAMES CULLEN

N SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, Texas Monthly came of age. Its pub- Olisher, Michael Levy, invited 1,000 guests to a lavish, star-studded, black-tie party at Austin's Four Seasons Hotel and, with Governor heading the dais, cel- ebrated the magazine's 20th anniversary. Texas Monthly had come a long way from its upstart beginnings in a cramped walkup office at the corner of 15th and Guadalupe streets, near the Capitol. Its staff, while short on experience, aspired to put out a national- quality magazine on Texas in the days when Texas newspapers were laughingstocks of the national press. In the intervening years, the Monthly has survived competition from city magazines and the general improvement of urban newspapers; a move to a comfortable 16th-floor office; a transition of editors; a disastrous attempt at expansion to California, which resulted in Levy selling a minority share to Dow Jones & Co.; and the Texas economic bust which put out of business many of its retail advertisers as well as competitors. So its extended family gathered to celebrate survival even as some of them wondered where the magazine was headed in its third decade. By most objective indicators, Texas Monthly is in excellent shape. Its circula- tion of approximately 309,000 makes it one of the largest publications of any kind in the state. It sold $17.9 million in advertising last MICHAEL ALEXANDER year and ranked first nationally in the num- ber of retail advertising pages (352), although January 24 with stories on the front pages sacred steer" and called on the magazine to the total number of advertising pages dipped of the lifestyles and business sections on the "close up shop and quietly go away. What slightly, from 1,410 pages in 1991 to 1,405 magazine's success and followed up February was once a solid, biting, hard-nosed and much in 1992. The magazine spent $3 million on 25 with a report on the party. Associated needed journal of the Lone Star State has reporting and editing in 1992, reflecting the Press reporter-at-large Mike Cochran filed become nothing more than a fat and sassy publisher's commitment to a high-quality edi- a lengthy takeout for Texas papers on the mag- advertising vehicle for yuppy [sic] compa- torial product. The magazine has received azine's highlights. The real plum for Levy nies to reach yuppie nonreaders who think seven National Magazine Awards, the indus- and company was a feature in the February intellectual stimulation can be found in the try's equivalent of the motion picture 22 New York Times business section, which colorful ads that crowd the magazine." Academy Awards, including four NMAs of course is read by national advertising and That incendiary column attracted a reply under Greg Curtis, who succeeded found- other media executives. from one of the Monthly' s senior editors. ing editor Bill Broyles in 1982. The latest Not all the reports were uncritical: Clifford "Dear Juan," scrawled Gary Cartwright, award was received last year for general excel- Pugh in the February 20 Houston Post quoted "You're an idiot." lence during 1991. The magazine has launched Ted Stanton, head of the University of a $2 million advertising campaign to re-estab- Houston, saying the magazine no longer urrent and former Texas Monthly lish itself as the toast of Texas journalism. seemed as aggressive as it might be; local staffers resemble a clan, with squabbles It's hard to argue with success. But critics advertising executives reportedly agreed that among themselves occasionally spilling say something is missing. it no longer attracted as much attention, but outside the circle, but they generally affirm Texas newspapers generally joined in the they still rated the magazine highly. Juan the value of the institution. "I'm always going anniversary toast with gushing coverage. The Palomo of the Post, in a February 23 column, to love those people even when I think they're Austin American-Statesman weighed in on wrote that Texas Monthly had become "a being assholes," said Al Reinert, a longtime

8 • APRIL, 9, 1993 contributor. Tom Curtis, who was editor of universities. "Then Greg Curtis said, 'Well, stories and occasionally expand beyond the Houston City magazine when he wrote an arti- that would be really hard to do,' and the dis- Texas Monthly "formula." And while thp cle mildly critical of the Monthly for the April cussion stopped." Monthly has become less of a men's club, theY 1981 Washington Journalism Review, was She later concluded, "Greg is not interested wish the editors would cultivate more new attacked in letters to the Review from editor in those stories, because it's hard to make a writers, particularly among minorities. Greg Curtis, who complained of the conflict sexy narrative out of some of those difficult Molly Ivins, a columnist for the Fort Worth of interest in having the editor of a rival city issues.... It's not antipathy but indifference." Star-Telegram, was an Observer editor in magazine write about the Monthly; from for- Although it was not explicit in the edito- 1972 when Levy showed up one day at the mer editor Bill Broyles, who protested that rial meetings, she said, "I think the Monthly Observer offices with a briefcase full of the article slighted the contributions of pub- has had a bias toward doing stories that the Philadelphia magazines. "He made an lisher Michael Levy and the rest of the mag- demographics are going to relate to and it is appointment with Kay [Northcott] and I and azine's staff; and from then-associate editor mostly speaking to the white middle class, he came in and said, 'Hi, I'm Mike Levy Harry Hurt III, who protested the sugges- the upper middle class. But on the other hand, and I'm going to start a magazine and it's. tion that the magazine shied away from inves- when I left Texas Monthly and joined the going to be like the Texas Observer only a lot tigative reporting that might offend the state's unemployment lines in Southeast Houston, better.' Let us say that we were not impressed "establishment." (See "Houston City Editor the woman who took my application, who by his tact and diplomacy." But she was Is Fired," TO 8/14/81.) Tom Curtis (no rela- was a young black woman in her mid-30s, impressed with the magazine under Broyles. tion to Gregory) was later fired from the said 'I can't believe they fired you, I read your "When the Monthly first came out it had Houston magazine, but in 1987 he was hired stuff all the time,' and I thought 'My god, a terrific impact on Texas journalism. It was as a senior editor with the Monthly and worked people really are reading this magazine. It's bright, it was interesting, everything they did there three years. Now a freelance writer in not just people who live in Tanglewood or was real new and fresh. I thought particularly Houston, he expressed little interest in join- University Heights.'" under Bill Broyles they had really good stuff," ing another argument over the quality of the although from the beginning she felt it was Monthly' s editorial product. Others were less ne disgruntled former staff writer somewhat formulaic. "It was modeled on reticent. played down the magazine's current Philadelphia magazine and by then the city Dick f. Reavis freelanced for the Monthly Opublic-relations campaign. "They're magazines were fairly well established in their from 1977 to 1981, when he was hired as a living on a very distinguished reputation. audience, which later came to be known as staff writer. He worked at the Monthly until There's been a bunch of glowing articles, but yuppies, and everybody knew what style of 1987, when he went on leave after a cele- nobody reads the damn thing. It's just not magazine that was, and from the beginning brated year-long tour of Texas highways. essential, and it's physically hard to read," he the Monthly had those '10 Best Places to He officially quit the magazine in 1990, said. "They don't often engage tough issues, Buy Cowboy Hats' and '10 Best Bootmakers' although he remains on the masthead as a con- but they're very influential when they do and '10 Best This' and '10 Best That' and tributing editor. it.... There's been no leadership the last 10 there was always a kind of yuppie con- During his term at the Monthly, Reavis years. They virtually missed the S&Ls [scan- sumerism about it, but they always had, to acquired a reputation as something of a dal]. They've been reactive rather than antic- their credit, at least one article that I was Marxist cowboy with a Texas nationalist ipatory.... Any magazine is a vision of its edi- just dying to read. And I'm actually very streak who crusaded for the hiring of minor- tor, and this editor is a country-club fond of the True-Crime-genre stories, you ity writers and against the hiring of Yankees. Republican.... You have a well-written mag- know, the slimy rich people killing one When Greg Curtis in the early 1980s moved azine that nobody needs to read." another, and they're really good on those to expand the staff and rely less on freelance Another freelancer, who did not want to be stories, but it has seemed to me that it has contributors, it gave writers like Reavis a identified for fear of alienating the potential become quite formulaic and lost whatever steady job but made it harder for new writ- paycheck, said as the magazine got more impact it had initially. ers, and particularly minorities, to get onto successful it got less adventurous. "They "... I must say in fairness to Greg Curtis the Texas Monthly team. "Broyles used to kept getting slicker and slicker and farther ... there is always some golden era that is develop talent; Curtis wanted them ready- away from dealing with significant social always in the past and usually just before made, and since it so happens that Texas issues. When they did, it was from the con- you got there. But. Broyles had the charm of doesn't have much of a supply of ready-made servative Democratic point of view. They talk being there when it was new and everything writers, he brought them in from the about the myth; they created their own myth- that they did was fresh." Northeast," Reavis said. He blames Curtis for ical view of what Texas is. They see Texas The magazine has not evinced a taste for turning the Reporter department, which had the way Hollywood sees America — it's sacred cows, in her view. "[Paul] Burka's been an point for freelancers, into a staff- entertaining, compelling, a lot of hooks, like `10 Best, 10 Worst [Legislators]' has become written department, which may have been an a Hollywood action move — there's drama, a really big part of political life around the effort to improve the general quality and con- glamor, sex, but it's ultimately not exactly Capitol and it is a big deal, but they have never sistency of the department, but in the process, like America is." been anti-establishment and it's even been "shut down the Monthly' s farm league." At the same time, he hopes it survives: "If somewhat limited in its irreverence," she said. Alison Cook, who previously had been a you've ever dealt with people in New York, "By no means, the Monthly has never been staff writer at Houston City magazine, worked you know it's nice to have people in Texas." much of a boat-rocker. Early on they did some at the Monthly from 1983 to 1989, when, In interviews with more than two dozen really good stuff," she said, citing Griffin she said, she was fired after a long-running writers and editors within and without the Smith's article on Houston law firms in the dispute with Curtis over her work habits. Monthly circle, many touched on the same 10th issue. "About one story an issue did some- sensed a reluctance to pursue certain sto- themes: They are glad Texas Monthly is around; thing like that and really had a lot of meat on ries because they were very large subjects and it is a "class" publication and one that pays rel- it, but I don't think you'll find that any more. there were no answers, particularly, and there atively well; it is superior in its class, which "If you read the Monthly, how would you was no readily apparent way to do the story is city and regional magazines; and the sto- know that this state is mostly populated by from another angle," she said. ries it publishes are exceptionally well-written three different colors of poor people? ... You She recalled proposing a story about the and well-edited. But many wish the maga- can't sell advertising to really upscale read- rationale for separate black state colleges and zine would take more chances, tackle tougher ers by writing about minorities and tough

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 declared the GMC Suburban the national car of Texas. (The article by Paul Burka was a finalist for a National Magazine Award, by the An Index for Liberals way.) "I don't know a hell of a lot of people NE OF THE MOST common com- Pryor, "He Called Me Pudclin'" remem- who drive those things," Guerra said. Oplaints heard about Texas Monthly — bering John Henry Faulk's friendship when "What really hacks me is that they've never and the most frustrating for Monthly staffers he was blacklisted; Jan Reid, "Showdown hired [Mexican-American] writers. I mean, -- is that "There just isn't anything in Texas at Maverick Ranch," how the highway publications reflect the people that run them Monthly anymore that I find interesting." department is trying to build a road through and that's been a lily-white editorial staff and Taking that as a challenge, TM Executive a historic ranch. remains so." Claims that the magazine has Editor Paul Burka compiled an index to trouble finding good minority writers are Texas Monthly for liberals, with stories of April: Robert Draper, "Blood of the insulting, he said. "While I don't demean particular interest to the left, for the past Farentholds," the tragic story of the the quality of the writing there, I know plenty three years. With freelance writers in ital- Farenthold family and Sissy's hard life in of [Latinos] that are at least as good as that." ics, the listings for 1992 follow: and after politics; Paul Burka, "This is the Gary Cartwright, a senior editor who at Alamo," the Japanese threaten American 58 is the oldest (and probably most distin- January: Robert Draper, "Beware the jobs in the East Texas forest. guished) staff member, has been writing for Grace of God," exposé of abuse of troubled the Monthly since the first issue in February adolescents at a right-wing Christian boys July: Jan Jarboe, "Ann's Plans," on why 1973; he has been a staff writer 12 years and home. Ann Richards could be president. Texas Monthly for him was "a godsend," he September: Grover Lewis "Farewell to said. "I had written for just about every mag- February: Michael Ennis, "Long Shot," azine in the country when the the work of black artist Bert Long; Mimi Cracker Eden," a memoir of growing up Texas Monthly started and I was one of the few still living Swartz, "Love and Hate at Texas A&M," in working class Oak Cliff. [Burka's note: in the state. Most were in New York. The exploring charges of sexual harassment "This one may be a stretch."] newspapers were so sorry; I had worked for against the Aggie Corps; Dana Rubin, "The October: Jan Jarboe, "The Eternal Real Education of Little Tree," how a rugged four different newspapers in the state," as well Challenger," on Henry B. Gonzalez and as the Philadelphia Inquirer. • individualist writer turned out to be George Iraqgate; Gregory Curtis, "The Intimate Cartwright said he does not understand Wallace's former speechwriter; Lawrence GOP," on the narrow base of the Republican Wright, much of the criticism. "People keep telling "Are Men Necessary," reflections Party. me the magazine is not nearly as good as it on the gender war [Burka's warning: used to be, but I think it's better than it's "Definitely not politically correct"]. November: Paul Burka, "I...ena' s Lies," ever been.... It's not nearly as thick as it was on how Lena Guerrero betrayed herself in the boom years and the stories are much March: Gregory Curtis, "The Jarnmin' and Ann Richards. Judge," failures of the juvenile court sys- tighter; 20 to 25 pages is long, where it used tem in Houston; Paul Burka, "Battle Lines," December: Patricia Sharpe, "Sludge to be 35 or 40 pages, but it's made everybody the fight over the 29th Congressional Happens," on the move to import treated a better writer," he said. , District, which was drawn to elect a Latino sewage from New York to a dump near Not that he is completely satisfied with the in Houston; Gary Cartwright, "Mr. Right," the West Texas town of Sierra Blanca. The Monthly. "We definitely concentrate on a profile of a right-wing history professor issue also contains an analysis by Paul Burka Houston and Dallas," he said. "There's some so conservative that he still hates Lincoln; of how Bill Clinton' s decision not to con- of us wish we had more rural coverage," but Mark Ivy, "Hazardous Duty," a memoir of test Texas in the 1992 presidential elec- he said the management is not to blame. "The the author's father, who died from cancer tion could cost Texas Democrats in 1994 only thing that keeps us from doing it is we after working in chemical plants; Cactus and beyond. don't go out and find the stories. Nobody stops us from writing them, but if they don't present themselves we don't spend enough issues.... The Monthly makes money through they've done very poorly in covering one- time out in the field looking for them." advertising. That's a powerful advertising fourth of the state's population, the Hispanics. The self-effacing Cartwright acknowledged vehicle. There it is." "By and large Texas Monthly has always that he was slowing down in his old age. "I After consideration, she said she would give been and I think it's gotten more insulated wish we could solve the social ills of Texas, the Monthly a "C-plus" grade. "That's a lit- from certain segments of Texas society. I'd but we don't know how; we do the best job tle low, but it seems to me such a shame to like to see a little more coverage that isn't just we can. Maybe there are too many stories waste that much space writing about barbe- of interest to the nice demographics that they on fashion and too many service stories and cue and the best place to get cowboy boots have. It seems that they're writing for a par- too many travel pieces.... At the same time when you could do some really gutsy pieces ticular subscriber, and that's reflected. we do some hard political stories," he said, and take on some of the institutions." "There is a lot more to the Mexican- citing his August 1992 cover story on Kenneth American community of Texas than accor- McDuff, the convicted capital murderer whose arlos Guerra, a columnist for the San dion players, prisoners who sue the Texas parole called attention to problems in the Antonio Express-News, expanded on Department of Corrections, curanderos, gun- criminal justice system. Cthe criticism that the Monthly misses in runners and Henry Cisneros, but you wouldn't its coverage of minorities. The magazine's know it by reading Texas Monthly." He said einert, who has freelanced for the coverage of Hispanic Texas "kind of makes the only acknowledgements of Mexican Monthly since the early days and us look quaint and folkloric," he said. Either Americans he found in the magazine's 20th Rremains a contributing editor, said the that or criminals. "I think they went a little anniversary edition in February were in an magazine "seems much more grOwn up and far in sensationalizing and Hispanicizing the article on how Texas was becoming more less boisterous than it used to. There's no gang rape thing in San Diego," he said, refer- diverse and a story about the King Ranch. question of that. I don't know if that's a crit- ring to "A Legacy of Evil," a September 1988 Guerra said the Monthly showed which class icism so much as that's the nature of success. cover story by Mimi Swartz. "Overall I think it was in touch with in August 1986 when it It certainly has become successful. It was more fun to work for and probably more fun 10 • APRIL 9, 1993 to read before it was a big success. By the It is harder to reintroduce fresh blood as the to be fresh but I think they're doing it." same token, when you're just a kind of magazine gets older and its audience gets He said the magazine always has taken on marginal product you can take a lot of chances. more affluent, he said. "Let's hope that at their the state's institutions. "A lot of our stories Part of that is purely finanCial, institutional, 40th anniversary their principal competition were institutional stories.... We were asking legal bullshit... is not Modern Maturity magazine," he said. questions about the institutions that shaped "I think what the magazine misses more "When you become part of the establish- the politics of Texas and the lives of Texans than anything is the underground of Texas. I ment — and Texas Monthly's goal was to and were almost never covered, like writing think they're right on the money in terms of become part of the establishment — it's harder about the major law firms in Houston and the taking on interests and issues. On the big to be aloof ... Texas Monthly is about icons. big banks in Dallas or about what it was like stuff I think they're doing a pretty gutsy job. Its challenge, month in and month out, is to to work at Exxon. Those sorts of stories were What they miss is the more entertaining lit- create unity in a state that isn't all that uni- never covered in newspapers. tle stuff and the underground nature of Texas. fied and so Ann Richards is perfect for Texas "I think we were also likely to deal with Nowadays they don't get out of Austin as Monthly. She sends a message to Madison things in a narrative way, like writing about much. Everybody is older and more civilized." Avenue that Texas is unique. Texas Monthly Oscar Wyatt in the early days and how he He added, "They still go out and dig. is good for Ann Richards and Ann Richards used Coastal States to accumulate a natural Sometimes I'm surprised at some of the sto- . is good for Texas Monthly." gas empire and how he essentially stuck it ries they do, Shearn Moody, to South Texas when the prices Oscar Wyatt — they've still taken went up. We were looking at on some pretty tough characters." Texas politicians with tougher, From his perspective, the character-based profiles. Monthly covers issues "as much "I think it's consistently really as any magazine ever does. They good and I think it has changed make something of an effort to as the state has changed, with the talk about issues like homeless- oil shock and the real estate col- ness and crime. Curtis is really the lapse, but in some ways it hasn't editorial person in that column of changed. Greg and Paul have been his and if you read Curtis' column around from the beginning and they regularly, I'm here to tell you he still are trying to apply those really compares pretty favorably with high standards to what's going on. the Houston newspapers in terms That's a pretty simple thing to say of taking on serious issues and but it's not so easy to do. writing on them with some com- "Over 20 years it's like anybody plexity.... It's not Mother Jones who has reached a certain level: In but it never set out to be." the early days those stories had just Part of the "problem" may be never been done and I think there that once the Monthly does a story, was a real excitement in doing it is unlikely to take up the sub- them the first time. I think we've ject again. John Davidson, who come to expect a really high level freelanced 10 years and was a of performance, but when you senior editor two years, remem- achieve it you're merely meeting bers Bill Broyles saying, "This is expectations. probably the only time we'll ever "In the early days we hit a lot do this story. Let's do the best we of home runs, but we struck out possibly can and let's close out too," he said. the genre." He also said some writ- MICHAEL ALEXANDER Broyles said the criticism of ers feel stifled by the "formula": Curtis for importing talent was off- "At a certain point they decided that they knew The difficulty of breaking into Texas base. James Fallows was an early hire from the what worked and they decided they had the Monthly as a freelancer adds to the problem Washington Monthly, he noted. "We've always Texas Monthly formula and I think there were of the lack of minority voices; he said. "The had a mixture of people from Texas and out- some people at Texas Monthly that thought word on the street is that Texas Monthly is side Texas. I always tried to have one person there wouldn't be a formula and that it would tough to work for and humiliating for a free- who could look at the state fresh, but the real become ever more ambitious and it would lancer," he said. As for the staff, he said, criterion for someone coming from outside was become like the Atlantic or it would be like "It's a group of like-minded people talking they weren't supposed to be hired guns but you this maturing institution," he said. "At a cer- about what interests them. There's no Hispanic want them to enjoy and love the state. Don't tain point it was decided that this was the for- and only one black researcher. Then again, forget Davy Crockett was only in the state a mula and this is how we're going to get the who reads the magazine?" couple months when he died [in the Alamo] most number of readers and at that point it and we claim him, so this is part of the . Texas didn't seem like it was an evolving institution." illiam Broyles, who is working dynamic." John Taliaferro, former editor of Third on a screenplay, a novel, short sto- On the magazine's coverage of social Coast, an Austin city magazine, who worked Wries and TV projects between issues, Broyles said, "I think there's room for a year as a TM senior editor after the Austin California and Texas, said the Monthly improvement, but Gary Cartwright wrote on city magazine folded in 1987, said, "Texas remains his favorite magazine. a welfare family, Richard West on the Fifth Monthly showed that entrepreneurial maga- "I' d like to be able to tell you the maga- Ward of Houston, we did lots of stories on zines could succeed by being energetic, feisty, zine's gone downhill since I left. That would South Texas. I think there's been a number smart and aggressive ... That was the stan- really make me feel good, but it has not hap- of stories, the Vietnamese on the coast. I dard they set — at least before they became pened.... I think it has room to grow. It's don't think any of us in journalism can be middle-aged." harder to take on institutions and it's harder proud of the way we cover people in the colo-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 nias or ghettoes or barrios or poor whites.... is this kind of unfortunate truth that every fail- protesting what he felt were gratuitous insults I tried to recruit minority writers. We didn't ure story is the same. Once you did a story about to Neiman-Marcus in one issue and suggest- do as well as we could have. I didn't feel a developer who borrowed too much and the ing that the staff consider editing items that like I had done enough and I really cared building was empty so they went bankrupt might offend advertisers or powerful fig- about it and tried." and the savings and loan came along and ures. (See "Publisher Levy gives Texas invested poorly and they raked money out ... Monthly a bum steer," TO 7/16/76.) He called everal writers identified Paul Burka, the once you did that story you had done it." But the "Cockroach Memo" incident "an aber- executive editor and main political he added, "I think any issue you could name, ration. I was nervous one day and did some- Swriter, as the magazine's anchor. the answer would be we could do better." thing stupid. It just makes good business sense Although frequently described as conserva- Curtis said he pays little attention to read- [to separate business and editorial sides]. tive in his leanings, Burka considers him- ership surveys. "I want to appeal to the best My job is to give the editor the resources he self a John Kennedy-type liberal who cut side of our readers, appeal to their intellect, needs and to protect him and leave him his political teeth working for then-Sen. A.R. appeal to their good will, appeal to their sense alone.... My track record speaks for itself." It "Babe" Schwartz, a liberal Democrat from of humor, these kinds of things, and I assume is a statement that current and former writers Galveston. In the magazine's political report- a reader that is interested, that has an alert generally backed up. ing, Burka said, "We always wrote from an mind, has good will toward other people and He has lost business as well as friends insider's perspective — from the viewpoint likes to enjoy things." because of the magazine's coverage, but he of the process." That means that in his bien- Asked if the magazine had "grown up," he said "It goes with the territory. It's part of nial rating of lawmakers, those who are judged said, "There's no excuses now. When we started what I get paid for. Long-term you don't by their peers as more effective are rated up you could excuse things, but we look at build a strong entity by being nice to every- higher than those who rail against the system. what's happening at other [national] magazines body. You just can't do it We need to make Pragmatism and compromise is admired over and ... we think we're playing in that league. some people angry and I tell people we've principles and ideology and all special-inter- Certainly this is a publication with 20 years managed to successfully piss off everybody est groups, whether on the left or on the right, of history behind it and this is what we do, in the state of Texas over the last 20 years, are viewed as basically selfish and greedy. we take it seriously and we work hard at it." including my own mom and dad more than Burka defended the coverage of minority The stories he looks for have "a clear, once, but people still read us because they issues, noting recent stories on Communities straightforward kind of story and clear, respect us. Most of our advertisers understand Organized for Public Service in San Antonio, straightforward writing and organization, why it's in their interest to have [the separa- redistricting in Houston, the death of a black where the story tells people what it's about tion of] church and state." man in a Cleveland jail and Vietnamese immi- and for the story to have a point and to appeal He acknowledged that the lack of minor- gration along the Gulf Coast. "I don't think to the best parts of the readers. I tend to edit ity writers is a weakness, but said, "We're you could say the pages are devoid of those that way and look for stories like that. I don't like anybody; we've had a difficult time hav- issues," he said. "Would you get the full, think that's a formula; there's huge variations ing other voices speak in the Monthly. It's just rich texture of inner-city life? I don't think in what I described and I certainly want writ- very difficult finding people of color. But I we completely miss it." As a matter of fact, ers to have individual voices.". know Greg is constantly looking and it is a he later compiled a list of 51 stories and Mike Levy, the publisher who, when he high priority with him." columns the Monthly has published that he started, hoped one day to have a circulation feels are of special interest to liberals. of 100,000 and now has three times that, 'said think that's an excuse ... and a damn lame In the end, he said, the Monthly is an enter- he owed the magazine's success to its com- one," responded Guerra, the San Antonio tainment magazine. "We want our stuff to be mitment to a quality editorial product. "We I columnist who, in an eight-year freelance read," he said. "We're a serious entertainment started out with a commitment to staff writ- career used 42 Anglo pen names, he said, magazine." ers as opposed to freelancers and people like because magazine editors appeared unwill- Greg Curtis, a classmate of Broyles' at Paul Burka, Gary Cartwright, Jan Jarboe or ing to use writers with Hispanic surnames. Rice, was a senior editor at the startup. As Robert Draper, they have the ability to spend "OK, what they're really saying is they won't editor, he acknowledged one of his respon- three or four months on a story if that's what consider a minority writer a good writer unless sibilities is to catch flak from Levy, but he it takes and they're backed up by four fact he or she is so damn overqualified that they said the organization of the magazine has checkers and copy editors and all that sort can't deny him or her." remained basically unchanged since he took of stuff, but basically we've been able to far . "Going two decades and never having hired over. "I didn't feel that the magazine needed exceed my own expectations qualitatively as a Mexican-American writer says more about a huge change. I thought what it needed to do far as putting out a magazine," he said. the commitment of Texas Monthly and its cov- was to evolve and to progress and to improve." While he has heard the same complaints erage of Mexican Americans than it does While there were many memorable and about the magazine losing its edge, he said, about the quality of Mexican-American writ- important stories in the early years, he said, "As a reader I find the magazine more intrigu- ers," Guerra said. "As a Mexicano and as a "If you compare a year's worth of issues today ing and more entertaining; we do a better writer I am plainly insulted by the argument to a year's worth of issues 15 years ago, there job journalistically of just telling people what that there aren't any Mexican-American writ- is no comparison. The magazine has just goes on in the state; there's more of an edge ers of the quality of those in Texas Monthly. improved so much, and much of that is than there's ever been before...." First of all, there's no shortage of good because of our experience: We know more Levy said he does not believe in running the Mexican-American writers. What there is a about Texas, we know more about maga- magazine by surveys or focus groups. "Any shortage of is professional respect for their zines, we know more about editing and we successful magazine ultimately is a reflection work, their talents and their perspectives.... know more about writing." of the editor's taste, vision, judgment and The [] Times, Time magazine, Nobody at the magazine thinks of play- interests. It really gets down to what Greg wants Newsweek don't have to lower their stan- ing it safe, he said, although some people who in the magazine," but he added, "Somebody dards to get diversity...." He added that he has criticize the Monthly for not doing a partic- out there likes the magazine." never seen a representative of Texas Monthly ular story may not realize that the magazine Broyles and the staff rose up to establish at meetings of the Association of Hispanic already had done a similar story. editorial independence in May 1976 after Journalists. "In fact at the last meeting we "What was hard, was during the bust there Levy wrote a memo to the editorial staff had, in Austin, there wasn't much of anybody

12 • APRIL 9, 1993 recruiting," he said. Awards (January 1993), the 20th Anniversary family has been coping with AIDS, which has The lack of Hispanic writers and perspec- (February 1993), the Big Bend (March 1993), struck several of its members. "Not a bad tives leads many of his colleagues to sus- and Troy Aikman and 52 other Texans piece, actually," Palomo acknowledged. But pect that ultimately the Monthly does not revealing the tricks of their respective trades he noted that, the "extremely silly" cover want Mexican-American readers because (April 1993). The Perot cover was the sec- feature asked 53 Texans how to do various such relatively low-income readers would ond-best seller in the magazine's history, things, such as chew tobacco (Rather), be a mess up their upscale demographics, he said. while the Evening Star issue was among Texan on an Italian mountaintop (actress Finally, he said, "What happens by having the worst sellers. Janine Turner), read from a Teleprompter no Mexican Americans in Texas of all places? Minorities seldom make it to the cover of (Catherine Crier), pose nude (Playboy model Texas Monthly has missed hundreds of great the Monthly. Prominent exceptions are Echo Leta Johnson) and so on. He was aston- stories and they're going to continue to miss in October 1976 and Henry ished that Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock was asked them, regardless of how well-connected they Cisneros in September 1987. At least two cov- how to cook pinto beans. "In a state full of think they may be. Within a big chunk of ers in the early years featured blacks in ser- Mexicans, Texas Monthly asks a white guy the Texas population, they're still goihg to be vant roles; the May 1977 Mother's Day cover how to cook pinto beans?" Houston restau- foreign correspondents and their reporting showed a white granny holding a hefty slice rateur Ninfa Laurenzo was the only Mexican is going to reflect that." of what was purported to be the best apple pie American featured, explaining how to make In the past year, Texas Monthly has fea- in Texas, but the Observer found the real tacos al carbon. tured on the cover a first-person story on grandmother mentioned in the story was an "I repeat: TM has no idea what is going "The Killer Next Door" (April 1992), Larry African-American cook at an Athens restau- on in this state, and even worse, doesn't care. McMurtry's Evening Star (May 1992), H. rant who had, indeed, been photographed It long ago forfeited its right to the name. My Ross Perot (June 1992), Ann Richards' polit- for the article. suggestion for a new one: Texas Vaguely," ical ambitions (July 1992), paroled killer Palomo concluded. Kenneth McDuff (August 1992), Dallas alomo, in a March 25 Post column, His reaction, of course, is extreme. The Cowboys football coach Jimmy Johnson wrote of the reaction to this first col- Monthly staff gives the impression of earnestly (September 1992), Lyle Lovett and Texas pumn, of the note from Cartwright as striving, within the formula. (As senior edi- music (October 1992), "Lena's Lies," on the well as a letter from Levy asking him to read tor Jan Jarboe joked, "I'm famous for view- breaking scandal surrounding Lena a story in the April issue dealing with the Rev. ing with alarm!") But try as they might, they Guerrero's college record (November 1992) Jimmy Allen, the former president of the don't quite get it. Big Hair (December 1992), the Bum Steer Southern Baptist Convention and how his

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 Topwaters and Shiite Baptists

BY MOLLY IVINS

Austin but look at what Freeport-McMoRan and other aging development of the session so far. IXED REVIEWS for the 73rd ses- developers have bought with $100,000 in The Lege has been inundated by Shiite sion thus far. contributions to pols around the state. Baptists who seem to have no grasp of the M First, the good news. Our legis- Freeport-McMoRan is a multinational most elementary rules of either argument lators are working long, and they're working development corporation that is involved or conduct. Look, you can argue all day hard. So much for the good old days when in a fight with the city of Austin about a against sex education — bring out what- guys ran for office so they could come to proposed development on the Barton Creek ever evidence you have that knowing about Austin and party for five months.. These folks watershed. The city says the development sex encourages promiscuity, insist that absti- are working like mules (and let's not pass up will pollute Barton Creek and thus the city's nence is better, whatever reasoning you like this chance to remind ourselves that they crown jewel, Barton Springs, as well. — but you're not entitled to run around now have full-time, year-round, year-in and According • to the Austin American- declaring thai those who disagree with you year-out jobs and they deserve more money!) Statesman, Freeport-McMoRan contributed are agents of the devil. Also, under the benign influence of the almost $17,000 to Senator Ken Armbrister The amount of hatred that has been heaped new speaker, Pete Laney, there is a contin- of Victoria, who has obligingly introduced on poor ol' Moncrief — who, let us face it, uing emphasis on ethics. It's not so much a a bill to keep cities from changing regula- is the squarest of the square — is simply one-time push as it is a new atmosphere, tions that would inhibit development. incredible. erasing much of the sleazy feel of previous Representative Ron Lewis of Mauriceville Hate is not a family value. I bring this up sessions. Lege, we hardly know ye. got a $7,000 contribution and has introduced because some of the brethren and sistren Alas, the end product being put out by a bill that would oblige Austin to apply the seem to have forgotten that hatred deforms all these conscientious beavers is not greatly new watershed standards citywide, at pro- the hater. Ignorance is not a family value. improved. In fact, the Lege seems to be more hibitive cost. Armbrister told the Statesman Neither are distorting, fabricating and mas- lobby-driven. Not lobby-owned anymore, that the city of Austin is "certainly not in sively lying about the contents of a bill. but one senses that for a lack of a better sync with the rest of Texas." Moncrief says, "If I had received some of vision, the lobby is setting the agenda. And isn't, that sufficient reason for a leg- the misinformation that is being so widely Unlike the federal system, where the pres- islator from Victoria to go messing in Austin's distributed about this bill, I'd be scraping ident proposes and Congress disposes, under bidness? Austin voters overwhelmingly myself off the ceiling, too." our famous "weak governor system" (and approved the new watershed standards. Hauling out the Bible and claiming the what an inadequate euphemism that is) the While the special interests are writing most exclusive right to interpret its message is not guv does not set the agenda. This is not Miss of the new laws, that old legislative standby sufficient to prove an argument. As Roger Ann's dance card. It's as though the entire stupidity is writing others.' On March 25,'the Williams, one of the early Baptists in this purpose of the session were to vote on pro- House Public Safety Committee (now there's country, once wrote, "Compulsion stinks posals made by the special interests. a misnomer) passed out a bill by vote of 7-zip in the nostrils of God." Sometimes the Lege votes yea, sometimes that will permit Texans to carry concealed S.B. 20 is being heard in tandem with two nay, but the subject is always some special handguns. Great, just what we need in this other bills — one, by Dan Shelley, would abol- plea from the State Association of This or state, more guns. More Texans are already ish APPAC, the state council created to advise the Society of That. And it's all keeping the killed by firearms every year than die in auto- and report to the Legislature on the issue of legislators so busy that no one has time to mobile accidents. But the National Rifle teenage pregnancy. It has done so. It does not look up and think about what the state should Association, with former Speaker Gib Lewis create curricula; it simply reports facts — such be doing for its residents. Particularly those lobbying for it, declares that the.bill provides. as that Representative Leticia Van de Putte who are not affiliated with an organized lobby for weapons training, gun-safety education has the distiiiction of having the state's with a political action committee. For exam- and background checks. Uh-huh. And David youngest grandfather in her district. He's 24. ple, Bubba and the kids. Koresh could have passed them all. The abolition of APPAC is not going to make Not that this is new. The main purpose Don't Dis Our Food this granddad any older. The second bill, by of state government has always been to "cre- Jane Nelson, provides that if sex education ate a healthy bidness climate." And let me Another bad bill alert: Senate Bill 967 by is taught in the schools, it must consist of be real blunt about the result: The rich get Bill Sims of San Angelo would create a cause the information that abstinence is best. Fine, richer and the people get screwed. Ronnie of legal action against anyone who says dis- but before a kid can subscribe to abstinence, Dugger used to say, "The people who run paraging things about Texas fruits or veg- he or she has to know what it is, you know? Texas never mess with the topwaters." The etables. Don't ask me why. Maybe they're "Just say no" is an even less effective slo- topwaters are the little fish that swim on trying to nail George Bush for trashing broc- gan with sex than it was with drugs. top of a pond. State government concerns coli. But you know how it is with our Lege: Sex is not a subject about which people have itself only with the big fish, who swim deep If you want to speak out against the pink been noticeably rational. The fear, fascina- and give money. grapefruit or pinto beans, you'd better do it tion, prurience, envy and condemnation it pro- Outright bribery may be a thing of the past, fast before they pass this sucker. vokes are apparently without end. But teen- The most controversial bill of the session age pregnancy is a very real problem; it is Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a is destined to be S.B. 20 by Sen. Mike getting' dramatically worse, and its conse- columnist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Moncrief of Fort Worth, the sex education quences for both the teenagers and their babies bill. This one brings us to the most discour- are, for the most part, unbelievably griin.

14 • APRIL 9, 1993

•••■ 141.0, A1.1, nee ,21,11 Finding a fair and responsible way to address berserker fundamentalists are known around with a serious problem actually have the nerve the issue is something we desperately need to the Capitol, are not themselves to blame. I to call someone else un-Christian. Judge not do. None of us is helped by the fundamen- have pleaded in this space before for greater that ye be not judged. Self-righteousness is talists who have seized on this issue and are understanding of their fears. But it still not religion. Basil Hart wrote, "Avoid self- deliberately inflaming people to enhance their astounds me that those who create and foment righteousness like the plague — nothing is own money-raising returns. those fears to increase their power by lying so self-blinding." ❑ The People Against Smiling, as the more about reasonable and sensible efforts to deal

BAD BILLS

Branch Davidian High Oh Promise Me...? courthouses: a $20 surcharge for each civil Bad Bill #1: H.B. 2412 Bad Bill #3: H.B. 1418 suit, and a $2.50 charge for each person con- victed of a criminal offense. (No extra charge Sponsor: Kent Grusendorf Sponsor: Rep. Warren Chisum for obvious nuisance suits or repeat offenses.) (R-Arlington) In your common or garden-variety Texas The money will be used for courthouse secu- Buried in the midst of this 55-pager is a pro- marriage, either spouse can opt out at any time rity; in other words, plaintiffs and criminal vision to issue vouchers for private or by means of no-fault divorce. No-fault divorce defendants will be required to pay extra to parochial school tuition to any schoolchild's replaced the old system of divorce, in which ensure the prevention of gunplay in the halls parent or guardian on request. The accredi- . one party to the marriage had to sue the other of Texas justice. As Jay Jacobson of the tation requirements for private schools are so for divorce, with charges of bad (and fre- American Civil Liberties Union points out, loose that, as Texas Federation of Teachers quently, embarrassing) behavior. While a indigent Texans already have enough prob- president John Cole commented, if this bill, boon to the private detective, photographer, lems getting access to the courts. This bill is which is before the House Public Education and hired playmate, the process was cum- before the County Affairs Committee. Committee, becomes law, David Koresh could bersome and expensive. collect $3,000 per school-age child he has Pee For Texas sequestered at Mount Carmel, on the grounds Bad Bill #5 : H.B. 2314 that he is running a school in the compound, Sponsor: Dianne White Delisi with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution plus marksmanship and general (R-Temple) ordnance as special required subjects. This is another mandatory urine-testing bill. In an era when alcoholism is universally Rep. Delisi wants all state employment appli- recognized as a disease, Grusendorf s bill also cants (except "elected or appointed officer[s]", provides that schoolteachers may be fired for of course) to fill up the little bottle before they "drunkenness." What a marvelous incentive can be hired. The bill, which is before the for alcohol-abusing teachers to seek coun- State Affairs Committee, violates the privacy seling and treatment. The provision for firing of citizens who take prescription medications, for "physical or mental incapacity prevent- and would be in conflict with the federal ing performance of the contract of employ- Americans with Disabilities Act. ment" is also heartless, if not illegal under the If passed, the bill will also complicate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Rep. ,Chisum's weird piece of work estab- problem of faculty recruitment for the UT lishes a second type of marriage for Texans. System, which is still trying to live down its Omni-Awful Couples could opt to execute a contract agree- historical reputation for trampling academic Bad Bill #2: H.B. 2635 ing not to divorce except by mutual consent. freedom. While maintaining that aggressively Sponsor: Warren Chisum One spouse could file for divorce against philistine regents are a thing of the past, and the other's wishes if either of them commit- that scholars no longer have to fear being run (D-Pampa) ted specific "faults" from a list including off campus as they have in periodic purges in This bill is 42 pages long. It strips decision- adultery, abandonment, alcohol or drug addic- the past, UT recruiters at some point will have making power about abortion from the preg- tion, and "continually" abusing a child or mar- to solicit samples of professorial body fluids. nant women to whom that right is guaran- ital partner. (The first punch is free?) In other Your average Nobelist is unlikely to be amused. teed (so far) and vests it instead in physicians words, a party to such a marriage would be alone. This is one of many unconstitutional able to force his or her unwilling spouse to With the 73rd Legislature processing 5,562 provisions the bill contains. The merely silly remain married until such time as commit- bills and resolutions as of the midpoint of the provisions include a detailed description of ting one or more of these faults became prefer- session, and some real stinkers in the stew, Representative Chisum's plan to keep track of able to continuing the marriage. This bill is "Bad Bills" will be a recurring feature. While every human egg fertilized in vitro in the state before the House Judicial Affairs Committee. the rankings are done by trained personnel in of Texas. Space does not permit a complete a Controlled environment, readers are invited dissection of the bill, which is before the State Courthouse Blues to participate at home. To nominate a bill, Affairs Committee and also features a vari- Bad Bill #4: H.B.1574 contact Mary O'Grady, "The Bad-Bills Girl," ety of sections which demonstrate the author's Sponsor: Rep. Paul Moreno TO, 307 W. 7the $t., Austin, Texas 78701; contempt for the medical prOfession by leg- telephone 512-477-0746. To get the status of islating against breaches of ethics which occur (D-El Paso) these or other bills, call the Legislative only in his fevered imagination. This bill establishes users' fees for Texas Reference Library toll-free at 1-800-253-9693.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15

• • • • • . •1. LAS AMERICAS Disappeared in Guatemala BY LOUIS DUBOSE

Austin LMOST ONE YEAR AGO Jennifer Harbury stood in a cemetery in a vil- Alage in Southwest Guatemala, wait- ing as two local men dug up one of several unmarked graves. She was accompanied by a Guatemalan forensic physician from the Guatemalan Human Rights Office, Austin civil rights lawyer James Harrington and Houston human rights activist Frances "Sissy" Farenthold. Harrington and Farenthold had accompanied Harbury as observers. She was attempting to confirm that the man buried in the unmarked grave was Efrain Bamaca Velasquez — her husband. . A year later, Harbury still does not know who was in the grave in Retalhuleu. In legal proceedings before an Organization of American States (OAS) Court, Harbury, a lawyer, explained why: "[We] arrived in Guatemala the day before the scheduled exhumation and presented our documentation to Mr. De Leon Carpio of the Human Rights office. The next day, a forensic physician from that office accom- panied us to the town of Retalhuleu, where we all met briefly with the local judge. The Jennifer Harbury CARMEN GARCIA judge and his assistant, the forensic physician and the four of us then proceeded to the ceme- tery, to a small space behind the morgue. of reasons the exhumation could not take Commandante Everardo, A self-taught Mayan Two local workers began digging up one of place, the attorney general said, was because campesino, Bamaca joined the guerrilla move- several small, unmarked graves, and as they foreigners were present. And, because there ment 17 years ago. In March 1992 he was worked a number of armed policemen began was no one present who could actually "iden- reported as wounded in a confrontation with to arrive, filling up the small area. They stated tify the body," although the forensic doctor the Guatemalan army. Army officials later that some members of the army would also said that the body would be too badly decom- announced that he had shot himself through be arriving shortly. When the workers reached posed to identify visually. Because of the the mouth to avoid being captured alive, and the body bag, they requested ropes to haul it danger of admitting she was married to a that his body was buried in Retalhuleu. to the surface, and the physician began arrang- high-ranking officer in the guerrilla move- But two guerrillas, who have told interna- ing his medical equipment and putting on his ment, Harbury could not disclose that the tional human rights organizations that they rubber gloves. At that moment an official car man the army said was in the grave was her escaped clandestine government prisons, have came to a screeching halt next to the morgue husband. Although the Americans offered to reported that Bamaca was alive after the army and a middle-aged, heavy-set man in an leave so the procedure could continue, listed him as dead; one reported seeing him expensive suit came rushing across the yard, Valladares gave the order to cancel the as late as July of last year in a clandestine shouting to us to halt the proceedings. He was exhumation and re-bury the body, telling the prison camp in Guatemala. red in the face and was in such a hurry that doctor that another date would be set. The Harbury, a Harvard Law School gradu- he trampled over one of the graves." doctor promised Harbury an autopsy report, ate, arrived in Guatemala after working as a The heavy-set man was Asisclo Valladares, complete with forensic photos and dental law clerk for federal Judge William Wayne the attorney general of Guatemala, and he plates. No date was ever set, and to her Justice and later as a Texas Rural Legal Aide angrily explained to Harbury and a local knowledge, no exhumation ever took place. (TRLA) attorney. While working with farm- judge why the exhumation could not take To this day she does not know if the body workers at TRLA in the early '80s, Harbury place — despite months of petitioning the in the plastic bag in the unmarked grave is said, she noticed an increase in Guatemalan Guatemalan government and the official that of her husband. refugees arriving in the United States. permission of the Guatemalan (governmen- She has reason to suspect that it is not. Concerned about the lack of information, tal) Human Rights Commission, directed by Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, the man to whom which made asylum claims other attorneys Ramiro De Leon Carpio. One of a number Harbury is (or was) married is also known as were filing on behalf of Guatemalans almost

16 • APRIL 9, 1993 impossible to win, she left her job and trav- "We had to conclude that that wasn't eled to Guatemala. [Bamaca's] body in the grave," Harrington This is Texas today. A state full of Though she planned to stay for several said of the May 1992 exhumation. A year after Sunbelt boosters, strident anti-union- months, she said,'she did not leave Guatemala the exhumation, he describes the incident as ists, oil and gas companies, nuclear until more than a year later, after gathering very frightening. "The attorney general came weapons and power plants, political information and testimony about the repres- running through the cemetery, shouting at us hucksters, underpaid workers and toxic sion that was driving Guatemalans out of and shouting things about us," said Harrington, wastes, to mention a few. • their country and into the United States. who is fluent in Spanish. "We were sur- She later returned to Guatemala to write a rounded by police...when he arrived." book, which will be published this year by Harrington said he was surprised to learn Common Courage Press in Maine and is ten- that the attorney general had actually driven tatively titled The Quetzal Rises. While doing the three-and-a-half hours from Guatemala the reporting for her book, Harbury met and fell City, leaving the capital at 4:30 a.m., shortly in love with Bamaca. Later, they married. after Harbury and the American observers 1 Santiago Cabrera, one of the two former did. guerrillas who say they were held in clan- Harbury said she is awaiting a decision from destine government prisons, told of seeing the Interamerican Commission for Human Bamaca in a prison "on or about March 12, Rights, which must now decide if it will hold AN% ,, t.4' r of 1992" at a military base in southwest a full-fledged trial in Costa Rica. "That's Guatemala. Other prisoners held in the prison, the short run," she said. "In the long run, we

according to Cabrera in testimony presented have to change U.S. policy. Much of the aid — e6 to the United Nations in Geneva, were warned we send to Guatemala is redirected to the mil- =, to never mention having seen Bamaca. itary, even though it's not military aid. If •,,,Trifrii. (Harbury said Guatemalan military officers people would write to senators and con- frequently tell prisoners that members of their gressmen, then more of them would be moved families will become targets if the prisoners to challenge the current policy. are not cooperative.) Cabrera also testified "Right now we're just trying to keep the that he overheard army intelligence officers prisoners alive. Without pressure in the U.S., BUT saying Bamaca's capture was to be kept secret. there's not much hope." After several months, Cabrera testified, Harbury will return to Guatemala during DO NOT Bamaca was taken from the military base in the next several months. The government, she DESPAIR! a helicopter. In July of the same year, accord- said, has promised to exhume the body in the ing to Cabrera's testimony, he again saw unmarked grave in Retalhuleu. She intends 447)-Lill TIXAS Bamaca, in another military base "strapped to be present when it occurs. ❑ to a table, stripped to his underwear, badly userver swollen, an aim and leg in bandages ... speak- Note: For additional information about the ing in a very strange voice, as if drugged." Bamaca case, and other human rights issues Cabrera has provided the United Nations in Guatemala, write The Guatemala Project, TO SUBSCRIBE: and the Organization of American States with P.O. Box 650054, Austin, Texas 78765, or names of some 30 other former guerrillas call (512) 473-7149. • he claims to have seen during his 18 months in prison, the names of some of the Guatemalan military officials holding them, Name and locations of several prisons. He is cur- ele` ,,,,4 nea rently living in exile and in hiding, after hav- 00 Horse ing presented his testimony in Geneva. The • Address government denies that any clandestine pris- • Inn oners exist. • In a legal action before the OAS ot Kitchenettes-Cable TV Pool Interamerican Commission for Human Rights, ii, 41( t City Harbury has filed a petition on behalf of 30 e bcsidc the Gulf of Mexico r*. prisoners named by Cabrera, requested a full on Mustang Island it accounting of all prisoners held by the gov- Available for private parties 111) State ernment and petitioned that the government • 11. unique European Charm either file charges against the prisoners and & Atmosphere begin judicial proceedings or release them. I She also has requested that the Guatemalan i Special Low Spring & Summer Rates % government, in its treatment of prisoners, Pets Welcome Pr-te Zip observe the terms established by the Geneva 1423 llth Street 410 Convention. She has obtained the support , ❑ $32 enclosed for a one-year of a number of human rights groups and has .4610' Port Aransas, TX 78373 i subscription. spoken with members of the U.S. Congress. I call Bill me for $32. "If we don't maintain the pressure on the S (512) 749-522,1 ❑ Guatemalan government, prisoners held in for Rcscrvaiioiis .4; clandestine prisons will be killed and the ore* 307 West 7th , government will dispose of their bodies," "ortmotLik A, opl■Ik. ,....,40. Austin, TX 78701 Harbury said.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 BOOKS & THE CULTURE The Greying of SXSW BY BRETT CAMPBELL Austin schmooze. Oh, yes: and listen to some of good that panels take place under cold fluo- HIS WASN'T GOVERNOR Ann the best music in the world. rescent lights in soulless convention center Richards' usual audience. It was not rooms — a shot of grey business-world atmo- Tyet noon, and the mostly long-haired, Making the Scene sphere to contrast with the warmth of the clubs at night. Some color was soon added as sloppily dressed crowd of 30- and 40-some- Even before the official Thursday morning things yawned as she approached the lectern welcome, SXSW traditionally gets rolling lobbies, elevators, and restrooms throughout the hotel were soon festooned with flyers, in the sterile grey Austin Convention Center with the previous night's Austin Music magazines (the festival was co-sponsored by ballroom. Surveying the semi-comatose Awards show, a sort of hippie Grammies 16 regional alternative music publications) crowd of musicians and writers, most of held at Palmer Auditorium. Although the and promo material. Moreover, each partic- whom bore the evidence of late-night atten- lineup of local bands is always strong, the real dance at the previous evening's Austin ipant gets a shopping bag bulging with adver- action takes place backstage, where dozens tising-emblazoned paraphernalia: stickers, Music Awards, she cracked, "It's too bad Chronicle writers and SXSW of musicians, flyers, magazines, tapes, CDs, newsletters, it's not dark — you can't take your cigarette functionaries, and other music scenesters calendars, even condoms and earplugs — lighters out and hold 'em up." Chuckles mingle and "catpeck" with their counter- signs of the times. One of the panels was rippled through the audience. parts from LA, NY and elsewhere. This is The governor was there to kick off the sev- titled "The Zen of Hype;" obviously, many more than frivolity: I overheard musicians have mastered that particular art. What is enth South by Southwest Music and Media advising others how to break in to the the sound of 1,000 bands hyping? conference, hosted by the city's alternative Nashville scene, and LA-types air kissing and weekly paper, the Austin Chronicle. She wel- asking what bands they were planning to ne of the reasons the organizers have comed the visitors to "a city where music is check out. (You can spot the SoCals by their made in nightclubs, not boardrooms," for "the little choice but to continue using habit of staying rooted to the curb when the the Con Center is that it provides people who listen to it, not the money mak- "Don't Walk" sign comes on — even if there's O enough room for all the activities, and dou- ers who profit from it." Richards (dressed not a car in sight.) appropriately in black and hot pink) has ble the space for the annual trade show, in The scene shows just how much the which more than a hundred musicrelated busi- always had a sort of rock-star charisma that Chronicle, despite its pretensions to hipness, transcends politics, and by the time she fin- nesses (labels, magazines, tape-dupe ser- has become an Austin institution almost in vices etc.) gather to hawk their services and, ished recounting her presence at the birth of spite of itself. The paper's coverage of local the Armadillo World Headquarters (the late, as always, schmooze. Austin cartoonist Sam politics, music and culture sets the tone for Hurt had a table there; he said he exchanged venerated shrine of the Austin music scene), much of the city, and SXSW really demon- and touting the glories of Texas music, she cards with various entertainment types who strates its clout. The conference and music might prove helpful to him in doing animated had her grinning audience ready to move to festival pump millions into the city economy; Texas and vote for her. Granted, her warmup production of his strips. He also sold a few even the Chamber of Commerce has embraced t-shirts and coffee mugs. Two video produc- act the delightful Zimbabwean a cappella "the music industry," if only in the same stiff group Black Umfolosi — had provided a ers from New York, both University of Texas way that Al Gore dances to Fleetwood Mac. alums, said SXSW was an excuse to come startling wake-up call, dancing up to the stage Austin is a town where no one really has back to Austin for a few days, but also to accompanied by perfectly harmonized Zulu to grow up, and despite the fact that most of war chants. Chron are make contacts. the people who run SXSW and the How can rock and rollers reconcile the Richards' welcome and Umfolosi' s high buying birthday candles in groups of 40 and spirits set the tone for the next three days; often-conflicting goals of good music and thinking about day care as much as avant- good business? That paradox underlay vir- despite gloomy weather, dense crowds, and garde cinema these days, SXSW gives them musical overload, SXSW had once again tually every one of the more than 80 pan- a chance to revisit those days when what els, seminars, and workshops devoted to impressed an international audience with band to see was the biggest decision to make informative programs, laid-back Texas charm, every aspect of the music business. SXSW each night, to stay forever young. hopes to be a combustion chamber, where and innovative, diverse music. Along with Oh, yeah: the music was pretty good = too, similar festivals in New York, Cannes and idealism collides with reality and the com- highlighted by the temporary visit to this bination will be a controlled force that pro- Berlin, SXSW has become an annual pil- dimension of the legendary Roky Erickson grimage where musicians, music writers, rep- pels a band to popular success. The panels and a typically vibrant performance by concentrated on practical, nuts-and-bolts resentatives of record labels, agents, and many Lucinda Williams. more attendees with at least tangential rela- advice: picking a lawyer or an agent, pro- tionships to popular music gather to schmooze, moting a band to radio stations and club exchange ideas, schmooze, debate issues, and The Zen of Hype 'owners, setting up an independent label, The next day, the panels begin. After the putting together a press kit, maximizing pub- smoky music awards, the cold, grey steril- lishing income, and cracking the European Brett Campbell, a former Observer editor, ity of Austin's ugly new Convention Center market. Several workshops ran concurrently, is a freelance writer in San Antonio. is depressing. On the other hand, maybe it's permitting music writers, managers, song-

18 • APRIL 9, 1993 writers, metal and techno/trance music enthu- a soaring; pure tenor voice, and a winning mance-artist persona, and rhythm-driven siasts, and alternative radio programmers stage presence. But he plays to the crowd songs owe a lot more to musicians like Kate from around the country to swap ideas and by giving up the spotlight to young white Bush and Laurie Anderson than to Janis Joplin experiences. One workshop had label reps wannabes who have all the licks but none or Patsy Cline, not to mention Lightnin' critiquing submitted demo tapes; another had of the soul of real bluesmen. Disappointed, Hopkins or Bob Wills. magazine editors doing the same thing w ith I head over to Sixth Street and the Ritz Theater I'm back at the Con Center for the other manuscripts. There were more metaphysical for one of this year's innovations: Spoken major innovation of this year's SXSW: the presentations on everything from rock crit- Word night, featuring a cappella rap, story- World Music Showdown. Tonight, Saturday, icism to barbecue. telling, and that hot new thang, a poetry slam is devoted to American ensembles, like Ingrid The last major panel grappled with the — fast-paced competitive poetry readings, in Karlclins', that incorporate world music influ- perennial conundrum: Why don't more Texas which the audience picks a "winner." ences. The night before featured imports from musicians (especially in Austin) attain com- No one can ever experience, first-hand, Europe, Africa, and Canada. mercial success commensurate with their more than a sliver of SXSW. It's just too Why see foreign bands at an event that worldwide critical acclaim? The comments big. A typical night at one of the two dozen promotes Texas music? An often overlooked of the musicians at the dais left the answer clubs participating in the three-night music benefit of SXSW is cross-pollination: expos- clear: They don't want to. The charts and festival includes four Or five bands each play- ing Texas musicians and booking agents to companies are in a conservative phase, so if ing a 45 minute set, and since they know great music from around the world. One club a new band anywhere else wants to make it, that the audience likely holds a few music biz patron I spoke to flew here from LA in order they can either compromise, make music power brokers, most packed a whole night's to check out the scene in preparation for her that sounds like what rules; or they can move worth of energy into that limited time, mak- move to Austin; she hopes to play cello in a to Nashvegas or LA. In Austin, although, ing for some intense music. At any one time, bluegrass band. As for the locals, since they there's a critical mass of sophisticated lis- more than a score of bands are making the can see terrific local talent on any night in teners, record stores, and radio stations that most of their few minutes of glory. You can Austin, most tend to gravitate toward bands allows innovative musicians like Alejandro either stay in one club (The shows are arranged hailing from beyond the Red River. I was Escovedo and Butch Hancock (two of the thematically: rockabilly, blues, etc., though impressed by Athens' Five-Eight and Hillbilly panelists) to pursue their artistic vision unsul- that doesn't help much with all the genre- Frankenstein, whose vampy lead singer is a lied by sell-out. That's why you can see a bending going on in so-called alternative Texpatriate heir to the. Jester fortune. superior musician on Friday night in Austin, music) or club-hop, if you're willing to haz- Some grouse that SXSW shouldn't lavish and the next morning give her your breakfast ard the cab fare and chancy parking for non- so much attention on non-Texas bands (though order. downtown venues. more performers hail from Texas than any It may seem a fundamentally absurd This Thursday night, the Ritz's ambiance other state, and Austin than any other city). premise that a phenomenon as rebellious and is a welcome relief from the usual run of It's a paradox that Texas music is far more free-spirited as rock can be organized at all. braying frat-boy bouncers, hawking "$1.50 popular in Europe than in the United States. Neckties are as rare here as male pony tails 'ritas! No cover!" at passersby. A line of Bands like Shoulders, the LeRoi Brothers, at other conventions. But consider this: The Persons In Black politely waits for others to Teddy and the Tall Tops, practically'unknown bejeaned and bearded staffers managed to leave so they can enter the patched-up old the- in the Other 49, all draw huge crowds and organize 4,000 participants, four-score panel ater, which is packed to capacity with young label interest there. Foreign bands usually discussions, intensive sessions and workshops, people waiting to hear others talk. bring their label reps, publicists and so on, featuring panelists from all over the world; While the performances I saw had their and those label reps often sign Texas bands arrange accommodations for many. of the share of pretentiousness, intensity at the to contracts. So I applaud the emphasis on speakers; a charity golf tournament; a chil- expense of artfulness, and insipidity, those world music; I just wish it hadn't been dren's music showcase; the traditional Sunday quotients were certainly no higher than in entombed in the frigid acoustics of the Con closing softball game and barbecue, and more. the music performances I saw; they're just Center, and that there had been more bands Another sign of the sponsors' expertise: The harder to hide with no mask of power chords. from more countries. shows almost always start on time, a rarity in The Texans generally held their own, even I also deplore the underrepresentation or rock, and especially in Austin, where a 10 against slumming rockers like Robyn almost total absence of black music, jazz, p.m. band appearance is lucky to get going Hitchcock and Exene Cervenka, but were Tejano music, even "serious" new music. The before midnight. Considered as an organi- perhaps a shade less brash than the visitors festival could also use a whole night and zational feat, SXSW is a rousing success, and from the east. There's yet no public poetry venue devoted to techno-trance, the rage of proof that the alternative culture of writers scene in Texas comparable to those that have Europe and popular in all the big Texas cities. and musicians can successfully integrate ide- sprung up in San Francisco, Chicago and (In another sign of the times, a couple of alism and organization, computers and com- other major cities, but several hundred peo- techno bands who flew all the way from Berlin mon sense. ple here were obviously intrigued enough to were unable to play because the equipment at least check this one out. Many were they were promised contained insufficient undoubtedly trendoids, and whether per- computer memory. Remember the old days Hitting the Clubs formance poetry will last beyond the current when a busted guitar string was the major Elvis lives, in a giant poster on the wall of the fad remains to be seen, but I take it as a fear?) Some of those lapses are attributable Continental Club, a venerable South Austin healthy sign for Texas culture that scores to SXSW failings, others are demographi- club that tonight features a capacity crowd of of people gathered in an old theater to actively cally imposed. But the organizers need to almost entirely white 30-something music listen to words and engage ideas. broaden the mix; it hews too closely to the fans, me included. Most of the performers on organizers' own demographic: age 30-plus, stage, however, are old black men at least Texas Music Grows Up white, college-educated males. twice the age of the crowd, including Austin Even so, the world music showdown was blues fixtures T.D. Bell, Erbie Bowser, and This doesn't sound like Texas music. A lithe the highlight of the festival. I never knew I the Grey Ghost, and featuring West Texas blonde woman is playing keyboard synth, liked klezmer music until I heard the blues legend Long John Hunter, who dis- accompanied by a sharp polyrhythmic bass Klezmatics on Friday. This band from planet played an impressive, substantive guitar style, and drum team. Her haunting voice, perfor- New Jersey featured a guitarist who looked

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 like Boris Badenov with an eyepatch, a fine audience, especially the shortest vocalist, who Karklins is making the most interesting music fiddler, and songs that ranged from almost in shape and sheer hydraulic power resem- in Texas right now. middle eastern sounding pop to bar mitzvah bled a fire hydrant that pumps adrenaline. The This edition of SXSW made it clear that dance tunes to winsome ballads. women's enthusiastic acting out of their lyrics you can no longer stereotype Texas music as They were followed by Varttina, a high- (finger pointing, strutting etc.) sometimes shitkickers, blueswailers and redneck rockers, spirited Finnish acoustic ensemble that made it seem as though we'd wandered into though those styles abound. There's also dance boasted a multi-instrumentalist mandolo a marital quarrel. music out there, .there's poetry, metal (rust- slinger, a percussive rhythm guitar nerd, But it was Ingrid Karklins' show in the ing here as it's starting to do, thankfully, across acoustic bass, and four-femme frontline of same venue Saturday that really illustrated the country), Tejano, there's even, though you the peppiest singers this side of the B-52s. how much Texas music has grown up. Her might not know it from the SXSW list, rap and Sort of a cross between Abba and the edgy Latvian-influenced technofolk is inno- funk. Texas is outgrowing its provincialism, Bulgarian women's ,choir, they sing and play vative yet accessible enough to reveal new learning from the bad old capitalist LA music- traditional Finnish women's and folk music, musical truths in a pop setting. Other pro- business types, and in exchange, reinvigorat- soaring though tart, astringent odd harmonies gressive local acts like Glass Eye and Laurie ing the flaccid American music industry with like seconds and sixths, punctuating lines with Freelove are also blazing trails into unex- vibrant, vital music. This is a different state yelps and yips, and making it all sound right, plored territory, but as this show and her than it used to be, and the music reflects that, yet other-worldly. They utterly charmed the 1992 album on the Green Linnet label attest, and SXSW is demonstrating it. ❑

The Lives of Brian

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

TOGETHER ALONE Rodriguez spent on El Mariachi. But while the within intimacy, the premise that the urge Directed by P.J. Castellaneta Rodriguez romp is a colorful display of how to overcome the elemental loneliness that to splurge on the cheap, Together Alone is undergirds all lust is never fully satisfied. EN BRYAN STITES awakens deliberately austere. Shot in 16-mm black-and- Despite the congruence of their names and from unsettling dreams, he finds white film, it stares at mundane truths through their bodies, Bryan and Brian occupy sepa- himself transformed into a man's the glare of dawn's early light. The claustro- rate universes whose census is one. Their brief erotic socket. The metamorphosis is not espe- phobic set is a youngish bachelor's simple encounter may or may not have a sequel, cially radical, since Bryan has had other male bedroom. Novice writer/producer/director P.J. but Together Alone suggests that all encoun- lovers, but, until a few hours ago, he remained Castellaneta creates the illusion of a videocam ters, no matter how frequently repeated, are anally virgin. Beside him in bed is the stranger recording an actual night-long bull session; and as singular and tenuous as a one-night stand. he earlier took home from a bar. Bryan learns if some of the talk is inspired, much is taural- Faithful to the narrow unities of time, place that his guest has just experienced the very fecal. In contrast to Andy Warhol's legendary and action, Together Alone could, for all the same dream that woke him. As if that were 1963 Sleep, the six-hour record of an ordi- indecorousness of a sodomist's mattress, not coincidence enough, the other man's name nary slumber, Together Alone is a chronicle of almost be a Neo-Classical play restricted to happens to be Brian. For the next 87 minutes, insomnia, the drama of two men who cannot a single set and plot and to a span of time Bryan (Todd Stites) and Brian (Terry Curry) sleep for all they have to say. not much longer than what, a viewer's watch exchange dreams and grievances. Man to Homosexuality is, of course, a crucial topic would measure. It is more conventionally the- man, they go "tete a tete," together alone. for Bryan and Brian, hours after physical atrical than cinematic, and its style of the- By daring to serve up My Dinner with Andre intimacy. But, sometimes schematically and ater has most in common with the kind of in movie theaters, Louis Malle demonstrated awkwardly, Castellaneta extrapolates the dia- Tennessee Williams play in which characters in. 1981 that two talking heads could indeed logue to universal issues of trust, love, iden- gradually bare cruel truths about themselves. be cinematic if the talk was savory. Few are tity and death. "How can I trust you in bed?" Bryan reveals his unrequited infatuation likely toremember what Andre Gregory and asks Bryan, whose crush on Brian begins to with a college roommate ("Your one chance Wallace Shawn were eating during their 110- vanish when he learns that the stranger lied for love, and you blew it," chides Brian), as minute conversation or even much of what to him last night about his name. Brian also well as the fact that his younger brother died was said. But what sticks to your innards evades answering the question of whether he of AIDS transmitted by a female prostitute. from that vivid dinner is a certain verbal is HIV-positive. A marketing director in town Brian recounts how the woman he loved aban- rhythm and the drama of intellectual exchange. on business for only a week, he is weary and doned him and aborted their child when she Except for a few chaste embraces exchanged wary of sexual polemics and of the pervasive discovered he was also drawn to men. To between its clothed characters, the action of preoccupation with AIDS. Married and a plumb the secrets of the psyche, suggests Together Alone is entirely verbal. father, Brian is reluctant to label himself Castellaneta, peel away what we say about It was made for a mere $7,000, the same "gay." On the Kinsey scale of 1-6, Brian rates men and women and responsibility and.power, meager sum that Austin's own Robert himself a 3 or 4. Bryan berates him for irre- until you scrape the scabs of romantic trauma. sponsibility and asks him to leave. Their fer- Together Alone follows the earnest formula vid parting words occupy most of the movie. of drama as epiphany. After everything it Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative liter- As the title suggests, Together Alone is thinks we need to see is exposed, Bryan at ature at the University of Texas at San Antonio intent on exploring the paradox of solitude last turns out the light. ❑

20 • APRIL 9, 1993 Dogged Justice

BY BOB ELDER DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE. system over the course of his 20-plus years From the moment Hannah walked in, By Howard Swindle in journalism, and, like many of the charac- Swindle writes, the aging Hemphill court- 316 pp. New York: ters in this book, he was raised in small-town room reminded the East Texas lawyer of the Viking. $22.95. Texas. "You talk that talk," a New York Times courtroom passages in To Kill a Mockingbird. reporter who had been threatened in Hemphill It's an apt comparison, and it is in his account JUST WANT TO CALL MY WIFE —" while working on the Garner story told of the civil rights trial that Swindle's writing were the last words Loyal Garner Jr. spoke. Swindle, predicting that he would have bet- comes to life. Which is all the more impres- I They came on Christmas night, 1987, in ter luck in the small town. sive, considering that the outcome is already the company of three white cops in Hemphill, The book is full of honest-to-God heroes and known: Assisted by an atmosphere that, by any the seat of Sabine County in the heart of Deep villains. In a picture from the book, Ladner, with reasonable standard, was biased for the defen- East Texas. "Junior" Garner was, by all his narrow eyes, enormous gut and necktie dants, and some heavy-handed rulings on their accounts, a hard-working, 34-year-old fam- worn so it falls only half way down his chest, behalf by Judge O'Neal Bacon, Ladner and ily man with three sons and three daughters. at 6 feet, 1 inch, and 270 pounds, even looks the two deputies were acquitted. He had driven with two friends from their the stereotypical Southern redneck. And the The trial was, in its small moments, eerily hometown of Florien, Louisiana, into Texas. man who would prosecute Ladner, John Hannah similar to the story told in Harper Lee's clas- The drive is a short one, but it took Garner into Jr., seems the quintessential Southern hero, not sic novel: At one point Loyal Garner's brother another world; there was something about all that removed from Atticus Finch. Yet we was arrested and hauled off to the same jail Hemphill that made it different from the other learn very little about the "why" of the tragedy. where his brother was beaten. His offense small enclaves in East Texas, isolated by geog- Swindle admits in his preface that he's still baf- was "breathing" on a white woman, the daugh- raphy and set among the towering pine trees. fled by the amount of hate spawned by a per- ter of one of the jurors. Swindle's descrip- Garner's plea to call his wife came just a son's color. For two-thirds of this book, we tion of the incident, and of John Hannah hur- moment before Hemphill Police Chief don't get much sense, either, of how Hemphill rying across the sweltering courthouse square Thomas Ladner led two Sabine County sher- bred and nurtured a brute like Ladner and gladly to check on Loyal's brother, isn't easily for- iffs deputies in a quick but thorough jailhouse re-elected other public officials who practiced gotten. Nor are the dozens of other finely etched beating of Garner, whom he had pulled over their racism with more subtlety. moments of the trial, which, taken together, several hours earlier for driving erratically. Much of the book reads like a long newspa- provide a sweeping, detailed portrait of the jus- Ladner was a huge man who, it was alleged, per piece, but the book's real centerpiece is tice system at work. Swindle's work is a bril- routinely abused suspects. His abuse, it Swindle's account of the first trial of the three liant flesh-and-blood civics lesson on the courts. seemed, was directed at those poor whites and lawmen. (In a brief detour before the trial, The prosecution of Ladner was conducted blacks who were least likely to complain. Swindle recounts the death of a black man in on two different tracks: the civil rights pros- When Ladner was finished with Junior Mississippi 29 years earlier, in circumstances ecution conducted by Hannah and Dees and Garner, who was black, Howard Swindle remarkably similar to Garner's.) Texas allows a murder prosecution in Smith County, where writes in Deliberate Indifference, "The man's crime victims or their survivors to hire special Garner died in the Tyler hospital. After their forehead and hairline were littered with ran- prosecutors, in essence taking over prosecution hometown neighbors gave them an acquit- dom, marble-sized knots, as if he had dozed from the state. Loyal Garner's widow, Corrine, tal on the civil rights charges, Ladner and his off in a hailstorm. In one place well into was left deeply in debt her husband's death. But two deputies faced murder charges before a Garner's hairline, a circular swatch of hair because Morris Dees' Alabama-based Southern different judge in Smith County. bigger than a half-dollar was missing, as if Poverty Law Center took on both the criminal With much of the same evidence, plus a it had been ripped out by its roots." prosecution and her civil suit for damages against surprise or two, a methodical Jack Skeen, the Garner was dumped back in the cell where the city of Hemphill, she found herself repre- Smith County district attorney, convicted the his two friends, also black and pathetically sented by a top-notch legal team. three lawmen of murder. Much of the work frightened, had to listen to him wheeze for air Dees asked Hannah — an East Texas native that led to the criminal convictions had been — "his only sign of life" during a very long and plainspoken former U.S. attorney who was done by Hannah and the Southern Poverty Law night. The next day Garner was taken to a Smith then in private practice — to take on the pros- Center, which eventually secured a $300,000 County hospital, more than 120 miles away, ecution of Ladner and two Sabine County settlement from the city of Hemphill for Corrine but by then the damage was done. Two days sheriff's deputies on civil rights charges. The Garner. The center waived its attorneys' fees. after the beating, Loyal Garner Jr. was dead. deputies, Billy Ray Horton and James "Bo" Ladner was sentenced to 28 years and was Prosecuting this case of clear-cut police Hyden, were, like Ladner, part of the fabric immediately sent off to prison. Sheriffs deputy brutality — murder by blackjack blows — of the community, loathed and feared by many, Billy Ray Horton was sentenced to 10 years was no easy task. Prosecuting cops rarely but given free rein to run the county by their and Bo Hyden, 14 years. is, especially in Texas. Swindle, an assis- boss, longtime Sheriff Blan Greer. But insular Hemphill, it seems, was changed tant managing editor at the Dallas Morning While Hannah served as U.S. Attorney very little by its months in the media spot- News, knows this turf well. He has done some for the Eastern District of Texas, his office light. Ten months after the trial, the emer- spectacular reporting on the criminal justice had successfully prosecuted a number of pub- gency medical technician who took Garner lic officials. But in this case he had to try to the hospital wondered about the fuss over Ladner and the others in their home county, this particular murder: "If they just wanted to Bob Elder is a reporter in the Austin bureau before a judge who had presided in the area kill a nigger," he told Swindle, "we got some of Texas Lawyer. for nearly three decades. right here that need killing." ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 PORTFOLIO

Loyal Garner Jr.: Transition from Man to Myth

"Loyal Garner Jr, of Florien, Louisiana, died needlessly on December 27, of 1987 in a Tyler, Texas hospital of injuries suffered from severe beatings administered Christmas night in the Sabine County Jail in Hemphill, Texas," writes Donald Van Horn in his introduction to a catalogue of Tyler artist James Robert Pace's series on Loyal Garner. According to Van Horn, now a professor of art in Little Rock, Pace was taken up in the events surrounding the story. "His passion for this shameful history is powerfully revealed in this series of paintings, which focuses more on the symbolic qualities of Loyal Garner Jr.'s death than on specific facts. " When he began the work, Pace had told Van Horn, then a colleague at the University of Texas in Tyler, that he hoped the approach "allows that the works will illuminate more clearly, more passionately, and more succinctly , the horrible occur- rences." James Robert Pace is a professor of art at the University of Texas at Tyler. His series on Loyal Garner Jr. has been shown in several galleries in Texas and in other states.

22 • APRIL 9, 1993 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

✓ WASPS STING PACT. The governor, Texas Lawyer noted that a full-page ad in the ing the 1980s using money borrowed from the lieutenant governor and the House speaker, Texas Independent Banker boasts that credit University Savings Association in Houston, all Democrats, agreed to a combination of at- insurance is now "the most convenient and whose bad debts were taken on by the RTC. Lan large and single-member judicial districts in the competitive insurance value available," thanks Bentsen also is under investigation for violat- state's nine largest counties in an attempt to set- to the State Board of Insurance's action in reduc- ing federal rules while managing RTC prop- tle the federal voting rights lawsuit over urban ing rates. The ad reportedly was sponsored by erties, thePost reported. According to the RTC's judicial elections. The compromise worked out Doak Dunkin, a Harlingen banker who has inspector general , "one of Lan Bentsen's firms, by Attorney General Dan Morales and attor- led the fight against Johnson. Lan Bentsen Interests of Houston, had legal and neys for minority plaintiffs would result in 22 ethical conflicts that should have barred it from judges continuing to run in countywide elec- ✓ WHAT'S THE GOING rate for space doing work for the RTC" because it had tions while 152 judges would run in subdis- in the low-level radioactive waste dump defaulted on the loans and therefore should tricts. The plan was to be presented to the House planned for Sierra Blanca? Connecticut offi- not have been profiting from RTC business. Lan and Senate as a resolution, which requires a cials stood up at a legislative hearing March Bentsen, according to the Post, suggests the simple majority, and then to the federal court, 29 and offered $100 million for Texas to take agency should have contacted him. "I got° great which could order the plan implemented. But its nuclear waste. Texas officials already have lengths to be sure I don't trip across these things," Republicans who fear the plan will elect negotiated to bury nuclear waste and disas- he said. Asked about Lan Bentsen's circum- Democrats, particularly in Dallas and Harris sembled power plants from Maine and Vermont stances, Lloyd Bentsen said that he has "total counties, boycotted the Senate March 29, bring- on the Hudspeth County ranch, 20 miles from confidence" in his son's integrity. ing back memories of the Killer Bees, when 12 the Rio Grande, for $25 million from each liberal Democrats who blocked the Senate from state. Neighbors, who already were fighting ✓ BOWIE HIGH SCHOOL students in creating a separate presidential primary for five the dump site, fear it will be opened to other El Paso might take some small comfort in days in 1979. Some Democrats labelled the states whose residents are similarly resisting knowing that when they are harassed by Border absent senators Killer WASPs (White Anglo- the siting of nuclear dumps in their backyards. Patrol agents they are not singled out for selec- Saxon Protestants), but a quorum was restored For the record, the Texas governor's office is tive enforcement of immigration law (See TO, the next day with the assurance that the settle- not interested in Connecticut's offer. 12-11-92). In late March, according to the ment resolution would be delayed. The Senate, Arizona Republic, a Border Patrol agent chased on a 17-15 vote March 23, had approved a res- ✓ LAN BENTSEN, son of Treasury Secretary three "suspected undocumented" students onto olution urging settlement of the LULAC v. Lloyd Bentsen, has agreed to pay about half the Carl Hayden Community High School Clements lawsuit, as Democrats John Montford of the $54 million in debts that ventures he campus in Phoenix. In an editorial headlined of Lubbock and Bill Sims of San Angelo joined controls owe the Resolution Trust Corp., the "More Gestapo Tactics," editors took the the 13 Senate Republicans in opposition. In federal agency that clears up failed savings Border Patrol to task for violating an agree- January, a three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit and loans, the Washington Post reported. Terms ment intended to "bring these school raids to U.S. Court of Appeals ruled the countywide of the settlement call for Bentsen, a Houston a halt." The Republic characterized the federal election of judges in eight urban counties ille- real estate investor, to pay the RTC $3.4 mil- agency's attempt at an explanation as "a flimsy gally diluted the voting strength of minorities, lion and to turn over his interests in a number excuse," and wondered how the agency could but the full circuit court (12 white judges; the of real estate projects that bring the total recov- claim their officer didn't realize he was on only Hispanic, Emilio Garza, has recused him- ery to $28 million. Bentsen's debts were the school property, when he tackled and hand- self) has set a rehearing for the week of May result of a series of investments he made dur- cuffed one student in the school cafeteria.❑ 24. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, has a bill that would create subdistricts in the eight coun- ties at issue in the lawsuit, but its passage is unlikely since 11 senators can stop a bill from reaching the floor.

✓ AIYIY HELD HOSTAGE. In what Texas Lawyer billed as one of "The State's Other Hostage Standoffs," state Public Insurance PEOPLE Counsel Amy R. Johnson remained in limbo Make a world of difference ! while the governor's staff and Austin Sen. We're proud of our employees and their contributions to your Gonzalo Barrientos, chairman of the success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing Nominations Committee, tried to round up the last of the 21 Senate votes needed to confirm and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. Johnson for another two-year term. Opposition to Johnson has centered on her successful fight P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 to lower rates for credit life insurance, which FUTUM 389-1500 reportedly enraged South Texas bankers and COMMUNICATIONS, INC. retailers (see PI, TO 3/26/93), but the March 29

24 • APRIL 9, 1993