WORLD CUP METRO- PERPLEXES Pg. 10'

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES JULY 1, 1994 • $1.75

BY LOUIS DUBOSE family delegates. We have already won." each candidate was required to establish Patterson knew that none of the 3,500 that he was strong in faith and resolute on Fort Worth delegates who showed up at the prayer the fundamental tenet of the political Chri- ”'D RATHER HAVE HIM inside meeting would consider voting for Dolly tian right: opposition to abortion. the tent pissing out than outside Madison McKenna, the Houston pro-abor- 'Barton was recruited by Meyer, who had the tent pissing in," Lyndon John- tion-rights candidate who, at this conven- backed out rather than face a fight with the son would say of some potential dissenter tion, defined the "left wing" of the Republi- Christian right that considered him too he knew he could neutralize by making him can Party, a left wing that informed by the moderate. Barton entered the race with the an insider. The idiom is Arabic, I recently politics of Barry Goldwater. endorsements of Senator Phil Gramm as was told by a Moroccan visitor well as Bill Price, the leader of to our editorial offices, and the Texans United for Life works best with small numbers and the most respected anti- of dissenters in big tents. abortion-rights lobbyist work- That's what traditional secular ing in Austin. "Joe Barton led Texas Republicans, who now the battle in Congress against find themselves jockeying for gays in the military," Price a spot outside the tent, learned wrote in a letter circulated by over the course of one long, the Barton campaign. "He has long weekend in Fort Worth. a 100 percent pro-life, pro- No one should confuse this family voting record." Price year's state Republican con- even "went negative" on be- vention with a fight between half of Barton, writing: "I the religious right and secular have lived in Dallas since Goldwater-Reagan-Bush Re- 1981 and I have never seen publkans. Because at this con- Tom Pauken at a pro-life vention the secular Republi- rally." Barton also had the cans weren't even players. support of unctuous Illinois What occurred over the second Republican Congressman weekend of June in Fort Worth Henry Hyde, known for his was a fight between members resolute opposition to abor- of the extreme Christian right tion, codified in the Hyde and the more extreme Chris- Amendment, and earlier for tian right. At the first prayer his perennial support of the rally of the three-day conven- Contra rebels who tried to tion (there were two, a Texas overthrow the Sandinista gov- GOP Pro-Family Rally and a ernment of Nicaragua. "Fi- Grand Old Prayer Rally), nally, Joe," Hyde wrote in a Alice Patterson, field director of the Texas Given the absolute dominance of the letter co-signed by New Jersey Congress- Christian Coalition, sized up the two candi- Christian right, which controlled an esti- man Chris Smith, "we want Texans to dates in contention for the party chairman- mated 70 percent of convention delegates, know that you do much more than simply ship vacated by Fred Meyer: "We are not the campaign between the two candi- vote your conscience to protect the unborn, divided," Patterson said. "We have the op- dates—Tom Pauken, a Dallas lawyer who you take action to save lives." Hyde praised portunity to choose between two individu- worked in the Reagan Administration, and Barton for his attempt to intervene in als for state party chairman who are exactly Ennis Congressman Joe Barton—became the same on every issue of concern to pro- something of a confirmation rite, by which Continued on pg. 3 WITH THE GOP 1 N FT. WORT H DIALOGUE

Poetic Community that with Proposition 22, and even perhaps the defeat of the well-qualified progressive The "Afterword" on poet Joseph Colin Mary Arnold against a well-funded incum- Murphy exemplifies the connection of bent in the same municipal election. communities and all kinds of Texans to the The leader of the anti-Proposition 22 ef- Observer. Only a Journal that cares about fort accused the pro-22 forces of running a community can report in the style this arti- church-based campaign and flying below cle was crafted. The gift of this poet was the radar of public opinion polling. Public unknown to me until I read Dave opinion polling is a poor substitute for the Oliphant's piece on a recent tribute to this political community and speaks volumes A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES man and his life work. Thank you for pub- We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the for how we are all disenfranchised by the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are ded- lishing a few stanzas of his art, as well. status of the current art of professional po- icated to the whole truth, to human values above all in- I request the name and address of the pub- terests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of litical analysis. The political battle needs to democracy: we will take orders from none but our own lisher for Joe Murphy's posthumous vol- be joined away from the phone banks and conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent ume of poetry, The Perfection of Beauty. the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater ads on TV and into the churches and to the ignoble in the human spirit. Blake Gentry, Tucson, Arizona neighborhoods. It appears to be a strategic Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in option that progressives do not recognize, publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we Editor's Note: The Perfection of Beauty re- if they do not actively oppose such efforts. agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. mains unpublished, but A Return to the Tim Mahoney, Austin SINCE 1954 Landscape by Murphy was published in 1979 by Prickly Pear Press, 1402 Mimosa Air Quality A Priority Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Pass, Cedar Park, Austin 78613. and is Your recent piece on Carbon I and II [TO Editor: Louis Dubose available for $5 at that address. Murphy Associate Editor: James Cullen was featured in Three Texas Poets, also 5-6-94] continues the service of journalists Production: Peter Szymczak published by Prickly Pear Press ($7.95). who bring this threat to air quality to na- Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka tional attention. At the Department of En- Editorial Interns: Todd Basch, Carmen Garcia, An- gela Hardin, Trae Monroe. ergy we are helping with renewable energy Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, Get Back to Grassroots sources along the border, and would try to Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Brett Campbell, Peter use our permitting authority to block the Cassidy, Jo Clifton, Carol Countryman, Terry Fitz- I read with interest your commentary Patrick, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Jim Hightower, "God-Awful Politics in Austin" in the May sale of dirty power into the United States. Ellen Hosmer, Molly Ivins, Steven Kellman, Michael 20, 1994, issue concerning the Austin elec- Working out rules of binational border air King, Deborah Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Mil- emissions rules is and should be a top ligan, Debbie Nathan, James McCarty Yeager. tion, which involved the passage of Propo- Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; sition 22, the conservative Christian initia- American priority. Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler tive against the unmarried "domestic Bill White, Deputy Secretary of Energy, Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; Washington, D.C. Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; partners" health insurance program for Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam- City of Austin workers—whether the do- No Shiite Republican bridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; mestic partners were gay or straight. George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; I must protest the use of Shi'ite Republicans Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., It appears to have been a surprise that the San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye initiative passed, let alone by an overwhelm- in one of your Political Notes. It borders on Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; ing margin of 62-38 percent. The lesson that racism and is typical of a lack of knowledge Susan Reid. Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) appears to be learned from the article misses of other cultures and is based probably on a Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. media-based image of Shi' a Islam. The Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread the boat. It is not that "the people" are so Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- much homophobic or fiscally conservative; Amal Militia in Lebanon (Shi'a) have a lot terlang, Alan Pogue. in my humble opinion, it is that the progres- more in common with Jesse Jackson than Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Patrick Buchanan and his ilk. Most of the Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth sive community has not joined the issue, as Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin in so much of progressive politics. Rather we Shi'as I have known have been left in eco- Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Gary Oliver, Ben have depended on coalitional work which di- nomics and more committed to diversity Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. vides and conquers—the same politics that is than one would believe. Linking a particular Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson utilized in the conservative Christian com- religious belief with the worst elements of Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom munity—rather than creating a political men- the Republican Party is sloppy, especially in Development Consultant: Frances Barton tality which is inclusive, addressing the this case. I would refer you to the published SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time needs and knowledge of ordinary working works of several Shia political figures which students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and are from all over the spectrum: Ali, the prin- bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Micro- people. No doubt that a great many people films Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current sub- cipal Iman of Shi'a Islam; Bani Sack; Ibra- scriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no do not really know gay people. A solution in one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. the long term is to have more people know him Yazdi (formerly of the Baylor School of INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981,The gay people so that they can discover, as I Medicine and an opposition figure in Iran), Texas Observer Index. Bazargan, and of course Khomeni. Even THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents have, that, perhaps barring the historical dis- copyrighted, 0 1994, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval Khomeni would (and did) give Republicans between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer crimination they have had to endure, like Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) other minorities, they are human beings too. a fit: He first said the poor would not pay for 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Such a strategy has been generally utilized electricity and water, the state would assume POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. for the last decade, but the exclusionary ten- the expense. dency becomes manifest in elections such as Andrew H. Lee, New York, N.Y.

2 • JULY 1, 1994 Continued from cover said. "I want to see their cards. I want them to prove that they can do it. I want to see China, on behalf of Jihong Lui, who, ac- one name, the name of one local official T HE TEXAS cording to Hyde was compelled to have an they elected." Barton brought out Grand abortion by the Chinese government's one- Prairie freshman state Representative Ray child-per-couple policy. Allen—wearing a "Pro-life/Pro-Joe" server Pauken had his own roster of anti-abor- sticker—who told how Barton laid the tion-rights supporters, and their back- groundwork to get him elected in 1993. JULY 1, 1994 grounds suggested where his campaign was Barton even argued that he really held a VOLUME 86, No. 13 coming from. It was not Washington. En- part-time job. "When Congress is in ses- dorsing Pauken were Jeff Fisher, president sion, I'm in Washington," he said. "But FEATURES of the American Family Association of that's only 130 days; two-thirds of the time Texas; Steve Hotze, President of Citizens I'm at home." Evangelephants in the GOP for American Restoration and one-time or- ' What Barton didn't understand, or at By Louis Dubose 1 ganizer of the Houston Straight Slate—city least didn't address, was the subtext of the World Cup Metroperplexes council candidates who came together in Pauken supporters' campaign pitch. By Vicki Mayer 10 response to former Mayor Kathy Whit- Through a well-organized grassroots move- mire's attempt to establish a city employ- ment, they had already taken the Republi- Red Lines Through ment policy that included anti-discrimina- can Party from the establishment. And, they Minority Mortgages

tion protections for gays and lesbians; state saw the Barton candidacy for what it was: By James Cullen 13 executive committeeman Jimmy Morgan, an attempt to run a candidate whose politics who at the 1988 Republican state conven- and religion were acceptable to Texas fun- The Risk of Acquittal tion in Houston told a Christian leaders' damental Christians but who was also con- By Dick J. Reavis 17 caucus that when he presides over party nected to Washington. All they had to do meetings, "I put all the queers and lesbians was remind delegates that Barton was a DEPARTMENTS in the back of the room. Then, I put four or member of Congress and that Congress Speech five rows between them and the rest who meets in Washington. That was enough. don't want to get AIDS." Most important "This race was won at the precinct con- Setting Texas Right on Pauken's list of backers was Dick Wein- ventions," said Mark Sanders, a former jour- By George W. Bush hold, Chairman of the Texas Christian nalist who works as a Republican political Molly Ivins Coalition, who in his endorsement letter re- consultant. "The Christian conservatives minded delegates of his organization's sup- turned out and did the work at the precinct The Christian Right Arrives port of Oliver North in the Virginia Senate conventions and they deserve to win. This is Jim Hightower race. Weinhold's endorsement, printed on the way it's supposed to work." said Graduation Day; Long Distance Christian Coalition stationery, was, Barton Sanders, who for six years has worked for Greed; Great Terrain Robbery 18 later conceded, worth 300-400 of almost moderate or at least secular Republican can- 6,000 votes. didates. He added that he sees no moderate Books and the Culture Not even the suggestion that Pauken was or progressive Republican leaders organiz- Stranger at the Gate soft on the domestic anti-abortion issue and ing the way the religious right has. "After Book review by David Reed 19 that he had no tested anti-abortion foreign today, they've won almost every position on Standing Firm policy could carry the day for Barton. Nor the executive committee. We might be out could the estimated $100,000 he spent on [of power] for a while," he said, while Book review by Todd Basch 21 the race for the chair, nor did the endorse- watching the caucus in Pauken's senatorial Shepard and Panther ment of senators Gramm and Kay Bailey district. Reviews by Steven G. Kellman 22 Hutchison and an ample majority of the There was no official vote on the floor, Afterword party's elected officials. because Barton and McKenna withdrew The abortion debate was for the swing rather than put the convention through the The Bible vs. the Bill of Rights voters; the election was really about who tedious process of counting votes. But By Maury Maverick 23 would control the party machinery, as Tar- Pauken's convention-center headquarters Political Intelligence 24 rant County Republican Chairman Steve monitored votes as they came in from the Hollern explained in a newsletter circulated district caucuses on Saturday morning and Cover art by Emily Kaplan by Pauken supporter and Tarrant County by midday, the election was over. Pauken delegate John Mauldin. "The real issue in received 3,076 votes for 52 percent, Barton this race boils down to whether the party received 2,162 for 36 percent, and has influence or some degree of control McKenna received 635 votes for 10.8 per- Notes and over officeholders or whether the office- cent. Thirteen votes were uncommitted. Clarifications holders control the party," Hollern was The McKenna candidacy was a measure While the June 17 Observer, in "011ie quoted in the newsletter. of the strength of moderate Republicans, Takes-a Powder," was widely credited with The vote was scheduled for Saturday but who controlled two-thirds of the Texas del- breaking the account of a former DEA agent by Friday evening at a Barton hospitality egation when the Pat Robertson for Presi- who tracked drug deals to an El Salvador room at the Worthington Hotel, it was evi- dent wave washed across the South six airport hangar controlled by operatives of dent in the tone and volume of Barton's years ago. ("These disparate elements come White House aide Oliver North in the voice that he had lost. By 9 p.m. Friday, with growth in the • Party," former John 1980s, the story was first published in a Barton, whose voice moves up a register or Tower aide John Knaggs told me in 1988, shorter form in SF Weekly of San Francisco. two when he gets angry, was into a high- and by now, to moderates that growth must Also, the Observer will be on hiatus next decibel bark, shouting at supporters. "I'm week. The next issue will be dated July 22. getting tired of hearing what I can't do!" he Continued on pg. 4

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 look as vigorous as an unchecked cancer.) time here today." credentials. In her speech to the plenary ses- Even before she made her "some people The big tent metaphor originated with sion, West, backed by her family, had as think the Republican Party is a church," Lee Atwater, the late Republican Party much to say about faith and church atten- speech before the first general session of strategist who worked to bringing funda- dance as she said about policy. "I boldly the convention, McKenna was well known mental Christians into the party—as voters. stand before you with my family standing among Christian right delegates. In 1992, In Texas, it had more currency at the 1990 behind me to say I've always stood for the she ran against Houston Democratic Con- convention, also held in Fort Worth at about strong pro-life platform of the Republican gressman Mike Andrews and won 46 per- the time the Christian right was closing in on Party of Texas," West said. "Most of all, I cent of the vote—against a popular incum- the platform committee. The argument then, believe in the Heavenly Father. I am a Texas, bent then in his fifth term. When Andrews advanced by moderate Republican delegates God-fearing lady." She stated that she and announced he would not stand for reelec-. like Maurice Angly of Travis County, was her husband, District Judge David West, at- tion, but would run for the Senate seat va- that the party had to be big enough to include tend a Pasadena Baptist church, and she cated by Lloyd Bentsen, McKenna as- moderates as well as ultraconservatives. apologized for the absence of her 13-year- sumed she was her party's apparent heir Then Clayton Williams and a conservative old, who was attending Bible classes. apparent. She was swept away in the Re- platform alienated moderate Republican But Susan Weddington prevailed in the publican primary by fundamental Christian women, who helped elect Ann Richards. By credentials test, in part because her candi- candidate Gene Fontenot and the $800,000 1992, fundamental Christians dominated the dacy was linked to Pauken's. Weddington he spent to defeat her. Republican platform .committee. The re- was supported by anti-abortion lobbyist McKenna began her long-shot campaign sounding defeat of McKenna—who was Bill Price of Dallas and the more radical for the party chair in a letter to supporters, courted by Barton on Saturday morning, Rex Moses of Corpus Christi. Moses is for- in which she quoted former Republican until he realized that 36 percent plus 10.8 mer state director of Operation Rescue, the Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. percent does not equal 50 percent—at this organization that regularly pickets and "The Republican party," McKenna wrote, convention seems to have relegated the big blocks entrances to clinics were abortions "has been taken over by the 'Four Horse- tent to a historical footnote. are performed. A critical endorsement, men of Calumny: fear, ignorance, bigotry The two-woman race for the party vice however, was that of the Christian Coali- and smear."' Then, quoting no one, chair, in which Susan Weddington, an anti- tion's Dick Weinhold. In an acceptance McKenna went after the Christian right: abortion-rights activist from San Antonio speech, Weddington thanked the delegates "There is a broad based social agenda in- challenged incumbent Vice Chair Gayle for their support and assured them that she tended to replace our constitutional democ- West, was more clearly a test of Christian "is not related to Sarah Weddington," the racy with a fundamentalist theocracy and eliminate public education, the Federal Re- serve and the IRS by the year 2000. It is a hate-filled agenda of gay-bashing and intol- Platform Sampler erance that is much like the fundamental- ism that has recently swept the Middle Four days after the state convention, George • Congress [should] enact a school prayer East, the neo-Nazis in Germany, and now, W. Bush tried to put some distance between him- amendment, to permit prayer in public schools. the neo-Fascists in Italy. They [the Chris- self and his party's platform. "The convention • "The family is a God-ordained institution, tian right] have been successful in hiding was a two-day event that came and went," Bush and should be defined as those persons related their real agenda and manipulating sin- told the Fort Worth Star-Tekgratrt. "It won't by blood, heterosexual marriage, or adoption." cerely devout people to support them on is- have any lasting effect on the campaign. People • "No homosexual nor any individual con- victed of child abuse or molestation should sues such as abortion." don't focus on the platform." Nonetheless, ccording to the 1994 Republican Party platform: have the right to custody or adoption of a So it was no surprise that by the time • Citizens have a constitutional right to bear minor child....Homosexuality should not be McKenna stood up and told assembled del- arms; "people, not guns, commit crime." presented as an acceptable alternative lifestyle egates that the party was not a church, but • Prisons should be reformed, including a re- in our public schools." that they were welcome in the party, she definition by the Legislature that the goals of • "The Party believes that the unborn child was answered with a chorus of boos and the prison system should be the "protection of has a fundamental individual right to life shouts of "We are the party!" society first, punishment of offenders second, which can not be infringed upon except when In a hospitality suite much smaller than and lastly, rehabilitation. No prisoner con- the mother's life is in danger." Barton's, I asked McKenna if she was run- victed of a violent crime should ever be re- • "We oppose governmental interference in early childhood development which is rightly ning for party chair in 1996, assuming the leased early." Capital punishment should be swift and unencumbered. the province of parents or guardians and the fundamentalist Christians, after two years • Sodomy should not be decriminalized. private sector. of intra-party fighting, would fade and she • No state income tax should be enacted. • "The Party encourages the U.S. Congress would be positioned to lead the Mosbacher • The tort system should be reformed, "includ- to repeal provisions of the Endangered Species moderates. "I'm running for the chair this ing caps on noneconomic damages." Act, the Clean Air Act and any similar laws or year," McKenna said. "I'm convinced that • Terms for all elected state officials should regulations made without scientific basis and this party needs to be opened up to be made be limited. which do not balance the environmental needs more diverse." • Groundwater is an "absolute ownership" of society with economic opportunity and free- But when I mentioned the crowd's reac- right of a landowner. dom. We specifically oppose the banning of tion to her speech earlier that afternoon, • The state should not have the power to com- CFS's [sic] (freon) which is used by most air pel children to attend public school and parents conditioning equipment." McKenna seemed to falter. It was not an or guardians should be allowed to educate their • "The party believes the minimum wage easy speech to deliver, she said, but it was children in private schools or at home. law should be repealed in order to expand em- what the convention had to hear. "I believe • "The question of the universe and life origins ployment opportunities." in the big tent." she said. Later in the should not be constrained to one opinion. We, • "The Party believes that the United States evening she would hold up a small, tattered therefore, support the teaching of creation science monetary system should be returned to the paper parasol that came out of a drink glass in Texas public schools." gold standard." —L.D. and say: "This is the big tent. It's had a hard

4 • JULY 1, 1994 Austin lawyer who represented (Jane) Roe in the Roe v. Wade abortion-rights case de- cided by the Warren Court. Had Sarah Wed- dington grown up in her family, Susan Weddington said, Sarah would have learned respect for human life. Susan Weddington also introduced her parents,. and thanked them for bringing her into the world. In the senatorial district caucuses and on the floor, the mood, or perhaps the charac- ter, of this convention was even more in- tensely religious than the speeches on the platform suggested, and country-club Re- publicans seemed as much a quaint curios- ity as fundamental Christians did four' state conventions ago. In random walks through senatorial district caucuses Saturday morn- ing, the same confirmation rites occurred again and again. In the room where senato- rial district 12 convened, a candidate for district office was introduced as "godly man of principle." Another candidate was intro- duced as a man with an "undying love for his wife and family and his Lord Jesus Christ." In the senate district 8 caucus, a surrogate speaking on behalf of Gayle West reminded delegates that West's husband is a

Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Dolly Madison McKenna: "This is the big tent." LOUIS DUBOSE Church in Pasadena. Interviewed on the floor, delegate Angela Heiter said she has served as a delegate at any sense they would pay attention to Re- • didates," said one secular Republican seated every convention since Ronald Reagan was publican issues, like keeping my husband's behind a tiny Swiss flag that someone had elected. "And the only reason I come is for job at Lockheed. The only way to get rid of posted to designate a neutral, "Pauken-free the babies. If you believe that babies have the these , people is to vote [against their candi- zone" in the Worthington Hotel bar. (An- right to life, then I have no problem with what dates] in the November election." Bennett other notable change in conventional proto- else you want to. do. If you think it's okay to complained of delegate-screening proce- col was the absence of free beer and liquor take the head off a baby because he is un- dures that included questions about church in hospitality rooms. Some were dry, others wanted for the moment, if you think that it's attendance. "If you didn't say 'I am a Chris- had cash bars, and all had pastries. Barton right to kill a child just because he hasn't had tian and I attend a certain church,' you were must have spent $30,000 of his $100,000 on his birthday, then nothing else you have to say excluded." She only got in this year, she ice cream served by ice cream chefs at the has any bearing to me at all." said, because a clerical error in mailing at half-dozen design-your-own sundae ice Heiter said she supported Pauken's candi- her county convention would have left the cream bars set up in his hospitality suite.) dacy "back in January when he told me he party open to a lawsuit if she had been elim- Delegates already have split from rank- was running. I said, 'Tom go for it. We inated. George Dutton, •of Arlington, told a and-file Republicans on their preference of don't need Fred Meyer because he is not similar story of religious screening for po- presidential candidates to represent the helping the babies...' tential delegates. Both Bennett and Dutton party in 1996. First in a poll of 950 dele- "Philosophically the Republican Party is are members of "Take it Back," an organi- gates was former U.S. Secretary of Educa- solid pro-life...there has been bitterness on zation of moderate Republicans determined tion Bill Bennett, with almost 25 percent of the floor from that part of the party that dis- to move the party back toward the center. the vote. Next was former 'Vice President agrees, that thinks it's okay to kill babies. Most candidates were cautious and Dan Quayle, with 20 percent. Former HUD But they're getting smaller and smaller." avoided a public embrace of the Christian Secretary Jack Kemp came in third, with 14 New party leaders and delegates are ahead right, particularly on the abortion issue. percent of the vote. Gramm placed fourth, of most candidates on the abortion issue, "George Bush won't mention it," Heiter with only 8 percent of the vote. Heiter said. "The leadership of the party has said. "And that's about all Phil Gramm will This wasn't what Gramm anticipated and developed into a leadership that recognizes do, mention it. And Kay Bailey. No! I can ex- he obviously miscalculated by supporting the right to life and right-to-life leaders have ercise my option not to vote for her." Hutchi- Barton. He miscalculated again when he re- become involved with the Republican Party son, who supports women's right to abortion, leased a press advisory congratulating because they were accepted and are now a was the only candidate for elected office who Pauken before Barton conceded the race on major force in the party." was booed while speaking to the convention. Saturday morning.) They were accepted, some contend, be- "They've taken over the convention and are Before these secular Repubs went look- cause others were excluded. Speaking from a major constituency group in the primary," ing for voters among the fundamentalist the floor, Fort Worth delegate Paul Powell said one stealth moderate who covered his sil- Christians 14 years ago, they might have said his wife, an airline flight attendant, is ver alternate delegate with his hands and re- consulted the book that informs Christian not at the convention because she no longer fused to give me his name."But in the general politics. The Old Testament Book of Hosea feels there is a place for her in the party. election their vote is diluted." would have at least warned them. "They Mary Bennett said that she is "100 per- "What remains to be seen is how much have sown the wind, and they shall reap the cent pro-choice and if these delegates had they get involved in the recruitment of can- whirlwind."

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 Setting Texas Right

George W. Bush spoke to the Texas Repub- grew. Texas now has more state employees Welfare is another big area of disagree- lican Convention on June 10 in Fort Worth. than New York. We have plenty of govern- ment between the Governor and me. For What follows is his original text. He made ment. That's one reason I am opposed to a four years, she's done nothing to change several minor deviations from it. personal state income tax in Texas. welfare. Here's what I believe. I want peo- Texas is beginning to look the rest of the ple to accept responsibility for their lives. I FEEL,ENERGIZED by the spirit that's nation. Texas is starting to blend in. My op- want to free people from dependency on in this room. It's the same spirit I feel ponent accepts this. She feels the status quo government. Welfare must not be a way of all over Texas, a spirit of excitement is okay, that Texas is moving in the right life—I will limit the able-bodied to two I years on welfare and no more. and a spirit of change. I'm excited by how direction. I don't. I want Texas to be a bea- the issues are shaping up. People are learn- con state. A state that shines. A state that Welfare must not be a handout—people ing the differences between me and my op- when other folks look at us, they say that's on welfare must to work, learn or train in ponent. And as they do, it strengthens my where I want to live, that's how I want my return for their checks. To put it bluntly, get conviction that what I feel is real: I will be state to be. off your duff or get off the dole. Welfare the next Governor of Texas. I will fight for the changes necessary to must not encourage illegitimacy—no addi- We will win because our philosophy is succeed in our mission. It's a matter of will tional money for having more kids while on fair and good. We will win because you're and leadership and I am ready for the battle. welfare. Finally, Texas must get tough on ready to work in the biggest grassroots cru- During this campaign, I will clarify my dif- those parents who do not uphold their re- sade Texas has ever seen. We will win be- ferences with Governor Richards. They are sponsibility to their families. I will insist cause, after four years of a hide-and-seek many. As I do so, I will treat the Governor that Texas suspend any license of any par- liberal, Texans want a conservative leader and office she holds with respect. She is an ent who does not provide child support for in the Governor's . office. That's exactly interesting, entertaining person who has their children...drivers license, hunting li- what we're going to give them. tried her best. Our disagreement is not per- cense, doctor's license, lawyer's license, A good friend from West Texas asked sonal: it's with her views, her record, her fishing license. People must be held re- me, "Bush, why you doing it? Why are you liberal philosophy and her failure to lead. sponsible for what they do. I will take these giving up the world's greatest job, running First, let's discuss educating our chil- tough steps because I care about people. a baseball club, to run for Governor?" I dren. Education should be our state's num- We must change the welfare system now or love Texas. My mission is to create a ber-one priority. It has not been under Gov- we'll condemn another generation to a life stronger, safer Texas that is much better for ernor Richards. Governor Richards insisted of dependency and I will stand for that. the next generation of Texans. Texas is on Robin Hood I. When Texans over- What about crime? more than a place on a map for me. It's a whelmingly rejected her plan, she retaliated Let me tell you a story. A little girl goes state of mind, a way of living, a place where with Robin Hood II. I strongly disagree with her class to visit the local sheriff's of- dreamers dream big, where people risk and with her approach. This isn't a plan that fice. She sees the wanted posters on the build and create. Texas should be a place robs from the rich and gives to the poor. It's wall and asks the sheriff who they are. He without liinits for people with vision, en- a plan that robs Texas of its future by mak- explains they are dangerous, wanted crimi- ergy, and appetite for hard work. ing the whole state poor. nals and to be on the look-out of them. She But I see Texas changing...and not for We do it backwards in Texas. We fund asks "why didn't you keep them there when the better. I see too many families hurt by our schools locally and we govern cen- you took their picture?" Well, I want to crime, people afraid to walk in their neigh- trally. And that's not right. I will hold the keep them there when we take their picture. borhoods. I see more violent crime commit- per-pupil cost of education the same and in- Governor Richards says crime is down ted by younger and younger criminals. It's crease the state's share of educational fund- and people should feel safer, bur you and I time we make it absolutely clear that pun- ing so as to provide property taxes relief. know violent crime is up and criminals are ishment for criminal activity will be swift But the issue in education isn't strictly getting younger and meaner. I will end and certain. money. The issue is also how to govern our paroles for murderers, rapists and child mo- I see too many schools graduating schools. Governor Richards' answer is to lesters. I will end the mandatory early re- young people who can't read or write, too centralize power, to increase the rules from lease of criminals from prison. many teachers weighed down by paper- TEA and the paperwork required from our The Governor's office says the people work, too many school boards swamped districts. Her definition of local control is getting out on early release aren't really by red tape, too many classrooms dis- 3,000 waivers to rules and regulations. dangerous. You can't tell that to the family rupted by undisciplined youth and too We've tried one-size-fits-all education I met in the Houston area. One December much emphasis on social experimenta- and it doesn't work. I will encourage edu- day, four men invaded their home and tion. The mission in our schools should be cational entrepreneurship by empowering forced the family to lie on the living room educational excellence, not condom distri- parents, teachers, administrators, and local floor. When the mother, a beautiful Little bution. It's time to strengthen local con- school boards to design the programs that League mom, lifted her head to comfort a trol of our schools by abolishing the regu- best fit the needs of every local community. crying child, one of the thugs placed a shot- latory authority of the TEA. I have proposed what's called "home rule gun next to her face and blew it off. I see a state budget which has exploded education districts." By a vote of the peo- The thug had just been let out of prison from $48 billion to $72 billion since Ann ple, districts will be able to declare their in- under mandatory early release, even after Richards took office. It's grown four times dependence from the TEA' s dictates. If we the parole board had denied parole, even as fast as inflation and incredibly four and a teach democracy in our schools, let's prac- though he'd been arrested for cocaine traf- half times as fast as the federal budget tice democracy in running our schools. ficking, making a terroristic threat, and

6 • JULY 1, 1994 armed robbery. Miraculously, she lived, but state payroll. Governors don't create the Ann Richards is comfortable with the sta- life will never be the same for that family. In kind of jobs I am talking about. Governors tus quo. I'm not. If Texans want someone to the course of our conversation, she and her and governments create environments in tinker around the edges, I'm not the right husband asked if they could help my cam- which entrepreneurs and small business person. My campaign is about change— paign. I told them they already had. I will people risk capital and create good, private- constructive, dramatic, positive change to never forget her face, their story, and that sector jobs. save a generation from crime and depen- family's courage. There is no price high In order to encourage job creation, Texas dency, to prepare our children for the future, enough to make certain that this never hap- must end junk lawsuits that clog our courts. and to restore our state to greatness. My pens to another Texas family. I will fight to end frivolous lawsuits and dream—our dream—is a state where all One thing we must do to clarify the risks stop lawsuit abuse. The battle lines are government policy is based on the principle of crime is stop the endless legal delays for clear: My campaign will be funded by that families are the backbone of our state. death row inmates. I will propose legislation working people, small business people, en- My dream—our dream—is less government to limit death row inmate appeals. Those trepreneurs and risk takers. Her campaign is and a thriving, growing economy where condemned to death will get one bite at the mainly funded by the New Rich of Texas, every Texan who wants to work has a job. apple. wealthy personal injury lawyers. My dream is that all our children get an ex- In order to effectively administer justice, I believe in open and honest government. cellent education so they may reach their Texas must have prison space for those con- All elected and appointed officials must be greatest potential. My dream is that govern- victed of crime. We must be smart about it. open and honest. Everywhere I .go I hear ment stops wasting our greatest resources— I ask you, does it our people—by make sense to have dooming many a federal court to a life of de- order running our pendency. My prison system? I dream—our will put Texas back dream—is that in charge of our all people un- prisons by chal- derstand the lenging the Ruiz risks of commit- settlement. If tents ting a crime out- and temporary bar- weigh its re- racks are good wards. enough for the My mission is fighting men and to convert these women in our mili- dreams into real- tary, they are more ities, not to ac- than good enough cept the status for criminals. quo but to insist In order to have on constructive an effective crimi- change. I am nal justice system, honored you we must send an ef- chose me as fective tough-love your candidate message to our chil- for Governor. dren. It is difficult I'll do my part to to do that now. We bring us victory, operate under a ju- but I need your venile justice sys- help. We must tem that's out of ANGELA HARDIN campaign in date. Governor George W. Bush every neighbor- Richards has done hood, from the nothing to reform it. I want to change it. I will what my mother told me when I first got in barrios to the Fifth Ward. We must carry our hold young thugs responsible for what they the race: She voted for the lottery because message of hope and optimism to every do. I'll stiffen penalties for juveniles commit- she thought all the money would go for ed- home, every neighborhood, every commu- ting crimes, especially gangs. I'll build the ucation of Texas children and the fact it nity, every Texan. beds and detention centers needed for juve- doesn't rinakes her madder than heck. Thou- Some people are confronted by challenges nile offenders. I'll lower the age at which vi- sands of Texans feel misled, just like Bar- and problems and shrink from them. I'm not olent youngsters can be tried as adults. We bara Bush. All government must be open that kind of person. I'm invigorated by the must take these tough steps to save a genera- and honest. tough road we face, both in this campaign tion of children and get the message back to I believe in one standard for public service and in our efforts to set Texas right. the neighborhoods that we are serious; we and that's excellence. That will be my crite- I can clearly see the problems which Texas will win the war on crime by holding every rion for my appointments. Texans feel differ- faces, but I can also see the solutions. I know Texan accountable for their behavior. ently about Governor Richards' appoint- where I want to lead Texas and I am focused I have many differences with the current ments. Texans have had a chance to vote on on achieving that dream. As sure as I am Governor about the issues. I also have dif- two of her high-profile appointments, Lena standing here, I know we're going to win. ferences with her over philosophy. She's a Guerrero and Bob Krueger. You know the Will you help me? What we seek to- liberal. I'm a conservative. Ann Richards results. The good news is, come November, gether, we can achieve together because believes in more and bigger government. Texans will have the opportunity to vote on what Texans can dream, Texans can do. She's added 26,000 new employees to the the rest of her appointments. Thank you and God bless Texas.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 MOLLY IVINS

The Christian Right mides about fair play and working with oth- Christians, this is disorienting and, indeed, Arrives ers you never heard. All hell broke loose. rather offensive. Colleen Parro of Dallas, for whom the Many on the right and many who dis- Austin word overwrought is an understatement, agree with them had perfectly civil discus- Halfway through the state Republican con- denounced the preamble as ploy of coun- sions; one mixed group even got crocked vention, observers were still asking, "So try-club Republicans, said it used some of together Saturday night. The ugly scenes where's the Hezbollah?" A fine display of the very words uttered by McKenna and, fi- are provoked when a moral condescension unity, harmony, amity and charity toward nally, was full of "Democratic" sentiments. meets a certain independence. One lay almost all (Dolly Madison McKenna, a pro- "Are we Democrats or are we Republi- preacher made the mistake of putting his choice candidate for party chair, was cans?" she cried. hands on the shoulders and then the head of booed—but then, Texas Republicans have Whereupon great roars issued forth— a citizen whom he considered a soul-in- been on the record against choice for years) more like lions than Christians. After two peril. "Look, @%&@ !," snarled the man, was taking place before the bored eyes of rafter-shattering voice votes, John Mauldin, who was not prepared to be "saved" by a onlookers, when suddenly, they surfaced. the delegate who had introduced the fair- moralizing stranger, "I'm a seventh-gener- The much advertised, now dominant Chris- play preamble, finally withdrew his own ation Texan and a 14th-generation Presby- tian right breached like a whale, and I 'for motion. terian, and you take your @%&@ ! hands one was left gasping, "Lord, have mercy!" Although on its face the vote against the off me!" What touched them off was a preamble— preamble was utterly incredible, its defeat What is under-reported is the pure pop- actually a sort of long resolution in the form was a reflection of both the Christian ulist spirit of much of the Christian right, of a preface to the rules—urging civility in right's takeover of the party and the resent- reflected in the rhetoric about "country- the conduct of party affairs. If I had room to ment that their tactics have engendered. club Republicans." It is as though the old print the whole thing, I would, just so you One delegate, Robert Johnson, spoke for class split in the Republican Party—sym- could see what these people voted against. the preamble, saying his wife, a third-gen- bolized by the women who look like Nancy The preamble spoke of the need for "agree- eration Republican, was not present "be- Reagan and by those whom a Nancy once ing to disagree" on some issues; urged Re- cause she no longer feels there is a place for called "a bunch of women named publicans not to attack one another, espe- her in this party." Wanda"—had been altered by religious cially in the media—"it is not acceptable to Behind the preamble lie dozens of sto- certitude. Now the "women named Wanda" vilify, impugn motives, or otherwise attack ries, incidents and outbreaks of hostility. arrive armored with an invincible sense of the basic positive character of fellow Re- One delegate in a "Pro-choice" T shirt was moral superiority, which is no-end galling publicans"; deplored negative campaign- surrounded Saturday by self-professed to the country-clubbers (as it is to many ing; and urged support of all Republican Christians screaming "Satanist!" at her. old-time Republicans who have never be- candidates against all Democrats. Another said she was physically assaulted longed to a country club). The key paragraphs were both in the neg- by them at her district convention. A dele- On the whole, I am glad to see the right ative. One said, "The Republican Party is gate who is also an American Airlines getting involved in politics, and I'll be even not a church" and the other said, "The Re- flight attendant, badly shaken by the vote gladder when they learn to play by the publican Party is not a social club," thus on the preamble, said, "You know, people rules. And I still think the Democrats were summing up the nub of the disagreement have often asked me why a member of a lucky to get the bikers. among Republicans. "It is inappropriate to labor union would be a Republican, and I require a certain type of religious expres- always thought I had a good answer. But Politics and Passion sion for leaders, candidates, delegates. not after this. This is my last hurrah in the Many people who hold identical positions Republican Party, I'm getting out." "So, Bill," says I to my old pal Murchison and values will have different religious ex- Various options were discussed; the Lib- of the Dallas Morning News in the middle pressions and those of similar religious ex- ertarian Party, on the whole, seemed to of the Republican convention, "what do pressions often have differing political have the edge over Democrats among those you think of the Christian right?" This was views. A Republican should never be put in who announced that they were leaving. just after the Christian right had defeated a the position of having to defend or explain Now, no sizable group of folks, including resolution encouraging civility. his faith in order to participate in the Party those who believe in biblical inen-ancy, is "Oh, I think they bring passion to poli- process." ever all alike. One affable fellow in the tics, and that's not a bad thing," said The "not a social club" part endorses dis- Smokers' Caucus (we meet outside now Murchison, one of the most personally de- cussion of values and of government as a and find fellowship in our nicotine addic- cent right-wing nuts in America. "The party means of implementing values but notes, tion despite all other differences) said: could use a little passion." "It is entirely appropriate for a group with "You know, I didn't know until I read it in I've always been in favor of zip and ide- views not currently expressed in the Party the papers that I was part of the 'radical alism in politics, as opposed to the deadly platform to seek to persuade a new majority Christian right.' I thought I was just an en- little apparatchiks who think politics is to change the Platform, and it is appropriate gineer who's a member of the Missouri about winning, period. But we need to think for others to seek to keep it the same." Lutheran Synod." about what George Bush might call "the All in all, a more self-evident set of bro- From the other side, it is equally aston- passion thing." ishing to be greeted with "You may not There were a lot of passionate people at want to talk to me, I'm a Christian." Since the convention in Fort Worth last weekend Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a these so addressed have been under the im- who may yet give fanaticism a bad name. columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. pression all their lives that they, too, are Remember when Barry Goldwater said that

8 • JULY 1, 1994

"extremism in the defense of liberty is no Religious zealots are nothing new in our have control of the party's top candidates. vice..."? These people think Barry Goldwa- political life, but cutting them slack be- Phil Gramm, George W. Bush and Kay ter is a liberal wimp. cause of the perfervidness of their beliefs is Bailey Hutchison are not religious fanatics, Although the literature of the Christian perfect folly. It is precisely the zealotry, so the public perception of the party as a right is full of their goal of "Christianizing their unwillingness to compromise and tool of the religious right will be delayed. government," their candidates have learned their intolerance that makes them unfit for I would bet that two years from now, when to avoid that phrase when talking to the political office. people go to party precinct meetings in sup- media. "Well," said one, "the people who The Republican Party has nominated six port of their various presidential candidates, founded this country were Christians." No, candidates for the State Board of Education, the religious right will be set back in the they weren't. Many of the Founding Fa- all from the religious right. Four of them are number of delegates it controls. But I would thers were deists who believed in God but home-schoolers, and two send their chil- also bet that the religious right is in this fight not in the divinity of Jesus. dren to private schools. Does it make any for the long haul and that Republicans who I got out the Jefferson Bible the other sense at all to put these people in charge of think they can "Take It Back," as they call day, the one that Thomas Jefferson put to- the curriculum in the public schools? I'm their party movement, had best be prepared gether himself from two Greek versions of sorry, but just because somebody says the to fight for a long time and with great tenac- the Bible, two English translations, one Bible says something does not make it true. ity. And, I might add, passion. ❑ French and two Latin. In the introduction I The world is not 6,000 years old. The Bible found this quote: "It is in our lives and not speaks of taking up snakes, yet I could find our words that our religion must be read!" no snake handlers among the committed Jefferson believed that Jesus' "system of Christians in Fort Worth. ANDERSON & COMPANY morality was the most benevolent and sub- Politically, the Republican Party is now COFFEE lime...ever taught, and consequently more TEA SPICES facing exactly the same fight that the TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE perfect than those of any of the ancient Southern Baptist Convention has been AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 philosophers." But in regard to the funda- going through for several years, including 512 453-1533 mentalists of his day, he wrote: "They be- many of the same players. You will recall Send me your list. lieve that any portion of power confided to that the conservatives ousted the moderates me will be exerted in opposition to their in the convention over a series of years, Name schemes. And they believe rightly; for I gradually taking increasingly close control Street have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal of most Baptist institutions. The religious City Zip hostility against every form of tyranny over right now has control of the levers of the the mind of man." Republican Party machinery, but it does not

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9

• The World Cup in Addison But Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

BY VICKI MAYER

Addison Spanish soccer team was the only group of Nigeria is in any way comparable to Asian ORE THAN A TOWN, Addison athletes nearby, in Farmers Branch. How- crime cartels, arguing that there is no Nige- is a food court, with about 130 ever, McLaughlin said, some of the town's rian organized crime group operating in the M restaurants concentrated in 4.6 restaurants might have a problem. United States. "[The Addison police chief] square miles. Because liquor is served in a "Nigerians are responsible for over two is trying to say that a Nigerian coming into suburban area that is generally dry, a lot of million dollars in petty fraud. We don't a restaurant is disposed to commit a crime... people eat here, and restaurant sales taxes want to be overrun," said the chief, refer [and] that they are suspecting Nigerians be- pay most of the bills at City Hall. Only ring to an FBI report on the existence of fore they even leave their own shores to 9,000 people actually live here; in the "fraud schools" in Nigeria. Councilmember come here," he said. north, behind brick walls in homes that typ- Dick Wilke, alarmed at the report, wanted Although McLaughlin denied that there ically start at half a million dollars, and in the chief to offer some solutions to the im- was any prejudice in his comments, Sani the south, in aging garden apartments that pending problem of Nigerian soccer fans called the chief's statements "utterly define the city limits of Dallas. Addison's dining in town. racist": "Because 'we are black, we are eas- apartment dwellers lie farthest from the "If 30 people come in [a restaurant] ily identified. The same treatment would town's only police and fire stations and speaking Nigerian...the manager should not be paid to Arabs or Italians." their diverse ethnic and racial mix is not re- call the police," Wilke said. In the past, Addison's city officials re- flected in the faces of the Addison police, "That's what we've suggested...and man- sponded quickly to news stories they felt fire or other city workers. Of 400 city em- agers should watch out for credit card cast the city in a bad light—such as a recent ployees, fewer than 10 are black. scams," responded McLaughlin. report on duck euthanasia, a hot topic in Residents of Addison are not known for "A big man in blue standing at the Addison. But after a May 25 article was their interest in electoral politics. May's [restaurant] door watching these people; published on page 1 of the Belo Corp. municipal election to fill three of seven that'll put the chill on them," said Wilke. weekly Metrocrest News, which quoted council seats drew barely 300 voters and "That's what we intend," answered the McLaughlin, Wilke and the Nigerian con- the electorate consistently elects a council chief. sular and embassy officials, Addison town that is even whiter than the city staff. The During the discussion, city manager Ron officials did not contact the newspaper, current council includes white business Whitehead looked curiously at the reporter, even as calls from Nigerians and World owners, developers and lawyers, all elected the only person present who was not a town Cup representatives poured in to the news- at large. It includes no one from the blue- council member or municipal employee, but paper office. and pink-collar south side of town. This said nothing. In fact, no one protested or On May 29, over 1,000 Nigerians met in lack of diversity perhaps explains why questioned McLaughlin's statements and the Dallas to discuss options. According to town officials would later shake their heads meeting ended minutes after he made them. Robert Elleh, president of the Dallas Orga- in disbelief over what they considered to be When asked, after the meeting, if the nization of Nigerian Nationals, many mem- an incidental remark. statements about Nigerians were racially bers of the group were not surprised by the The incident: motivated, McLaughlin offered an explana- chief's comments because "there is a his- On Saturday morning, May 21, town tion. "You've heard of the Asian cartel. tory of Addison police harassment that council members, town staff and one re- There's a Nigerian group known for credit came out in the meeting." Elleh said that his porter gathered in the town's conference card fraud," he said, adding that "Restau- group was "very angry" and "contemplat- center to discuss budget policies. Granted, rants need to make sure to check all credit ing a series of actions," including a lawsuit not a thrilling subject, but the "Taste Addi- cards. A criminal element. in Nigeria is in against the town for the chief's remarks. son" restaurant festival getting underway credit cards; it has nothing to do with being Dr. Richard Nwachukwu, editor of the outside was a perk for the attendees who Nigerian or ethnicity." African Herald Newspaper in Dallas, said sat through four hours of discussions of Nigerian diplomatic officials disagreed. that there are a number of Nigerian lawyers fire alarms, overtime policies and—the In a telephone interview, M. Gibir, a Nige- in the Dallas area who might want to file World Cup. rian consulate official in Washington, D.C., suit. "We want to teach Addison a lesson," Chief of Police James McLaughlin intro- responded to the allegations. "This is a wild he said. Elleh said that while there is no duced the sporting topic to the sleepy group, accusation," said Gibir. Fraud, he said, is Nigerian influence in Addison, more than starting with his assessment of hotel space. no more a problem in Nigeria than in any 4,000 Nigerians reside in the Dallas-Fort To the chief, the hotels were a "non-issue" other country in the world: "It's not good to Worth area. "We have the cream of Nige- because the German press was the only speculate without the facts," he said. Ma- rian professionals who are law-abiding citi- group booked into an Addison hotel and the hammed Sani, information attaché for the zens," he said. Nigerian embassy, also was angered by It was only after Nigerians and African McLaughlin's and Wilke's exchange. Americans began meeting and publicly de- Former Observer editorial intern Vicki "That is precisely intimidation towards a nouncing Addison town officials that the Mayer has left the Metrocrest News and group of people," Sani said. officials saw any need to clarify what they her whereabouts are unknown. Sani denied that credit card fraud in thought occurred at the budget meeting.

10 • JULY 1, 1994 City manager White- head said in a June 2 arti- cle that the quotes were misunderstood. "In our opinion, that was not what was intended nor the way I recalled the meet- ing," he said. Though the city's budget session was an official city meeting, it was not taped, nor did any of the city staff members take detailed notes during the meeting. "That is typ- ical of a work session," said Whitehead. If the comments had occurred during a regular council meeting, all com- ments would have recorded, in accordance with state law, and there would have been no ques- tion as to what transpired during the meeting. A week after the initial coverage of the budget session, it became in- creasingly obvious that Nigerians were taking the allegations seriously. On June 2, a second Metro- crest News article focused on both the Nigerians' EARLAt.,1 anger and Addison's de- nial. Two local television EMILY KAPLAN stations picked up the story and reporters covering the World Cup ansl complaints should really be with the At the Metrocrest News offices, the atmo- for the Dallas Morning News started calling newspaper...This was just irresponsible re- sphere was tense. The editor-in-chief and around. Even an African-American newspa- porting of a situation that didn't really the news editor gave this reporter strict or- per, based in New York, got wind of the dis- occur," he said. Although, the chief re- ders not to respond to the news media, pute. At the same time, ironically, the Nige- peated, "there is a criminal element in Nige- which by this time, was calling regularly for rian national soccer team was gearing up to ria, and they are not violent, but they cause a statement. "We stand by our story," the practice at Addison's private Greenhill a problem with credit cards," he attempted news editor told all callers, refusing further School. As Nigerians tried unsuccessfully to provide some balance to the remarks, comment. However, as the editor-in-chief to change the site ("We don't want to be ha- commenting that "hooligans and ruffi- later said, the story, by making the town rassed," Elleh said.), Addison officials ans...come from Germany and England and look bad, "had deep ramifications for Addi- began thinking of responsibility and laid the cause problems in bars and restaurants." son." That reasoning had a direct effect on blame for the whole affair squarely on the (England's team did not qualify for World an issue that was soon to surface. shoulders of the one person who was taking Cup competition.) Soon after publication of the second notes during the session: this reporter. Suddenly, Addison officials were saying Metrocrest News article, Addison police of- Mayor Richard Beckert said he was the remarks were not racist, were misinter- ficer Gerald Runnels called this reporter to "sorry" that the conversation was "misun- preted by a reporter who described them as say that he believed the Metrocrest' s ver- derstood" and that it was "taken out of con- racist, and could not have occurred because sion of the story. The reason: Runnels had text," David Jackson wrote in the Dallas Addison is looking forward to "hosting in- filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Morning News on June 2. Although Beckert ternational visitors from around the world," Commission complaint due to racial harass- faxed an apology note to Nigerian ambas- as the mayor emphasized. Mayor Beckert, ment he alleged he had suffered at the Addi- sador Zubair Mahumud Kazaure, the mayor vice president of development for Harvey son Police Department at least one month maintained that the Metrocrest News "dis- Hotels, said residents of Addison looked before the "World Cup Budget Session." torted" the facts. He did not offer his version forward to being good hosts. And being Although an African-American criminal of what happened. good hosts meant more revenue. World Cup investigator has worked on the staff of the McLaughlin was even more determined tourists, the international and national press, Addison Police Department since 1986, in to see that the party responsible for the and soccer teams are expected to bring about January 1994 Runnels became the first story—this reporter—would be identified $300 million into the Greater Dallas area. black police officer to work a street beat in and held accountable. "That is not what I "We certainly don't want the Nigerians to Addison. Runnels says he is constantly re- said at all," he was quoted in another Morn- feel unwelcome. Quite the contrary, we wel- minded that he is different. "There are very ing News article on June 3. "[The Nigeri- come them with open arms," Beckert said. few days that go by that another officer does

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 not refer to me by race," Runnels said. matter," he said. reporting on it. That week, the editor had For example, he said, one day he was Initially, Metrocrest News editors said met with Whitehead for "a cup of coffee" scheduled 'to meet another Addison police , they were "very interested" in running with and decided that Addison had taken enough officer for a routine check of a discount re- the Runnels story, although they warned of a beating over the Nigerian story. "I tail outlet in Addison. When he arrived, the this reporter to be "very careful" in report- don't believe Addison is a racist town," he other officer shouted to a group of people in ing the issue, since. Addison was already said as a justification for not running the front of the store, "Hey, Addison has a new making waves with the news media. Their Runnels story. To him, the media spotlight police officer! And he's black!" Although biggest stated concern was "to save the on an Arlington official, who spoke deri- Runnels was embarrassed, he said that sim- credibility of the paper." One editor said, sively about Mexicans, was the only bright ilar comments were commonplace and ap- "We don't want it to seem like we're out to spot related to the issue, because it would parently were considered acceptable by his make Addison look bad." give Addison a chance to "recover." In fellow officers. The EEOC complaint, furnished by Run- short, the story would probably never run. In May, an incident occurred that Run- nels, and two interviews with McLaughlin The news editor admitted that his superior nels felt was intolerable. Randy King, an and Whitehead corroborated the story. In- was "gun shy" in not running the story. Addison police dispatcher, in jest, transmit- sisting on both a tape recorder and a wit- The June 9 edition of the paper reflected ted a message to a female police officer's ness, McLaughlin told this reporter on June this editorial policy change. In a letter to the car. To Runnels it was no joke. "Are you 7 that the dispatcher was suspended for editor, Mayor Beckert wrote that this re- the HNIC? Oh, I mean the OIC," King "impioper use of the mobile data terminal porter's "careless reporting...has caused typed on the police mobile data terminals. and for sending what could be interpreted as considerable embarrassment to the town of "OIC" is standard police code for "officer a racial slur." He added that HNIC "could Addison and unnecessary anguish to the in charge." "HNIC," in the parlance, stands stand for a lot of things" even though "we local Nigerian community." Furthermore, for "head nigger in charge" and apparently interpreted it to mean a racial slur." the mayor questioned this reporter's per- had become a running joke throughout the McLaughlin could not explain how HNIC sonal and professional background, writ- department, referring to the only black offi- became interpreted as a racial slur, nor did ing, "I realize that this is [the reporter's] cer working the streets. King inadvertently he know any other possible meanings of the first news position and that she is anxious sent the message not only to the one police word. Yet, he stated conclusively, "We to be recognized as a reporter, but I would car he intended, but to all of the cars in pa- never had such an offense before." hope that the Metrocrest News will take trol, including Runnels', who was outraged. McLaughlin denied that anyone in the de- more care in the future to verify informa- "There is a precedent [in the department] partment had ever been treated differently tion prior to its publication." that anyone can call me a nigger," ex- because of race. "The only incident I know The newspaper published the letter ver- plained Runnels, who said he had com- of that Officer Runnels told me about was batim, but not the editor's response to plained to his supervisors on the day the in- that a Mexican American pointed out that he Beckert, which stated, "No good purpose is cident occurred. Police officials filed was black," McLaughlin said. As for the de- served by attacking the persona of the re- against King five days later and after a p. 13ent's internal investigation, McLaugh- porter covering the event. She stands by her week he received a five-day suspension lin believed that the handling of the matter account and so do I. Under the circum- without pay. Head of police communica- was sufficient and claimed that Runnels did stances, that places the paper squarely be- tions J.J. Ramsey led the investigation into not even want to investigate. "The dis- hind its report as published." King's remark and decided that HNIC most patcher talked with Officer Runnels and Instead, the paper's lead editorial on June 9 probably was what Runnels and other offi- apologized...He accepted [King's] apol- did little to scold Addison. "Reporters for this cers thought it meant. ogy." McLaughlin said he knew. of the newspaper typically pursue assignments that Runnels believed that the suspension was EEOC complaint, but that Ken Dipple, the show positive aspects of the community's not a sufficient punishment for the racist town's attorney, had already responded to it. people and institutions," the editorial read. It statement. "It's an insult to an African Whitehead had a different response. "We related how McLaughlin's remarks . reflect American to call me a nigger, and it's don't know what the complaint is about "at least, a breach of sensitivity." Further, the against Title IX of the Civil Rights Act to yet," he said. "No response [to the com- editorial continues, "Everyone hopes this un- say it over a federally controlled device plaint] has been forwarded yet.... We gave it fortunate incident is behind the Town of Ad- [like the police radio communication sys- to the attorney and he advised us to wait dison... So let's hope this whole incident did, tem]," Runnels said. until the hearing date," said Whitehead. indeed, sharpen the town's officials' sensitiv- After contacting the National Associa- In the meantime, Runnels, who wants to ity about prejudice. If that's the case, tensions tion for the Advancement of Colored Peo- continue working as a police officer, says along ethnic lines are not likely." The edi- ple and the Equal Employment Opportunity that he cannot eat .or 'sleep for fear of what tor's message is neatly summed up in the ed- Commission, Runnels filed a complaint the complaint or the law suit will do to his itorial's last sentence: "This story needs a with the EEOC, charging racial harass- career. "I don't know from day to day if I'll happy ending." ment. "I have been treated differently from have a job. There are many days that I don't Addison is recovering. No longer under my fellow officers on the basis of my race," want to put on my uniform.... The other of- the gaze of the major media, and again he alleged. The EEOC investigation has ficers are staying away from me. I've been blessed by a local paper that holds that the begun, but the agency usually takes from told that it was just a joke and I shouldn't town is not racist, Addison can open its six to eight months to complete its investi- have made a big deal out of it," he said. Al- doors to World Cup visitors. Nigerian gations. Runnels and his Dallas lawyer, though he never felt discriminated against groups are still perturbed. Elleh called for Victor Lander, have asked the EEOC for a by colleagues during nine years as a Dallas McLaughlin to resign and for the town to "right to sue" document, which will allow police officer, Runnels said that Addison actively recruit African-American employ- them to pursue a federal suit against the police are different. He added, "Police ees. McLaughlin has not issued a public Addison Police Department. work is a very tight business; you became apology, as urged by the Nigerian liaison to "What gave [King] the confidence to use [an outcast] if you go against it." the World Cup, Doc Lawson, and Gerald this kind of language?" asked Runnels. The Runnels story was scheduled for Runnels has not yet begun his "recovery" Racism was his answer. "[The police de- publication in the Metrocrest News when in court. ❑ partment] has disabided every law in this the editor-in-chief told this reporter to stop

12 • JULY 1, 1994 Red Lines Through Minority Mortgages

BY JAMES CULLEN

HEN WILLIAM Paul Thomas tion rate of a minority group by the rejection in approval ratios. "Some institutions are of Houston got his first rejec- rate for the comparable white group. (The just figuring out ways to market their loans W tion on a home mortgage appli- rejection rate for whites is always 1.0.) without getting ethnic minorities through cation in April 1992, despite a family in- Wilson, in his report, concluded, "...even the doors," he said. come of $115,000 a year, he thought a visit when family income is taken into consider- Even the speculation advanced by some to the lender would resolve the minor blem- ation, the rejection ratio of minority groups bankers that minorities have more credit ishes on his credit report. is much higher than would be expected if no problems than whites does not justify the When Thomas was rejected six months disparity existed." Studies done by the Wall difference, Henneberger said. "Eighty per- later in his second try to finance the purchase Street Journal and the Federal Reserve cent of applicants have some blemish. The of the Southeast Houston home he was leas- Bank of Boston showed similar disparities real problem is hoW lenders deal with that ing, he realized a complaint that a recent according to race. for whites versus how they deal with mi- statewide study has substantiated: Making Overall, ASians were rejected at nearly norities. We feel that whites are given the more than $100,000 a year doesn't guarantee the same rate as whites (1.02 for Asians vs. benefit of the doubt at a much higher rate that a black couple can buy a home. 1.0 for whites); American Indians were half than minorities." A black Texan earning $100,000 a year again as likely to be rejected (1.44); His- Thomas was chief of staff for state Sena- is still two and a half times as likely- to be panics were nearly twice as likely (1.93); tor Rodney Ellis of Dallas in July 1992, denied a home mortgage as a white appli- and blacks were 2.23 times as likely to be when he first applied for the mortgage to cant at a similar income level, the study rejected as whites. buy a house in the middle-class MacGregor showed. Overall, black and Hispanic Tex- Rejection ratios also varied by location. Terrace neighborhood near the University ans were denied home mortgages at twice Blacks were more likely than Hispanics to of Houston. It was denied, he said, because the rate of white applicants, even at higher get a loan in Bexar and Hidalgo counties, but he had allowed student loans to become income levels. less likely to get a loan in Cameron County overdue several years earlier. When he As might be expected, prospects for ap- (as well as Dallas, El Paso, Harris, Hidalgo, showed the mortgage officer the student proval increased for Hispanics at higher in- Jefferson, Lubbock and Travis). In Webb loans had been paid, the officer told him he come levels, but they did not match the ap- County, blacks and Hispanics are denied at would watch his credit record for the next proval rates for white applicants. the same rate-1.54 times the white rate. six months. In the meantime, Thomas Rejection rates actually increased as Lubbock bankers appeared to like their moved to Austin to work for then-U.S. Sen- black income levels rose. While black Tex- borrowers white, as blacks in the Hub City ator Bob Krueger, while Thomas' wife, a ans making less than $25,000 were rejected were rejected at nearly five and a half times nursing supervisor at St. Luke's Hospital at 1.5 times the rate of whites at a similar the rate of Caucasians, Hispanics were 2.69 for more than 10 years, remained in Hous- income level, blacks making $25,000 to times as likely to be rejected and Asians ton with their two children. This time, de- $50,000 were rejected at 1.91 times the were 1.83 times as likely to be denied. spite their scrupulous payment of bills, the level of similar whites and blacks making (Lubbock bankers didn't approve any of mortgage again was denied—because $50,000 to $75,000 were rejected at 2.5 the three American Indian applicants.) Thomas had changed jobs. times the rate of whites at that income level. Cameron County was a pale second with a "Had I not gone in there and insisted that Among those earning more than 3.32 rejection rate for blacks and a 2.1 re- they follow through on the agreement, I $100,000, 25 percent of black applicants jection rate for Hispanics. (They rejected wouldn't be in that house today," Thomas were denied loans, compared with 10 per- both American Indian applicants.) In addi- said. While he was cooling his heels wait- cent of whites rejected at that income level tion to Lubbock, Asians had the hardest ing to see the mortgage officer, he added, a and 16 percent of Hispanics. At all income times in the counties of Jefferson (1.59) and black secretary encouraged him, saying she levels, blacks had higher rejection rates Harris (1.26) while they did better than had seen white applicants come in with than whites, Hispanics, Asians and Ameri- whites in Cameron (0.88), Hidalgo (0.91) bankruptcies and get mortgages. can Indians. and Webb (0.74). • "I used to think making $100,000 a year On behalf of the Texas Community Rein- Laura Hale, general counsel for the Texas was a big deal, but it's not necessarily vestment Coalition, made up of 50 housing Bankers Association, said other reasons be- enough to get you out of a townhouse and and civil rights groups, Robert H. Wilson of sides discrimination could explain the dis- into a home of your own...and I know many the Lyndon B. Johnson. School of Public crepancy. Some institutions may have a African Americans don't have the opportu- Affairs at the University of Texas analyzed highter rejection rate because they have en- nities I have," said Thomas, who returned data from 155,348 Texas mortgage loan ap- gaged in outreach programs into low-to- as Ellis' chief of staff after Krueger's defeat plications made in metropolitan areas •in middle-income areas, she speculated. in a June 1993 special election. "You'd be 1992, as reported by Texas lending institu- But John Henneberger, a spokesman for surprised at how many of us have gone tions to the federal government. the Texas Low-Income Housing Informa- through similar deals, and it's not just on The study compared rejection ratios, tion Service, said lenders would have a dif- home loans—it's also in getting cars or which were computed by dividing the rejec- ficult time explaining away the differences other loans."

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 While the U.S. census showed 68 percent of Texas households were headed by a Mortgage Rejection Rates by Major Lenders white person, 77.6 percent of applicants for home loans (120,502) were white and ac- American counted for 80 percent of the loan approvals Institution in 1992. Whites also got 83.5 percent of the Indian Asian Black Hispanic total amount loaned. Whites got 64.9 per- Accubanc Mortgage Corporation 0.00 1.70 2.91 3.23 cent of the rejections. Amarillo National Bank 0.00 1.98 1.76 2.84 Hispanics, with 19.1 percent of the house- American Residential Mortgage 0.00 1.06 1.61 1.45 holds, applied for 13.8 percent of loans Banc One Mortgage Corporation 2.60 0.97 2.70 1.89 (21,496) but got 22.3 percent of rejections Bancplus Mortgage Corporation 1.24 0.95 3.26 1.59 while blacks, with 11 percent of the house- Bank One, Texas, N.A. 1.07 1.25 3.17 2.43 holds, applied for 5.2 percent of the loans Bank United of Texas FSB 0.73 1.14 (8,063) and got 9.7 percent of the rejections. 2.49 2.75 "The shares of actual demand for home- Barclaysamerican/Mortgage Corp. 8.73 1.52 2.57 0.94 purchase loans for Blacks and Hispanics are Benchmark Mortgage Company 4.70 1.30 2.44 3.06 substantially below their corresponding Chase U.S. Consumer Services 0.00 2.34 0.00 0.00 shares of heads of household, indicating that Colonial Savings 2.76 1.94 2.86 2.07 minorities are seeking loans in numbers well Corinthian Mortgage Corp. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 below what would be expected given the size Countrywide Funding Corporation 0.77 1.47 2.71 1.71 of their populations," the report stated. CTX Mortgage 1.29 1.30 3.61 2.43 There were 802 lending institutions that Empire of America Realty Credit 0.78 0.79 1.02 1.17 reported loan applications for 1992, but 50 Farm & Home Savings Association 0.00 1.07 3.04 2.45 institutions comprised 76 percent of all First Bankers Mortgage Corp. 0.00 0.00 4.32 2.93 loans originated and 78 percent of the dollar First Community Mortgage Co. amount loaned in the state. Some of the in- 0.00 2.44 1.64 0.79 stitutions with the worst minority lending First Gibraltar Mortgage Corp. 2.06 0.98 1.96 1.65 records in 1992 were First Union Mortgage First Union Mortgage Corp. 0.00 1.11 5.28 3.03 Corp., U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co., North Guaidian Mortgage Company, Inc NA 0.00 3.65 5.06 American Mortgage Co., CTX Mortgage, Great Western Mortgage Corp. 2.46 0.97 1.45 1.90 Waterfield Financial Corp. and the Nations- Green Tree Financial Corp. 1.39 1.32 1.40 1.34 Bank Mortgage Corp. Harbor Financial Mortgage Corp. 1.14 1.44 3.17 2.88 Senator Ellis, a Houston Democrat and Home Savings of America, F.A. 0.96 1.46 2.80 1.70 member of the Senate Economic Develop- ICM Mortgage Corporation 0.00 1.00 3.14 1.98 ment and Finance committees, was unavail- Independence One Mortgage Corp. 2.10 0.88 1.83 1.98 able for comment, but Thomas said he Knutson Mortgage Corporation 0.00 1.88 3.10 hoped the study would help the 1995 Legis- 1.17 Mellon Mortgage Company lature address the problem of financing for 0.00 0.83 3.82 2.88 Mercantile Banc and Trust 0.00 14.65 0.00 minorities. 0.00 ❑ NationsBanc Mortgage Corp. 1.89 1.66 3.07 1.90 North American Mortgage Co. 1.88 0.87 3.48 2.07 Subscribe to Norwest Mortgage, Inc. 0.69 1.86 3.38 2.10 The Texas Observer Principal Mutual Life Ins Co. 1.67 1.31 2.66 1.49 The Prudential Home Mortgage 2.91 2.65 3.13 1.88 For only $32, you get 25 issues of the Rocky Mountain Mortgage Co. 0.59 1.47 1.90 1.62 Observer filled with news you won't find Ryland Mortgage Company 0.00 1.79 3.13 3.44 in your friendly, neighborhood, corpo- Sears Mortgage Corporation 0.00 1.34 1.95 1.91 rate-owned daily paper. Write Stefan Security Pacific Housing Service 1.50 1.50 1.82 1.00 Wanstrom, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, STM Mortgage Company 1.84 0.95 2.02 1.49 Texas 78701 or call 512-477-0746. Sunbelt National Mortgage Corp. 0.00 0.75 3.00 2.18 Temple-Inland Mortgage Co. 1.43 1.76 2.33 1.82 Texas Commerce Mortgage Co. 0.00 1.60 2.23 2.18 Texas National Bank of Midland 0.00 2.17 3.79 1.94 Home Grown Troy & Nichols, Inc. ...d.dc44,149 e4awrld 0.95 1.38 2.28 2.15 Union Modern Mortgage Corp NA 1.95 2.08 2.99 Kenaf 100% treeless paper US Bancorp Mortgage Company 7.71 1.38 Grown & made in the U.S.A. • Chlorine free • Acid free 3.85 2.94 Kenaf is a member of the hibiscus family and Waterfield Financial Corporation 2.26 1.46 3.19 2.14 can replace trees in all facets of paper making. Weyerhaeuser Mortgage Co. 0.00 1.71 2.05 2.11 Featured by: CNN, National Public Radio, New Age Journal, Earth Island Journal, The Audubon Society and more! NOTE: This represents the performance of the top 50 mortgage lenders in Texas, based Call or write for samples and printing prices Stationery • Envelopes • Brochures upon numbers of mortgage loan applications reported in 1992. The numbers in the columns represent the rate at which minority applicants were rejected compared with the rate white "The first ALPHA & OMEGA commercial printer 2705 8th Avenue applicants were rejected. A figure of 2.00 would mean applicants from that minority were to use Fort Worth, TX 76110 turned down at twice the rate of whites. The data for these tables were compiled by Robert kenaf paper." (817) 921-3670 Wilson of the LBJ School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas.

14 • JuLv 1, 1994 A public service message from the American Income Life Insurance Co. — Waco, Texas — Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Advertisement)

Twice the Results, Half the Cost Matching Grants By Tom Luce

No one denies that human needs continue to would be established. Not a single new govern- dramatically increase. No community is immune ment employee would be hired, but our ability to to increased drug abuse, homelessness, juvenile meet human needs would be multiplied. crime, random violent crime, school dropouts, The ratio of matching funds on a dollar-for- teen pregnancies, senior citizen needs and other dollar basis would ensure that expansion would social ills. not create organizational problems. Government at all levels has failed to suc- The "matching grant" concept, of course, has cessfully meet these needs; in fact, many would a self-correcting mechanism built in. If a selected argue that government programs have created or private organization's performance begins to de- exacerbated these problems. cline, private sector contributions will begin to de- The current political debate is stale. Conser- cline and accordingly public sector contributions vatives argue spend 10 percent less; liberals will decline. argue spend 10 percent more. Neither approach An ancillary benefit that may result from the offers real hope for radical change or abandon- grant program is the strong likelihood that in the ment of unsuccessful programs. current environment of taxpayer resistence to in- On the other hand, segments of the private, creased governmental spending, any funds allo- non-profit sector continue to successfully meet cated to the "matching grant" program will not be human needs. available to existing programs that are not working. In every community, there are examples of Eventually, unsuccessful programs will be starved. programs that work. In Dallas, the Salesmanship How do you ensure that grants are based Club responds to "at risk" youth with outdoor liv- upon merit or successful performance versus po- ing programs that transform lives. The Dallas Can litical patronage? By putting in place a process Academy responds to the same need in an en- whereby the state legislature or city council would tirely different, but successful manner. The First appropriate or allocate a fixed sum of money, e.g. Presbyterian Church responds to the homeless $1,000,000, and an independent board fashioned with a program that feeds and offers shelter to the after the base closure commission would be ap- homeless. I could go on and on. pointed to allocate this total by awarding specific The "Matching Grant" concept would build on grants to specific organizations for specific pro- these islands of strengths by providing public grams that work. Using this method will ensure funds to these successful programs and others an award system based on merit. If it does not, like them by matching on a dollar-for-dollar basis you still have in place an adjusting mechanism, private contributions. private sector contributions. Overnight, successful programs would be The beauty of this idea is it helps to meet able to dramatically increase the number of human needs by allowing government to do what clients they could reach and help. it can best do—allocate resources—and re- No new government program would have to moves it from what it does not do well—operate be created. No new government bureaucracy or implement.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 Continued from pg. 24 ✓ GREEN FEES. Freeport-McMoRan eling at the University of New Orleans, all bought a full-page ad in the June 17 Wall funded by Freeport McMoRan, which is the tinue to negotiate differences between the Street Journal ($15,887 for the southwest top dumper of toxic waste in U.S. water- House and Senate in the crime package that edition) to make the pitch that they are en- ways. In Austin, Freeport McMoRan's Bar- will put more people in prison for longer vironmentalists, rather than a company that ton Creek Properties has persisted in devel- terms and create more capital offenses but, has compiled rap sheets at the U.S. Envi- oping a golf course and housing over the maybe, will lay aside money for crime pre- ronmental Protection Agency as well as environmentally sensitive section of the vention. The big variables in the crime pack- worldwide environmental organizations. Edwards Aquifer that recharges Barton age are control of assault weapons, to which The back-page ad has the company coming Springs. The company has fought building House Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks of to the rescue of Florida panthers, Mexican restrictions approved by a two-to-one mar- Beaumont remains steadfastly opposed, and wolves, Cuban crocodiles, rhino iguanas, gin in a referendum and, unable to defeat it the Racial Justice Act, which would allow maned wolves, etc. Then there are the FM at the polls, city council and the Legisla- prisoners to challenge death sentences that Audubon Species Survival Center in New ture, is now challenging it in court. are based on racism. Prosecutors protest that Orleans, the Environmental Communica- doing away with racism in sentencing would tions Chair at Loyola University, the ✓ FIBER-OPTIC FLAP. Who will own ruin their business. Bioenvironmental Chair at Tulane and the the information highway? Austin city offi- Chair and Center for Environmental Mod- cials are investigating the possibility of build- ing a fiber-optic network and keeping it in public hands. In the May 27 Austin American- Statesman, Bruce Hight wrote that the Austin proposal was likely to generate strong opposi- tion from private industries. Among those On the 4th of July, who would like to control fiber optics, Hight cites Jon Loehman, a division manager for Southwestern Bell, who said the city's pro- Are You Traveling to posal was "almost like nationalizing the tele- phone network." Bruce Arnold, president of the Texas Cable TV Association, said cable the Davis Mountains, companies "would react horribly" to plans for a city-owned network. He noted that Austin's city-owned electric utility owns a share of the misbegotten South Texas nuclear plant, McDonald Observatory, which has been plagued by mismanagement (by Houston Lighting & Power, a for-profit utility). Unnoticed was that Austin residential or the Big Bend? electricity rates remain 25 percent lower than HL&P and substantially lower than eight of nine other for-profit utilities in Texas while Stay overnight at beautiful Fort McKavett! Austin commercial and industrial rates are • ••• competitive with the for-profits, according to ••••• •• • • the Texas Public Utility Commission. Planning a trip out west this summer? Take a break at beautiful, historic ✓ BIG D, LITTLE HEART. Dallas has Fort McKavett, just 24 miles north of 1-10 at exit 442 (on your official worn down two more liberals. Karen Ash- Texas Highway map, coordinates 0-13). Bunk for a night in one of our more, who helped found the Dallas Rain- historic buildings, or camp out and count stars 'til you fall asleep under bow Chapter of the National Organization of Women, recently announced that she crystal clear West Texas skies. was planning a move to Colorado so she could raise her child in a more progressive Ft. McKavett, located at the headwaters of the San Saba River, is three place after 16 years of frustration with Dal- hours from Austin, and three hours from San Antonio, and a perfect place las sexism, racism and homophobia. Then to stop and rest (especially if you get away from home later than planned). Joe Cook, the regional director of the With some advance notice we can even have a little supper ready for you! American Civil Liberties Union, accepted a similar position in Louisiana after 26 years During the day, take time to visit one of the best restored "Buffalo Soldier" in Dallas. He told Laura Miller, columnist era forts in the country. We have a great museum and bookstore, and lots of the Dallas Observer, "the city just is of hiking options available on our 80-acre site. Prices start at $15.00 per constitutionally and morally bankrupt. The person for overnight accommodations; families are welcome. For reserva- leadership of this city looks at the Bill of Rights, in my opinion, as a footnote to the tions, call 1/800 RURAL TX or 512/458-1016. Constitution." Cook cited the latest City No smoking or alcoholic beverages allowed on the premises; however the Fort McKavett Council court victory in its effort to rout Trading Post is located 1/4 mile from the Fort and they permit both smoking and drinking. homeless people from downtown. Miller Fort McKavett Historic Site is operated under contract with Texas Parks and Wildlife by wondered if John Fullinwider, housing ac- Texas Rural Communities, a non-profit corporation, through the "Partnership in Parks" tivist and the third name on Dallas media program. The Fort accepts most major credit cards. Rolodexes under "Liberal," would be the next exile, but Fullinwider assured her, "I'm not moving." ❑

16 • JULY 1, 1994 The Risk of Acquittal

BY DICK J. REAVIS

San Antonio firearms charge in a set populated by at part of the conspiracy that didn't exist. ONVICTION FOR a federal crime is .least one other element, or to place the The eight Davidians will now spend a nothing to look forward to, but acquit- charge in the null or empty set. total of 70 years in prison for crimes that C tal is certainly worse. This con- On February 26, while considering the the jury found that they committed. And tention—revolutionary in judicial, law and jury's logically inconsistent verdicts, Smith they'll spend 170 years in prison for pos- government circles—was put forward in had called both prosecution and defense at- sessing firearms during the crimes that, by San Antonio on June 17 by Walter S. Smith torneys to his bench. Still without the bene- the jury's findings, they didn't commit. Jr., a federal district judge whose theoretical fit of the insight that he would soon acquire, Though Smith's logic is mathematically gifts had previously gone unnoticed. Not he asked these courtroom antagonists to demonstrable, a sampling of opinion taken since Descartes' famous pronouncement, voice their opinions. The prosecutors ad- outside of the courtroom shows that most "Cogito, ergo sum," had anyone so stun- vised him to send the verdict back to the laymen do not understand Smith's genius. ningly changed the structure of our thinking. jury for matching. Defense attorneys asked Among the doubters was Sara Bain, the The eight Branch Davidians who were the him to throw out the firearms finding, to New Braunfels school teacher who was the object of Smith's unprecedented demonstra- place it in the null set. "...The court will set Davidian jury's forewoman. Immediately tion were among the 11 whom a jury had ac- that finding aside," the judge had ruled. after Smith detailed the logic behind the quitted last February 26 on charges that Two days later, Smith experienced his sentence he ordered, Bain complained to they'd conspired to murder federal agents epiphany and ordered Riddle rearrested. the press that "The Judge just kind of over- and that they had murdered federal agents. Once his new light was upon him, Smith looked the jury's verdict." Three of the 11 were set free immediately and began to work out his proof in rigorous and Judge Smith, of course, had done no such Judge Smith released the fourth, Canadian unassailable detail. Firearms convictions thing. He had honored the jury's verdict he Ruth Riddle, the only female defendant in the come in three categories: a five-year sen- agreed with, regarding firearms, discount- trial, to the U S Immigration and Naturaliza- tence for using an ordinary weapon, a 10- ing only the verdicts he disagreed with, re- tion Service for deportation home. But before year sentence for using a sawed-off shotgun garding conspiracy and murder. Had Smith the INS could board her on a northbound bus and a 30-year sentence for using automatic completely overlooked the jury's findings or plane, Judge Smith stumbled onto his dis- weapons and grenades. and ordered the Davidians convicted of covery—and ordered Riddle arrested again. Borrowing precedent from drug war murder and conspiracy, as the government In the new arrest, Riddle was charged cases, Smith ruled that the accused Davidi- demanded, the Davidians, who will be- in with possession of a firearm during the ans were residents of a "fortress" whose their 70s when released from prison, might commission of a federal crime. The 12 San purpose was to further illegal activity, and have wound up serving life sentences! Antonio-area jurors who heard the David- that each of them had access to automatic Forty years from today, if the surviving ian case had exonerated all of the defen- weapons, even though they may not have Davidians have taken advantage of their dants on charges of conspiracy to murder used them, or known how to use them or opportunity to spend years studying philos- and murder, but had found six of them, in- known what one looks like. The "construc- ophy and logic, when they hobble or wheel cluding Riddle, guilty of possessing a tive possession" of automatic weapons that themselves out of prison, they are likely to firearm in the commission of an unspeci- Smith established, he found on closer ex- thank Judge Smith for having spared them fied crime. It was this crime whose "match- amination, made the defendants guilty, ipso the consequences of acquittal. ing" led Smith to his proof that conviction facto, of the 30-year version of the charge. Whether or not it matters that Judge is preferable to acquittal. On June 17 at the federal courthouse in Smith, who is now 53 years old, is likely to According to the instructions that the ju- San Antonio, the Waco philosopher-jurist expire before 40 years have passed, his rors had received—instructions formulated called the accused Davidians to the bench motto might be: "Death is nothing to look by Smith, just days prior to his epochal dis- and, one by one, explained to them, and the forward to, but life is worse." The Reagan covery—the jurors were to find firearms astonished world, how conviction is prefer- appointee no doubt will demonstrate when guilt only in connection with the murder or able to acquittal. Smith sentenced five of next he hears a controversial case in court: conspiracy charges. The situation was like the Davidians to 10-year prison terms for Several lessons can be drawn from Judge that of having two left shoes—murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter, the crime Smith's spectacular handling of the case. conspiracy—but only one right shoe, the that they committed, according to the jury's The first of them is that only a fool hires a firearms charge. According to Smith's in- verdict. He then sentenced each of them to defense attorney. The defense attorneys structions, the jurors were either to match an additional 30 years in prison for having a often try to win an acquittal or dismissal—it the right shoe with one or both of the left firearm in furtherance of the conspiracy to is, after all, in their training—but, as United shoes, or produce a barefoot verdict of ac- which, the jury had found, they had never States v. Branch Davidians shows, that will quittal. They were, by the terms of the sym- belonged. Smith then sentenced Ruth Rid- only land the accused in prison for a longer bolic logic in which Judge Smith was ap- dle to five years for possessing a gun during stretch than mere conviction. parently already versed, to place the the crime for which she had been declared No, pleading guilty is clearly the prefer- innocent. He handed down to Australian- able course of action whenever one is born defendant Graeme Craddock a 10-year charged with a crime. A guilty plea not only Dick J. Reavis is aDallas-based freelance term for possessing a grenade, the crime for avoids the aggravation and expense of a writer. He is working on a book about the which the jury had found him guilty, and an jury trial, it more importantly insures Branch Davidians. additional 10 years for having a firearm as against the risk of acquittal.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 JIM HIGHTOWER

Graduation Day: Long Distance Oligopoly pittance for public land, haul precious min- erals out of it without paying dime in royal- No Place to Go It's been said that advertising is the science ties to us taxpayers, and laugh at us all the of arresting the human intelligence—just Yogi Berra said, "You've got to be very way to the bank. This laysi originally was careful if you don't know where you're long enough to get money from it. Well, the Big Three long-distance tele- meant for small stakeholders, miners who going, because you might get there." looked like Gabby Hayes—not corporate phone companies have been running a series Well, that's exactly the dilemma facing golddiggers with Gucci shoes, Pucci suits so many of America's fresh-faced high- of "arresting" ads to make us think they're all engaged in hot competition to reduce our and Swiss bank accounts. school graduates. This month another But here's Barrick, paying Uncle Sucker rates. AT&T, MCI and Sprint have saturated three-quarter-of-a-million students got $5 an acre—a total of less than $10,000— the airwaves with slick advertising spots say- their diploma, sang "All Hail to Thee Our to get a gold mine. Literally. Under this ing: "Go with MCI because we're cheaper Alma Mater," and turned to face the job $10 billion worth of gold. They pay than the others." "Stick with AT&T because land is market without a clue of where they're Eu- we're saving you money." "Sign with Sprint us $10,000; we give them $10 billion. going. reka! There's gold in them thar laws! because we hold the line for you." Our country—and our nation's leaders— Congress has been fiddling with fixing But while our attention has been drawn to used to take pride in the fact that young this goldmine loophole for months. And a this blizzard of competing ads, all three folks willing to work hard could come out bill did pass the House last year requiring have been quietly teaming up in a most of high school and find a job that would pay companies to pay an 8 percent royalty on way to raise our rates. a family wage and offer the possibility of a noncompetitive the gold, silver, platinum and other wealth In the last six months, AT&T has raised middle-class life. they take from federal lands. its basic rates twice—once by 4 percent, No more. Industry today is using impov- But, hey, these outfits like things just as then by another 6 percent. Far from holding erished, Third-World workers as a sledge- they are, so industry lobbyists and a merry the line, within days, both MCI and Sprint hammer to tear down America's job base band of so-called "conservative" senators popped up with virtually identical rate and replace it with a new low-wage econ : have bottled up the bill and bollixed re- omy. And Washington is behind them! hikes. Now here they come again in June form. And while the bill is stalled, hundreds with still another increase. Bill Clinton brags that his policies are of mining corporations from all over the creating nearly two million jobs a year! This is competition? No, this is gouging. world are filing applications under the 1872 While our rates have been rising quicker True. But they're jobs that typically pay law to buy our public mining properties, under eight bucks an hour—that's $16,000 than a hog eats supper, their cost of doing just like Barrick did, for five bucks an acre. a year—without health coverage, without a business has been falling significantly. For The Sierra Club has dubbed this boon- real opportunity for promotion or any like- example, "access charges" that long-dis- doggle "The Great Terrain Robbery." If lihood that the jobs will last. tance companies pay to local phone compa- you want to help stop the robbery, contact a A new report in Texas ranks the "high- nies have dropped from $29 billion in 1985 reform group called the Mineral Policy growth occupations" through the year to $14 billion last year. Center at 202-887-1872. 2000. Top of the list? Janitors and maids. So, what's going on here? Get out your $4.20 an hour. Food preparation workers, dictionary and look up: "Oligopoly." Oli- security guards, receptionists...these are the gopoly is a two-dollar word describing an .4 egigliMIMIIII 46 jobs of the future out there. industry run by a very few Big Sellers—like Sea And it's hard to land them. A fourth of AT&T, MCI and Sprint, who control more • 1 last year's high-school grads seeking jobs than 85 percent of the long-distance phone •• Horse still have none. One reason is that 40 per- industry. •• Inn cent of people with college degrees can't When you have an oligopoly, the Sellers • find work that requires their skills, so don't have to compete on the price they 0,, Kitchenettes — Cable TV they're competing for the same lousy jobs charge us customers—they simply go along ;it Heated Pool • with one another, and get long very nicely as high-school students. Y beside the Gulf o?/. Mexico Der Yet our economy is generating more at your and my expense. on Mustang Island You don't have to be in Who's Who to wealth than ever. For the first time since the / Available for private partics 1) New Deal, our economy is growing while know What's What. The phone oligopoly is employment for graduates is falling. Those picking our pockets. ilk Unique European _Charm f cQ Auno.spliere at the top get the plums...young folks get ) the pits. As today's leaders boast about cre- Great Terrain Robbery Iconomicil Spring anal Summer Rates'', ating a lean-and-mean economy, we should American Barrick Resources is actually a Pets Welcome Pirte point out that they're also creating a lean- Canadian mining corporation whose "re- and- mean America. sources" really are ours: public lands 1423 11th Streets!) owned . by you, me and future generations .•10' Port Aransas, TX 78373 '$ of Americans. But a recent federal judge's ruling allows American Barrick Resources call (512) 749-5221 Jim Hightower, a former Observer editor and to take title to 1,900 acres of our land near for Reservations ,j Texas agriculture commissioner, does daily Elko, Nevada. oeft.w w .1000.1,4i radio commentary and a weekend call-in talk Under the Mining Act of 1872—that's 4, 0146, ible*a, show on the ABC Radio Network right, 1872—mining companies can pay a %O. Vs wommo.

18 • JULY 1, 1994 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Gay and Saved

BY DAVID REED

STRANGER AT THE GATE: the Bible. I had found the passages that At that time, Mel White was wrestling with To Be Gay and Christian in America. would haunt me for more than a decade, that same sort of statement about himself. By Mel White. that I would memorize and worry over. But But he was not a college freshman. He was 333 pp. New York: I didn't know the first thing about what ho- 20 years older, had a career in Christian Simon & Schuster. $23. mosexuality really was until I began to be filmmaking and a family. And had already called those awful names. been wrestling with those same issues for EL WHITE'S Stranger at the Mel White, concerned about the experi- 20 years or more. Gate is a conversion story - in ence that was common to many of us, During the 1980s, while I attended M which White recounts his con- writes at the outset of Stranger at the Gate, Southwestern Baptist Theological Semi- version from one kind of religious con- nary and began to extricate myself from the struction to another. His own tradition Looking back now, I thank God for that cold embrace of a relentless fundamental- would call it testifying. I value such testi- silence. Imagine what young gays or les- ism, Mel White was ghostwriting books for fying, and rejoice to have him as a fellow bians face today in the churches of their right-wing Christians Jerry Falwell, Billy witness. In fact, our lives have followed childhood with televangelists calling gays Graham, Pat Robertson, Tammi Faye similar courses. `a plague upon the nation'; with pastors Bakker and 011ie North—some of whom Stories of our experiences are the most and Sunday school teachers calling our are involved in making the Republican important weapons we have to defend our- love 'an abomination' and our feelings Party the theocratic sect that convened in selves and to prepare for battle in the cul- `straight from the devil'; with books, films, Fort Worth in early June. White rational- tural holy war underway in our nation today. and videotapes shown in homes and ized his actions by omitting the anti-gay This holy war is waged against gay and les- churches viciously caricaturing and de- content of his clients' messages from the bian people through both physical attacks faming gay and lesbian people and even books he ghosted. While remaining in the and a campaign of lies. We deploy our sto- declaring that in the ancient days of Moses closet, he struggled to balance his family ries on the discursive battlefield to tell one `homosexuals were castrated, imprisoned, life with his quest for gay love, and gradu- another that we are not alone—that our ex- and executed for their sin,' implying, ally he realized it couldn't be done. He periences are not unique—that others have sometimes stating outright, that it should couldn't accept the economic security pro- endured the same pain and have more than be the same today. vided by ghostwriting for the religious right survived. And we tell our stories so that while he was involved in a secret long-term straight people might see the world through hite tells about growing up as a relationship with a respectable man. gay eyes and, seeing our vision of the world, holy roller, and about his awful In 1989, I came out with a vengeance. I understand gay suffering, gay hope, gay joy. affection and lust for boys when left seminary (my Ph.D. in theology un- When they have seen those things, they will he was a teenager. He recounts his courtship completed); I was elected Secretary of the never again deal with us in quite the same and marriage to his high school classmate, Tarrant County Gay Alliance; and I orga- way. Telling our stories is the single most Lyla, and describes his traditional family nized a small Bible study for gay-affirming important personal and political act gay peo- with his wife, two children, and a dog. Southern Baptists under the name Hon- ple can engage in. Mel White has told his He shared my Bible, my love for the esty/Fort Worth. White's life was compli- story in this courageous book. I respond by Lord, my passion for winning friends and cated by commitments that I never encoun- telling parts of my own story. strangers to Jesus, my desperate and suc- tered. Not only was White in the closet Silence enshrouded my sexuality when I cessful attempts to stifle my feelings for then, but he also had his lover of several was growing up. My parents barely men- boyhood friends, even my counseling ses- years and a divorce in the closet with him. tioned the subject—and then only sions at a conservative seminary, sessions Even after their divorce was final, Lyla and obliquely. Youth ministers answered our that danced around the issues of sexual ori- Mel continued to attend parties and diners questions about how far to go—just as am- entation. He did all that 20 years before I together, although White knew then that to biguously as we posed the questions. Noth- did. I wish I had read this book when I was live with integrity, he would have to live ing was said about homosexuality. I knew 18, but this book could not have been writ- openly as a gay man. He was already taking only its dictionary definition until I was in ten when I was 18. steps_ toward that transition, just as I had. I high school. I knew I was different, but I I turned 18 in the fall of 1976. Early one already had tried to convince my fellow thought the difference was that I was good winter morning, as the sky was turning seminarians to treat gay people with civil- while my friends were naughty. I had read pink above the Appalachian mountains and ity, worked on the Dukakis campaign, and I was walking home to my dorm room, I marched on Austin for gay rights. White put words to what I would later try every had experimented unsuccessfully with sev- David Reed serves on the Alliance of Bap- eral approaches to combining a family life tists' Task Force on Human Sexuality, lives possible way to deny: "David, you are a homosexual, and you will always be a ho- with a gay relationship, attended gay in Fort Worth and attends Broadway Bap- churches and Bible studies and participated tist Church to the dismay of some and the mosexual." Then I added, "And you will never have sex with a man or you will die." in a gay rights march on Washington. delight of others.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 In the last three chapters of Stranger at Christian right, marginalized and scape- scribing Bob's "struggle with homosexu- the Gate, by far the most difficult for me to goated homosexuals in his early efforts to ality," a letter of acceptance from his de- read with equanimity, White describes raise funds and consolidate power. White nominational seminary, and a page torn coming out to his former clients, his sepa- compares Hitler's program to that of R.J. out of the seminary's catalogue clearly ration from his family and his move to Dal- Rushdoony, father of Christian Recon- forbidding homosexuals from enrollment. las where he serves as Dean of the Cathe- structionism, who advocates replacing our dral of Hope, home to the largest gay and current laws with Old Testament codes. uch occurrences are all too common- lesbian congregation in the world. Affili- Rushdoony wrote in a personal letter to the place and one need not ask why White ated with the Universal Fellowship of author that "God in His law requires the Sand I are so angry when moderate Metropolitan Community Churches, the death penalty for homosexuals." White ob- churches and even some conservative Cathedral of Hope sometimes brings to- serves the connection between his former churches maintain a "don't ask, don't tell" gether more than 2,000 people for Sunday clients in the religious right, and Rush- policy toward their homosexual members— morning worship. doony, to political extremism and he won- or why I am so angry because many of these White also discusses reading about ders what will happen in this country same homosexual members are so grateful. Adolf Hitler's rise to power and he ob- should the economy continue to decline In the closing chapters of Stranger at the serves that Hitler, like the leaders of the and a president aligned with the religious Gate, White returns to a theme he devel- right be elected in 1996. White's call for oped throughout the book—the require- vigilance is well-taken and his final chap- ment that Christians do justice. Conserva- This is Texas today. A state full of ters are filled with calls for political orga- tive Christianity, exemplified by 011ie Sunbelt boosters, strident anti-union- nization and direct action on behalf of gay North, Pat Robertson and other right-wing ists, oil and gas companies, nuclear and lesbian rights. Republicans, has nothing to do with the tra- One complaint I have about the book is weapons and power plants, political dition of the Hebrew Prophets and Jesus that it is that the author is too cautious. The Christ. And moderate churches, by their si- hucksters, underpaid workers and effects of the religious right's campaign of lence, countenance anti-gay policies and toxic wastes, to mention a few. disinformation, hatred and discrimination thus forsake their responsibility to do jus- are so pernicious that we can no longer tice. Authentic discipleship is fierce in its BUT DO NOT DESPAIR! avoid a full-scale critique of Christianity and pursuit of justice. For example, German rft, THE TEXAS Christian institutions. (It may be that some pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, small parts of our Christian heritage might whom White cites as an inspiration, was 1 be redeemable, but we cannot begin with hanged—not for helping Jews escape from IIIIP server that assumption.) By examining the leaders NaZi Germany but for conspiring to assassi- of the religious right and observing a direct nate Adolph Hitler. Bonhoeffer only arrived TO SUBSCRIBE: link between their volatile rhetoric and the at these final acts of Christian love after re- drastic increase in anti-gay violence, White nouncing the institutional churches and all Name offers only .the beginning of such a critique. their works. White has not gone far enough. After describing recent, highly publicized And I'm not sure how accurate White's re- Address murders of gay people, White discusses an- source directory is. An incorrect phone num- other kind of hate crime: the hate crimes gay ber is listed for my own organization, Hon- City and lesbian people, especially young people, esty (Southern Baptist). The wrong number commit against themselves: might have originated with a misprint in State Zip Genre, which listed the number of a used car In January 1989, Bob W., a 17-year- dealership as our number. ("You want what? ❑ $32 enclosed for a one-year subscription. old high school senior from a suburb of Honesty? I'm sorry, you must have the Chicago, Illinois, climbed up on a chair wrong number. This is a used car dealer- ❑ Bill me for $32. in the family's two-car garage, tied a ship.") The car salesmen must have grown so rope around his neck, fastened it to a tired of calls from Baptist faggots that they 307 West 7th, Austin, 1X 78701 beam in the ceiling, and kicked the chair changed their phone number. And for those away. His parents found a short note de- interested, Honesty (but not cars) can be found in Fort Worth at (817) 923-8487 or Louisville, Kentucky, at (502) 458-5392. Despite my criticisms of certain parts of White's.book, I believe that every Christian in America (and some non-Christian gay folk as well) needs to read Stranger at the Gate. I do not recall ever having said that about a book before. Strangely, I have cho- PEOPLE sen to say that about an episodic, anecdotal Make a world of difference autobiography written by a man with whom We're proud of our employees and their contributions to your I disagree on important theological issues. Perhaps it is precisely because Stranger at success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing the Gate is that. kind of book that it demands • and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. our attention. White's words ring with the authority of lived experience. And I know P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760.7427 from my own experience that what he re- FUTUM 389-1500 veals about conservative Christianity's ef- COMMUNICATIONS, INC fect on our lives is true. ❑

20 • JULY 1, 1994 Dan Quayle, No Doubt

BY TODD BASCH

STANDING FIRM: and cleaning out old ones. Quayle's com- Angeles disturbance, Quayle criticized TV A Vice-Presidential Memoir. ments about Gore suggest a complete fail- sitcom character "Murphy Brown" for By Dan Quayle. ure of foresight, an obvious contradiction in "mocking the importance of fathers." Quayle 402 pages. New York: ' someone so proud to have been in charge of became known as a family-values man and Harper Collins. $25.00 the White House Space Council. Internal has used that theme to his advantage in de- combustion engines, Quayle believes, are bates about urban decay. In Quayle's world, AN QUAYLE is a dim bulb who as God-given as Adam and Eve. the solution to urban blight is a matter of val- manages to remain a bright light on The boy who doesn't wonder has scant ues and values only: The "responsibility for the political stage, despite antago- ability to reflect upon, question, or examine the riots has to be placed squarely and solely nists who persistently attack him for his ig- his role as an elected official. He devotes a with the rioters"; the "pressing problems of norance. Quayle sticks to the political scene chapter of Standing Firm to his debate with urban life" are due to "family breakdown and because people like Dan Quayle and—for- Lloyd "You're no Jack Kennedy" Bentsen the reduced role of spirituality...." Being give me—there are reasons to like him. and complains that "during the preparation "short on wallet," the Bush White House Quayle, of course, wears makeup for TV ap- [for the debate] no one ever asked any should not have tried to get money to redress pearances, is coached, is choreographed, is question like the climactic one of the actual urban decay, but it should have used the spun, but all this, for Quayle, is cosmetic and debate—namely, "What I would do if I ac- "bully pulpit...on behalf of law and order and cosmetics do not make the whole of Quayle. tually had to assume the presidency." Did family values." The family, says Quayle, is There is, in Gertrude Stein's phrase, a "there vice presidential candidate Quayle never the "basic unit of society." there." Dan Quayle does indeed Stand Firm, consider—without cues from debate Though he insists that he does not live in a as the title of his political memoir tells us. coaches—the possibility that one day he fantasy world, Quayle extols the virtues of Quayle stands resolute on social values might have to serve as President? Such family farms and family business, even and spiritual ideals derived from religious questions do not occur to someone who though these institutions are precisely the certainty. His autobiography tells of an in- feels secure in "God's hands"—as sort of small-scale operations that have terview by Barbara Walters, who asked Quayle's response in the debate—that he steadily declined throughout the 20th cen- about the "most significant day of his life. would first say a prayer if required to as- tury, as large corporate holdings have ex- It occurred, Quayle said, in 1964 when he sume the duties of the President, suggests. panded. The upward distribution of wealth "personally accepted Christ as... [his] sav- When not standing firm, Dan Quayle is and sell-off of family farms that occurred in ior," saving him, apparently, from having floating bouyantly on the rising tide of fun- the 1980s do not support the 19th-century to think, and making conviction and the damentalist Republicanism. He combines view of life that Quayle defends. Social val- "vision thing" simple. This absolute reli- and confuses the fundamental tenets of Re- ues and matters of the spirit, as many gious certainty in a man not generously en- publicanism—no new taxes, small govern- Democrats have belatedly learned, are real, dowed with intelligence results in a life ment, family values—with the religious enduring and an important part of social re- without doubt. Quayle's understanding of fundamentalist code that forbids the ques- newal, but of themselves they do not solve all that is true and beautiful is, for him, to- tioning of any of its principles. The combi- the world's problems, as Quayle seems to tally true and totally beautiful. The econ- nation serves to suspend all critical facul- think. Quayle's value-laden solutions, omy will go into a "slide" if taxes are in- ties and has the effect of leaving Quayle though, are politically expedient. They cost creased "because that's what happens when unaware of his ignorance, making easy his nothing, absolve anyone not directly con- taxes are raised." That's that. Quayle's ab- belief, for instance, in Reagan' s rhetoric, nected to a particular social problem from solutist outlook enables him to stand firm. while not at all accounting for the Reagan any social responsibility, and create an illu- The wide-eyed look on Quayle's face is reality. One page after Quayle lays out his sion of elevated thought that makes them not, actually, the look of wonder or bewil- own economic theory regarding raised strategically useful as a weapon against tech- derment. It is the look of glazed-over cer- taxes, he details how Richard Darman, nocratic social programs—like the health tainty of one who does not wonder at all. Bush's director of the Office of Manage- care proposal advanced by the President. Quayle is a believer who suffers from dis- ment and Budget, tried to calm political In the end, however, the former vice pres- belief when confronted with an idea that is fears after Bush's tax-hike—by pointing ident is revealed as a vessel of received Re- not compatible with his universe. Cam- out how Reagan managed tax-hikes while publican opinion, collected "ideological paigning in 1992, Quayle took issue with Al remaining the "great tax cutter." Quayle lint," as George Will calls it. Quayle is a sure Gore's "environmental hysteria," because only observes that Bush did not have the man in an unsure time, radiating a "sunny Gore "insisted that the nation had to elimi- "political capital"—the Reagan rhetoric disposition" that belies ubiquitous cynicism. nate the internal combustion engine...." and image—to get away with it. Quayle is In an age burdened by slick-willyism, Imagine that. Internal combustion engines, not a hypocrite, he just does not get it. Quayle's firm stand and "sunny disposition" as useful as they are, are old, inefficient, Taxes Bad. Reagan Good. are political assets that convince his follow- and filthy. There is nothing hysterical about Quayle's sure-footed religiosity not only ers to forgive, overlook or deny his intellec- pursuing alternative technologies that could offers hope, it offers political solutions. His tual liability. Quayle's liability is precisely develop new industries while cleaning up religious conviction and political programs the source of his political success. In his are a powerful combination, as the affect of hopefulness and assuredness, and his un- thinking religiosity, his followers see an an- Todd Basch is writing a dissertation on the his quip about Murphy Brown shows. In the tidote to cynicism and uncertainty. history of cultural pluralism. wake of the Rodney King/Daryl Gates/Los ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21 Shepard and Panther

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

SILENT TONGUE Cree, and none would disagree, certainly African pride. His retrospective on the Directed by Sam Shepard not Reeves McCree (Dermot Mulroney), Black Panthers is benign, and it is the per- PASSIN' IT ON who refuses to accept the peddling of his spective that Valadez generally tries to pass Directed by John Valadez half-sisters. "It shames me to be the son of on. Through new interviews and archival a pig," says Reeves. footage, Passin' It On emphasizes the posi- RUE WEST, title of one of more than Prescott, by contrast, is so devoted to his tive contributions that Panthers made to 40 plays by Sam Shepard, is also his son that he gladly serves as the young more than 30 blighted communities, where T abiding theme. In a bare expanse be- man's pander. "I'm a European, not a sav- disciplined young men organized to provide tween Mississippi and Pacific, fathers, sons age," exclaims Eamon, but the distinction child care, food banks, clinics and schools. and the women they covet and loathe do is not conspicuous. The final image in "It was part political training, part commu- passionate battle. Shepard is the bard of the Silent Tongue is of an old white peddler nity service, part military training, part im- nuclear family, of explosive fissions that pulling his wares across the Kiowa plains. provisation," recalls Jamal Joseph about his detonate the bonds of kinship. In Silent Tongue, Shepard trots out the experience as a Panther. Silent Tongue, which Shepard directs and grotesque matter that gallops so well The military training was necessary, in- wrote, is set on New Mexico's Llano Esta- through Buried Child, Fool For Love and A sists Bin Wahad, because of the rampant cado in 1873. A lone equestrian accompa- Lie of the Mind. "Madness is, a sorry thing," urban violence out of which the Panthers nies three riderless horses across the vacant comments Reeves in a Lear-like aside that arose. The FBI targeted them for destruc- plains. Prescott Roe halts at an encamp- makes you wonder whether this tale of tion and did not hesitate to employ deadly ment of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Western desperation should have been force—most infamously in Chicago against Show, where he attempts to strike a deal staged, not shot. Fred Hampton, surprised, unarmed, in with its proprietor, an effusive Irish sot bed—to eliminate leaders. The film out- named Eamon McCree. Roe offers to trade III T he police taught me what lines the clandestine FBI CoIntelPro cam- his horses for McCree's half-Kiowa daugh- America was about," declares paign that sought to destabilize, demoralize ter Velada (Jeri Arredondo). Two years Dhoruba Bin Wahad, who, as and eradicate the Panthers by planting in- ago, Roe swapped for Velada's older sister Richard Moore, grew up on the mean formers, provocateurs and lunatics within Awbonnie. Intended as conjugal medicine streets of the South Bronx. He was con- their ranks and by framing responsible for Roe's melancholy son Talbot, Awbon- victed of assault ("I'd like to think of the in- leaders for crimes they did not commit. nie died in childbirth. Roe now seeks to cident as one in which I exercised the right Bin Wahad, who was placed on the FBI's substitute Velada for Awbonnie, to save his to self-defense") and emerged from prison "Agitator Index," insists that he was son's life. Crosscuts establish that Talbot is in 1967 into a more clamorous world than wrongly convicted of the shootings for desperate over the loss of his bartered the one he had left five years earlier. which he was only recently released. He bride. But she has also returned as a ghost, He became a leader of the New York was seized while attacking a black social to haunt the European spouse she despises. branch of the Black Panthers, the band of club, an operation he claims he undertook Like the acting troupe in Bergman's The African-American militants founded in in order to combat drug dealing. A member Seventh Seal and carnivals that fill Fellini's Oakland the year before. One of 21 New of Bin Wahad's first, hung jury recalls the films, the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine York Panthers singled out by authorities, manipulation of evidence and testimony to Show, sprightly vendor of bogus potions, is. he was arrested and, after two mistrials, incriminate the defendant. "I'm dumb- a commentary on Shepard's own cinematic found guilty of shooting two police offi- founded 20 years later," he says. So is Eliz- art. With funky numbers by the Red Clay cers. After 19 years behind bars, Dhoruba abeth Fink, the white attorney who fought Ramblers, it is also the liveliest part of the Bin Wahad was set free on appeal to the so long in court to free Bin Wahad: "They movie. As Prescott Roe, Richard Harris is New York State Supreme Court. He has re- were interested in taking the most militant, uncharacteristically restrained, but Alan sumed his activism, .even while fighting lit- they thought, the most articulate, the most Bates' tipsy Celt, Eamon, eats up enough of igation to reverse his release. brilliant of them, and framing him for it." the scenery to induce sympathetic dyspep- Passin' It On—scheduled by most PBS Robert Daley, Deputy New York City sia. As weeping widower Talbot, River affiliates for July 19 broadcast on the Police Commissioner when Bin Wahad Phoenix, who died months after completing weekly P.O.V. series—examines Bin was arrested, deplores the brutality and cor- this role, has already disappeared, over- Wahad's current endeavors against the ruption of his force. But he. also tells the shadowed by the ranting shade of the background of his personal history and of viewer: "Nobody ever deserved a long jail wrathful Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey). American race relations during the past term more than Moore." Silent Tongue, whose title is the name of three decades. "If we don't pay close atten- Valadez's camera does not linger to learn the Kiowa woman Eamon raped and then tion to what the Dhoruba Bin Wahads have exactly why Daley thinks so, nor does it ac- married, counterpoints two sets of sires. "A to say," says director John Valadez in an knowledge any of the recent memoirs, by father is not my calling in life," admits Mc- epilogue to his film debut, "the alternative Elaine Brown, David Hilliard, and others, is to watch L.A. burn." that portray the vanity, thuggery and sav- Bin Wahad is a fiery figure, and we see agery of many Panthers. An honest portrait Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative him igniting crowds at rallies, raging against of the party demands complicating shades literature at the University of Texas at San continuing incarceration of political prison- of ebony, but Valadez has chosen to pass

Antonio. ers and exhorting audiences to embrace on it. ❑

22 • JULY 1, 1994

,101.1pin1 -.• ,OP AFTERWORD The Evils of Faith

BY MAURY MAVERICK JR.

Dear God, who are the whole splendor with the fundamentalist Protestants.) indolence in the clergy; ignorance and ser- of things and the sacred stars, but also the Then, Noboa writes, "Deists, who were vility in the laity; in both, superstition, big- cruelty and greed, the treacheries prominent in the early revolutionary move- otry and persecution." And vileness, insanities and filth and ment, are accused, by the fundamentalists, of Baptist leader Roger Williams, founder anguish: now that this thing [World War I] having an un-Biblical view of God." Well, of Rhode Island, hit a homer when he comes near us again I am finding it hard let's talk about those revolutionary deists. wrote, "There goes many a ship to sea with To praise you with a whole heart. Tom Paine, the most ardent of the Amer- many hundred souls in one ship...I affirmed ican revolutionaries, wrote in The Age of that all liberty of conscience...turns upon —From "Contemplation of the Sword," Reason: I do not believe in the creed pro- these two hinges—that none of the Papists, by Robinson Jeffers fessed by the Jewish church, by the Roman Protestants, Jews or Turks be forced to the church, by the Greek church, by the' Turk- ship's prayer or worship nor compelled , S A JEFFERSON deist four days a ish church, nor by any church that I know from their own particular ptayer or wor- week and a Thoreau pantheist the of. My own mind is my own church." ship, if they practice any." • A remaining three, I go to church About the Bible, Paine tore his britches Cut the deck by reading that provision of nearly every morning. My church is a secret with the Puritans when he wrote the follow- the Bill of Rights that provides for separa- live oak in Brackenridge Park. That tree and ing boob-shocker: "Whenever we read the tion of church and state. Protect the public I have had some fine conversations. obscene stories, the voluptuous de- schools and protect your own integrity. Let me, as an outsider, ask you Chris- baucheries, the unrelenting vindictiveness Separation of church and state came to us tians, Jews and Muslims some questions. with which more than half the Bible is from Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Paine, Each Sunday, television evangelists pro filled, it would be more consistent that we Roger Williams and is kept alive by the liv- claim Jesus can do or stop anything. Why call it the word of a demon than the word of ing John Henry Faulks. They knew a secret then the Nazi Holocaust? Why the slaugh- God. It is a history of wickedness that has Hugo Black knew—that mankind has had ter by Christians in Bosnia? served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." to fight its way past the cross, the stake and Why be Jewish in Israel, where status is Thomas Jefferson was first offended with the hangman's noose. determined not by citizenship, but by a sin- Christianity through his headmaster and Postscript: There are good individuals in gle religion? Isn't that ultimately a formula Episcopal priest, the Reverend James all religions. Father Bill Davis, the San An- for national suicide? Maury, my fairly close cousin. Jefferson, tonio Catholic priest, is a fine fellow. I hope Just what do Muslims have in mind re- like Paine, not only denounced the Bible, he gets a pope who believes in artificial garding the following provision in the but wrote his own Bible, leaving out the birth control. Koran: "They who believe not shall have nonsense and cruelty. When I was co-chair of the National Ad- garments of fire fitted onto them; boiling To John Adams, Jefferson wrote in 1815, visory Committee of the ACLU, rabbis in water shall be poured on their heads, their "The question before the human race is New York, the liberal kind, were an inspi- bowels shall be dissolved thereby and also whether the God of Nature shall govern the ration for the cause of liberty. their skins, and they shall be beaten with world by His own laws, or whether priests Because of McCarthyism, when I was a maces of iron." and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles." young legislator, a lone-wolf Methodist Do not those questions lend credence to Seven words Jefferson spoke went bishop, G. Bromley Oxnam, helped me Robert Ingersoll's contention that, "To hate around the world like a shot in the night. against the terror of those days. Edmond man and worship God seems to be the sum They got him in trouble then and they still Browning, the presiding bishop of the Epis- of all creeds"? do with the fundamentalists: "This loath- copal Church, knows more about the world In the. May 21 San Antonio Express- some combination of Church and State." than' you can shake a stick at. News, Julio Noboa, an educational anthro- Benjamin Franklin first gained prominence But I say it again: Cut the deck when it pologist, wrote: "Fundamentalist Protes- as a printer and as the deputy postmaster of comes to violations of separation of tants are foremost among those in the Philadelphia, where, among other things, he church and state. Stand by the Bill of religious right who have made a career of established street lights. Later in Poor Rights and by the old heroes of the Amer- attacking values in 'Government Richard's Almanac, he would write: "Light- ican Revolution. ❑ Schools.'" (The situation might be worse houses are more helpful than churches." than what Noboa has described, as accord- If, in fact, there is a hereafter, then surely ing to a disturbing article in the National the ghost of John Henry Faulk is entertain- Send a Friend Catholic Reporter, the right wing of the ing the ghost of John Madison. Johnny the Texas Observer Catholic Church is considering an alliance loved Madison and quoted these words o; Madison's to me: "During almost 15 cen- Contact Stephan Wanstrom Maury Maverick Jr. is a civil liberties attorney turies, the legal establishment of Christian- at 477-0746, or. write and former legislator. This originally ap- ity has been on. trial. What has been its 701 West 7th St., Austin, TX 78701. peared in the San Antonio Express-News. faults? More or less, in all places, pride and

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

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

✓ HOT FOOT IN MOUTH. Recently empt large employers from any state single- side accords. "If you want to clean up the elected Texas Republican Party Vice Chair- payer plans. In the Senate, Democratic environment, what you need is more jobs in woman Susan Weddington and gubernato- leaders fear a threatened Republican fili- Mexico." Gramm characterized free trade rial hopeful George W. Bush "Junior" were buster and Gramm says the GOP has noth- as an article of faith. "There are three things quick to criticize Gov. Ann Richards' speech ing to fear in scuttling "socialized" that I have complete faith in. "My family, at a Girls' State convention, in which, among medicine. Fellow Sen. Kay B. Hutchison my church and free trade." other things, Richards advised the young apparently agrees. Call your U.S. Represen- women to become self-reliant because tative at 202-224-3121. ✓ NAFTA & KILLER SUBURBANS. "Prince Charming may be driving a Honda U.S.-made four-wheel-drive vehicles such as and telling you you have no equal, but that's ✓ I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN'S. Call Suburbans and Jeep Cherokees have become not going to do much good when you've got it trickle-down environmental entrepreneuri- the vehicles of choice for Mexican drug kids and a mortgage, and I could add he's got alism, encouraged by the administration of lords and the cops who chase them. So many a beer gut and a wandering eye." Bush and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. drug merchants pack GM Suburbans with Weddington complained that Richards' re- New York's plans to abandon construction machine guns and other high-tech weaponry marks were anti-family. "She has put her of three new sewage treatment plants were that one Monterrey group has written a cor- foot in her mouth with a slash-and-burn at- justified by Guiliani's Commissioner of En- rido about the "Suburban of Death." In Ti- tack on Texas men and on the institution of vironmental Protection, who said it is "better juana, according to a Los Angeles Times marriage that doesn't reflect the reality of and less expensive to ship 200 tons of sludge story reprinted in Mexico NewsPak, pub- most Texas families," said the anti-feminist a day to other states than to build composting lished in Austin, some four-wheel-drive ve- Weddington. "This is not the message Tex- plants" in New York, according to the New hicles driven by police are vehicles stolen ans want their leaders to give our daughters York Times. In West Texas, Sierra Blanca's' from California. When Mexican police or sons," Bush said. (Published reports were Merco Joint Enterprises sludge farm is the showed up to arrest a deputy attorney gen- unclear whether Bush was objecting to the largest recipient of sludge from New York. eral in Baja California in early May, they ar- idea of preaching self-reliance or being care- rived in a caravan of Jeeps and Suburbans, ful about running off with bikers.) ✓ NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE. some with California plates still on them. A "Americans are getting tired of pretty peo- records check that resulted from a news ✓ GINGRINCHING HEALTH CARE. ple. They are looking for substance," said broadcast revealed that up to 30 unmarked Insurance industry advocates are putting on Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, police vehicles appear to have been stolen a big push to kill health care reform, but in an attempt to make the case for a Phil north of the border. In a similar incident, a consumer advocates haven't given up yet. Gramm presidency. Gramm is not leading San Diego family noticed their stolen Subur- The insurance lobby resurrected the Harry the. pack of Republicans with designs on ban while watching a news clip of a violent and Louise ads to raise fears of health care their party's nomination in 1996, even in a shootout between Mexican cops and drug rationing, although rationing is pretty much recent straw poll of Texas GOP convention traffickers at a Tijuana intersection. Korinne what happens now when the private insur- delegates. But Gramm is likely to break out Rogers, the owner of the Suburban, said that ance-based system rejects people with pre- of the pack, Austin American-Statesman re- five different four-wheel-drive vehicles had existing conditions (as well as those with no porter Michele Kay suggests, for a number been stolen from her street in one night. money). The number of uninsured has risen of reasons: He has $7.2 million on hand, from 12.5 percent of the under-65 U.S. pop- three times more than any other senator. He ✓ DEATH ROW. Sen. Jerry Patterson, ulation in 1980 to 17.2 percent in 1992, and will be considered a candidate who can R-Pasadena, has won the right to pore over most of the 39 million uninsured Americans carry Texas and other conservative South- the Texas Resource Center's financial are in the middle class, making $15,000 to ern States. And he is chairman of the Re- records after state district Judge Joseph Hart $50,000 a year. That doesn't faze Republi- publican Senatorial Committee. Gramm of Austin found the non-profit agency's cans who, under the spell of leaders such as still does poorly in polls, though. In a poll records were public. Patterson has waged a Phil Gramm and Newt Gingrich, are trying conducted by the Washington-based Wirth- highly publicized battle to shut down the to keep health care legislation from reach- lin Group, Kansas Senator-Bob Dole was center, which gets federal money to provide ing the floor in any form that could pass. recognized by 82 percent of 1,036 respon- legal help for death row inmates. Patterson The House Education and Labor Commit- dents, former New York Congressman and said he expects to find the center has mis- tee is working on two bills: one offering Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp was used the funds in a campaign against the managed competition and another offering recognized by 59 percent and Gramm was death penalty. Federal courts fund the center Canada-style universal coverage under a recognized by 39 percent. as a stopgap because the state refuses to pro- single-payer plan. House Ways and Means, vide representation for death row prisoners under acting Chairman Sam Gibbons of 'V GRAMM & NAFTA. "The environ- past their first, pro-forma round of appeals. Florida, is more cautious, and Austin's ment is a phony issue," Gramm told a Re- Meanwhile, Congressional conferees con- lame-duck Rep. Jake Pickle, a senior mem- publican businessman at .the state conven- ber of that panel, is leading an effort to ex- tion who pressed him about the NAFTA Continued on pg. 16

24 • JULY 1, 1994