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Sam Adams’ Freedom Fighters a Novel of the American Revolution The freedom-fighter of the American Revolution, as the principal character of this novel, developes swiftly but, accurately around the lives of William .Mollineaux, one of San Adams’ Lieutenants in Boston, and his nephew J.J. J.J. diligently searches for Laurie Aldrich, a Quaker mistress to Major Percy of General Gages’ British Forces. She is also the dream girl of J.J.’s boyhood infatuation. His quest, kidnapping, and flight with Laurie to the Carolinas is a romantic backdrop to that revolutionary history and the battle of Kings Mountainthe critical battle of the revolutionary war which resulted in Cornwallis’ retreat through North Carolina into Virginia and surrenderending the war. The history of that time is told in faithful detail, since the Revolution itself is the principal character. 250 pps. Paperback $12.95 incl. tax & shipping FUTURA PRESS P.O. BOX 17427 AUSTIN, TX 78760-7427 Some say Georgette Mosbacher saw it as a time to shine, prior to hubby Bob’s fulfilling the job he came to Washington to do as Commerce Secretary by refusing to modify the Census count. If they were going to present George Bush’s cultural heritage, of course, they would have to have offered, say, folktale tellers from his birth suburb near Boston, perhaps the Police Interpretive Dance Team from Yale College, and a blaring, all day country & western music radio station to represent the roughnecks of the oilfields by whose labors George managed to turn the million dollars his daddy gave him to go to Texas with into a million-dollar company. In any case, for them as got in to see it, the Texas Festival was worthwhile time spent. Whether it was a wise expenditure of tax-writeoff money is open to question. Although in theory . we all want culture, if only for those severely practical reasons of statecraft listed by Gibbon, transplanting.it from Texas to display in Washington smacks of an imperial triumph, with the heads of the slain borne on pikes before the conqueror. But anything that encourages corporations to support the arts is, at bottom, probably a good thing; especially since the corporations seem not to want the government to do too much arts supporting. Might lose tax breaks to pay for it. “YAHOO!,” proclaimed all the festival posters on the backs of buses and elsewhere around town. One can only assume that the committee which adopted that as the slogan of the Texas Festival had both meanings of the word in mind. And they were right twice. White, its eye moist, a gull lights on a post. Mountainside green, the coast is bright : the snapshot world shining in your eyes. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 23 … continued from page 19. around to Kuttner’s view that the past decade’s experiment with deregulation q.nd speculative free-booting has been like, “burning the barn to roast the pig.” It will also be tough to convince people that bearing the costs of economic development directly, through taxation, can be both more straightforward philosophically and economically more efficient than picking up the tab through lower wages, higher crime, environmental degradation and a general decline in material wealth and our sense of commonality. Democratic presidential candidate Paul Tsongas has been a proponent of several key elements of the sort of industrial policy Kuttner advocates, but who knows if the mainstream media will ever get beyond stereotyping him a Dukakis clone? As President Bush’s popularity, evaporates in the messy aftermath of the Persian Gulf conflict, even he might find it difficult to initiate the fiscal transition from “Borrow and Spend” to “Tax and Invest.” But, having shown ourselves capable of besting Saddam Hussein, it is time for America to do battle with self-made monsters ion the domestic front. Robert Kuttner’s new book, The End of Laissez-Faire, helps delineate the terrain in the aftermath of Reaganomics and suggests a plausible outline for a New Domestic Order worth fighting for. POETRY: JAMES HOGGARD : At the little bar table \(the pier in the insistent breeze beneath a calm sky. Southern Pier by Julio Ortega, b. 1942, Peru Translated by James Hoggard and a russet granite boulder monotlithic in the river’s wide rush, organizes the water slapping at it: whirlpools drilling into sinkholes, and down them cold November purls when fierce blue northern winds come beating the brilliance off limbs. Shimmering spreads of golden fire, oak leaves fan Comanche Bluff where the Brazos de Dios turns deep against a cliff, high limestone wall, current at the curve speeding hard toward a white water roar: shouts of giants trapped in rock, for John Graves Tiempo que se posa y reposa bajo el cielo encendido Njaro de paso y sin pasado. Nituda es la costa en el verdor mantatioso : en tus ojos brilla el mundo instantaneo Una gaviota se posa en el farol: blanca, el ojo humedo. Embarcadero del Sur Julio Ortega, b. 1942 Peru : En la mesita del bar \(sobre el muelle bajo el azul ocioso y en la brisa apremiada. Time settling now, resisting beneath a fired sky. A bird with no past passing by.