At The Lege Pg. 10 A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES APRIL 20, 1990 • $1.50 Education and Consensus Nick Perez's Search for 76 Votes Regionally Literate Reviews by James Hoggard, Dave Oliphant, Michael King, and Pat Ellis Taylor La Cerveza Correcta Is Your Favorite Mexican Brewer Busting the Union? Also: Steven Kellman Reviews John Waters's Cry Baby +Er. lot? Wrni.akve ef, t. %..310, ,,O.l.0^ -Ali fvf-- ,.. ,_. , . , ._' MN I *kate DIALOGUE ri;1 , On the Shipley Equality THEH TEXAS Candidate . for All I have just read your "Democratic Di- "This is justice in Texas, 375 district lemma" in the Observer and your support judges, seven black, 35 Hispanic .. " The bserver for Ann Richards. 333 "White" judges undoubtedly include Anytime the sinister hand of George an adequate (justifiable?) number of A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES Shipley is behind a candidate, I thought it females, (50.001%), Vietnamese, Jews (but We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to was axiomatic that that person had sold not too many), pollutors, independent oil the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values most, if not at all, of their principles. men, Exxonese, Politicians, plaintiff's at- above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the The support of Hobby and Bentsen bodes torneys and assorted others. The seven foundation of democracy; we will take orders from ill for any progressive movement. black, 35 Hispanic judges are, undoubt- none but our own conscience, and never will we over- Jim Mattox still holds those principles edly, similarly representative of the con- look or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the hwnan spirit. that mean the most for the Democrats and stituency you have staked out for them and Writers are responsible for their own work, but not citizens of this state. Personally I feel it include the demographically required for anything they have not themselves written, and in would be a disaster if his defeat is (justifiable?) number of poor, illiterate, publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we achieved. His past record demonstrates he unmarried female (pregnant and/or with agree with them because this is a journal of free voices. has the philosophical capability of another child(ern), unable-to-speak-English and as- SINCE 1954 Jimmy Allred. sorted others. It is not even a first step on Publisher: Ronnie Dugger I assure you the Machiavellian hand of the road to equality of law and competent Editor: Louis Dubose Shipley bodes ill on everything that he halls of justice to mandate a judiciary of Associate Editor: Allan Freedman Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka touches or with whom he has any associa- 71.25 Black judges (19%), 60 Hispanic Editorial Assistant: Brett Campbell tion. Ann Richards will be no exception. judges (16%) and 243.75 White judges Editorial Interns: Eva Llorens, Stephen Merelman Pat Maloney (65%). Since most, if not all, judges (and Washington Correspondent: Mary Anne Reilly San Antonio legislators) are lawyers, the mentally- Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, John Henry Faulk, disturbed, deranged segment of Texas' Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, Bill Helmer, Reviewing population will, undoubtedly, always be James Harrington, Amy Johnson, Michael King, adequately represented. Mary Lenz, Dana Loy, Tom McClellan, Bryce the Reviewers Milligan, Greg Moses, Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, John Schwartz, Michael Ventura, According to Sherrill, Caro wasn't hard Scott G. Baum, Jr. Lawrence Walsh enough on Lyndon Johnson in Means of Houston Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, Ascent, because "no politician ever Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler deserved our hatred more than Johnson." In Setting the Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, (TO, 4/6/90), Bill Adler de- Mass; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy the same issue Record Straight Farenthold, Houston; Rupert() Garcia, Austin; scribes Barry's book about Jim Wright, The John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, Mass.; Ambition and the Power, as "bloated, Thank you again for the opportunity to pub- Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George affected, sloppy, repetitious, sexist, and lish the story about Myles Horton and the Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry Highlander Research and Education Center L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, racist." Aside from that, one wonders, what Jr.. San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; was wrong with it? (TO, 3/23/90). Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Both reviewers clearly hated the subjects Please allow me a correction in the inter- Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Rips, of the books they were reviewing, which est of history. "We Shall Overcome" was not Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston;•Fred modified from "We Shall Not Be Moved" as Schmidt, Fredericksburg; Robert Sherrill, raises the question why they were asked to Tallahassee, Fla. do the reviews they did. At least couldn't stated. At a CIO Food and Tobacco Workers' strike in 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, Layout and Design: Lana Kaupp Sherrill have been asked to review the Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Barry book and Adler the Caro book? picketers sang a song with the refrain, "We Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Johnson did more for civil rights than Will Overcome." (Originally it was a hymn.) Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, In 1946 two women from the union local Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth any American president. And Wright did Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, more for peace in Central America than carried the song to a labor workshop at High- Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, any politician during the Reagan years. lander Folk School (now Highlander Cen- Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods. Shouldn't we have a little balance and ter). Then, as mentioned in the March 23 Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson fairness about these two men from the story, Zylphia Horton and Pete Seeger modi- Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Observer? fied the song to eventually become "We Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Walter J. Ligon Shall Overcome." In the early 1960s Guy Development Consultant: Frances Barton Kingsland Carawan helped further popularize the song, SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year 527. two years 548. three years $69. Full- time students $15 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, teaching it to others in the Civil Rights and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Your Boss, Movement. Microfilms Intl.. 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no My Boss Best wishes on your Cinco de Mayo bene- one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. fit dinner. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/UPS 541300), Tell me why I should renew my subscription Marshall Surratt ©1990, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval after the incoherent, incorrect hatchet job Frisco between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, your boss did last year on Jim Mattox? I was Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. Second class postage ashamed to see you sell out to Ann Richards's Write Dialogue: paid at Austin, Texas. money man. Texas . Observer POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS Steve Levine OBSERVER, P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765 , P.O. Box 49019 Austin Austin, Texas 78765 The writer is a Matto..v spokesman. 2 • APRIL 20, 1990 EDITORIALS o.b...f. ... server Education and Consensus APRIL 20, 1990 Y MARCH 22, the day the third spe- ment is agreeable to the sponsor ..."— the VOLUME 82, No. 8 B cial session of the 71st Legislature House lost its focus as members gathered in ended, 15 representatives caucused in a small groups, talked among themselves and Capitol committee room to discuss resurrect- with reporters, slipped back into offices to FEATURES ing what, to them, represented the last best eat, and waited for the inevitable. hope of an equitable education-funding bill. Gib's been talking about "the will of the Environmental Posturing A few days remained in the 30-day, single- House and turning everyone loose," one staff By Dan Carney 7 issue session. But House Speaker Gib Lewis member observed. "See what happens when had already conceded that there was not suf- you have democracy in this place." (It wasn't Corona on Strike ficient time to get a bill passed in the House, a pretty sight.) Yet immediately after CSSB31 By Leon Lazaroff 8 through a House-Senate conference commit- went down by 116-17 vote an odd coalition tee, and onto the Governor's desk. The spe- of 15 representatives met to resurrect the cial session was over. Equity Center's funding plan. As they saw it, P.C. Blues Nothing in the day's voting suggested the the House had missed an opportunity to By Roxanne Bogucka 14 House was anywhere near a consensus on an advance the funding mechanism included in education-funding bill. The two most pro- the bill into a conference committee, where DEPARTMENTS gressive voting blocs in the House, the Black enough money could be added to make it a and Mexican-American caucuses, were not good piece of legislation. The idea was (and Editorials 3 even talking to each other. remains) to get the $450 million House ver- Most members of the Black Caucus, which sion, with its strong funding principles, into Political Intelligence 1 0 is rarely as cohesive and effective as the the same room with the $1.2 billion Senate larger Mexican American Caucus, had sup- bill version, with its weak funding principles.