ustxtxb_obs_1995_09_15_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

DIALOGUE . 4.=f ibW . . . 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 the 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 offree voices. SINCE 1954 Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger Publisher: Geoff Rips Editor: Louis Dubose Associate Editor: Michael King Production: Harrison Saunders Editorial Intern: Amanda Toering Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Brett Campbell, Peter Cassidy, Jo Clifton, Carol Countryman, Terry FitzPatrick, Richard L. Fricker, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Jim Hightower, Ellen Hosmer, Molly Ivins, Steven Kellman, Deborah Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie Nathan, Brad Tyer, James McCarty Yeager. Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; Bob Eckhardt, Austin; 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, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Gary Oliver, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. Business Manager: Cliff Olofson Subscription and Office Manager: Douglas Falls Development Consultant: Frances Barton SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year 532, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N. Zecb 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. INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981,The Texas Observer Index, 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. . POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Bad Instincts on Waco As a resident of Austin during Dick Reavis’s days with the New Left, I was not surprised by the lack of historical understanding he showed in his interview on Waco and related matters. His willful ignorance went far beyond historical misrepresentations, however. “Don’t tell me,” he opines with disturbing assurance, “the Democrats were ever protectors of constitutional liberties.” Extending constitutional liberties to African Americans by the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968 does not seem to count with Reavis. Neither, apparently, do the decisions of the Warren Court \(comwhich included decisions to protect the rights of the accused, insure the separation of church and state, as well as other civil libertarian decisions. Reavis glosses over the racism of the militia movement with the incredible statement that “whenever you’ve got white people organized, you’re going to have racism.” Is it possible that there is more virulence about the racism of the Aryan Nation or The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord than in the average bowling league, for example? Or when militia activist Bo Gritz whips up a crowd by excoriating the Clinton Administration for appointing Jews? What exactly did Reavis mean when he says “their instincts are good”? I wish the interviewer had pressed Reavis on these matters. For some reason, these patently irresponsible assertions got the kid-glove treatment. Steve Salinger Kansas City, Missouri 2. SEPTEMBER 15,1995