ustxtxb_obs_1988_09_02_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

6-1 -,-….. ‘ r ,,,,,,, THE TEXAS 1 server. A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracY; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the litanan spirit. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agrei with them because this is a journal of free voices. SINCE 1954 Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Editor: Dave Denison Associate Editor: Louis Dubose Editorial Assistant: Kathleen Fitzgerald Editorial Intern: Doug Anderson Calendar: Kathleen Fitzgerald Washington Correspondent: Richard Ryan Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink. Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Craig Clifford, John , Henry Faulk, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, Bill Helmer, James Harrington, Amy Johnson, Michael King, Dana Loy, Rick Piltz, Gary Pomerantz, Susan Raleigh,.John Schwartz, Michael Ventura, Lawrence Walsh Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton,. Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris. Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg; Robert Sherrill, Tallahassee, Fla. Layout and Design: Layne Jackson Typesetter: Becky Willard Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang,’Bill Leissner, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods. Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Publishing Consultant: Frances Barton Development Consultant: Hanno T. Beck for a three-week interval between issues in January and July \(25 issues per West 7th postage paid at Austin. Texas. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to P.O. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765 SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $27, two years $48, three years S69. Fulltime students SI5 per, year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail. foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time: no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. Address all correspondence to: The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Jews and Anti-Semitism In the 7/1/88 “Dialogue,” two letters, one from New York and one from Austin, captured my interest. The New York letter denies racism exists in Israel. Israel was founded as a “Jewish state,” a “national home for the Jews” exclusively, where others are not welcome. Why else, since 1948, the removal, through fear and violence, of the non-Jewish natives of the land where the state was created? It is a state where one’s religion determines full citizenship. This is not a unique circumstance, but it can be called racism. The Austin correspondent disagrees with the term “Jewish lobbyists.” He has a point. It would have been more exact to have referred to them as “pro-Israel” or “proZionist” lobbyists. \(And, some would say of these terms does not automatically tag the user as “anti-Semitic,” or “antiJewish.” I’d like to state my strong disagreement with the use of the term “anti-Semitic” as referring only to Jews. Any expression of disagreement with Israel’s policies, with AIPAC, JINSA, or the B’nai B’rith, is immediately branded as “anti-Semitic.” Many of the users of this term must know it is being inaccurately applied. Arabs and Jews are both Semitic peoples. Current usage of this term seems a ludicrous way to figuratively eliminate the entire Arab race. Golda Meir eliminated the Palestinians saying, “There are no Palestinians.” \(Maybe there are no Arabs; my Time magazine-supplied New American Webster Dictionary this what God wants? William V. Kelly Austin English First For Journalists Thank you for the complimentary copy of the July 1 issue of the Observer. A number of years ago, we were subscribers. I found most of the articles very informative, interesting, and well-written. However, I can’t believe the rules of punctuation have vanished to the extent exhibited in your editorial about Clements. Your errors are worse than his. In my school days, a split infinitive would have warranted an “F.” You would have received several of those, plus many other violations earning circles of red. I refer you to Advanced English Grammar by Dr. Annie Webb Blanton, University of Texas \(Southern Publishing Company, it’s the best, and you need it. A law declaring English the Official Language??? Sure! Let’s first make it mandatory that we all learn English to read and write it and start with the newspaper people. They’re the worst offenders. Louise Allison Cisco The Myth of Electoral Choice Your editorial, “Electoral Empowerment” \(TO, good is the right to vote if, as in 26 percent of the 1986 Texas Congressional elections, there’s only one candidate on the ballot to vote for? Our grossly unfair state laws on ballot access for minor party and independent candidates leave it pretty much a rigged game. I’m the write-in U.S. Senate candidate of the Socialist Party of Texas. Let me run down the list of barriers that the Texas Legislature has placed in my way to the ballot. First, I have to gather 34,424 valid ballot petition signatures \(fifth-highest of Second, primary voters aren’t allowed to Third, I have only from March 8 to 9 them \(these deadlines are unconstitutionally Pilcher v. Rains, Texas was the only state to unconstitutionally require the voter registration affidavit number of every signer. There is a remedy to the creative democracy of yahoo state legislatures. Rep. John Conyers has introduced HR 1582, providing for a uniform Federal election code for Federal offices only. In the case of Texas, HR 1582 would require only 7,288 signatures for ballot access and remove or alleviate the other restrictive barriers. Although it has 23 cosponsors Swift, Chairperson of the House Subcommittee on Elections, has refused to hold hearings on it. While the New Alliance Party and the Libertarian Party will be on the Texas ballot, they’ll also be on nearly every other state ballot. Until HR 1582 becomes law, our party and the eight other smaller minor parties running Presidential candidates will out of mind, and effectively locked out of the “free marketplace of ideas.” Earl Divoky Fresno DIALOGUE 2 SEPTEMBER 2, 1988