ustxtxb_obs_1992_03_13_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

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 human-kind 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 thi ignoble in the human 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 agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. SINCE 1954 Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Editor: Lou Dubose Associate Editor: James Cullen Layout and Design: Diana Paciocco Copy Editors: Roxanne Bogucka, Amy Root Mexico City Correspondent: Barbara Belejack Editorial Intern: Paula George Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Deborah Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Greg Moses, Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh. Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; 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 Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson Subscription. Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Executive Assistant: Gail Woods Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Development Consultant: Frances Barton SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $27. two years $48. three years $69. Full-time students $15 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. tents copyrighted, 1992, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between 477-0746. Second-class postage paid at Austin. Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. A Member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeldles Democrats by Default the San Antonio Progressive Democrats’ renunciation of the straight Democratic ticket failed to mention why we have taken this controversial, but principled position. We believe that none of the current Democratic presidential candidates stands a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating George Bush in ’92. Even if by some rare stroke of luck one of them were to beat Bush, none of these candidates offers any real alternative to Bush’s chaotic domestic policies…. The Democratic Party is anything but Democratic. Last May the Democratic to offer Statehood Senator Jesse Jackson the same opportunity as other leading Democrats to address the DLC conference. This same DLC that is pushing Bill Clinton for the presidential nomination openly espouses a more conservative party line, and is for the most part controlled by such multinational coprorations as TRW, B.F. Goodrich; and British Petroleum. These and other corporations financed the DLC conference last May in Ohio. We are tired of working for and supporting Democratic candidates who differ little if at all ‘from their Republican opponents. We are tired of doing the blockwalking, the phonecalling and the other legwork, yet continuing to be excluded from the decision-making processes of the party. More importantly ; we are tired of giving our money and votes to a party that has no clear or consistent ideological direction. The time is long overdue when the majority of this nation \(workers, women, farmers, small business people, persons with disabilities, the aged, African-Americans, AsianAmericans, Native Americans, Mexicanpresidential candidate who is truly theirs and not just another politician prostituting himself to the wealthy and corporate class. Our solution? We will remain Democrats only until something better comes along. Fortunately for us and the rest of the U.S., that “something” is now beginning to take form and is being manifested through several different, but equally vital sectors of the progressive community: the National Organization for Women, Ralph Nader, the National Rainbow Coalition, and at least 5,000 trade union activists across the U.S. under the auspices of Labor Party Advocates. While these different sectors have yet to unify and consolidate their efforts, events driven by the people’s dismay with the two-party system make such a consolidation inevitable. So you see, it really doesn’t matter to us what party functionaries like Bob Slagle or Ron Brown think. The majority of the people of the U.S. certainly don’t care, as proven by the declining number of people voting. In Struggle, Frank Valdez, Co-Chairman, Progressive Democrats of San Antonio. Philpott Remembered Many memories were brought back as I read the tributes to Professor Tom Philpott \(TO, man year at UT, in a nine-hour course called the American Experience. The readings were substantial, and to this day many of the books, Hard Living on Clay Street, Catch 22, Native Son, and others, remain with me. When I was growing up in Abilene, my parents had always taught me about the horrible cruelties of prejudice and the inequalities that exist. When I left home for college I was confident in my beliefs and determined to treat people as my parents had taught me. The only problem was that I didn’t know how many others felt the same way. How comforted I was to sit down in an auditorium of 400 and listen to Professor Philpott reinforce all of my parents’ teachings. I had a new friend. Philpott would lecture for more than an hour and then announce that he would lecture for an additional hour on material that we would not be tested on. Half the class always stayed. I never missed a word. He showed slides and read stories aloud. We saw how Indians, Jews, Hispanics, blacks, children and the poor were treated in our own country. He was outraged and so were most of us. We listened in horror to the atrocities that people inflict on each other for the most ludicrous of reasons. Many cried during his lectures and afterward a line would form to hug and thank him. I always settled for a nod in his,direction after I was sure his eye was on me. In December of 1980, after finishing my last exam as a student at Texas, I spotted Professor Philpott in front of the undergraduate library. It had been more than four years since I had last seen him, and I knew it was probably my last chance to say thanks. I walked over and introduced myself. He smiled and introduced me to his wife, who sat at his side. I tried hard to tell him what he had meant to me and what he had done for me. I wanted to thank him for all he had taught me, and for reinforcing my beliefs. He should have known that his was the first outside voice I had ever heard talking about dealing everyone an equal hand. I wanted him to know that he caused me to speak louder than ever of the convictions that we knew to be right. But as I stood there, “Thanks” was all I could muster. He must have known what I wanted to say, for his eyes were as watery as mine. I’m sorry Professor Philpott is gone but with the same conviction he possessed I can assure you he lives forever in many of his students. Patrick Terry, Austin DIALOGUE 2 MARCH 13, 1992