ustxtxb_obs_1991_10_18_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

e”. r – f”, “7..1 /”. . fi .mra 1 . r I. f. i , r roworl rr; 1 J 1″:” rrorr .roroi 01..rr. -J AFTERWORD An Angel in Austin BY STEVEN L. FENBERG AN ANGEL LIVES in Austin, and her name is Genevieve Vaughan. She gives away inspiration as well as money while seeking to transform the world like all good angels do. She gives others the opportunity to work and live for peace, justice and social change. She provides buildings, retreat centers and stores that promote giving instead of exchange. Gen, as friends and colleagues call her, lived with her husband and three daughters in Italy for over 20 years before moving to Austin in 1983. She credits her time in Italy with giving her a more objective look at American foreign policy. While politicians in both major political parties and the press in the United States proffered that the American Way was best, Steven L. Fenberg lives in Houston. Italy offered 14 different political parties with as many newspapers and points of view. “Having an outside view allowed me to see more being done by the long arm of the U.S. in other countries,” she said. She saw how the U.S. took natural resources, agricultural production and ways of life away from the Third World in exchange for debt labeled as aid and development. “I was one American woman in the midst of a whole bunch of Italian people who didn’t like . the U.S. very much because of the Vietnam war,” she explained. “I got a real taste of being the odd person out because of cultural differences.” Vaughan, who grew up in a well-to-do family in Corpus Christi, remembered the poverty and suffering she witnessed on trips across the border. She wondered why she had so much while others had so little. She wondered if. Mexico was poor because the United States was rich. She wondered if her family had more because others had less. Years later, those questions and her Italian experiences brought her back to the United States where she began giving her money away in an attempt to change society. She founded the Foundation for a Compassionate Society and Change of Heart Inc. to finance projects that attack the roots of society’s problems, rather than treating the symptoms. “I was driving by this church in Rome one day and saw these hungry people lined up at the front door for a free meal and I thought, `Those people have been there for hundreds of years at that same door and nothing has changed.’ So I don’t fund charities because they don’t change the society that’s causing the problems,” she said. Among her projects are the Grassroots Peace Organization Building on Congress Avenue in Austin, which houses 15 different groups working for the environment, peace, justice, AIDS, minority, cultural and spiritual issues. ASSASSIN SYMPO ON JOHN F. Thursday Saturday November 14 16, 1991 The Hyatt Regency at Reunion Square Dallas, Texas On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his limousine and motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. Twenty-eight years later, a symposium dedicated to discussing this event will convene at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reunion Square, blocks away from the assassination site. ASK will feature seven panel discussions concerning various aspects of the Kennedy shooting. Some of the authors, experts and eyewitnesses who will serve as panelists include Dr. Charles Crenshaw, John Davis, Bob Dorff, George Michael Evica, Mary Ferrell, Robert Groden, Larry Harris, Ed Hoffman, Mark Lane, David Lifton, Jim Marrs, Jim Moore, Paul O’Connor, Beverly Oliver, Jim Olivier, Aubrey Rike, Dr. Jerry Rose, J. Gary Shaw, Malcolm Summers, Dave Tucker, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, and Jack White. Registration cost for ASK is $100 before November 1 and $125 walkup. To register, send name and address Express accepted. To receive more information and a registration brochure, call 512/445-8390. ASK is co-sponsored by the JFK Assassination Information Center, a 3,000 square foot museum and research facility located in Dallas’ West End Market District, and The Texas Observer, a thirty-six-year-old biweekly journal of Texas politics and culture. A TION S IUM K ENNEDY 22 OCTOBER 18, 1991