ustxtxb_obs_1985_09_13_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 10-V AND OPEN SUNDAY 10-4 WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS f I. No -o 40,te” vw DIALOGUE Immigration Baloney Re: Louis Dubose’s article on “The Politics of Immigration,” if Dr. Jorge Bustamante is, indeed, “Mexico’s leading expert on migration . .” then certainly any and all U.S. solutions to “outmigration” \(I love the cute terms are “doomed to fail.” Bustamante maintains that amnesty provisions in U.S. proposals “would have Mexicans admit guilt when they have broken no law.” Baloney! Any illegal alien has broken a law–you can argue the virtues of the law, but that doesn’t erase the crime while it is on the books. The good Dr. says guest-worker provisions would make Mexicans pay taxes “to a system of social welfare programs from which they would receive no benefit.” I can’t believe he said that! Or believes it. He ought to check how many Mexicans or their families are on welfare rolls in this country. As for the rest of the obvious antiU.S. tone of the article, why doesn’t Mexico just be honest and come right out and admit she is never going to forget or forgive San Jacinto. But then honesty is a very rare trait down there. . Thomas E. Turner Waco Losing for the Wrong Reasons As far as I am concerned, Geoffrey Rips hit the nail on the head when he recently complained of national and Texas Democratic Party leaders trying to make their party “more moderate and Main Street.” Yes, it is bad to see the Democratic Party lose across the country and in Texas, but what is worse is to see it not only lose, but lose for the wrong reasons. During the Vietnam War I think it is the truth to say that I was among the top three lawyers in the country who represented the most conscientious objectors. After about five years of watching blacks, browns, and poor whites being sent to Vietnam while privileged kids went to college, it finally dawned on me that my party, the Democratic Party, was the one which was getting the “little people” killed. Even Richard Nixon ran a more honest draft than either John Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson. I am no fan of Nixon and was in his first campaign on the side of Jerry Voorhis while a law student in California. \(Jerry died a few months ago; Godalmighty but he was a good Why do Democrat leaders let the Republicans provide socialism for the bankers on their bad Third World loans, but fear to stand up for democratic socialism for the poor? If my old friend, Ann Richards, wants to call it “Jesus Capitalism” or whatever then that’s fine with me, but substantively she and other such leaders have to start telling the truth. Why does the leadership of my party remain forever silent about our country relentlessly and endlessly offending one billion Moslems in this world because of Israel? I am a member of a leftwing Israeli organization and know that there are vibrant debates in Israel, but why can’t there be one in the Democratic Party? Our country is in trouble; the truth must be told. Why are so many Democrats in Congress voting for measures which more and more tend to drive Nicaragua in the direction of the Soviet Union and away from Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt? If the Democratic leadership, national and state, is going to abandon its historic sense of justice and understanding of this world in revolution, then it deserves Third Party opposition, both in Texas and nationally. When I was a little boy during Depression days, I remember going with my father, Maury Maverick, to campaign among the poorest of the poor Mexican Americans. They sent him to Congress and years later they sent me to the Texas House of Representatives. Papa had a saying that the Mexican Americans knew about. “Hey, Maury, tell us what you are for” they would cry out. It was time for him to do his act. “Liberty and groceries, that’s what I’m for,” he would begin, and then add, “but you can’t fill the baby’s bottle with liberty. You have to have groceries. But groceries alone are not enough, you have to have liberty. God bless Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” Then my old man would do a kind of Indian war dance on the stump crying out over and over again, “Liberty and groceries!” Well, I’m tired of all this Democratic Party caution, and again I thank Geoffrey Rips for his comments, and who was raised right by a good father and mother here in San Antonio. Maury Maverick, Jr. San Antonio Tired of Me-Too Democrats It is distressing to read the comments of such people as Curtis Rhodes \(Observer Spurgin \(Observer What these people don’t seem to understand is that the country and the Democratic Party are in the shape they are in because the liberals and Democrats are not radical enough. Why do you suppose such a small number of the eligible voters voted, and why was there such a relatively small number of people who took the trouble to make themselves eligible to vote? Simply that the masses of people did not see that the Democrats presented any real alternative. Mondale’s proposal of higher taxes certainly did not endear the Democratic party to people on welfare, those struggling just to get by, etc. The high point of voter turn-out came during the New Deal years, when it was evident that what was being done was for the benefit of Joe Blow and Jane Doe. We can see this in the efforts to get black voters out. The rejection of Jesse Jackson by the party certainly alienated blacks, and the results of my wife’s activities in voter registration showed this. No, what we need is to be bold, to tell it like it is, denounce the Republicans and repudiate the Me-Too Democrats. Then at last we might get some voter turn-out. Harry G. Campbell San Antonio THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 ,