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Let’s go fishing In Corpus Christi, November is a delightful month. The wet heat of the summer is over, the wind has slacked to a delicate zephyr, the waters of the bay and the Gulf of Mexico are clear and almost literally swarming with fish. \(In the Gulf, the largest redfish run of the year will be natives are friendly. Forget your woes. Come to Corpus Christi in November and I’ll buy you a beer and we’ll go catch a fish and say the hell with Bush and Bentsen. Neither man deserves the vote of anyone with any respect for human dignity. 4-343, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Int. Union, Corpus Christi, Tex. In the News In noting the endorsement of Lloyd Bentsen by the Dallas Morning News in the June 26 Observer, you missed the most crucial and significant observation made in the News editorial. Indeed, the News said it endorsed Bentsen because “he represents the majority of the major party in Texas.” But the editorial also made clear that the paper would have backed Bush had Yarborough won the Democratic primary. The News would not have been supporting the man who represents the majority of the major party in Texas had Yarborough’s victory been the case. It is obvious, so obvious that it hurts, that the News is backing. Bentsen because he is the more conservative of the two. Party affiliation makes little difference in this instance. As you so aptly put it, Bentsen has shown himself to be a dishonorable man and is indeed not fit to hold office. John Watkins, managing editor, The Daily Texan, Austin, Tex. Good strategy Regarding the discussion about liberals, etc., voting for a Republican in the general election to perhaps strengthen the liberal forces in the Democratic Party, I would say that each case should be judged on its own merits. If there is a prospect of aiding a 24 The Texas Observer IDialogue strong effective reactionary to office, as in the case of Tower, I think it is foolish to vote Republican. In the present instance, where the Republican seems less reactionary than the Democrat, and shows no signs of beComing a national figure, probably it is good strategy. What we really need is some third party organization. Harry G. Campbell, P. 0. Box 28011, San Antonio, Tex. 78228. Response to Wigginton We wonder what gives Martin Wiginton the cheek to question the direction of The Texas Observer. The Observer is not a cooperative. Its direction is determined by the owner. It has been served well by its dedicated owners first Frankie Randolph and now Ronnie Dugger. If it ceases to serve the community for which it is intended, one can stop subscribing. If Martin Wiginton and his friends don’t like the direction of the Observer, why don’t they start a newspaper? . . . Wiginton’s main quarrel seems to be that the Observer’s trust is in the area of electoral politics -dirty words in Wiginton’s book, apparently. Admittedly, But electoral politics in Texas leaves much to be desired, though part of the failure can surely be blamed on those high-minded people who could see little difference in a Ralph Yarborough or a Lloyd Bentsen as the Democratic nominee for the Senate. Those same people who didn’t vote in the presidential election in 1968 might ask themselves whether Mr. Humphrey’s attorney general and Supreme Court made a difference to this country. Martin Wiginton may have given up on electoral politics, preferring to do good those of us in the state who are committed to liberal and humane values are deeply grateful to The Texas Observer and what it has stood for through the years. Helen and Irwin Spear, 2615 Pecos, Austin, Tex. 78703. \(To prevent any possible misunderstanding of the publisher’s role on the Observer, it should be explained that Ronnie Dugger has the power to hire and fire the editor, but he has no control over For electoral reportage … I would like to cast my vote in favor of the Observer’s retaining its role as a reporter and analyzer of elective politics in Texas. The political intelligence provided in its pages as nowhere else is incalculably valuable to all “outside” groups, whether labor, conservationists, educators, or Republicans. Lynn N. Hughes, 2900 Richmond Ave., Houston, Tex. 77006. The view It is pretty all will agree to gaze over the gentle worthwhile hills from my plate glass windows. How nice almost a painting so soft and cool It’s the air conditioning. and look at the quaint cedars what lovely forms, shapes fit for lamp bases; how so nice. walk down or scramble over loose clattering limestone past lizards with cocked eyes and legs near deer which blend and beneath hawks which slide down and over the rolling wind sliding through the hills and under the hot dry cedars, their brown needle mats and white twisted roots hiding mice and seeds both rather small. CHARLES BEAMER Austin