Don Graham Bids Farewell to William Humphrey THE TEXAS

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 • $2.25

GOING CRITICAL AT PANTEX Nuclear Whistleblowers Tell Their Story in an Amarillo Court THIS ISSUE I

FEATURES

Going Critical at Pantex by Louis Dubose 7 The nuclear honchos at the Amarillo Pantex Plant insist that safety is a first priority. But when workers took action for safety, their bosses balked

Not Easy Being Green(peace) by Don Hazen 12 Greenpeace International has grown impatient with falling U.S. membership, and its decision to cut back on activism is reverberating across the country.

DEPARTMENTS BOOKS AND THE CULTURE

VOLUME 89, NO. 16 Dialogue Learning Names 24 A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES Editorial Poetry by Roberta Faulkner Sund & We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are ded- Smoke Screen by Michael King 4 Sandra Gail Teichmann icated to the whole truth, to human values above all in- terests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of Learning Head-On 25 democracy: we will take orders from none but our own Dateline Texas conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent Models for Food Security Book Review by Paul Jennings the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. by Erica C. Barnett Proud Hunter 28 Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in Political Intelligence 16 Book Review by Lars Eighner publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Las Americas Afterword 30

Awaiting Death by John Ross 18 William Humphrey Goes Home SINCE 1954 by Don Graham Tortured Law by David R. Dow 20 Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger The Back Page Publisher: Geoff Rips Molly Ivins 22 32 The Halls of Just Us Editor: Louis Dubose Behind the Teamsters Headlines Associate Editor: Michael King Cover art by Kevin Kreneck Production: Harrison Saunders Jim Hightower 23 Copy Editor: Mimi Bardagjy Nuclear Waste, Arming South America, Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye & Severance Pay Business Manager and Web Site Editor: Amanda Toering Circulation Assistant: Jeff Mandell DIALOGUE / Editorial Interns: Erica C. Barnett, Jeff Mandell Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, WAR OF SHAME the members of both houses are occupied Betty Brink, Brett Campbell, Lars Eighner, James K. by a majority of the opposite sex, the situ- Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, James Harrington, Jim High- The toll the war on drugs has taken on tower, Molly Ivins, Paul Jennings, Steven G. Kellman, America is a national disgrace. The sacri- ation will remain the same. Even then, if Bryce Milligan, Debbie Nathan, Karen Olsson, John the elected female members are hand- Ross, Carol Stall, Brad Tyer, James McCarty Yeager. fice of Ezekiel Hernandez' life, on the Staff Photographer: Alan Pogue altar of the war on drugs, is totally unac- picked by the machine, the changes will be Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang, Patricia ceptable ("Looking for the Border," by slow in coming. Moore. Barbara Ferry, July 18). [Radio talk-show My granddaughter, Susie Works, is re- Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Va- host] Ken Hamblin is a disgusting slug for sponsible for me receiving TO. She knew lerie Fowler, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Ben Sargent, that I thrive on protest, even though the Gail Woods. calling this dead teenager a "sniper." Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Warren Hudson outcome is a long shot. Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dallas Keep up the good work, and let me read Dave Denison, Arlington, Mass.; Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; John Kenneth Galbraith, more of Molly Ivins. Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; LONG TIME FIGHTING Leonard Galbraith George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., Many thanks for the article written by Sapulpa, OK San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye Molly Ivins ("Remembering Cynthia Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; Chavez Wall," August 1). It is an out- PERFECTION TAKES TIME . Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. standing report about major news media Ray Price's [sic] review of Who Owns the In Memoriam: Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 Sun? THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contcnts who stick their heads in the sand and ("Burning Questions," August 29) copyrighted. 1997. is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (24 issues per year) by the Texas Democ- refuse to face reality... was interesting, but some of his statements racy Foundation, a 501 (c)3 non-profit corporation. 307 West 7th Street, Austin. make me question his judgment. After Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. This 81-year-old environmentalist has World Wide Web DownHome page: http://www.hyperweb.com/txobserver Periodicals postage paid at Austin, Texas. been writing letters of protest many years. quoting the authors' list of federal energy SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time Letters to Senators Don Nickles and Jim In- subsidies, Price points out that the list students $18 per year; add $13/year for foreign subs. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions avail- hofe of Oklahoma are promptly answered. doesn't even include deductions of fuel able from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zecb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. They commence with the usual comment: costs as operating expenses. If a utility INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 198I,The "I share your concerns, blah blah..." The must report as income all service payments Texas Observer Index. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, same is true with our congressmen. made by its customers, why shouldn't it be 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. If there is an answer, it seems that until able to deduct fuel costs? Don't all private

2 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 businesses (e.g. truckers, airlines, rail- we stand in readiness. But we remain grate- You do good work; keep it up—sounds roads, maritime shippers, refiners, steel ful for such careful readers, and hope you kind'a suggestive, but it's not meant to be. mills, apartment and office building own- will continue to keep us careful, too. Al Wright ers, retailers, etc.) deduct fuel costs? msn. corn The Observer's ignorance of geography SHAGGY WEB STORY is usually limited to obscure corners of the I found the Observer's URL on the wall of BITING BYTES universe (i.e., anywhere out of state). In a stall in the men's room at DFW airport. I'm real glad I found you folks online. the past it's made Hubert Humphrey a Sen- It said "for a really good time, go to I've enjoyed Molly Ivins' writing for ator from Wisconsin. Now, it's made Kika www.hyperweb.com/txobserver ." OK? years, and have found her recommenda- de la Garza a Congressman from El Paso (No, Linda Fischer done tol' me.) It's tions generally worthwhile. The Observer ("Chronicles of Chemical Warfare," by really nice to have such a "no-nonsense" looks like one of the good ones. Here in Susan Pitman, August 29). So what if Mis- place where one can kick back in the ol' upstate N.Y. there are plenty of liberal sion and El Paso are more than 500 miles recliner, git the little lady (a misnomer if journals and such, but none that have the apart. They're both in the Valley, right? ever they wuz one, she's big as a Mack Observer's mix of bite and humor. I plan Tom Fisher truck but good-hearted and generous to a to do more reading on your site before Corpus Christi, Texas fault) to bring me a Shiner Bock, and give subscribing; gotta see how much the geo- me a hand pulling off my boots, since the graphical separation makes the local arti- The Editors respond: dog done dragged off my boot jack to cles less relevant to a yankee. But if A last-minute editing error transplanted gawd only knows where. It'll probably Molly's right, you take on issues that tran- Congressman de la Garza across the state; turn up next spring when I spade the gar- scend geography. I look forward to that, we apologize to Susan Pitman and to our den again. In the meantime, thanks for and appreciate your attitude. readers. Occasionally we get in a rush, as keeping track of all them pols. Some- Thanks, and I wish you success and Mr. Fisher undoubtedly did when he trans- body's got to do it, and since you seem to survival in this increasingly hostile envi- formed Observer writer Ray Reece into take so much pleasure in giving us all ronment. country singer Ray Price. (On the other pleasure in reading about 'em, and keep- Roy Flacco hand, if Mr. Price is at all interested in con- ing 'em guessing which one of 'em will be Brooktondale, New York tributing to the Observer in any capacity, your next target.

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SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 3 EDITORIAL Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The TNRCC has engaged in an outrageous manipulation of the regulatory process and a denial of basic rights of democratic government —Professor John Barkdull, Texas Tech University, April 3, 1997 ince last year, residents of north Lub- in Texas). A rider attached to the state budget things cannot be hurt, do not feel pain, and bock, acting through a community now forbids state employees to act as "expert cannot suffer health problems. organization known as All Neigh- witnesses or consultants" in litigation against Apparently, TNRCC has a different notion Sbors United, have been battling the the state. That presumably means that Texas of who their primary customers are, and they installation of an incinerator by a company Tech Law Professor Frank Skillern, who has are not the citizens of West Texas. Rather, called O'Hair Shutters, Inc. O'Hair had given free legal advice to All Neighbors TNRCC seems to be solely at the beck and been burying its production wastes (more United in their pending suit against the call of the monied interests of private corpo- than ten tons per day, hauled away by city TNRCC, is risking his job if he continues to rations. The impression I have, of this entire trucks) in a city landfill at no charge. When do so. A U.S. district judge recently enjoined process, is that the permitting of the inciner- the city council moved to end this extraor- the law in a case involving a Texas A&M ator was not a decision to be made by exam- dinary subsidy, the company decided that faculty member—but Skillern said the in- ining the facts, values, and opinions of all although public land had become expen- junction is not binding on the comptroller, parties involved. Rather, it's been as if the sive, public air was still cheap. (Can any- who pays faculty salaries. Skillern described whole process has revolved around a com- body in Lubbock say "corporate welfare"?) the law as probably unconstitutional, but said mitment to awarding the permit from the be- So the company built an incinerator and that until it is overturned he must end all con- ginning. That is, each step of the process has applied for an incineration permit from the tact with All Neighbors United. been twisted and warped, to justify a deci- Texas Natural Resource Conservation The law might also have forbidden or in- sion already made from the outset. Commission (if you think that sequence is timidated the August testimony of Cyndi Were there misstatements of fact in ass-backwards, you're not familiar with the Simpson, a public health officer with the 0 'Hair's original application? Doesn't TNRCC). While the company waited for its Lubbock office of the Texas Department of matter. permit, the TNRCC generously and expedi= • Health (also, as it happens, doWnwind of Did the TNRCC break its promise to the tiously granted it a "standard exemption" 0' Hair Shutters). Simpson had addressed a neighborhood to keep them fully informed for. a "trench-burner"—that is, a temporary preliminary hearing- concerning the inciner- of the process? Doesn't matter. incinerator designed to burn untreated ator. We suppose if Dan Morales has his Does holding public hearings during wood—not the sort of permanent installa- way, no Texan would have the benefit of working hours pose an inconvenience to tion burning formaldehyde-glued waste that Simpson's moving and astute commentary, the citizens who should be TNRCC's pri- has, since spring, been spewing potentially which convincingly demonstrates that at mary customers? Doesn't matter. toxic smoke over the surrounding neighbor- least someone in state government still be- Apparently nothing matters—except ap- hood (including Neil Wright Elementary lieves in the public interest. We are proud to peasing and placating things whose inter- School, 2,700 feet away). excerpt Simpson's testimony here, for the ests are more politically and financially The TNRCC later admitted it had over- benefit of our readers. --M.K. powerful than those of people. looked the location of the school, and it had As a citizen of Texas, I'm appalled by the neglected to inform residents of the pending The main point I wish to make, as a disregard for the welfare of people and the standard exemption—despite persistent and zen of Lubbock and as a state employee, is environment shown by TNRCC. As a state diligent inquiries by Neighbors United—be- that I have been appalled at how this entire employee, I'm ashamed of TNRCC's weasel- cause, well, Oops! ("I'm sure I too would be process has been handled by the TNRCC. At ing to justify an apparently foregone conclu- aggrayated," wrote TNRCC General Coun- the Texas Department of Health, we imple- sion. It's very difficult to be part of govern- sel, Geoffrey S. Connor, "if I were in [their] ment continuous quality improvement in all ment in an area such as Lubbock, where place.") But of course, that's precisely the our systems and operations. The most im- strong anti-government sentiments prevail. point—the well-paid suits who make these portant aspects of continuous quality im- The TNRCC's actions have, in my opinion, decisions are never in the place where such provement are knowing who your customers made it much harder for me and all other decisions have their often poisonous effects. are, and committing to putting their needs state employees to do our jobs effectively. In the latest twist, the residents were first. I know that my primary customers in stunned to learn that under a new state law this region are the citizens of the region, first (Readers interested in supporting the (sponsored by the so-called people's lawyer, and foremost. Certainly I deal with agen- work of All Neighbors United can contact Attorney General Dan Morales), sympathetic cies, institutions and corporations—but the them c/o Kathryn Suchy, 2605 N. Cypress state experts will be forbidden to help their bottom line is that agencies, institutions and Road, Lubbock, TX 79403; (806) 762- cause (or indeed any similar cause anywhere corporations are things, not people. These 2646.)

4 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 DATELINE TEXAS Thoroughly Grounded BY ERICA C. BARNETT On a July morning at Austin East Side Market its so hot that even the lightest clothing clings to the skin. But the inconspicuous cluster of vegetable stands that local residents call El Mercado is an oasis of activity. A grove of crepe myrtles provides some relief from the heat The flow of customers is steady. And Kate Fitzgerald can't seem to sit still. s director of food assistance in Jim Hightower' s Department of Agri- culture in the late 1980s, Fitzgerald t up the program that allows farm- ers' markets to accept WIC (Women, Infants and Children) coupons. Now, as the East Side Market's informal manager and director of the Sustainable Food Center, Fitzgerald is watching the coupon program work. Many of the early-morning customers pay with WIC coupons, and most, like Fitzgerald and market staff-member Hector Hernandez, are speaking Spanish. "These kids are going to eat fresh food tonight," Fitzgerald says, pointing to a trio of children peering from the open window of a nearby ear. "This is putting power back in the hands of people." As Fitzgerald sees it, some of. that power derives from the building of community. Residents of East • East Side residents shop at one of the SFC's farmers' markets File photo Austin buy produce from small farmers participating in the market program, and and six hundred dollars a year in grocery land to the Center. Today that tract of land in the money stays close to home, in the hands costs. And the "psychological benefit" of the Montopolis neighborhood is the SFC's of local business owners who have a direct owning and controlling such a garden is home base, and includes a two-acre farm relationship with their customers. also important, she says. with a greenhouse, experimental and chil- "A small amount of space, a small The SFC has also pushed local govern- dren's gardens, a pasture for a few goats and amount of money, and not a lot of technical ment toward addressing the problem of food cows, and an acre of cultivated fields that expertise" can make a difference in peo- scarcity in Austin's low-income neighbor- provides much of the produce for the cen- ple's lives, Fitzgerald says. The SFC's pro- hoods. According to the center's 1995 report, ter's four farmers' markets and its limited grams are innovative and ambitious, but Access Denied, the entire local food supply business with grocery stores and restaurants. they are designed to get as much as possible for the 24,000 residents of Austin's East Side . During the summer, the farm .is staffed by out of a $200,000 annual budget. is provided by two small supermarkets (inac- teenage workers recruited through the city's The East Side market serves a poor, pre- cessible to many residents), and thirty-eight youth-employment program. Most of the dominately Hispanic area of Austin. Next convenience stores. The Center used the youths were on the verge of expulsion from door, at the Seton East Community Health study to persuade Capital Metro to add an school when they came to the program— Clinic, SFC's La Cocina Alegre (Happy East Side Circulator route to its regular city and some are or were gang members. Kitchen) provides classes for low-income bus schedules, and East Side neighborhoods Fifteen-year-old Hector Hernandez is one women to learn to cook simple, nutritious are now linked to Austin supermarkets. of five teenage workers at the SFC. He got meals with fresh produce. Down the street, into the program in 1996, through an SFC at El Jardin Alegre (the Happy Garden), the he Center was founded in 1993, after garden project at Del Vale High School, matronly women Fitzgerald calls the seno- thousands of family-owned farms where the four-year dropout rate exceeds 50 ras have planted herbs and vegetables in Tacross the state went out of business percent. After being kicked out of his ninth- forty garden plots. Fitzgerald says the gar- in the farm crisis of the mid-' 80s. In 1996, grade classroom and placed in an "alterna- den saves each of its tenants between five an East Austin farmer offered to rent his tive" learning program, Hernandez was on

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 the verge of becoming one of those statis- 9 percent of the department's annual bud- tics. He spent the summer at the farm and in get. "They don't believe in the free market- the market, earning $5.25 an hour. place," Fitzgerald says. "They don't believe "I'm just trying to do something for the in the consumers making the choice." summer and stay out of trouble," says Despite the odds against it, sustainable Hernandez, a reticent, soft-spoken young agriculture—in various incarnations, rang- man. "The worst that could happen is I ing from community gardens to organic could shoot someone or get shot—stealing farmers' markets—appears (at least in cars, writing on walls, bad stuff like that." Texas cities) to be taking root. In Houston, The statement seems out of place on the the Urban Harvest community gardens pro- farm, where young workers are required to vide food for low-income residents. Lub- operate as a team, and no one seems a trou- bock's food bank is based on sustainable blemaker. But putting those teams together agriculture principles. And in San Antonio, wasn't so easy. At least two of the teenage a community garden program works with workers were members of rival gangs, a juvenile offenders, much like the SFC situation that was difficult to defuse. "It works with "at-risk" students. But few are didn't work too good in the beginning, but as ambitious as the SFC. When she began we tried to get past it," Hernandez says. the program, Fitzgerald says, "there wasn't "We're working with a situation where any one organization in Texas which was there's no options for kids, and their only really going forward with the bigger pic- relationship with [police] officers is puni- ture, tying food and low-income people and tive," Fitzgerald says. To address that farmers together." As the first organization problem, the center has invited local offi- in Texas to try, the SFC has provided a road A Angel Espinoza and Hector Jamie Ogden cers to the farm. "We make a point of map for similar programs. Its long term suc- bringing people out to see what we're Hemcindez harvest honey from the SFC's beehive cess or failure may help determine the fu- doing, to meet the staff, to open minds," ture of larger-scale sustainable agriculture Fitzgerald says. The visits to the farm are ers, markets, and consumers; and the abil- in communities across the state. ❑ intended to remind police officers that ju- ity of communities to support and maintain For more information about the Sustain- venile offenders can be productive citi- their own food supplies. able Food Center, or to get involved in the zens—and to remind the workers at the But sustainable agricUlture now has few work of sustainable agriculture in Texas, fanin that the police are not their enemies. promoters in the Texas Department of Agri- call Anna Maria Signorelli at (512) 385- culture. In fact, since Rick Perry defeated 0080, or write the SFC, 434 Highway 183 f hiring gang members is a touchy Jim Hightower in 1991, almost every pro- South, Austin 78741. issue, sustainable agriculture must gressive program begun by Hightower' s Erica C. Barnett is an Austin freelance Iseem like a full-scale assault on the cor- TDA has been disbanded, including the writer and Observer intern. porate production and distribution of food, Food Assistance programs that supported which is nationally organized in a top- direct marketing for farmers and farmers' down fashion. Agribusiness corporations markets. Fitzgerald says the current TDA control the production, marketing, and dis- "hasn't been aggressively supportive" of tribution of the food that consumers pur- the center's programs, despite the fact that chase, far from its place of origin, at prices the SFC does not depend directly on TDA PkU&°Labor ‘31\(31 intensive Radio inflated by marketing, transportation, and funding. Hostility toward sustainable agri- packaging expenses. "All of it has to do culture runs deep at Perry's TDA, which fa- with the loss of democratic control of the vors big-money, pesticide-dependent Radio of the union, by the union food supply," Fitzgerald says. "A few cor- agribusiness. Since sustainable agriculture and for the union. Hosted and porations control the whole process, from is based on small-scale, environmentally produced by union members seed to the selling of the food." friendly, often organic farming techniques, dedicated to bringing the Sustainable agriculture—operating on a the business-dominated TDA wants little to smaller scale, depleting far fewer natural do with it; in fact, among the dozens of voice of labor to resources, and attempting to protect TDA programs, only one promotes sustain- the Austin airwaves. ecosystems—connects local farmers to able agriculture; According to TDA local markets and consumers. It's all a part spokeswoman Beverly Boyd, the TDA's of what Fitzgerald calls "food security"—a Tuesdays 6:30-7:00 p.m. Agri-Systems program, which focuses on KO.OP 91.7 FM philosophy that focuses on the right of integrated pest management, and includes P.O. Sox 49340 neighborhoods to have access to fresh, af- the department's entire budget for organics Austin, TX 78765 fordable food; the relations between farm- and biotechnology research, consumes only

6 THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997

FEATURE Going Critical at Pantex BY LOUIS DUBOSE "Safety is our top priority and every employee has the right to voice his or her safety concerns to stop work if he or she feels the situation is unsafe" —Pantex General Manager William Weinreich "They preach safety but they force production." —Pantex Production Technician Norman Olguin

n February 6 of last year John Randall dust is being swept under the rug at Pantex. (Judge Avery's decision Williams came face to face with a workplace is expected in sixty days.) hazard that exists no where else but in Amar- In fact, Mason & Hanger executives are probably questioning the illo, where the Pantex Plant is the home of the wisdom of dragging six whistleblowers into court in an attempt to nation's nuclear mothball fleet. Warheads, overturn a Department of Labor ruling that declared the Pantex bombs, and depth charges—loaded with pluto- plant a "hostile work environment." The company's own hired con- nium, uranium, and yield-enhancing tritium, sultant had quickly concluded that there was a hostile environment sit in earthen "igloos" awaiting decommission- in the W-55 program, and when investigators from the Department ing. Williams was a production technician on the second team of Labor followed up on the consultant's report, they agreed, and 0trained to dismantle a stockpile of nuclear depth charges built in the ordered Mason & Hanger make immediate changes. "They couldn't 1960s. By the time the aging "W-55s" made it to Amarillo, the have come up with any other conclusions," Williams said. spheres of conventional high explosive that are wrapped around the "This is a hostile environment in a place where three hundred grapefruit-sized plutonium pits at the core of each weapon were be- technicians work with the most dangerous weapons in the world," ginning to deteriorate, crystallize, and change color. Cutting the said Steve Sottile, who retired as a master chief from the Navy, cases of the W-55s had already created so many problems that the where he spent twenty-six years working with some of the same nu- program had been suspended since the mid-' 80s, and production clear weapons now being dismantled at Pantex. Sottile is one of five technicians who remove the "physics packages" from weapons sys- production technicians who supported Williams' claims about con- tems describe the W-55 as a "dirty weapon." ditions at Pantex, and he is the only one, other than Williams, who Not all the dirt was conventional. Although the last W-55 in the no longer works at the weapons plant. Sottile emphasized that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was dismantled late last year and much of the work done at Pantex is unique, and that workplace hostility at Pan- information about the weapon remains classified, it must have con- tex—or among nuclear weapons technicians in the Navy—can be tained uranium. Because uranium dust was the hazard Randy deadly. "This is not," one of the lawyers representing the whistle- Williams encountered the first day he went to work on the W-55. blowers said, "like an argument on the line at IBP." And he believes that what hap- Other than the town of Pan- pened in a work cell at the Pan- handle, the Pantex operation is tex weapons plant could have the only cluster of buildings been avoided. north of Amarillo on Highway "I caused another PT to in- 60 that is larger than the huge gest," Williams says, eighteen Iowa Beef Packers plant. So IBP months after he pushed against is a point of reference for Pantex a plastic bag containing a partially dismantled W-55. By moving workers, and the reference point is more than geographical. The the bag, Williams blew a cloud of uranium dust into the face of a PTs at Pantex, after all, are Amarillo's blue-collar elite, paid al- production technician working with him. "When you eat ura- most seventeen dollars an hour to dismantle the nuclear detritus nium, you know it," Williams said. "You taste it....You could see of the Cold War. They are monitored for levels of radiation, and the dust come out of the bag, and when it blew in his face, he uranium dust is not the only nuclear workplace hazard workers knew what happened to him." confront. Their blood and urine are sampled for tritium, thorium, Williams would not reveal the name of his co-worker or pro- plutonium, and perhaps other radio nuclides and isotopes never vide details about the uranium "dosing." And Mason & Hanger- mentioned in the Amarillo courtroom where Department of . Silas Mason, the contractor that operates the Pantex Plant for the Labor Administrative Law Judge Richard Avery conducted a Department of Energy, refused repeated requests for interviews one-week trial in late June. for this story. But when Mason & Hanger went to court in June And no one down the road at the IBP plant punches the clock to challenge a Department of Labor ruling, which resulted from each day knowing that one critical mistake by a worker could Williams' complaint about working conditions at Pantex, much bring down tons of suspended gravel designed to absorb a blast. of the story was told by workers and managers testifying under The risk of unintentional detonation of a nuclear weapon at Pan- oath. What they said in court revealed that more than uranium tex is slim. But the spheres of conventional explosives designed

THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 7 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 to drive plutonium pits inward toward a critical mass will explode The incident illustrates how very dependent each worker is on if dropped from 1.4 feet or higher. And each bowling-ball-sized the other members of the workforce. A co-worker's deviation from sphere of high explosives (HE) has huge (but classified) explosive procedure (and the DOE report on the Cell I Incident criticized potential. "Think Oklahoma City," one worker said, referring to Pantex management for using "instructions" rather than "proce- the bomb that brought down the William P. Murrah Federal Build- dures") can have immediate and even fatal consequences. To pro- ing two. years ago. tect their workers—and to ensure that no one intentionally deto- In an attempt to ensure that no nuclear material is released by a nates a nuclear weapon—Pantex and the DOE have developed a conventional explosion, warheads are dismantled beneath tons of Personnel Assurance Program (PAP) that requires workers in- gravel suspended above the workers. If the HE explodes—and per- volved in certain procedures to work in pairs, as part of an estab- haps sets off sympathetic explosions of all the conventional explo- lished "buddy system." The program includes psychological ser- sive material in the area—the gravel collapses on the work cell, ab- vices, but it is based on peer monitoring for signs of stress or sorbing the blast and burying forever the workers and the emotional imbalance that could lead to an unstable production fissionable material. "We know that if the HE goes, we're paste," technician endangering the lives of others. One essential compo- said production technician Norman Olguin, who has worked at nent of the PAP requires any individual worker to issue a "Stop Pantex for sixteen years. "We know it's our graveyard. Our bodies Work" order if a team member appears psychologically unfit, or stay there." Workers also know that in the event of a nuclear ex- even too stressed to enter the bays or cells where work is performed plosion, the gravel doesn't matter. on warheads. Workers are also required to stop work any time they Engineers at the DOE know this, as do the engineers at the Sandia see a departure from one of Mason & Hanger's "safe and repeat- Laboratories, in New Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of dol- able" procedures, or any defective equipment or irregularity that lars are spent designing the specific "safe and repeatable" processes could be a threat to safety. used in dismantling each nuclear weapon. At Pantex there is addi- tional engineering, and the writing of step-by-step standards specific " T hat's how it works in theory," Williams said. But Randy to each weapon. Some standards are so critical that one technician in Williams and the technicians he trained with claim the the- the cell reads aloud while others follow precise directions initially ory was never put into practice. The first signs that there developed by engineers, then fine-tuned by Pantex production tech- would be problems with the W-55 program came in training, which nicians. Everyone, in other words, works to ensure that the gravel was conducted by an instructor whom Pantex's own consultant de- stays in the "gravel gerties" suspended over the workers' heads. scribed in court as "a man that's retired on the job; he's waiting for But some variables in the nuclear weapons production equation the day to get there so he can retire." cannot be solved by engineering or physics. The emotional state and "I would ask him a question, and he would shout at me or say interpersonal relations of production technicians who stand under `shut up, Norm,'" Norman Olguin said in an interview. Olguin, tons of suspended gravel while working on high explosives are crit- who had worked on other weapons before being assigned to the W- ical variables in a process no one wants to go critical. And although 55, said that he was embarrassed and humiliated and ultimately he a nuclear explosion at Pantex is unlikely, the sort of mistakes work- stopped asking questions. "He said it so much that it got to be a ers worry about are the accidental detonation of HE, or exposure to joke," Olguin said. One of the Government Accountability Project radiation, like what occurred when Randy Williams pushed ura- attorneys who represented the whistleblowers described the entire nium dust into the face of a co-worker last year. Or the sort of ex- W-55 training program as "a joke." And there is at least some posure that occurred in the "Cell I Incident," which released 40,000 humor in a group of frustrated technicians bypassing their angry curies of tritium into the atmosphere on one day in 1989. "[U]nde- and disengaged trainer and going to an engineer for help. The en- sirable," wrote the author of a DOE report, "but only one-fifth of the gineer "drew a rudimentary picture of the unit, the tooling, and annual release from normal operations at Savannah River [South how it looked, and this is what you do, and so on and so forth"—on Carolina]." It was more than undesirable for Phillip Smith, who in a napkin, production technician Tom Byrd said in court. When 1995 discovered tritium in a well on his ranch near the Pantex site. Byrd asked, "Is that a classified or confidential or secret document Those were the external, environmental consequences of one "oc- you've created?", the engineer thanked him, marked through it, currence" at Pantex in 1989. What happened "inside the fence" and tore into several pieces the clearest illustration the technicians should have been a cautionary tale for engineers, managers, and had seen of the critical case-cutting process. trainers involved with the W-55 program. Cell I is now abandoned, For Randy Williams, there was little to laugh about. Before he but on the last day it was operational, in May of 1989, an walked off his job when a supervisor angrily complained because operator/technician loosened a seal, unaware that an internal "elec- Williams briefly talked to a DOE official ("that's D-O-E: the cus- troexplosive squib had been initiated." The tube, according to a 1996 tomer," Steve Sottile said), Mason & Hanger had him investigated Pantex report, was filled with tritium. No one who was involved will by the FBI, removed from the W-55 program for an alleged incident talk about the Cell I incident, but five workers were dosed and at of sexual harassment the company never took seriously enough to least one of the workers is dying as a result of the exposure, accord- fully investigate, assigned him to a work area where there was noth- ing to Pantex workers who requested to remain anonymous. (Work- ing for him to do, and escorted him through the plant by security of- ers claim that no one talks because the company ties catastrophic ficers. If Mason & Hanger didn't kill the messenger, they made life health insurance coverage for permanently disabled workers to con- so difficult for him that his attorneys from the Government Ac- fidentiality agreements workers are required to sign.) countability Project claim he was "constructively discharged."

8 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 In the back yard of his tract home in Hereford, fifty miles from There were other problems in training and almost all of them per- Amarillo, Williams said he should have known the W-55 program tained to the B Team technicians' safety concerns. Olguin, for ex- was going turn sour when he saw what was happening in training. ample, described an incident in which the instructor led the trainees One team was already at work on the W-55 and Mason & Hanger to a work area to watch a process they could not perform in the was trying to get a second team qualified. "We wanted to get training bay. When they arrived, a tool had broken. The supervisor, through with training and get to work," Williams said. "We knew Olguin said, "ripped the Do Not Use tag off [another tool, a blatant that when the second team got started that would cut the [radiation] violation of procedures] and told—instructed the PTs that were exposure of the first group." But, as Olguin, Williams, and other PTs working on the unit to use this. And I voiced my opinion to Mr. said in interviews and in testimony, problems quickly developed Peak, and he told me, 'Don't say anything. You're in the training with the instructor, Jackie Peak. "He would shout at people; he did- class. You just keep out of it.' And so I did, except for talking to the n't like to answer questions; once when I said I was going to read a new PTs." (There are mechanical and safety reasons for "tagging" procedure, he paced back and forth, real impatient," Williams said. tools and radiation safety guidelines for "bagging" tools, and tech- Steve Sottile saw it the same way. "We were training to work nicians say that they have seen violations of both procedures.) The with a very dangerous weapon," Sottile said in the living room of difficulties in training seemed to galvanize a group of six techni- his Amarillo apartment a few days before he left for Florida. "And cians, whose tenure at Pantex ranged from two to thirty-one years. we couldn't get answers from the person responsible for the train- If the experience with a hostile instructor galvanized the second ing." In court, Sottile said the training at Pantex was inferior to group of workers in training for the W-55 program, the group's what he had experienced in the Navy, and he confirmed Williams' first days in the cell, where the conventional explosive is separated account of difficulties with an instructor who bristled when a stu- from the plutonium, pushed Randall Williams closer to the edge. (The others would follow later.) After the "dosing" of a co-worker, dent stopped to read a process that was not clear. [W]e were trying to learn some of the tooling that would be used Williams suggested that a strip of tape be attached to the top of the in this—well, I'll keep it unclassified— open-end case-cutting pro- plastic bag containing the weapon and the radioactive dust that fell cedure, which is vital to get to the high explosive components and from it as it was rotated. He was told, according to his testimony, that tape could not be used because it would create a new waste the active material. And we weren't able to perform that operation in the training sce- stream. (Tape and a plastic "donut" shield were added to the pro- nario, in the bay itself. One of the technicians, Randall Williams, cess before Williams left Pantex.) wanted to at least read through the procedure so we could get famil- Williams requested a respirator, and was told that it would only iar with the operation.... And we were not able to do that. The in- make communication more difficult. Later, he was sprayed in the structor actually prevented that from happening.... He told Mr. face by a deflected high-pressure jet of water used to separate the Williams that he could go ahead and read it if he liked, and he was, HE from the plutonium. "He was gargling it, and it was in his eyes you know, kind of like mad at him; you could tell by his tone of voice. and down his face," Sottile said. So he got face shields for himself And so Randall—John Randall Williams went ahead and read the and Williams, his designated "buddy" in the PAP program—only steps. And while he was reading, the instructor was pacing in front to be told by a supervisor that face shields were not in the written of him. And it got Mr. Williams upset, and he had to stop reading the procedures and could not be used. After Williams was assured that procedures. So we never really finished learning the procedures. the water had been tested and was "clear...good, and there were no Reading the procedures was important, Williams said, because problems with it," the shields were approved—to protect workers' the technicians could not cut the mock-up weapon used in training. eyes from high-pressure water jets. Two months would pass before So the technicians who were unsure of the process went to W-55 a technician from explosives safety would tell the W-55 techni- program manager Kathleen Herring to ask for help. It was Herring cians that the water was "highly contaminated." And it was not who "gave us some training on this case-cutting operation right until the trial in Amarillo that Williams learned the tests he was there on the napkin," Williams said. Herring also said she would told about had not been conducted at the time of the incident. encourage the instructor to let the technicians read the procedures Williams was the most aggressive of the whistleblowers repre- when they were unable to practice on the trainer. The PTs were sented by the Government Accountability Project, a public-interest never provided the opportunity to read the procedures. law firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle. It was It was after this incident that Randy Williams began a practice Williams' willingness to act that got him moved out of the W-55 that would alienate him from the first team working on the W-55. program for several days, based on what he says—and Mason & "I started writing things down," Williams said. He also discussed Hanger's reports confirm—was a unfounded charge of "sexual ha- the quality of training with a DOE engineer at Sandia Laboratories rassment." Or, as it was described in a Mason & Hanger internal in Albuquerque. Taking written notes angered some technicians document that was introduced as evidence, the "aggressive touch" Norman Olguin said: "I had one guy threaten me, tell me, threaten incident. According to Williams, when he noticed that a co- worker, Renee Stone, was removing a pump cart from the contam- me, say 'writing notes can be bad for your health.'" For the A Team, which had been at work on the W-55 for eigh- inated area without doing a "radiation swipe," he told her to stop. teen months, the note-taking must have confirmed what they al- "She was cursing under her breath, but loud enough for others to ready suspected. By the time the B Team was qualified to begin hear her," Williams said. When she proceeded to move the con- work, its members were tagged as troublemakers for raising safety taminated cart, Williams touched her on the arm and told her the cart could not leave the contaminated area. Two days later concerns during training. THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 , Williams was removed from the program after being told he was ntil the FBI showed up to look into allegations that he had under investigation for sexual harassment. Renee Stone remained taken classified material from the Pantex plant, Williams with the W-55 group. Uwas hesitant to file a complaint with the Department of That all of this—and much more—occurred in less than one Labor. He had been working with GAP lawyers, who had previ- month suggests how critical the W-55 program had become, and ously represented Pantex 'whistleblower Mark O'Neal, and the its eventual meltdown seemed unavoidable. It began to happen in GAP attorneys had intervened on his behalf with Mason & Hanger increments, when work was briefly suspended by Mason & Hanger and with the Department of Energy. General Manager William Weinreich in February of 1996, and sus- Williams suggests that events on the eve of the FBI investiga- pended again in February by one of the whistleblowers who real- tion demonstrate that upper management was willing to look the ized that an "all-hands" meeting was an occasion for open attacks other way while frontline managers ratcheted up the pressure in the on Williams. By April of '96 all work was suspended for a month plant. According to Williams, when New York Times reporter while both W-55 teams attended Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Matthew Wald took a critical look at Pantex on June 26, 1996, Highly Effective People course and helped rewrite the procedures someone in operations read the article (which referred to former for the depth-charge program. "Can you believe that?" a former Pantex whistleblower Mark O'Neal) over the public address sys- Pantex employee said. "They had serious, serious problems and tem. The plant-wide broadcast of the Times story was punctuated they sent their workers to a feel-good course." with critical commentary suggesting that some in the community "They called us the 'Barney Group," Williams said. "When we believed that Pantex PTs were not qualified to do the work they would walk back into the plant, [the other workers] would sing the were—at the very moment—doing. For Williams, the reading of Barney Song, 'I Love You, You Love Me.'" Like many of Mason the article, and the comments that suggested a whistleblower had & Hanger's attempts to respond to the W-55 program, the Seven made life difficult for production technicians, could only focus Habits Course only made management seem more out of touch. more attention on his role at Pantex. But maybe they only seem out of touch. In court testimony and The following week, Williams was informed that an FBI agent in interviews done for this story, there are accounts of frontline had been at the plant a few days earlier on June 28, asking to inter- managers pushing workers to stretch or violate rules or procedures view him. At a meeting with Mason & Hanger General Manager that if performed properly would slow production. Yet it can prob- William Weinreich, Williams was told that a fellow production ably be safely said that in the seven-hundred-page court record, technician had turned him in. He later learned that the plant's secu- there is not one reported instance of a frontline manager erring on rity director, Curtis Broaddus, had called the FBI—after production the side of prudence or safety. So when employees use their "stop- technician Caylen Perry told Broaddus that Williams had taken work" authority—and every Pantex employee is authorized stop classified documents from the plant. According to documents filed work in the event of safety concerns or deviations from proce- in the case, Perry had previously threatened Williams' life, warning dure—the result is usually less overtime, which is available when him that he had been an FBI agent and knew ways of getting rid of programs are running at full speed. Williams "without leaving a trace." Management would say, "if you stop work, we'll have to stop Perry told FBI officer S. Blaine Scot Westlake that he became sus- overtime," Norman Olguin said, and one of Mason & Hanger's in- picious of Williams when Williams reacted to comments about The ternal investigations supports his claim. "The work stoppages pre- New York Times' Pantex story. In Williams' presence, Perry had vented business as usual and up to two hours of overtime pay per "questioned how any loyal American could betray his loyalty to day were lost to some individuals," operational support director country and employer by revealing classified data." When Perry John Meyer wrote in a report dated March 22, 1966. According to stated his "strong feelings about whistleblowers," Williams angrily the same report, when work was stopped on February 26, one tech- responded, and said "you're talking about me." Perry became suspi- nician said: "Fuck, there goes my overtime." In reviewing over- cious and recalled that several weeks earlier he had seen Williams time records, Meyer found that "three of the Initial [A Team] PTs "holding a manila envelope," he told FBI Agent Westlake on July 2 worked a combined 244 hours overtime pay from October 1995 to of last year. Williams offered to take a lie detector test and denied February 1996 which equates to approximately $6,771 additional taking classified material. And Pantex counter-intelligence officer gross income between [sic] those three people. Since March 1, Broaddus says it was never established that classified material was 1996, to date, only three hours of overtime-pay has been worked taken from the plant. In court, Broaddus also said he destroyed all of by these same people." And before the incident of alleged sexual his notes relating to the incident, although DOE officials had told harassment, production technician Renee Stone reportedly had Broaddus that this was not a counter-intelligence matter that would also been complaining about lost overtime. allow for notes to be destroyed. Williams was never interviewed by Technicians fear their co-workers' responses and they have to the FBI, only told that an agent had been at the plant looking into al- build themselves up to "an emotional plateau" before stopping legations about him. For Williams, it was another incidence of ha- work, Sottile said in court. It was also revealed that Pantex division rassment—and it involved both management and his co-workers. manager James Angelo warned technicians of "a Rocky Flats shut- When Randy Williams finally left Pantex in November 1996, his down," implying that not only overtime, but many of the jobs at departure was related to an event that portended a bang rather than Pantex would be lost. "To me, that was very intimidating to be told a whimper. Before production technicians can remove the nuclear that," Tom Byrd said. For workers at the plant overtime has be- explosives from a warhead, they must first remove all of the safety come both a production bonus and a direct threat to their safety. or "fail-safe" mechanisms. So there is a brief and utterly sobering

10 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997

moment when a weapon can be detonated by a technician. This is other PTs' lives in danger," he said, referring again to an incident the most basic reason why every PT is assigned a buddy. At certain when a technician picked up a sphere of high explosive and took it times, no one is left alone with a warhead. out of the work area to show to a visitor. It explodes if it is dropped On November 25, PTs opened a W-55 and discovered the detona- from higher than two feet, is stored in a canister with rubber safety tion cables were exposed. "The word to keep in mind here is 'deto- seals, and is never allowed in an area where there is no rubber mat nation,'" Sottile said. "There was a telephone call to engineering and on the floor, Olguin explained. "And this guy stuck it under his arm we were told to proceed. We refused. The engineers needed to get the and walked across the room with it." Olguin also said that there suction off their butts and come down and look at the problem." A oshould be no more stacking of four and five "units" in the area quarter of a mile away in the engineering building, Ernest McNabb where technicians work, quadrupling the workers' constant expo- got the call. "I happened to have in the office with me at the time— sure to radiation. "We had all these units stacked up around us, so we were in there talking about a real serious problem, a golf game— one time we moved one under a radiation safety tech' s table. He Eddie Collins, who is the nuclear explosive safety engineer," McN- came in and said, `'What's this doing here? I'm not working with abb testified. "So when I called back and talked to the supervisor, I this in here.' And he left." The technicians were required to stay in asked Eddie Collins if he had a concern with the cable." the area and continue working. Collins said technicians had worked with crushed detonation ca- "This is not about money," Olguin said. Olguin says the 166 im- bles before and they had presented no problem. The telephone con- provements the B Team technicians helped make in the W-55 pro- ference didn't satisfy the workers in the cell. "These det cables was cess suggest how the system is supposed to work. Williams is ask- actually the wires that actually fired the weapon," Williams said in ing for $100,000 in lost wages and expenses and the other court. Two supervisors, Paul Harter and Danny Brito, were pushing technicians are asking for far lower sums. "This is about knowl- the PTs to continue, but the technicians held their ground until an en- edge and knowledge is power," Olguin said. "Secretary O'Leary gineer arrived to look at the cables. "And all I could see was the prob- opened the process up," he said, referring to the former Secretary lems that were starting all over again as far as trying to make a stand of Energy. The process, Olguin said, needs to remain open. ❑ with safety," Williams said. On the following day, November 27 of last year, one of the supervisors who had pushed the technicians to Tice Mason & Hanger Company Web Page address is continue to work on the damaged detonation cables angrily con- www.pantex.com. The Government Accountability Web Page ad- fronted Williams when he returned to the bay a few minutes late. dress is www.accessone.com/gap. Williams had been stopped by a DOE official for a discussion that he says lasted no more than thirty seconds, and the supervisor, Paul Har- ter, was angry because Williams had been talking with the DOE, Williams said. When Harter began to shout at him to open the bay, Williams told him that he no longer worked for Mason & Hanger. 'The Texas Civilhts Project week after the trial, several of the whistleblowers sat down in cordially invites you to its the Sottiles' apartment for an odd smorgasbord of fried chicken, fried shrimp, pasta, beans, potatoes, and several Seventh Annual Bid of Vfits Dinner desserts. It was the second and last "freezer party" Steve and Barbara Sottile would host in Amarillo. Nothing would be left in the freezer Sunday, October 5, 1997 on Monday when the movers arrived. "I came here planning to start Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar Chavez a second career," Sottile said. "I thought I'd die here, but not at Pan- Reception 6:00 p.m. Dinner 7:00 p.m. tex." He was leaving Amarillo—and the nuclear weapons work that he'd done for twenty-four years as a sailor before he was hired by Pantex two years ago. Randy Williams was trying to rebuild a re- Guest Speakers frigeration service business he had left in the hands of an employee in Hereford when he came to work at Pantex. The other four techni- Sharon Robinson John Con ers, jr. cians involved in the whistleblower trial continue to work for Mason Daughter of baseball Civil rights der in & Hanger. kgend Jackie Robinson U.S. Congress Norman Olguin said he does not intend to leave. "This is my home. I've got sixteen years of my life invested in this job. I've had health problems, a threat on my life when [another PT] told me he Music: Lourdes Perez was going to 'pop a cap in my ass,' but I'm not leaving." (The worker who threatened Olguin had also threatened Pantex whistle- Ma Qobinson will autograph copies of her book blower Mark O'Neal, who accepted a legal settlement and left the during the reception. company two years ago.) Olgiiin is an engaging, articulate man who again and again ar- gued that Mason & Hanger management has to respect the workers' RSVP. by September 29 to (512) 474-5073 right to protect their health and safety. "Nobody should put the

■ 11 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER FEATURE Not Easy Being Green(peace) BY DON HAZEN Greenpeace USA, the immensely popular and influential environmental organization known for its aggressive direct-action campaign and promotional flail; is in turmoil In a drastic move the Washing- ton, DC-based organization plans to reduce its 400-person staff to a mere sixty-five and will close down five of its ten field offices across the country. Greenpeace had initially announced it would close all ten field office.s a downsizing of unprecedented scope in the environmental movement rill he layoffs, dubbed a "restructuring" by Green- peace activist, Earth First founder and Dudley antagonist Mike peace representatives, essentially cut the heart Roselle angrily resigned from the Greenpeace board of directors. out of the group's grassroots operations—effec- Dudley said she resigned exhausted from years of crisis man- tively halting its long established door-to-door agement. "A week didn't go by without personnel problems, inter- canvassing operation. This dramatic move was national political problems, fundraising problems. I'm just worn made by the Greenpeace USA board of directors, out and want to be an activist again, instead of an administrator of reportedly under strong pressure from Thilo a huge organization." Nevertheless, in major ways, the restructur- Bode, executive director of Greenpeace Interna- ing underway undermines much of what Dudley worked for. As tional and the former head of Greenpeace Germany. one former high ranking insider put it, "There's been a fight for The portentous restructuring decision was blamed on nagging Greenpeace's USA's soul—and the soul lost." budget problems that apparently have plagued Greenpeace for years, Dudley and Roselle are symbols of the schisms within Greenpeace. exacerbated by declining fundraising in the Clinton era and perhaps Roselle, who has twice worked at Greenpeace, is famous for organiz- a faded Greenpeace image. In the face of growing deficits, the ing in-your-face direct actions, which often garner inspirational group's $29.5 million annual budget will be slashed to $20.1 million. media coverage. Recently he and other veterans have independently Under the troubled surface burns a fundamental fissure in the organized The Ruckus Society, an effort that has trained more than far-flung Greenpeace family: a culture clash, between the old style 500 of the next generation in direct action tactics, a la Greenpeace. European-initiated model of direct action and focus on large scale After three tries, Roselle finally was elected to the Greenpeace international issues of the global climate change and ancient forests board in an attempt to influence Greenpeace from within, an orga- (embraced by Greenpeace International and Bode), and more re- nization he felt "was completely staff driven." Long critical of the cent efforts by Greenpeace USA at grassroots environmental orga- Dudley direction, Roselle calls himself an "internationalist now nizing, making connections between local and national and inter- and always," a position that made him a minority on the board, but national issues. The contrast is between macho but effective an advocate for intervention by Greenpeace International. symbolic actions—saving whales, fighting nuclear testing and One of the internal questions that continually has dogged Green- struggling against drift-net fishing—versus Greenpeace USA's peace USA has been its relationship to the International; headquar- long evolution into a multi-faceted organization deeply concerned tered in Amsterdam. Is Greenpeace an international organization with toxic dumps in poor communities and environmental justice. with offices in thirty-two different countries, or a federation of While the turmoil is far from over, it appears that a return to the semi-autonomous organizations forged in an international alliance? dominance of the traditional direct-action model has the upper This issue has never been resolved, but the point was rendered hand, as a three-person transition team—seemingly sympathetic to moot as Greenpeace USA's success over the last decade enabled it Bode's position—takes charge. to keep Greenpeace International somewhat at arm's length. (In What these changes mean to Greenpeace and the environmental 1991, with Peter Bahouth in the director's chair, Greenpeace USA movement as a whole are open to debate. But this much is evident: had more than 2 million members and a budget in the neighborhood The era of Greenpeace USA as a large-scale, free-spending, diverse of $50 million.) However, its steadily declining economic fortune organization grappling with the full plate of U.S. environmental prob- and dwindling membership—currently down to 450,000—made it lems is over. One Greenpeace insider suggested that the restructuring vulnerable to Greenpeace International's increased influence. has the' makings of a new leaner, meaner machine focused on its tra- Another factor for the split between the U.S. and International orga- ditional bread and butter—political campaigns with clearly defined nizations, according to former Greenpeace USA Media Director Bill targets, Others are far less certain what the future will bring. . Walker, is that European Greenpeace groups have much easier access to and influence over legislators in their countries than Greenpeace RESTRUCTURING AT THE TOP does in the U.S. "These guys have a hard time understanding why The • upheaval at Greenpeace included the May resignation . of Greenpeace USA needed to be mucking around at the grass roots." . Executive Director Barbara Dudley, who served five difficult years at But Greenpeace was victorious in such battles as pressing the the helm. And in August, in the wake of the layoffs, legendary Green- House to pass a ban on factory trawlers in Eastern Atlantic waters.

12 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 Board member Harriet Barlow called the unexpected trawler ban sis. But Greenpeace USA saw the values of independence from one of Greenpeace's biggest recent victories: "When lately has foundations and a continuous grassroots presence as essential to its Congress voted against organized corporate interests, siding with character, probably no less so than Greenpeace veterans see direct small communities?" In this uphill struggle, Greenpeace was action as fundamental to their vision. (It is important to note that di- aligned with New England fishing communities, whose waters had rect action has continuously been a strategy for Greenpeace USA been raped continuously by these monster ships, against such com- all along, particularly in its toxics organizing.) panies as Tyson Foods, Inc., a huge producer of fish sticks (along In fact, financially, the canvas operation, which included many with all those chickens). of the staff people laid off, was at best a break-even proposition. And as Greenpeace board member Barlow explained, it was Green- HOW BIG A FINANCIAL CRISIS? peace's commitment to pay canvassers a living wage and benefits, The extent of Greenpeace's actual financial crisis is open to debate. that somewhat contributed to its budget woes. At the same time, di- While the restructuring axed more than $9 million from the fiscal rect mail was slow. With a Democrat in the White House, and the budget, one board member suggests that the projected deficit for the ability of Clinton/Gore to project a green-washed image—particu- year was close to 10 percent of the overall budget, not a shocking larly through its Environmental Protection Agency Director Carol position for difficult fundraising times. In fact, according to sources Browner—direct mail, which works best with an identified enemy within Greenpeace, similar deficit projections last year were over- or crisis, continued to drop off. come, ending the year with a slight surplus. Former board member Roselle, on the other hand, says that these WHAT'S AHEAD? budget figures are misleading. "The deficit would have been $7 mil- What the transitional team means for the future is a wide-open lion and Greenpeace USA would not have been able to send its $3.5 question. The Greenpeace community has petitioned for a voting million to the International, hurting the entire organization and jus- members meeting with the board, scheduled for September 13. tifying intervention from the International." In fact, Roselle feels Greenpeace has a unique form of internal democracy: Current and that overall, Greenpeace USA has just not been supportive of the former staff members who have worked for more than six years International's activities, especially in the priority areas of fisheries, make up the official community and vote for the board of directors. climate and forests. "Thilo Bode is the only person who can save Currently, there are more than 170 members of that community, Greenpeace," he adds. and many of them—including some of the recently laid off can- Roselle said he quit the board because he couldn't assure finan- vassing operation—are angry. cial accountability and he couldn't organize while being on the in- One of those staffers with serious questions for the Greenpeace side. Describing the board process as "chaotic," he maintained that "the board lacked honor—it was like the Village of the Damned." And besides, Thilo Bode had demanded that the entire Greenpeace board resign, Roselle claims, and he complied. The rest of the board, however, hasn't resigned, although the board is not proceeding with business as usual. Running the organi- zation is a transitional team made up of: board chair Joanne Klieju- nas; Seattle Regional Director Bill Keller, who represents staff; and international representative Kristen Engberg. Kliejunas, who was brought onto the board to help with management advice, has ended up in the hot power seat. While rumors abound that other board members likely will be ousted under continued pressure from Bode, Kliejunas says that al- though changes are being "actively discussed" within the organiza- tion, nothing has been finalized.

FUNDRAISING REALITIES In the larger sense, no one disagrees that Greenpeace was strug- gling financially. What brought Greenpeace to this point, in part, re- CENTER FOR RERUN, ENVIRONMENT, I JUSTICE flects many of the problems facing large membership advocacy October 3, 4 & 5 groups in the U.S. today. In Greenpeace's case, trying to combine a Arlington, Virginia grassroots operation with a direct mail and telemarketing member- ship base was a constant balancing act. Greenpeace always has For details, contact: been very proud that almost all of its funding came from the "peo- ple," via door-to-door canvassing and direct mail. Only 2 percent of CCHW Center for Health, Environment & Justice its budget came from foundation grants. P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church) VA 22040 By seeking more foundation support and phasing out the can- (703) 237-2249 [email protected] vassing earlier, Greenpeace USA likely wouldn't be facing this cri- THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 board is current Southwest Toxics Campaigner Bradley Angel. The turmoil at Greenpeace is bound to have repercussions in Bradley is confident that voting membership will succeed in pre- movement politics. Thousands of activists in organizations around serving some of Greenpeace USA's current focus. "We look for- the world, in addition to the current staff, have cut their organizing ward to a constructive meeting among voting members—both cur- teeth at Greenpeace. Greenpeace has been the model of bold, rent and former staff. I think having 172 people there, we're in a media savvy actions that encouraged hope and conscience in many. very good position to come up with alternative proposals." Will the activist diaspora and the laid off staff mark this difficult However, the role of that community, and the power wielded by moment in Greenpeace history as a huge defeat, or as a chance to it, are unclear in this battle. Board chair Kliejunas emphasized that return to the Greenpeace roots? only the board can determine how the resources are allocated. No doubt the meeting will produce a lot of fireworks. See "Greenpeace," p. 27 mmtanoommonew

■1 7

ta, ' •v'"Antc.

been working to i aise nscii about the dangers of organochlorine tamination from these plants." Although the rest of Greenpeace's canvassers, like en 4,0014* Jackson, have now been laid off, the na- tio .,„• tionwide Toxics Campaign will continue exist` ageWhere to replie en e V4 to be funded. But the staff has been cut plied by Greenpeace remai i vironmental Justice word' has been

from thirteen full-time campaigners to In any event, Jackson feels. rat caving: jeopardized by the laycffs, a sentiment five, which may mean no staffers for the grassroots is the wrong direction for echoed by Sherry Nleddick and others. "A Texas or Louisiana. Reductions in the Greenpeace. "You have to go into a com- lot of our work against contamination, Toxics Campaign are part of an overall munity and find people who are at risk, whether toxic or nuclear," Meddick says, shift in funding which, according to the who have something to lose, and help "involves working with communities of national office, will now generally favor them organize," Jackson says, "and that's color, who have always been targeted for the climate and forestry campaigns. how change occurs." He doesn't want to dumping by corporations and govern- Greenpeace will actually be hiring more see a return to the days when Greenpeace ments." In Southern California this in- staff for those campaigns. was known solely for their dramatic di- cludes the campaign against the proposed Greenpeace's anti-nuclear campaign rect actions, but did little to follow up in Ward Valley nuclear dump, to be located was hit particularly hard by the restructur- affected communities. "Our big media on sacred Native American land. Angel ing, which has defunded virtually the en- events did a lot to draw attention to im- and Meddick fear that shifting resources tire staff. The ripples caused by this par- portant issues like whaling," he recalls, to the admittedly crucial forestry and ticular layoff have also reached Texas, "but now, when it comes to doing some- global warming campaigns will have the according to Erin Rogers of the Sierra thing like environmental justice work, unintended side effect of essentially halt-- Blanca Legal Defense Fund (SBLDF), a people need to know that you'll be there, ing Greenpeace's grassroots organizing group fighting to keep the state of Texas tomorrow, next week, the week after in minority communities. ❑ from opening a national nuclear waste that." Perhaps in recognition of this need,

14 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 Paid Advertisement BERNARD RAPOPORT American Income I .ife Insurance Company Chairman of the Board and EXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 2608 WACO, TEXAS 76797 817-772-3050 Chief Executive Officer

A Cold-War Solution for a Warming World BY PAUL H. NITZE string of new studies indicates that we are witnessing the could benefit, with U.S. industry competing on an equal footing early signs of something potentially catastrophic: The to offer pollution controls in world markets. earth's temperature is rising. Glaciers are melting, ex- What would it take to create such a structure? To begin with, tremely heavy rainstorms have increased by 20 percent in North the United States must lead the way. If we promote the concept America this century, and spring has been arriving a week earlier internationally, others wily follow. Four key elements would in the Northern Hemisphere, The cause appears to be the emis- make an agreement successful. sions from the fossil fuels we burn to heat our homes, run our First, any agreement must encourage maximum participation, cars, power our industries, and cultivate our farms. permitting all nations to earn or use tradable emissions credits The earth's climate has remained stable for the past 10,000 at some level, whether by using energy more efficiently, switch- years, but global warming threatens the stability that fostered the ing to less environmentally damaging fuels, or planting and pre- development of modern civilization. Rapid warming could render serving forests that absorb pollution. whole forests more vulnerable to the ravages of disease, pests, Second, to encourage developing countries to participate as and fires, destroying watersheds. Rising sea levels, flooding, soon as possible, industrialized countries—especially the drinking-water shortages, and the northward spread of tropical United States—should speedily set an example by adopting diseases could displace millions of people. The economic and these budgets. Industrialized countries also should find ways to human costs may devastate continents, creating a crisis larger, make it easy for others to join. One interim method would be for and possibly more enduring, than any in recorded history. industrialized countries to provide incentives (such as credits) The question is no longer "Is our climate changing?" but "What for their own companies to work with the industries in develop- can we do about it?" The cause and consequences of climate ing countries to reduce emissions. changes are global and require global response. The stakes are Third, the agreement will need tools to enforce compliance, high, not only for those directly in harm's way of the physical ef- International—and domestic—support for a budget system will fects of warming, but also for those who have staked their eco- fade if it permits some countries to evade responsibility or im- nomic well-being on fossil fuels. To stabilize the world's climate poses unacceptable disciplines on our own. A treaty should in- will require reducing greenhouse gases by half during the next cen- clude a range of realistic options for deterring emissions profli- tury, and countries need to begin to cut emissions soon if adapta- gacy. Violations could be identified by international inspectors tions are to be made without disruption. But the challenge—and along the lines of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy required changes—are of such scope and magnitude that coura- Agency. Similarly, in response, economic measures such as geous multilateral steps, beyond what has been accomplished sanctions or embargoes might be emplaced through the U.N. even in our landmark arms-control agreements, are necessary. Security Council. Such bold steps also are essential if we are to address the Finally, President Clinton should demonstrate his personal looming threat to geopolitical stability posed by climate change. commitment to this effort. Just as he took the lead in furthering, Just as arms-control treaties sought to limit and reduce the nu- the Chemical Weapons Convention, so should he lead the battle clear arsenals of the superpowers, creating an environment of against this new threat to global security. He should not be cooperation that encouraged the peaceful transition of Eastern swayed by arguments that global agreements would spawn an Europe and the Soviet Union, world leaders must create similar, intrusive international bureaucracy. Comparable criticisms were durable, international structures for limiting and reducing green- leveled at the arms treaties and dispelled—and the danger from house pollutants while providing for an orderly transition to the not taking action is just as severe. Those agreements demon use of the energy sources of the future. strated that global problems could be solved through interna- Our best prospect for such an agreement is an international tional agreement. Their lessons can help us limit and reduce the greenhouse/gas-emissions budget system. Nations would adopt growing threat from climate change before we find ourselves internationally binding caps or budgets on pollution. Those which facing catastrophe. reduce emissions could earn emissions savings to bank for fu- The writer is a former diplomat and is on the board of the ture use—or to sell to others to meet their budget requirements. Environmental Defense Fund. This article first appeared on the Over the long run, the innovative, technology-rich U.S. economy editorial page of The Washington Post on July 2, 1997.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 15 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

...WHO NEEDS ENEMIES? Governor Bush On August 29, the Texas AFL-CIO filed able technology for secret ballots. was in Indianapolis last month, delivering suit to force Bush to obey the Texas Work- James C. Harrington, legal director for the keynote speech to a Midwestern Re- ers' Compensation Act, which states that the Texas Civil Rights Project, blasted publican gathering widely reported to be the governor "shall alternate the chairman- Garza for his space-publicity stunt. "The the opening beauty pageant in the race for ship [of the Compensation Commission] anomaly is," said Harrington, "that he has the GOP presidential nomination. "I left between the members who are employers contributed more than any other official in my swimsuit at home," said Bush. Also and the members who are wage earners." the United States to dashing the hopes of schmoozing the party faithful were Hoosier The union lawsuit, filed in Travis County blind voters to finally exercise the secret homeboy Dan Quayle, feuding flat-taxers District Court, alleges that Bush broke the ballot like other Americans—and further Jack Kemp and Steve Forbes, lonesome law when he appointed an employer repre- discourage their participation in polling." Lamar Alexander, and rising television star sentative, Richard Reynolds, to chair the Harrington reminded Garza that not long Fred Thompson (among others). Bush de- commission in September 1995 (removing ago, Mexican Americans who didn't read livered his predictable endorsements of employee representative O.D. Kenemore English well were required to have others balanced budgets, personal responsibility, from the formerly elected position), and mark their ballots for them—just as blind welfare reform, phonics (yes, phonics), pri- then when he failed to appoint a wage- voters must do now. vate property, free trade, and "faith-based" earning chairman on February 1 of 1997, as Perhaps, to persuade the Secretary of transformation of a "culture that has the law requires. Reynolds remains chair- State to accord them the rights of all U.S. failed." You would have thought all these man; the lawsuit seeks a declaratory judg- citizens, disabled Americans should apply touchstones would have set off right-wing ment to compel the governor to appoint a to NASA for space duty. sparks, but afterward conservative pundits wage-earner as chair. were complaining that the Guv had failed In announcing the lawsuit, Texas AFL- EL PASO AUCARTEIYISM. Once again, the to inspire the troops. An Indiana delegate CIO President Joe Gunn blasted Bush on El Paso library has sent out a call for told the Dallas Morning News that Bush's issues "of importance to working people," would-be epic novelists to pick up their presentation was "a little weak," and Re- calling his record the worst in several gen- very sharpest pens, for the Not-Cormac publican handicapper Robert Novak erations. "George Bush's labor policy," Writing Contest. In the sly spirit of the fake quoted another old party hand, "I'd say said Gunn, "is that the boss always wins." Ernest Hemingway and faux William George was the dullest knife in the pantry." By the way, in Indianapolis Bush had his Faulkner writing competitions, the li- Bush had to return to Texas to get some own kind words for the national AFL-CIO, brary's 1997 Border Voices Literary Festi- respect, and from an unlikely quarter. blaming union pressure on President Clin- val has issued a call for writers to submit Democratic Lieutenant Governor Bob Bul- ton for delaying the Governor's attempt to their own outrageous parodies of El Pasoan lock turned up at a Bush fundraiser in privatize the Texas welfare system. Cormac McCarthy's unique writing style, Austin, reportedly "out of respect" for immortalized in such internationally ac- Bush's "magnificent job as governor." Bul- SPACEBALLS. Secretary of State Tony claimed novels as Blood Meridian, All the lock contributed $2,500 to Bush's cam- Garza visited Houston for a photo-op and to Pretty Horses, and The Crossing. First paign, and added that he would be "proud try out a new procedure whereby astronauts prize includes cash and publication, and an to call him my president." will be able to vote from space. Previously, invitation to read at the Festival, held in El Garry Mauro, Land Commissioner and state law precluded voting when an absen- Paso in early November. Deadline for post- Bush's all-but-declared opponent in the tee ballot couldn't be mailed, making Garza marked entries is October 24, 1997; for 1998 gubernatorial election, might be get- (in his words) "the jerk who wouldn't let rules and details call contest organizer (and ting just a wee bit put out at his former boss' the astronaut vote last November." (Astro- Observer contributor) Debbie Nathan at enthusiasm for Governor Bush. Earlier this naut John Blaha was prevented from voting (915) 545-2315, or e-mail "dnathan@utep. summer, Bullock told reporters that Bush is by a four-month space station mission.) edu". The contest mailing address is "Not- virtually "unbeatable," and that taking him Now astronauts will be able to vote by e- Cormac Writing Contest," c/o Nathan, 511 on would be a "kamikaze mission." Bullock mail, a change Garza welcomed, he said, Randolph Street, El Paso 79902. did chip in for Mauro's campaign—but because "We had an individual who clearly Last year's first place winner was El Paso only a measly $1,000. A spokesman for wanted to participate in the process." schoolteacher Derek Svennungsen, whose Mauro declined to comment on Bullock's The singularity of Garza's sudden gen- entry began, "The traveler now arrived at praise for Bush—maybe he needs to consult erosity was not lost on advocates for dis- that anticipated place where the unenviable with more Indiana Republicans. abled voters, since he has steadfastly re- scene would soon play itself out in the glow- fused to accommodate them in voting ing darkness of the fallen evening...." The OBEY THE LAW. Bush told the Indiana Re- procedures. After an El Paso federal court Observer's own Don Graham placed second. publicans that Americans need to remem- ruled that blind voters must be allowed the As it happens (Nathan swears it's a coin- ber, "You are responsible for what you do," technical means for secret ballots, Garza cidence) the Not-Cormac Contest award and that in Texas everyone is required to appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit, ceremony will coincide with the annual obey the law. Apparently, the Guy's a little where he successfully defended his refusal convention of the Cormac McCarthy Soci- selective when the law applies to himself. to supply blind voters with already avail- ety, to be held in El Paso the same weekend

16 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 (a/k/a the "School of Assassins") are in- (November 7-9). The convention is open to eventually other states to truck their ra- cluded in the Foreign Aid Appropriations the public for a fee; for more information, dioactive waste across the country to be budget under consideration in the House. contact the Office of Continuing Education dumped in the small West Texas town of An amendment sponsored by California's at U.T.–El Paso. Sierra Blanca, sixteen miles from the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. The Esteban Torres and Pennsylvania's Thomas Foglietta would cut all appropria- Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Austin show will be part of a "No Nukes" NO NUKE MUSIC. tions for SOA; related legislation has been Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and special guest tour by Raitt and others, with stops in San sponsored by Massachusetts Congressman Jimmie Vaughn will perform at The Back- Diego and Las Vegas. Performers on the Joseph Kennedy and Illinois Senator yard in Austin on September 28, in support tour will include Jackson Browne, the In- Richard Durbin. A vote on the amendment of efforts to stop the placement of a na- digo Girls, John Trudell, and Graham is expected soon; readers are urged to call tional radioactive waste dump in Sierra Nash. The tour will focus on communities their representatives, at (800) 522-6721 or Blanca. "The power of music and the social in danger of becoming radioactive waste (202) 224-3121. conscience of artists like Bonnie Raitt and dumps: Sierra Blanca, Ward Valley (Cali- Jimmie Dale Gilmore have changed the fornia), and Yucca Mountain (on Western Sierra Blanca business- course of history," said concert coordinator Shoshone land in Nevada). NUCLEAR LUNCH. man and rancher Bill Addington has and Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund Over 90 percent of "high" and "low" demonstrated, agitated, litigated, and ful- spokeswoman Suze Kemper. Funds raised level radioactive waste—which contain the minated against the proposed low-level nu- at the concert will support the work of the same radioactive elements, in varying con- clear dump the State of Texas is locating in SBLDF, which is fighting the proposed centrations—comes from nuclear power his home town. Now he's not eating. On dump in state administrative courts, the plants. September 5, Addington began a hunger Legislature, and the U.S. Congress. strike to protest the pending Texas-Maine- The Austin concert will occur on the eve NO ASSASSINS. As we went to press Vermont Congressional Compact—a hur- of a Congressional vote on H.R. 629 (the (September 4), SOA Watch was monitoring dle the dumpsters need to clear before so-called "Compact"), which would allow the pending vote on U.S. Anny's School of opening the gates. nuclear facilities in Maine, Vermont, and the Americas. Appropriations for SOA ❑ BONNIE RAITT with special guest appearance byjinunie Vaughan Jimmie Dale Git n.ore • joe Ely and special guests Will and Charlie Sexton SEPTEMBER 28.7 PM • THE BACKYARD in Austin, Texas "NO NUKES" Concert for a Nuclear Free Texas proceeds to benefit the

4 ‘ G4 /1006 r. SIERRA BLANCA I • DEFENSE F041411Ptio special after-show reception with the artists b,10 A t"r. Sun Circle Reception • 100 Tickets OW to purchase reception tickets or for more information call 5124474906 for general ticket sales call Star Tickets 469-SHOW illustration: Brad Massengill

THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 17 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 LAS AMERICAS Awaiting Death en El Norte BY JOHN ROSS Mexico City Javier Suarez Medina, one of a dozen Mexican citizens housed on Texas' death row is scheduled to celebrate Mexican Independence Day September 16 strapped to a gurney, as a lethal injection spreads through his body. Suarez Medinds death certificate will corroborate that his court-appointed date with his maker was a homicide perpetrated by the state of Texas. lthough Mexico tolerates abun- vention of Vienna (which mandates that page of the daily La Jornada said simply dant extra-legal executions (such foreign suspects must be informed of their as the June 1995 massacre of sev- INDIGNATION! in big black letters. A right to contact the nearest embassy or con- U.S. reporter witnessed Mexico City police enteen farmers under the guns of A sulate office). Texas Governor George W. officers draw their guns on two English- the Guerrero state police), legal executions Bush responded that Texas was not a signa- are frowned upon by the government, the speaking tourists, accused of drinking beer tory to the Vienna Convention, and refused in public. "When we break the law in their church, and a broad swath of society. The to postpone the killing. death penalty was virtually abolished here country, we are executed," was how the of- In his last days, Tristan Montoya was ficers' justification their menacing de- decades ago, and the murderous U.S. ritual seen often on Mexican television, through of near nightly executions of death row in- meanor, before accepting fifty pesos to re- a glass prison panel, protesting his inno- holster their weapons and free the women mates is seen as yet more evidence of North cence and commending his soul to God. He American barbarity. (who turned out to be British and not North was denied a last supper of nopal cactus Americans, after all). When the victim of such questionable because the prison did not have it in stock. U.S. justice is a Mexican citizen, the pend- Tristran Montoya's journey home in Relatives of the victim, John Kilheffer, June contrasts sharply with the April ing execution excites nationalist fervor that crowded into the ante-chamber to witness can threaten to boil over into retaliatory vi- homecoming of another death-row veteran, the clinical killing. Outside of the Walls, an Ricardo Aldape Guerra. After more than olence. U.S. prisoners in Mexican jails are angry band of Mexican Americans yelled moved into protective custody, to keep fifteen years behind bars, Aldape Guerra " iAsesinos!" and " /Viva Irineo!" was abruptly released from Huntsville. He them from being attacked by their local Tristan Montoya's execution was the had been been convicted of the 1982 shoot- counterparts, and in Mexico City, the U.S. twenty-fourth of the 1997 Huntsville killing embassy cautions its employees to maintain ing death of a Houston police officer in a season, but he was only the second—or case that involved another (slain) perpetra- a low public profile. Such was the atmo- possibly third—Mexican to be hauled into sphere in the days leading up to the June 18 tor, but his lawyers won a new trial early the Texas death chamber since the state re- this year. Because key witnesses were no execution of Irineo Tristan Montoya, at the sumed killing prisoners in 1982. The exe- Walls Unit of the state prison in Huntsville. longer available and the eyewitness evi- cutions of Ignacio Cuevas in 1991 and dence had been suspect, the state of Texas Prisoner No. 847 had spent many years Ram6n Montoya in 1993 had little public on death row, at the Ellis Unit twenty miles chose not to retry the case. The Aldape impact. As often happens concerning Mex- Guerra decision was seen as a minor mira- up the road from the killing chamber at the icans or Mexican Americans on U.S. death cle in Mexico—four times he had been pre- Walls. Only one other Mexican, Cesar rows, Cuevas' actual country of birth was Fierro (convicted of killing an El Paso taxi pared for death by prison authorities, only disputed. Of the 106 prisoners executed in to be rescued by his lawyers at the last mo- driver in 1979) had been there longer. Tris- Texas in the ten years preceding Tristan ment. Now a "final feliz," a happy ending, tan Montoya was convicted in the stabbing Montoya's June 18 execution, sixteen were was at last in sight. death of a motorist who had given him and classified as Mexican-Americans. a companion a ride on a Texas border Fiestas were in order. The governor of Tristan Montoya's final passage through Nuevo Leon sent his private plane to wel- road—largely on the basis of a four-page his native state of Tamaulipas was a long, come Aldape Guerra home. The nation's confession in English, a language he did not sad ride, flushed with nationalist outrage. yet understand. second television network, TV Azteca, As the cortege rolled through Matamoros, pulled off a ratings coup by writing Aldape For a decade, Tristan Montoya had been and Tampico, and Ciudad Mante, to its Guerra into its hot soap opera, kept alive by a series of last-minute appeals. Al Norte de final resting place at Puerto Mexico on the Corazon, a cautionary tale of life and love This time, the Mexican government (which Caribbean, roadside crowds reiterated the maintains a death watch over its citizens fac- along the border. Within days of his re- chants of "i Asesinos!" and "i Viva Irineo!" lease, the former resident of death row was ing imminent execution in the U.S.) sought U.S. flags were burned outside that coun- presented by gloating TV Azteca flacks to to postpone the execution by citing the Con- try's embassy in Mexico City, and the front the press at a Mexico City cocktail party. A

18 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 startled Aldape Guerra mumbled to re- smuggling cases. until they are literally at death's door," ob- porters, "I'm not a legend, I'm not Pancho The stories of the twelve Mexicans cur- serves Arturo Solis, a Reynosa Tamaulipas Villa. I'm here by accident...." (In a final rently held at the Huntsville Ellis Unit yield human rights worker. Solis accuses the Mex- grim coincidence, Aldape Guerra departed unavoidable conclusions. Most committed ican government of not intervening in capital by accident as well. He was killed August the crime(s) for which they were convicted cases "until it is too late." An organizer of 21 in an automobile collision, near when very young—Suarez Medina was only Tristan Montoya's cortege through Tamauli- Matahuala, San Luis Potosi, en route to nineteen when he was accused of killing an pas, Solis described Mexico City's apparent Mexico City from his home in Monterrey.) undercover narcotics officer in Dallas. Even public efforts to save the convicted killer as those prisoners who have served the longest "nothing but propaganda." ccording to human rights groups, there stretches in Huntsville were convicted of Yet despite the nationalist outrage at the re" thirty-five Mexican citizens cur- frequent application of the death penalty in A rently housed on U.S. death rows— the U.S., there is now a certain growing twenty of them lacking legal representa- sentiment for the re-institution of capital tion. Mexicans represent only 1 percent of punishment in Mexico. The death penalty the more than 3,000 prisoners on death row remains on the books here, for such crimes in the U.S., but they account for more than as arson, patricide, pre-meditated murder, half of the number of condemned foreign and treason, but was removed from state citizens. On the evening following Suarez penal codes in 1970 and frozen by the fed- Medina's scheduled Texas execution, eral government. Military courts retain Mario Murphy is slated to be executed in capital punishment as an option for serious Virginia. Also upcoming: the execution of crimes, and there have been demands Ramon Martinez Villareal by the state of within the army for the death penalty to be Arizona. Martinez, at fifty-three the oldest imposed upon Brigadier General Jesds Mexican prisoner awaiting death in the Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's former drug U.S., has an IQ of 64, and is considered czar, accused of being in the employ of the mentally ill by medical doctors and his own late narco lord, Amado Carrillo. family. The Durango native was convicted The escalating violent crime rate has en- in a 1983 house robbery/double murder couraged the crusade to revive the death twenty-five miles north of the Nogales bor- penalty. Two to four homicides are com- der. As in many such cases (including that mitted in Mexico City every day (about of Tristan Montoya), Martinez's crime 1,400 out of the 6,000-7000 committed an- partner turned state's evidence and was nually throughout the country), and the de- freed. Martinez narrowly escaped execu- mand for vengeance has grown. Recently tion last June. Another Mexican impris- formed victims' groups are organizing oned in Arizona was not so lucky; in July, marches and petition drives, and taking out Ascensi6n Perez, lodged in the Nogales jail newspaper ads advocating the return of while facing the death penalty for a kidnap- capital punishment. murder, hung himself from the bars. On the other hand, Javier Ruiz de Velasco Mexicans on U.S. death rows mirror the is so appalled by such talk that he has taken map of their migrations north. A pair of to hanging himself, once a month, from a Mexicans languish on Illinois' death row, palm tree in front of the U.S. embassy. The and there are Mexicans awaiting execution startling apparition of the young man, clad in Oregon and Ohio, Nevada and North in a Virgin of Guadalupe t-shirt, dangling Carolina. But the bulk of death row prison- from a noose (he uses a harness) tends to ers are to be found in the big migration stop traffic. "The state's role is to respect states. Thirteen Mexicans are on death row homicides committed in their early twenties, life, not kill life. Capital punishment is state- at California's San Quentin prison. A four- and often under the influence of drugs or al- licensed homicide," Ruiz tells a U.S. re- teenth Mexican may soon join them— cohol. All are poor, from large families, and porter. "We're against it for everyone, not Francisco Covarrubias, the twenty-year- most are natives of border states who crossed just Mexicans. But the fact that the United old driver of a truckful of migrant workers, illegally into the U.S. to find work. At the age States has sentenced Javier Suarez to death eight of whom were killed during a south- of fifteen, for instance, Aldape Guerra sold on our most sacred patriotic holiday is an in- ern California chase by immigration offi: his bicycle to raise enough carfare to get to sult that Mexicans cannot disregard.... 11 cers in April 1996. The youth faces the Texas, and Tristan Montoya never attended death penalty under enhanced powers now grade school, instead selling oranges on the John Ross reports regularly from Mexico available to prosecutors, for fatalities oc- street to support his family. "These are young City for the Observer and other U.S. curring in connection with immigrant- men who are abandoned by their government publications.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 19

Torture and Technicalities BY DAVID R. DOW Everyone agrees that this case presents a due process violation, the knowing use of perjured testimony. —Judge Charles F.F Baird, dissenting, in the case of Cesar Fierro t 3 a.m. on an August morning in police are notorious for flouting the rights Juarez authorities. The trial judge believed 1979, police in Juarez, Mexico, of Juarenses in a way El Paso authorities Medrano and ruled that Fierro's confession rapped on the door of the house could never get away with. Yet, constrained was admissible. Fierro was convicted and where the mother and stepfather by different sets of law and mores, the two sentenced to death. of Cesar Fierro were sleeping. The couple police forces sometimes succeed in evading Fierro's conviction and sentence rested was rousted from their bed and driven to these constraints by a calculated division of solely on the testimony of Geraldo Olague police headquarters. Fierro's mother was labor. So when Juarez authorities called the and his own confession. Yet Olague has beaten; his stepfather was shown a El Paso police and told them of Olague's never explained why he waited nearly half chacharra, a device like an electric cattle statement, the El Paso police immediately a year before implicating Fierro; moreover, prod, and told it would be used on his geni- traveled to Juarez to arrest Fierro. he originally told authorities he had known tals. Neither of the two was ever charged That August, in the custody of the El Fierro for only a couple of weeks before with a crime. At seven that evening, the two Paso police, Cesar Fierro immediately pro- the murder of Castanon, but later testified were released and sent home. They were no claimed his innocence. He admitted know- that he and Fierro had been committing longer needed. ing Olague, admitted participating in rob- robberies together for six or seven months. Six months earlier, in February 1979, au- bery sprees with him, but steadfastly He said Fierro had taken a silver watch thorities in Texas had found the body of denied having murdered Castanon. Yet from Castan6n, but the watch was never Nicholas Castanon, an El Paso cab driver, during the course of a lengthy interroga- found. And he said he and Fierro had to- dumped in a city park. Castan6n had been tion, Fierro eventually signed a confession gether sold the murder weapon to a rancher shot in the back of the head. Mexican police saying that he and Olague had robbed Cas- south of Juarez, but neither the rancher nor found his cab across the border in Juarez. El tan6n and that Fierro had then shot him. the gun was ever located. Paso police soon arrested two men they sus- Authorities charged Fierro with capital Texas law renders it impossible to con- pected of murdering Castanon, but the two murder. An El Paso criminal defense lawyer vict someone of a crime solely on the basis were later released and the investigation lay was appointed to represent the indigent of the testimony of a co-conspirator, con- dormant for several months. Fierro, and Fierro insisted to his attorney sidered inherently unreliable because of In late July, a young man by the name of that he had not killed Castanon, and that he the incentive for one criminal to shift re- Geraldo Olague came into contact with had only signed the confession because dur- sponsibility for a crime onto his partner. Juarez police, either because the police sus- ing his interrogation the Juarez police Inexplicably, Olague was not treated by pected him of committing a series of rob- phoned to say that his mother and stepfather the Texas courts as Fierro's co-conspirator. beries, or because he approached them vol- were in police custody. Fierro was familiar Fierro's confession was a crucial piece of untarily. Olague told Juarez police officers with the methods of the Juarez police; he evidence, perhaps the crucial piece of evi- that he knew who killed Nicholas Castanon. knew what a chacharra is, and he under- dence. Without the confession, it is plausi- According to Olague, he and Cesar Fierro, a stood the meaning of the implied police ble to think that Fierro would not have Mexican national, had hatched the plan to rob threat: either he would confess to the mur- been convicted, and it is almost impossible Castanon, and after taking Castanon's der of Castanon, or the police in Juarez to believe that he would have been sen- money, to the surprise of Olague, Fierro sud- would torture his parents. He confessed; his tenced to death. denly shot and killed the cab driver. mother and step-father were sent home. Moreover, a significant piece of evidence During the initial meeting with his was not presented at the suppression hear- uarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, lawyer, Fierro said that the El Paso detec- ing: a document, written by Detective seem at times like one big city divided tive who had interrogated him, Al Medrano while Fierro was in custody, inch- Jonly by a narrow strip of the Rio Medrano, knew that the Juarez police had cating that the detective knew that Fierro's Grande. Drivers on Main Street in El Paso taken Fierro's family into custody, for family was in the custody of the Juarez po- can look to the south and see into the homes Medrano had spoken to Juarez police offi- lice. This report should have been provided built into the hillside in Juarez. Juarez is cers on the phone before handing the re- to Fierro's defense team in 1979, but it was poorer, but the two cities share a common ceiver to Fierro. On the basis of this story, not discovered by lawyers representing culture. Although Mexico has no death Fierro's lawyer sought to suppress the con- Fierro until 1994. When Fierro's lawyers ,penalty, and its government officially con- fession. At the suppression hearing, how- tracked down Medrano, he was close to siders the sanction to be barbaric, the Juarez ever, Detective Medrano denied Fierro's death from cirrhosis. He signed what might story, insisting he had never spoken to be regarded as a deathbed confession: an af-

20 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997

fidavit swearing that what he had written in sistently shown that approximately 1 per- moreover, the person who appoints them the police report was true. He admitted that cent of the death row population is inno- must be wary; a governor or a president he had indeed known that Fierro's parents cent of the crime for which the death who appoints judges or justices who are were in the custody of the Juarez police, and penalty was imposed. Thus, of the 3,500 or viewed as "soft on criminals" almost cer- that he had communicated this fact to Fierro. so death row inmates nationwide, around tainly will not be in a position to appoint The detective had finally admitted that he 35 are innocent; in Texas and California, many more. lied under oath at Fierro's suppression hear- which have about 400 death row inmates The nine judges on the Texas Court of ing. The district attorney who prosecuted apiece, perhaps four of the inmates in each Criminal Appeals in Texas are elected. The Fierro then signed an affidavit saying that he of the states are innocent. vote in Fierro's case was 5 to 4, against would not have used the confession had he Whether Cesar Fierro is among this 1 him. All nine judges agreed that the police known it had been coerced. Such an admis- percent is something we do not know. had lied and that the consequence of the lie sion is stunning and unprecedented. What we do know is that police used a was that Fierro's confession had been co- Fierro's lawyers took these two pieces of form of torture to extract a confession from erced. Yet five of the judges concluded that evidence—the evidence establishing that him, and then lied about it under oath. We these facts did not entitle Fierro to a new Medrano lied and the evidence that the know that the detective who lied later ad- trial. Of the four judges who concluded that prosecution would not have used Fierro's mitted he had lied. We know that the dis- Fierro was entitled to a new trial, three of confession—to the Texas Court of Crimi- trict attorney who prosecuted Fierro said he them had already determined that they nal Appeals. The court ordered an eviden- would not have used Fierro' s confession would not run for reelection when their tiary hearing on Fierro's case, and the hear- had he known all the facts. We know that a current terms expire. All of the five judges ing judge concluded that Fierro should judge who heard the evidence recom- who voted against Fierro have stated that receive a new trial. mended that Fierro get a new trial. And we they intend to remain on the court. Yet the Court of Criminal Appeals over- know that the highest court in Texas, in A decade ago, nearly 40 percent of all ruled the hearing judge. The court agreed spite of all this, declined to disturb Fierro's death penalty cases were deemed to have that Fierro's constitutional rights had been conviction or sentence. One question, ob- been infected by constitutional violations; violated, but concluded that he would viously, is whether Fierro is innocent of the American Bar Association recently probably have been convicted anyway, and murder; but there is a second less obvious found that this percentage remains roughly that the errors pertaining to the coerced yet equally compelling question: How the same, and called for a moratorium on ex- confession and Detective Medrano's per- could our system of justice have produced ecutions. These rulings on constitutionality jury were therefore all "harmless." The this result? ' were typically made by federal courts, Supreme Court of the United States de- One consequence of electing judges is where judges are immune from political clined to hear Cesar Fierro's appeal. that they lose their independence and be- pressures, rather than by state courts. But come beholden to interest groups, the same even the federal courts, especially the mericans love the death penalty. way politicians do. In California in the Supreme Court, eventually became exasper- Somewhere between 75 and 90 per- mid-'80s, Rose Bird, the chief justice of ated by death penalty appeals. The result has cent of those surveyed express the state's Supreme Court, was voted out of been that over the last decade the types of support for capital punishment. These office after her court ruled in most every claims that death row inmates can raise in numbers decline somewhat when the pun- death penalty case it confronted that the ex- federal court have been reduced dramati- ishment options include genuine life with- ecution could not be carried out because cally. Merely identifying a constitutional vi- out parole (and indeed, one of the reasons there had been constitutional violations. olation, no matter how egregious, is rarely prosecutors and victims-rights organiza- Similarly, in Texas in the early 1990s, a enough to warrant relief; it is also necessary tions oppose life-without-parole statutes is trial judge, Norman Lanford, made a ruling to prove that had the violation not occurred, that they realize the result would be fewer that resulted in the release of a man who the trial result would have been different. death penalties), but the sentiment is deep murdered a police officer. Although the Yet criminal trials are not laboratory exper- enough that politicians go out of their way legal soundness of Lanford's ruling was iments where it can be easily shown that alter- to demonstrate their affinity for the death never really in question, his decision so ing a single fact will change the outcome. So penalty. When President Clinton was run- outraged the police and district attorney's this standard of proof is almost impossibly ning for President in 1992, he made a very office—not to mention the voters—that a high. Thus, in one extraordinary case in 1995 public showing of refusing to halt the exe- candidate was recruited to run against Lan- (Gray v. Netherland), the Supreme Court held cution of a retarded inmate in Arkansas, ford and he was overwhelmingly defeated that the state can lie to the defendant about the and in Texas it is not uncommon for guber- in the subsequent election. When 75 to 90 nature of the evidence it intends to introduce natorial candidates to boast about the num- percent of the population supports the at the punishment phase of the defendant's ber of executions that have been carried out death penalty, a system of electing judges trial—as long as the defendant cannot prove under their watch. ensures that judges will care more about he did not commit the crime. And in a perhaps Yet most Americans also 'recoil at the implementing the death penalty than safe- even more extraordinary case in 1993 (Her- . prospect of executing an innocent man. guarding a defendant's constitutional Studies over the last half century have con- rights. Even when judges are appointed, See "Fierro," p. 27. THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 MOLLY IVINSI Watching the Teamster Watch Here we are again with some seriously inadequate reporting on the Teamsters, spreading misunder- standing nationwide. The long-expected decision by federal election overseer Barbara Zack Quindel that last year's Teamster election has to be re-run, was treated as though it were an astonishing revela- tion—evening newscasts, front-page treatment etc ctually, that story had been widely trusteeship—more than one out of every lawyer for Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit reported for several months; every- ten locals. Hoffa and the old guard natu- until at least 1993. According to the one involved expected it. And the rally claim that Carey was only replacing Gazette-Mail in West Virginia, Leebove Carey forces did indeed foul up his political enemies within the union. Try went on to run a communications company royally; what they did was both stupid and New York Local 966, run by Jack Mc- that attacked Carey's reformers in Chicago illegal, and the fact that they . returned Carthy and his four sons for thirty years. and elsewhere. $200,000 in questionable contributions McCarthy had been convicted five times of Just to remind you of the kind of propa- doesn't make it any better.The scam was labor racketeering. And so it went in local ganda spread by the old LaRouche outfit, simple: Kickback money went into the after local after local. they were the folks who claimed that Carey campaign, funneled through a public- Not that the process is complete by any Queen Elizabeth II was a drug dealer, that interest group, Citizen Action, and through means. The Village Voice pointed out in Henry Kissinger spied for the Soviets, and Michael Ansara, the head of a labor-ori- December that 807, the Javits Center local, that the since-deceased Nelson Rockefeller ented telemarketing firm, the Share Group. has been run by Joe Mangan for twenty- practiced cannibalism. According to the Citizen Action, which had done good com- five years with help from the Gambino Gazette-Mail, "Since the 1970s, Geller and munity organizing work, is discredited and crime family. And the even more notorious Leebove have specialized in smearing re- destroyed by this. One of Carey's campaign 295, the New York airport freight local run form candidates in Teamster and United consultants has been indicted on mail fraud by the Lucchese family, was made famous Mine Workers elections." charges, and two others have been forced to in the film Goodfellas. Last month's news coverage gave both aid resign. Bad doings all 'round. In addition to the seventy-plus trustee- and comfort to the mob-controlled Team- But, in addition to being old news, the ships, Carey sold off the union's two jets, sters' old guard. Way to go, media. ❑ story as reported last month contained some ended free lunches at headquarters, and rather large lacunae (a fancy word for holes stopped holding union conferences in Molly Ivins is a former Observer editor big enough for a Teamster to drive a truck Hawaii. He also cut pay to union leaders and a columnist at the Fort Worth Star- through). For one thing, it might interest and infuriated many of the old-guard lead- Telegrain. readers to know that Carey won even ers by stopping the system under which though Jimmy Hoffa outspent him in that they got multiple salaries through regional election by about 3 to 1 ($3.7 million to boards. On top of that, Carey continues to Carey's $1.6 million), not that that excuses live in the same apartment he had before he the Ansara scam. was elected president, and as you noticed In addition to the endless repetitions in from watching him on television, this is not the headlines—"Carey, Corruption," "Cor- a man who spends a lot of money on his ruption, Carey" (Carey has been charged suit. But this is the man whom ABC al- with no wrongdoing in this mess)—at least lowed Jiminy Hoffa to call corrupt and dis- one Sunday-morning chat show gave a honest without any response. good chunk of air time to Hoffa with no re- And, of course, while linking Carey's sponse whatsoever from Teamster leader- name to corruption, the media have not ship. When you talk about corruption and bothered to look at Mr. Hoffa and his the Teamsters, it is wise to follow the oldest charming allies. Hoffa's constantly quoted rule of political reporting: "Look at the spokesman Rich Leebove is a former lieu- record." Carey's record is this: He was tenant in the whacky conspiracy cult of Lyn- elected in 1991 with the support of Team- don LaRouche, who went to prison for bilk- 307 West 5th, Austin, TX sters for a Democratic Union, whose ten- ing his contributors through false credit-card (512) 477-1137 year struggle against the mob is one of the billings. Leebove left LaRouche's National most 'heroic chapters in labor history; Caucus of Labor Committees in October Since then, Carey has placed more than 1981. He has since worked with another ex- seventy union locals under court-ordered LaRouchie, George R. Geller, who was a

22 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 JIM HIGHTOWERI Nuclear Negligence Remember the classic late-night TV a4 featuring an elderly woman sprawled on the floor saying, "Help rve fallen and I cant get up" ? ell, tragically, tens of thou- cheated, by a Clinton administration deci- Well, that's because you're on the wrong sands of Americans can't get sion to lift a twenty-year ban against selling end of the corporate ladder, Bucko! If you up, because of something that arms to Latin American governments. This were at the top, you could actually enjoy get- fell on them from the sky: ra- is a policy change that Lockheed Martin ting bounced. Look at John Walter, the num- Wdioactive iodine. and other weapons manufacturers have ber two operator at AT&T. He got fired in During the '50s and '60s, atomic bomb been lobbying for furiously, hoping to sell July after only nine months on the job, but tests were made in Nevada, even though billions' worth of tanks, fighter jets and you don't see him moping around. That's government scientists knew the radioactive other high-tech weaponry to Latin Ameri- because Ma Bell put $26 million in his sev- fallout would spread across the country— can generals. erance package. Plus, AT&T bought Wal- and be drawn up into the food chain, often On the other hand, those pushing for ter' s house from him for $3 million more. through dairy products. Not to worry, they democracy have dreaded this day, since it Likewise Gilbert Amelio couldn't hack said, a little iodine won't hurt you. opens a new arms race among Latin Amer- it after seventeen months at Apple Com- A little? The National Cancer Institute ican military regimes, which have a history puter, but he still got a $7 million severance now tells us that this fallout was ten times of using their arsenals against their neigh- package. Robert Greenhill' s three-year greater than that from the Chernobyl nu- bors and their own struggling people. Yet, tenure at Smith Barney ended with him se- clear plant explosion in Russia. So much, in in a cynical bit of doublespeak, Clinton ac- curing a $22 million severance. Then fact, that every county in America got some tually said he was lifting the arms ban "to there's Michael Ovitz's fourteen-month fallout; that ninety-eight counties became promote stability and security among our trip to Disney Inc., ending in a whopping fall-out "hot spots"; that a quarter million of neighbors." Security for whom? Not for the severance of more than $90 million. our people suffered dangerous levels of ex- impoverished majority, who will now be New York Times writer Judith Dobrzyn- posure; and that up to 75,000 cases of thy- confronted by a military establishment with ski calls it the "sweet smell of failure." roid cancer have resulted. even more weapons to hold them down. One wonders: Where is the Board of Di- Iodine concentrates in the thyroid, and the Oh, the weapons makers say, the region rectors when these platinum payoffs are incidence of thyroid cancer among people now is controlled by elected civilian gov- being lavished on departing executives? who were children at the time has risen four- ernments, and the threat of military action After all, these millions belong to the fold above normal. One of the hot spots is is nil. I wish! Unfortunately, from Mexico stockholders, and board members are Meagher County, Montana, where the to Paraguay, the generals still lurk and sworn to protect their money. Mayns family is mad as hell. Deryl Mayns, scheme. Indeed, the first in line to buy But guess who sits on the boards? Execu- the 61-year-old matriarch of the family, told weapons is Augusto Pinochet, the notori- tives from other corporations, and their Cor- USA Today that she has an enlarged thyroid, ously brutal former dictator of Chile. While porate Buddy System has them scratching her two elderly sisters had to have thyroid he's no longer dictator, he still heads the each other's backs! When chief executives surgery, and her son was desperately ill for military—and he's rushed to Lockheed to retire, they don't fade away—they reappear seven years because his thyroid simply quit buy two dozen F-16 jets. on the boards of their buddies' companies, working. Others in the county are sick, too. These sales cheat us as citizens, because where they can be counted on to be gener- Especially appalling is that officials have they mock our peaceable principles, turning ous to a fault. One survey found that 90 per- known about this for forty years, but failed America into an arms proliferator while cent of retiring CEOs find their way onto at to tell the people. Thyroid cancers grow we're preaching disarmament. They cheat us least one corporate board, where they're very slowly and are curable, but chances of as taxpayers, too, since we subsidize these paid an average of $44,000 a year to be "yes survival are much greater if you're treated purchases—by giving money to the generals men" to the companies' top executives. when the cancer first appears. As one so they will buy from the Lockheeds. They say it's lonely at the top—but not watchdog group put it, "It's criminal that New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey when you've got your buddies on board. ❑ they did not alert the public." For more in- wants to reinstate the arms-sale ban—and formation, contact the Physicians for Social common sense. Call her at (202) 225-6506. Jim Hightower is a former Observer editor Responsibility at (202) 898-0150. and Agriculture Commissioner. His na- CORPORATE FEATHERBEDDING tional radio show broadcasts daily, but not WAR IS PEACE Down on your luck, Bucko? Been fired and in most Texas cities—readers should visit An ad for a car repair shop asked, "Why go finding it hard to get rehired? Trying to make Threadgill's World Headquarters and sign elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first." ends meet in the Lean & Mean Corporate the petition to get Jim on the air. Or call Well, we citizens and taxpayers are being '90s with only a few weeks' severance pay? Gary Dugger at (512) 288-3170.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 BOOKS & THE CULTURE/

Culture Shock His name is St. John Birth wounded, now rewounded And I pronounce it By my ignorance, As any American might, He blushes and turns to gaze at me Causing his classmates to With pleading eyes. Fall into fits of giggles and guffaws Rising, he limps forward hesitantly And to stare at this slender slip of a child To whisper "Sinjun" in my ear. Whose twisted-body seems I sense his pain. Made of mismatched parts. I hope he senses my remorse. ROBERTA FAULKNER SUND

All These Names All these improbable names, I can't imagine a million dogs that have no homes, but then it had to be someone, so turn to think how unlikely that I breathe, twelve someones, so why not these? that my fingers move this pen, Dusty, Doug, Joann, Jason K., that tissue connects my arms to my torso, Hank, Kyle, Brad, Sandra Gail, Scott, that my cells are and cease, that I live, Mike, Sam, Jason D. that I remember the time of the dead cells, Only at great odds do each of us exist. that the cells pass on memory, all of it, Like the one toothpick from the box of 300 before dying, that we, like the cells, pass on we get picked, but these odds aren't high enough. what we know or feel or smell or hear before we die, The problem is I can't think beyond 500. that we write this all down and save it on paper, What does 50,000 mean? or a million? that we give it, pass it, print it for others a billion? who want to read us, that we need to read others, a billion hamburgers? need to know others to make ourselves a million yucca seeds? the unlikely names that we are. a million movies?

Green Here, Your Favorite Color, Daddy The barn. You. Your horse. Early March West Texas morning, and I know the shirt you wear hangs faded brown. Your bones have no flesh. Your hand circles, loosely circles the rein. The horse's eyes, like yours, reflect the pickup truck and the trailer in the blowing dry air. Your decision, firm, is to never ride again on a long prairie trail. You lead him into the hitched-up trailer easy, easy as on any morning ride. The horse steps in; you drop your red handkerchief. I want you to wish this wasn't the last loading. You and the horse accept this all too well, as if you have practiced in another dawn. You bend to pick up the handkerchief, shake out the dust, and I think I could console you. I cry out, but you tell me, it's not the end of the world. You tell me I have to learn to stand it, have to stop crying and stand it. A thousand miles and a world away, the rain falls to Florida trees and grass already green. The air, heavy like steam, rises, blurs my face. I can't see, but then remember that even some of the bugs down here in Florida are green, remember too that green is the only color you ever believed in. —SANDRA GAIL TEICHMANN

oberta Faulkner Sund taught chemistry for twenty years in Farley's Boys Ranch north of Amarillo, which Teichmann de- Texas, one in England, and one in Hawaii, and currently scribes as "uncommon and wonderful for all who participated." Rlives in Wichita Falls. Sandra Gail Teichmann teaches writ- The poems about learning one another's names feel just perfect for ing and literature at West Texas A&M University in Canyon. "All these slightly discombobulating, anticipatory back-to-school days. These Names" was written during a workshop conducted at Cal —Naomi Shihab Nye

24 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 Head-On Collisions A Teacher and His Students Between the Word and the World BY PAUL JENNINGS CHASING HELLHOUNDS: Barthelme, where small groups are seated A Teacher Learns from His Students. around their rectangular tables discussing By Marvin Hoffman. the mythic town of Macondo brought to life Milkweed Editions. by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in One Hun- 260 pages. $14.95. dred Years of Solitude.... Next period these same tables will be occupied by students t will come as no surprise to regu- who have never heard of Hiroshima, who lar readers of the Observer that can identify neither the combatants in the Marvin Hoffman's book, Chasing Vietnam War, nor its outcome. Many of Hellhounds, is a fascinating ac- them have reached the tenth grade without count of his experiences in the having read a single complete novel. public school system. As a Another author might have found Jones' teacher, writer, psychologist, so- potent mixture of class and race an irre- cial activist, and occasional con- sistible invitation to polemicize over the tributor to these pages, Hoffman's varied unsteady journey of public education over 1career has taken him from an early stint on the past few decades. Hoffman resists. In- an Israeli kibbutz to the Mississippi free- stead, he has fashioned Chasing Hell- dom schools of the 1960s to one-room hounds out of a series of loosely connected schools in rural Vermont. In 1982 Hoffman vignettes, most telling the story of a single and his wife, novelist Rosellen Brown, student. Sweeping policy conclusions, as a rule, are nowhere in sight. "I have tended to moved to Houston, where Brown had ac- • Marvin Hoffman Frederic Stein cepted a position at the university. Hoffman paint on smaller canvases," Hoffman tells soon found himself teaching English and when he provides physical descriptions of us. "Individual children, single classrooms, creative writing in Houston's public the community, the school, and the neigh- single schools." schools, first at an elite middle school on borhood "walkers": children forced to walk Hoffman's favorite subjects tend to be the city's affluent west side, and later at to school down the middle of streets in lieu students hanging by a thread: artistic types Jesse H. Jones High School, a struggling of non-existent sidewalks, in order to avoid yearning their way through the school year inner-city school serving a largely African- the overflowing drainage ditches. dressed in black; homeless teenagers rais- American student body. But there's also an interesting academic ing on their own their younger siblings; the Although Chasing Hellhounds touches twist. In addition to serving the students liv- son of prominent leftists who must testify on many different moments in Hoffman's ing in the surrounding neighborhood, Jones against his own mother in a drug case. In career, the focus is on Hoffman's years at functions as an HISD liberal arts "magnet" other hands, this approach might have Jones. Named after a local financier and po- school, attracting academically gifted stu- turned into so much talk-show fodder. But litical fixer, Jones High opened its doors in dents from across Houston. Many of these Hoffman, who managed to pick up a Ph.D. the late 1950s to serve South Park, a subdi- students are from middle-class or profes- in psychology between teaching gigs, is vision characterized by a winding subur- sional backgrounds, and once they leave highly attuned to the vivid interior worlds ban-style street plan and inexpensive tract Jones, are headed for elite colleges and uni- inhabited by adolescents, and even in the housing punched out by its developers. versities. In this sometimes uneasy mixture most daunting cases, through his eyes we These days, however, South Park is a of "regular" and "vanguard" students, Hoff- can begin to understand the courage and sprawling, working-class neighborhood, man and the other Jones teachers come face emotional resilience of these children. mostly noted for its grinding poverty and its to face with the harsh realities of urban ed- A common thread running through many low-lying streets that flood regularly, ucation in the post-Reagan era: of the stories is Hoffman's affirmation of thanks to storm sewers that appear to be ut- If you chanced to enter my Vanguard the restorative and occasionally transform- terly non-functional. After one of Hous- classroom, you would hear Kate describ- ing effect of literature. His eclectic syllabus ton's frequent downpours, it's easy to visu- ing her video project, for which she is in- runs from Shakespeare to Harvey Fier- alize So-uth Park and its high school as terviewing people about their conceptions stein's Torch Song Trilogy (a dramatic ex- adrift in a sea of political indifference. of beauty, where Seth is writing a short amination of gay men's lives that ruffles a Some of Hoffman's best writing occurs story inspired by his reading of Donald few classroom feathers). A wonderful

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 25 chapter on his students' encounter with Studs Terkel's book Working lets us see the students start to understand the powerful social role writers can play, and also makes one wonder why terms like "consciousness- raising" have disappeared from the current debate on educational reform. In fact, much of the charm of Chasing Hellhounds comes from Hoffman's recounting of the head-on collisions that occur between his emotion- ally-charged students and the written word, and he is generous with providing us with many examples of his students' writings. Like most things teenagers do, these are usually insightful, poignant, and infuriating all at the same time.

offman is also good about describ- ing the day-to-day details of a Hworking teacher's life, from arrang- ing desks to creating lesson plans to partic- ipating in faculty basketball games. A charming and unassuming man in person, Hoffman has had more than his share of run-ins with administrative types over the years—a fate unhappily common to all teachers committed to their students. Teaching, as he reminds us, is a noble pro- fession, and standardized measures of ped- agogical efficiency cannot be allowed to antic notO „...k..-.. mask the essentially moral aspects of a free schools and,,,,,.. , teacher's job. This means, inevitably, shak- "mr"..),,zek,‘.4 otw\.,.., ing things up. "We must act as if change is As a parent, one of the things I really cause people wound within reach," Hoffman tells us, "lest our liked about this hook is this chance to and control over to kids, but also aban-, children inherit from us a paralyzing pes- look into the inner, mental world of these Boning their own natural authority in the simism and resignation that ensure that no kids. classroom and backing away from their change will occur." At the very least, Hoff- As I said in the book, I feel that it's been responsibility to be leaders and teachers. man challenges teachers to emulate the a real privilege: to be allowed that I think that was very naive, and a lot of "heartening resilience" displayed by so glimpse into kids' inner lives, and one of stuff unraveled as a result of that. many of their students. the reasons I've been privileged enough Marvin Hoffman's book is a gift. These to have that access is because of the writ- In your introduction you talk about days, when the calls for educational reform ing I do with kias. It's in their writing teaching being a "noble profession." range from running our schools like mini- that they most reveal themselves. I really believe that, and it's very painful mum-security prisons to handing public to see how degraded it is in the eyes of so funding over to the bible thumpers, Marvin As soon as you started talking about what many people, and not respected by the Hoffman has reminded us of a vision of an was going on inside the classroom and community at large and often not re- educational system based on freedom, indi- with the kids, I realized how unfamiliar I spected by the teachers themselves, who vidual expression, and social commitment. was with most of what happens there. have internalized this rather low opinion More importantly, he has reminded us of the I had many different objectives in writ- that the rest of society has of them. One basic humanity of our children, and their ing the book, and one of them was give of the wonderful things about directing people like you—parents and other inter- this writing project at Rice and HISD sometimes desperate need for our love. ❑ ested so-to-speak "lay people"—some that I've been doing for the last eight Paul Jennings is a Houston freelance glimpse inside that world. I think for years, is that it has been giving me a writer, currently at work on a book about most adults, once they've finished with chance to get beyond my own classroom the city and its history. their own schooling years, except for and wander in schools throughout the

26 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 "Fierro," from p. 21. "Greenpeace," from p. 14 rera v. Collins), the Supreme Court held that Longtime activist and board member the question of whether a death row inmate is Barlow was upbeat, saying this move might innocent is simply not a question of constitu- very well save Greenpeace in the long run. tional magnitude. "While this reorganization is tough on ev- Fierro has been defeated in his appeals erybody, it does offer us an important op- by these developments of the past decade, portunity. The future of Greenpeace rests on which permit almost all constitutional vio- the ability to liberate Greenpeace campaign lations to go uncorrected. Typically, when activities and allow them to do what Green- the media use the phrase "legal technical- peace does best. Greenpeace staff won't be ity," what is meant is that a criminal who stuck in D.C. They will go where the action ay a did in fact commit a crime has been re- is. There has been a pattern of layoffs for are part noble profeSk leased. Yet these so-called technicalities several years and that has had an eroding shamelessly trying to be inspirational can also—and at least as often do—prevent psychological effect on everyone in the or- there, for some young people who people who did not commit a crime from ganization. Hopefully a new spirit, a new might be making some kind of career proving their innocence. If Cesar Fierro is board and a new executive director will choice. I think a lot of teachers in an executed it will not be because the state bring us into a new era." earlier era responded to reading Herbert proved that he killed Nicholas Castanon, From former director Dudley's perspec- Kohl and Jonathan Kozol and some of but because he cannot prove that he did not. tive, she offered just one sentiment for the fu- the books that came out in the ' 60s If Cesar Fierro is executed, it will be be- ture. "What ever they do, they should move where they got a similar sense of the cause a "technicality" allowed the authori- out of Washington. If Greenpeace is to have nobility of teaching, of the possibilities ties to coerce a confession from him, and an effective role in the future, it shouldn't be of social change that the profession then get away with it. walking the halls inside the beltway." ❑ held out. I would love to be lumped with people who are communicating David Dow, a Professor of Law at the Uni- Don Hazen is the Executive Director of the that kind of message. —P.J. versity of Houston Law Center, has been co- Institute for Alternative Journalism and counsel for Cesar Fierro since 1991. former publisher of Mother Jones.

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SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS, OBSERVER • 27 BOOKS & THE CULTURE / On the Vegas Highway Hunter S Thompson Adventures in Self-Promotion BY LARS EIGHNER THE PROUD HIGHWAY: son's correspondence, believes the roots of one past thirty could be trusted. Saga of a Desperate Southern gonzo (which first appeared in 1970, when Is Thompson an anomaly for having Gentleman, 1955-1967. Thompson gored his hometown's sacred some vaguely leftist politics while gushing By Hunter S. Thompson. cow, the Kentucky Derby) lay in Thomp- over Ayn Rand, for hunting wild boar in Villard. son's frustration at being unable to break Big Sur while being on speaking terms 683 pages. $29.95. into fiction: "It [Fear And Loathing In Las with Joan Baez, or for taking himself seri- Vegas] was not lunacy defined, but lunacy ously as a writer—and someone who is unter S. Thompson is a imagined: in short, a novel." Yet, gonzo is saving all these carbon copies and pho- scary guy. But you knew just a step or two beyond shoot-from-the- tographing himself bent over a typewriter that. hip foreign correspondence of the 1950s. so often takes himself very seriously as a The Proud Highway Consider this: in 1959, for reasons best writer—while holding the position of is a scary book, if for no known and explained by himself, Thomp- sports editor for an Air Force base house other reason than that son kicked in the candy machine at the organ, eventually writing for Pageant and such a ponderous tome (New York) Daily Re&;.rd. In a rational Ramparts at the same time? Any of those could hurt some one if it world, this might have been a career-end- would be an irresolvable contradiction for fell off the shelf. This is a collection of ing move, but a mere three years later a flower child. Killing wild boar? You Thompson's letters—from 1955 to 1967 Thompson made a well-armed (and well- might as well club a few baby fur seals only—but the the editor, Douglas Brinkley, liquored) canvass of Latin America, and while you're at it. But isn't this really frighteningly assures us this selection is but a his reports were received seriously by The where the silent ones, or many of them, small fraction of the letters from that period, National Observer—he was Dow Jones' were at? We hippies always assumed that and this is the first of three volunie§, which than in Rio and in Bogota, indeed the anyorie Who acted like Thompson wrote will skim the surface of the approximately whole continent, and they were running was an agent provocateur—it was a safe twenty thousand letters Thompson has writ- both his articles and some of his letters. assumption, but maybe not a•true one. ten and saved in his lifetime. This trilogy is How could this have happened? Well, it The phrase "fear and loathing" first ap- to be known as "The Fear and Loathing Let- could not happen in a sane world, but in the pears in Thompson's writing November 22, ters." It could hardly be more aptly named. real one, Cuba had shocked people into the 1963. He was devastated, in spite of having The first volume leaves off just after the recognition that there might be something exhibited no special fondness for John publication of Hell's Angels—somewhat newsworthy going on in Latin America, Kennedy before (except in the minimal way before "gonzo" journalism or fear-and- and no one seemed to have a better reporter that Kennedy was not Nixon). To the next loathing-in-Las-Vegas T-shirts, but before on the spot. Or so Thompson alleged in a generation, assassination or attempted as- Thompson had become (literally) a cartoon diatribe addressed to Philip Graham sassination was simply a sad fact of politi- character (Doonesbury's Uncle Duke). (owner of the Washington Post and cal life. It must have been something espe- Reading these letters in light of Thomp- Newsweek). These were insane times; Gra- cially disillusioning to a generation which son's whole career, the question soon be- ham answered the letter. could hardly remember anything except a comes; Is it possible to distinguish the poseur How far out is Thompson? I have to won- few isolated and feeble attempts. from the pose? The answer, I think, is, "No." der. The Silent Generation was called that Thompson's political reputation, as This is the story of young man trying to for a reason, and we have not heard much some-kind-of-leftist-we-think, rests pretty attract attention who made a face, and it from it since Kerouac, and he after all was much upon his having hated all the right froze that way. Which was the real Hunter pounding the Beat beat and not trying to people at all the right times and his having S. Thompson: the contributor to The Na- probe the silence. Thompson was pounding a observed that—especially in regard to Latin tion, or the card-carrying member of the typewriter—three, four, five letters a night, America—American foreign policy has National Rifle Association? Both, I think, sometimes two thousand a year, and in those been, more often than not, incredibly short- and it is not just a matter of some unusual pre-Xerox days making carbons and stashing sighted and sometimes plainly stupid. In one philosophical twist; Thompson is a gun nut. them away. Now that this reservoir of logor- of his letters he summarizes his beliefs: "My So I believe I'll pass on the "but his heart is rhea has burst upon us, we ought to wonder position is and always has been that I dis- in the right place," when it is served. if there isn't more like this walled up in those trust power and authority, together with all Novelist William Kennedy (Pulitzer for taciturn folks who turned thirty (as Thomp- those who come to it by conventional Ironweed), a long-term victim of Thomp- son did in 1967) just in time to hear that no means—whether it is guns, votes, or out-

28 ■ THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 in a Chicago suburb, and was subsequently sentenced on New Year's Day to 73 years in Joliet prison. Upon hearing the sen- tence, I mercilessly slew a juror and three guards and fled into the night. I am now working as a pimp on New York's Upper West Side, in the heart of the Puerto Rican section. In the short space of three weeks, I've become addicted to morphine, ched- dar cheese extract, and three more forms of sexual perversion.... There are similar, if more subtle, forays into the styles of whichever writer Thomp- son was impressed with at the moment— Fitzgerald was a favorite for a time—but the more disturbing thing is his promiscu- ity with other writers' philosophies. He gushes over Ayn Rand's The Fountain- head, and Norman Mailer's "The White Negro" inspires Thompson's theory that working-class people are "Niggers." The book includes endless photographs of Thompson in pensive poses, and the photos are credited to Thompson: he has used an automatic shutter. This realization makes it a little hard to follow his stinging denunciations of the hypocrisy of conven- tional ("Rotarian") journalism. There is • Thompson self-portrait Hunter S. Thompson something a little disgusting about young men too much on the make—a desperate right bribery. There are two main evils in the Nixon and a fondness for hallucinogens into Southern gentleman, indeed—and there is world today: one is Poverty, the other is a literary career. plenty of material here for a full explo- Government." This might seem leftist in the As a writer, I find Thompson's early let- ration of that sensation. There is a wide se- heart of the Cold War, when it was written, ters embarrassing. Perhaps I am too easily lection of funny letters to creditors, pecu- but today it could be slipped into the pream- embarrassed (sometimes I hope I am really liar salutations in letters to chums, and ble of any militia manifesto without seem- a space alien, because it would be too em- grand, sweeping, purple passages. It is ing out of place. And consider this, on barrassing to be certain I belong to the rather hard to believe that there will ever be racism: "Hell, I have a strain of it myself, same species that calls radio talk shows, or a severe shortage of sophomoric epistles, and the only thing that has brought me hosts them). Thompson uses his letters to but we had better grab these because there around this far is the fact that every time I've try on the style of whichever novelist has will not be many more like them. seen a black-white confrontation I've had to caught his eye for the moment. Here he is We are past the age of Xerox, and while admit the negroes were Right." as John Dos Passos: the electronic age of literature has not (and I have two theories, which are not entirely In London—Anthony Eden is wondering probably will not) bring about a paperless mutually exclusive. One is that Thompson is which of England's two enemies will kill it office, it has brought about the carbon- the kind of guy who the left could and did at- first.... In Paris—a shopkeeper prepares paper-less office. Drafts and copies are too tract in the Sixties, but nowadays take their for church. His room above the store is easily eradicated in hard-disk crashes, or cues from Rush Limbaugh—guys who were cold in the morning, so he hurries to the with a touch of a button by embarrassed au- with us when issues could be drawn as church, where it is always warm.... In New thors or their estates. Heirs who could not clearly as voting rights or the Vietnam war, York—a prostitute quietly sips a cup of cof- overlook a closet full of paper-filled boxes but who just don't get the message on affir- fee in an all night coffee shop can too easily ignore disk drives. mative action and who can't even be talked And here he is as (a somewhat more Nothing in The Proud Highway is quite to about gun control. We could stand to un- tongue-in-cheek) Henry Miller: so scary as that. ❑ derstand this type better. My other theory is On Christmas Eve, I voluntarily and that Thompson is a cynical opportunist who under the influence of drink confessed to Lars Eighner is the author of Travels with parlayed an animal revulsion to Richard four heinously cruel homosexual offenses Lizbeth and several other books.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 29 AFTERWORD Last of the Southern Belle-Lettrists BY DON GRAHAM First things first: his name was William Humphrey, not "Humphries," as I have heard absolutely hundreds of people say who should know better. There must be something in Texas linguistic patterns that makes people want to pluralize that name.

econd, and much more im- 1978, made honorable additions to the an- portantly, William Humph- glers' bookshelf. His last book, September rey's death last month, at age Song, published in 1992, was a collection of seventy-three, marks the end stories. In all there were thirteen books. He of a rich tradition in Texas was not without honor in his home state, on writing, one whose like we three occasions receiving prizes from the shall not see again. The rea- Texas Institute of Letters for individual sons are both historical and books, and, in 1996, he won the Lon Tinkle cultural. Humphrey, born in 1924 in Award for Lifetime Achievement, but he SClarksville, Red River County, in the far was too ill to attend the annual meeting. northeastern corner of the state, grew up in Though Humphrey rarely returned to a Southern community almost indistin- Texas, in the mid-'70s he revisited his guishable from that of William Faulkner's home town, and the result was one of his Lafayette County in Mississippi. The main best books, a memoir, Farther Off from cash crop was cotton, and the hills and Heaven (1977). It provides a definitive por- forests in the surrounding countryside af- trait, from a child's perspective, of forded fine venues for hunting. Humphrey's Clarksville in the 1920s and '30s. His fa- first novel, following an apprenticeship in ther, a figure of considerable personality short fiction capped by the publication, in and physical charm, was a world - Class auto

1953, of The Last Husband and Other . Sto- mechanic at the beginning of the auto age. ries, was Home From the Hill, published in A William Humphrey Terry Bauer To diagnose what ailed a car, he would lie 1958. Two years later it was made into a atop the hood, listening to the engine as the successful Hollywood melodrama starring that left everybody gratefUl for having been owner slowly drove through the streets of Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker. The born in the South. Clarksville. The changes in small-town life novel bore strong Faulknerian influences in The main thrust of the novel, however, is wrought by the advent of the automobile its syntactical complexity and its fondness the wanderings of protagonist Sam Ord- have rarely been depicted as thoroughly or for yarn-spinning and hunting lore. way, who undertakes a picaresque search to as charmingly. Humphrey's father also in- In 1965 Humphrey published what I think recover his son, stolen by a family who lost structed his son in the rituals and joys of is his best novel, The Ordways, which took their only boy. Sam makes his way from hunting game in the nearby woods. Added the measure of the entire legendary matter of safe, secure, tree-embowered East Texas to to the intimate portrait of a child's view of the Lone Star state. In this pan-Texas novel, dangerous cities like Fort Worth and then to childhood, and of the mysterious adult be- Humphrey begins with an epic account of the stark, empty, tree-less prairies of cattle havior for which he lacks the experience the coming of the original Ordway from the country out west, where, in a hilarious send- and even language to decode, is Humph- war-tom South to start anew in Texas, just up of cowboy lore, the cowpunchers turn rey's retrospective look at a lost world. In over the border from the Red River. out to be gay caballeros. Sam eventually one dazzling passage, he defines the new Humphrey's description of the perilous finds his long lost son, grown up and living East Texas against the old: crossing of the river is one of the best pieces in a hacienda in the Valley, fully accultur- Gone were the spreading cotton fields I in all of his fiction. This novel also contains ated to Hispanic Texas. remembered, though this was the season the definitive rendering of Decoration Day, Other novels and collections of stories when they should have been beginning to an event of considerable importance in rural followed. A Time and A Place, containing whiten. The few patches that remained were Texas of the past: a day, usually in May, some of his best stories, appeared in 1968; small and sparse, like the patches of snow when families and neighbors gathered at the Proud Flesh, a novel, 1973; Hostages to lingering on in sunless spots in New England local cemetery to clean up the graveyard and Fortune, 1984; and No Resting Place, 1989. in March and April. The prairie grass that pay homage to both the past and the present. His Collected Stories appeared • in 1985. had been there before the fields were broken The highlight of Decoration Day was dinner There were books about fishing: The for cotton had reclaimed them. The woods on the grounds, a feast of Southern cooking Spawning Run, 1970, and My Moby Dick, were gone—even Sulphur Bottom, that 1

30 • THE TEXAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 12, 1997

t wilderness into which my father had gone in sions Perry. Humphrey in particular recog- Don Graham's Giant Country: Essays pursuit of the fugitive gunman: grazing land nized in Porter a pioneering literary artist. on Texas will be published by TCU Press now, nearly all of it. For in a move that re- He told her in a letter that every time he sat in Spring, 1998. Several of the pieces in the verses Texas history, a move totally opposite down to write, he had open before him for collection were originally published in the to what I knew in my childhood, one which inspiration such works of hers as "Old Mor- Observer. all but turns the world upside down, which tality," "Noon Wine," "The Cracked Look- makes the sun set in the East, Red River ing-Glass," and "The Old Order." County has ceased to be Old South and be- The works of this tradition of Southern come Far West. I who for years had had to writers in Texas are deeply, permanently set my Northern friends straight by pointing grounded in East Texas, not the West out that I was a Southerner, not a Westerner, Texas of ranching and cowboy legend so .(A,e'‘ "b4e4e,t1 and that I had never seen a cowboy or for celebrated by the better known trinity of that matter a beefcow any more than they Texas writing, J. Frank Dobie, Roy Be- 7 had, found myself now in that Texas of leg- dichek, and Walter Prescott Webb. Porter, 6z4e_al. end and the popular image which when I was Perry, Goyen, and Owens are gone; now a child had seemed more romantic to me Humphrey has joined them. The world they than to a boy of New England precisely be- wrote about, in large part, is gone too, and 1 cause it was closer to me than to him and yet 1 good riddance, many would say. It was the IMAGINE CRUISING DOWN Ar still worlds , away. Gone from the square era of tenant farmers and segregation, of THE AUTOBAHN WITH 256 HP were the bib overalls of my childhood when unbroken continuity with the Confederate 12V7.

the farmers came to town on Saturday. 77? South, of Civil War memories and agricul- UNDER THE HOOD, TOP DOWN, , 11

Ranchers now, they came in high-heeled tural poverty. It was a time when 2 FIFTH GEAR, ENGINE WIDE ?;

boots and rolled-brim hats, a costume that 17 Greenville, Texas, had a banner—cele- 3 , ? 7 would have provoked as much surprise, and brated then, but later notorious—over one OPEN, SCENERY A BLUR. .

even more derision, there, in my time, as it of its main streets that read: ■ would on Manhattan's Madison Avenue. Welcome to Greenville, Texas THAT'S THE FEEL OF INTERNET In this prescient portrait, Humphrey an- The Blackest Land, The Whitest People. ACCESS THROUGH THE ticipated both the iconography of the TV NEW EDEN MATRIX. show Dallas (1978) and the Urban Cow- 11 of these writers, of course, traveled boy phenomenon of 1980. far beyond, in both physical and His father's death in an auto accident, A intellectual distance, the prejudices way 1,4/a_ie? when the boy was thirteen, spelled the end and provincialisms of their rural East ta.Ke a.. ttet ioe. of childhood. Humphrey moved with his Texas heritage, but they never forgot that mother to Dallas and attended SMU and the this homeland, whatever its shortcomings, DIAL-UP ISDN ACCESS University of Texas without graduating, also offered things of value; not least FOR JUST $18.50/MONTH and eventually ended up in New York. Like among these was a pattern of remembering many Texas writers of his generation, and ways of speech, both crucial for such FULLY DIGITAL PRI PHONE LINES Humphrey lived far from his native state artists as they would become. In the case of but continued to mine his early life there in the modern and last of the Southern writers WIDE OPEN CAPACITY his writing. He settled in Hudson, New in Texas, the three Williams, the East TECH SUPPORT WITH A PULSE York, and one of the pleasant ironies of that Texas that they grew up in changed rather location was that one of his neighbors, with remarkably during their lifetimes. The pas- whom he would become friends, was an- sage of civil rights legislation, the erosion The Eden Matrix other Texan, William A. Owens, of tiny Pin of an agricultural-based economy, the shift Hook, Texas, a rural community near Paris, of population in Texas from rural to urban www.eden.com not all that far from Clarksville. These two areas, all of these changes and more meant Williams, plus a third, William Goyen, cre- the end of the way of life recorded in these ated a significant body of Texas writing in writers' works. the Southern tradition. Their three chief Humphrey's oeuvre will remain an in- books, Goyen's The House of Breath valuable repository of language and lore, a 106 E. SIXTH STREET, SUITE 210 (1950), Owens' This Stubborn Soil (1966), record and testimony of ways of being in a AUSTIN, TX 78701 and Humphrey's The Ordways (1965) are Texas now mostly vanished. I=1 VOICE: 512.478.9900 among the best works. of the imagination produced in Texas. Their predecessors were Louisiana State University Press reissued FAX: 512.478.9934 Katherine Anne Porter and George Ses- Home from the Hill in 1996.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ■ 31 THE BACK PAGE The Halls of Just Us A generation ago, Alabama Governor George Wallace stood defiantly at the schoolhouse door forcibly preventing black schoolchildren from entering and thereby exercising their birthrights as U.S. citizens, indeed their human rights. It took decades of protest and legal pressure—and the heroic sacrifice of many lives—to overturn legal racial segregation, and to allow African Americans and other minorities to begin to enjoy the ordinary rights and privileges that white citizens have always taken very much for granted n 1997, the authorities are much more civilized and sophisticated. It took ex- actly one lawsuit—Hopwood v. the State f Texas—for the state, in the person of Attorney General Dan Morales, to decide that any effort to ameliorate more than a century of racial segregation and inequality in educa- tion is, by definition, illegal. Any attempt to officially recognize what is apparent to any Texas citizen with a conscience—that the ed- ucational opportunities and facilities afforded to minority students, statewide, are institu- tionally inadequate and radically unequal—is suddenly an unbearable outrage against the notion of a "color-blind" America. Morales is not alone. Right-wing judges, under the guise of "color-blind" doctrines, have been actively undermining the effects of civil rights laws in order to dilute minor- ity voting rights across the country. Califor- nia Governor Pete Wilson and his allies found attacking affirmative action an effec- tive device for polarizing the electorate, and city contracting and in school district pro- they cry—meaning, "Just Us." California accordingly joined Texas in turn- grams. The latter attack has particularly rich If this were not dispiriting enough, much ing its back on desegregation in education historical irony. Whites fled Houston city of what passes for the progressive move- and other institutions—the color-blind schools when they were finally de-segre- ment is now decrying "identity politics," leading the blind. gated in the '60s, but now, returning white abandoning affirmative action as flawed The one-eyed man would be king. Hous- parents argue that their children—by "color- and therefore indefensible, and hoping for a tonite Edward Blum's Campaign for a Color- blind," "objective" standards—should be magically populist, interracial wand that Blind America—generously assisted by con- able to dominate the very programs created will suddenly unite blacks, browns, and servative foundations and lawyers across the in order to integrate the schools. The same whites to demand equal educational and country—has consistently succeeded in its authorities who insist that law schools are employment opportunity for all. Yet with- nationwide attack on minority voting dis- not the place to attack inequality in educa- out weapons—and affirmative action is def- tricts. Blum is currently aiming closer to tion, are now making certain that elementary initely a hard-fought, hard-won weapon— home, against affirmative action in Houston schools are not the place, either. "Justice," how shall we defend ourselves? ❑