ustxtxb_obs_1970_01_02_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

forced to live and eat under animal-like conditions….” –\(Hancock v. Avery, decided July 2, 1969, Win. F. Miller, Chief Judge, US District Court, The court concluded that the harshness and cruelty of dry cell confinement “should not be tolerated for any length of time however brief.” Mrs. Frances T. Freeman Jalet, 5135 Val Verde Lane, Houston, Tex. Readers will recall that Mrs. Jalet, a lawyer for the poor, was being denied access to three prisoners in the state prison system with whom she was conducting legal business. Shortly after the appearance of the Observer’s account [March 281, “In the Matter of Mrs. Jalet,” she was urged to dismiss lawsuits she had filed for the purpose of gaining access to her clients and was assured that if she did so she could see them. She did so and has resumed visiting them. On March 10, Dean Kenneth S. Tollett of Texas Southern University in Houston advised Dr. George Beto, director of the prison system, that Mrs. Jalet was managing attorney in the university’s legal aid clinic, yet was being denied the right to correspond with inmates under Beto’s jurisdiction. “She came to our staff highly recommended with a remarkable record of experience and achievement,” Tollett wrote Beto. “She cannot very well manage our legal aid clinic if she. cannot correspond with prisoners in your department.” 16 The Texas Observer Beto had originally denied Mrs. Jalet access to the inmates on the basis of a finding by her superior in the Dallas Legal Service Project, but, said Tollett, that had no relevance to her work in Houston. “We would appreciate it if you would not interfere with her performing her present duties,” Tollett wrote Beto. The prison system director has not commented on the situation for publication. Proud of Dr. Kamerick . . . While I retired July 1, 1963, at 70, I have always been proud of the fact that I had a part in bringing Dr. [John] Kamerick [Obs., Oct. 24] to this campus in 1956 as a professor of history and assistant dean of the college of arts and sciences. . . . I know little about North Texas State, but obviously there has been much to be done, the “status quo” having been more than adequately preserved. I knew that John Kamerick would prove to be a fine leader of this fine institution, but I am a little surprised that he has attempted so much in such a relatively short period. He is intelligent, wise, and possessed of a rare degree of integrity, both personal and professional, which is, I fear, not too common among present-day leaders in education. . . . George A. Bowman, president emeritus, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44240. From Joe Goulden I am happy that the Observer [Nov. 7] noted publication of Truth Is The First Casualty, my book on the Gulf of Tonkin incidents, but permit one for-the-record correction. I left Walter Annenberg’s employ at the Philadelphia Inquirer more than a year ago and found honest work elsewhere with myself, as a tramp journalist. The idea of working as a Washington investigative reporter when one’s publisher is an ambassador in the Nixon administration goes beyond even the high degree of tolerance for black humor which I had developed in ten years of newspapering. Joseph C. Goulden, 6416 22nd Road North, Arlington, Va. 22205. In November, Sen. J. William Fulbright said, on the Senate floor, of Goulden’s book: “There is no single piece of writing on this subject which I could commend more highly to my colleagues as we struggle to extricate ourselves from the aftermath of the Tonkin Gulf affair and to assess the implications of the secret war in Laos.” Mr. and Mrs. Dave Moss It occurs to me that Observer readers may be interested in the response to the Dave Moss story in Life and his wife Marion took a public stand [in Dallas] against the Vietnam war. So I asked if I might see the letters and tally the result. Here it is. In the favorable column there were 28 from out of state; 18 from Dallas, and three from Texas cities, plus four telephone calls and three calls from out of state. All expressed great appreciation and admiration for the courageous stand taken by the Moss family. On the negative side there was an anonymous local telephone call, a signed post card from Richardson, and three brief notes from Washington, D.C., Kansas, and Illinois. One man sent a copy of a sermon by Dallas minister, the Rev. W. A. Criswell, without comment. Carl Brannin, 5614 Ridgedale, Dallas, Tex. On Awakening In your article on Cesar Chavez [Obs., Dec. 19] it is stipulated that Mr. Chavez was responsible for the “awakening” of the chicanos. We have been very “awake” to the fact that before Chavez, Mexicans were killed with impunity \(and have lasted one minute if he did not have the backing of the union. Our status is not due to apathy it is due to fear. We have been paralyzed with fear for over 100 years. We have been the victims of the worst segregation and subjugation in this country. On restrooms that were marked for colored and white, we were prohibited from both. It is some of the people in this country who have awakened to not killing us on sight. Print this in your gringo paper. John Landin, 4115 Texas Dr., Dallas, Texas. 75211. The reference to Chavez in the Observer stated that he “reluctantly admitted that he might have something to do with the awakening across the country of Mexican-Americans, but [Chavez] contends that he and UFWOC are just part of the whole picture.”Ed. Show a Little Love As a former Abilenian I found Nephtali De Leon’s article on chicano power in Abilene [Obs., Dec. 5] very interesting, and as a former student in both schools mentioned I must agree that discrimination, in fact, has been practiced against brown people for a very long time. . . . Abilene, please learn a lesson from militant, violent black power don’t let your brown brothers have to resort to violence to get your attention. Maybe the “city of churches” could show a little love. Viva la raza! Jim C. Wooldridge, Box 2003, FPO, New York City, NY 09585.