ustxtxb_obs_1981_06_12_50_00024-00000_000.pdf

IN THESE DAYS OF RISING PRICES AND CONSUMER AWARENESS OUR NAME SAYS IT ALL i l k i &SOCIIMAGAZINESIREMIRDS Drop in and you may be very surprised You’ll discover a wide array of new and used hardcover books. on an incredibly long list of subjects You’ll find an amazing selection of back issue magazines. Some are real collectors’ items Records. too, to fit many musical tastes. All at half price or less , And you thought we were lust second-hand paperbacks’ DALLAS BIG MAIN STORE. 4528 McK.nney Dallas, To 75205 DOWNTOWN. Austin Mire across from E. Centro College 711 Elm Dallas, To 75202 FORT WORTH 3306 Fartield Ridgica Shpg Cntr Fort Worth, To 76116 AUSTIN MAIN STORE 1514 Lavaca Austin, To 78701 6103 Barnet Rd Austin. Tx 78757 1914E R.eerside Austin. Tx 78741 FARMERS BRANCH Farmers Branch Shpg Cntr VdilPy View & Jose, In Farmers Branch, To 75234 GARLAND Eastgate Shpg Cntr 1560 N W Hwy Garland. To 75041 HOUSTON 1408 I-1,1e Park Houston, To 76541 820 Farm Rd 1963 Houston, Tx 77090 KILLEEN 3327 Rancor Killeen, Tx 76541 N RICHLAND HILLS 6327 Grapevine Hwy Hignetay 26 N Richland Hots, To 76118 RICHARDSON 508 Lockwood 8.chardson, To 75080 SAN ANTONIO 3207 Broadway San Antonio, To 78209 4408 Caliaynan Rd San Antonio, Tx 78228 TEMPLE 2700 S Loop 7.63 Tempts Square Temcie, Tc 76501 WACO 607 N Valley Mills Or Waco, To 76710 OUR 17 STORES IN THE HEART OF TEXAS WORK HARD TO SAVE YOU MONEY ANDERSON & COMPANY COPPICE TEA SPICES TWO .113PPERSaN SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 7W131 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701 Jones’ comments on USREDCOM/RDF more than compensated for that. Unless special circumstances demand it, creating another military headquarters when you already have one that is capable of tackling the mission involved usually makes about as much sense as creating additional funding to “throw at” social problems. The couple of nit-picks I have are not intended to snipe at Lyman Jones; I think he did a pretty good job. For one thing, the contemporary military often use the word “click” to mean a kilometer they’re quite metric, you know. I’m a little less than comfortable with the comparison of our desert hell-holes with their counterparts in the Middle East. The deserts of Afghanistan \(which take Iran can outdo ours in sheer goshawfulness any time of the year. Our hell-holes have been spared centuries of overgrazing by goats and camels, for one thing, and the natives tend to be friendly in New Mexico. I am sure that there are a goodly number of Russian military officers who have found out how tank transmissions stand up in the area, even without taking the tanks into the notorious “Desert of Death” in the Southwest. I am all too painfully aware of what it costs the taxpayers for our military to run one of these exercises; I’m also conscious of how much it could cost us if they did not run them. Richard R. McTaggart, Col., U.S. 76859. Retort from Amarillo The process by which progressive people and groups interact deserves our attention and care, and your note on the proposed Pantex action in the Social Cause Calendar [TO 4/17/81] illustrates regrettably poor process as well as poor reporting. First, the reader is told that a “rally and teach-in” was to be replaced by an “environmentally-oriented” forum. The implication is that the local group wanted to avoid the larger issues of the arms race. In fact, our plans focused on disarmament and conversion issues. Second, we are accused of resenting “outsiders” coming in on “our turf with an action that might possibly alienate 24 June 12, 1981 conservatives.” Had your FOR source been more forthright, s/he would have reported that our concern was that the “outsiders” do advance planning in conjunction with locals, and be open to the effect that particular actions would have on the local community. We have recently been “hosts” to a civil disobedience action \(undertaken by people who deliberately chose not to attempt to communicate to the public, through any form of mediawork, the purplanetary peace bicyclists. We are respectful of the various religious, philosophical, and political perspectives and strategies of those that pass through Amarillo because Pantex is here, and in my view the local progressive community has been very responsive, both in a material and an emotional/intellectual way, to the passers-through \(particularly Yet not all who pass through are responsive to the precarious status of a small progressive community in a very isolated and conservative environment. To report that we are fearful of “possibly alienating conservatives” is to be completely ignorant of the actions that local residents have taken with regard to Pantex for which they have paid very high Our concern is not avoiding the alienation of conservatives, but rather avoiding the creation of an atmosphere that makes it difficult for progressives to survive and build community here. Consensus is difficult to reach, Particularly over long distances. Yet it is difficult to understand that people in Dallas who felt so strongly that they should come to our community for “Freeze the Arms Race” Day were unwilling to spend one single hour of advance time in Amarillo to attempt a reconciliation of our differences. However, so long as disregard of the local community can be justified by implying that the local community is reactionary and thus not worthy of an attempt to reconcile differences, such disregard no doubt will appear to be more a sign of political correctness than a sign of disunity. I personally felt trashed by the note in the Observer, not only because the Observer’s source showed a clear preference for public criticism over any genuine effort to reach consensus, but also because the Observer felt no need to contact anyone in this community for the “other side” of the story. And the Observer’s failure to list even a contact phone number for the proposed locallysponsored action \(which, in fact, was a was only the cancellation of FOR’s rally, and not the proposed locally-planned event, that was of interest to the progressive community of Texas. In the interest of better process and understanding in the future, I hope that the possible future action hinted at in the calendar note \(which we had not heard of to include the local progressive community in the planning process. Betty Wheeler, 1008 S. Madison, Amarillo, TX 79101.