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LUNCH ON THE RIVER OR THE BALCONY BRUNCH ON SUNDAY! . . . and Sandwiches, Chili, Tacos, Chalupas, and restaurant baked desserts. Haagen Dazs Ice Cream and fresh yoghurt. Soup and salad bar. 11:30 am until 5:00 pm Monday thru Sunday. 224-4515 the greenhouse Above the Kangaroo Court Downtown Riverwalk 314 North Presa San Antonio, Texas DIALOGUE Yellow Dog In “The Bright New Winners” \(May Observer says, in explaining Bill Clements’ statement that he wanted Mark White “for an opponent all the time,” that Clements knows that “to have a real fight for an office,” and thus one Big Money is less likely to be able to buy, “you need convincing contrast beti;veen the candidates.” That is one plausible interpretation of the Clements statement, but there is another equally as valid: Clements knows that of the original top 3 gubernatorial candidates, White is the least likely to be able to get the support of Texas progressives. And, he knows, further, that it is only the progressives who can deny a Democratic victory in the governor’s race this November. The question to be answered by the progressives is whether they will permit this to happen, i.e., whether they will allow Governor Bill to buy another one. I for orie am adamantly opposed to four more years of the snarling, sarcastic, downright mean “leadership” which Clements has given Texas the past four years. Despite any reservations I may have about Mark White, and my earlier support of Bob Armstrong, I will definitely vote for White in November. I would hope that the example of John Tower, who was originally elected because the liberals “went fishing,” and who is now threatening to become a permanent fixture, will be enough to convince progressives around the state that we won’t get anywhere by biting off our noses to spite our faces. Paul Taparauskas, Burnet, TX. Shame! I had responded albeit in a small way to your appeal for Armstrong and Hightower. Hightower won, good Armstrong lost, bad. Last week I received a letter from Mark White saying that since I had contributed to Armstrong, would I now switch my support to him. How could he have known this if Armstrong had not given him the list of names? For Shame!! Ruth Binder, 123 E. Rampart #111, San Antonio, TX 78216 Let’s Start It is incomprehensible to me how Ronnie Dugger can manifest such indignation about the corruption of Texas elections \(“The Dollar Corruption of Texas Politics,” Tex Obs., May 21, to be done?” and not even hint that public fundings of elections may be at least part of the solution. How, in a democracy, do you justify the domination of public elections by private money? The United States is the only major democracy that does not have publicly funded elections. Under the best of circumstances it will take years to build the consensus necessary to force the Texas legislature to act. We should have acted ten years ago after Watergate. Let’s at least make a start now. Richard H. Kraemer, 311 Laurel Valley Rd, Austin, TX 78746 Our Euphoria First, lest I appear below to be poking holes in the Observer’s euphoric postmortem of the Texas agriculture commissioner’s race \(TO, you to know that I’ve been passionately poking holes in a punch-card ballot next to Jim Hightower’s name since 1980 and intend to do it again in November! But if there was anything slightly disappointing about the Hightower interview, I found it in the candidate’s rationale for beefing up price supports for the nation’s farmers: “They have no capacity themselves to set price. .. . The farmer has no capacity to do that, so you’ve got to have a floor as you do a minimum wage for labor.” I have to marvel at the irony the weakness, really of that parallel, given the vast numbers of agricultural workers in Texas and elsewhere who are either legislatively excluded from the protective embrace of the federal and state minimum wage laws, or illegally dropped through the wage floor by their employers. Jim, if you’re out there listening, when you “go to Washington and battle to get the price support” for farm operators, I hope you’ll put in a good word for an equitable minimum wage for farm workers. Finally, I can’t decide whether the exhilaration of the Hightower victory simply infected your typesetter or if we’ve actually climbed to new heights of progresive unity, but in either case you’d that the president of the Texas Farmworkers Union has been named to. the board of directors of the National Farmers Union. I’ve heard of coalitions, but this particular arrangement sounds like something for the Age of Aquarius. Brian R. Craddock, 2512 Sherwood Lane, Austin, TX 78704. ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 7W /ft 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip 22 JUNE 18, 1982