ustxtxb_obs_1996_05_17_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

VOLUME 88, No. 10 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 of free voices. SINCE 1954 Founding Editor: Ronnie Dugger Publisher: Geoff Rips Managing Publisher: Rebecca Melancon Editor: Louis Dubose Associate Editor: Michael King Production: Harrison Saunders Copy Editor: Mimi Bardagjy Poetry Editor: Naomi Shihab Nye Subscription and Office Manager: Amanda Toering Editorial Intern Peripateia: Ayelet Hines Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Barbara Belejack, Betty Brink, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Carol Countryman, Lars Eighner, James Galbraith, Dagoberto Gilb, James Harrington, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Steven Kellman, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie Nathan, Brad Tyer, James McCarty Yeager. Contributing Photographers: Vic Hinterlang, Alan Pogue. Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Kevin Kreneck, Michael Krone, Ben Sargent, Gail Woods. Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Arlington, Mass.; Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; 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; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. Development Consultant: Frances Barton Business Manager: Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995 SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, 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. 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. INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals: Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 198 I ,The Texas Observer Index. copyrighted, 1996, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. World Wide Web DownHome page: httpd/www.hyperweb.com/txobserver Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. HAVE BOOK, WILL TRAVEL Many thanks to the Observer and Pete Gunter for the review of the Texas Environmental Almanac \(“Blueprint for a Texas however: the Meadows Foundation of Dallas, whose generous support made this publication possible, has put no restrictions on the Texas Center for Policy Studies from publishing or selling an updated edition of the Almanac. We would be delighted to talk with any interested publisher. Mary Sanger Texas Center for Policy Studies Austin JUDGE FRANKLIN SCO1T SPEARS August 20, 1931April 12, 1996 R.I.P. -“Texas is growing out of its political infancy. It’s passing out of an era of the politician who’s been powerful for power’s sake. It’s passing into an era of power for the people’s sake. It’s moving in that direction now.” Franklin Spears Observer, July 29, 1960 NICE HOME PAGE, WHERE’S VICTOR? My first time to see your downhome page. Thanks for all the magazine sites and organization lists. My question is, why you all didn’t interview Victor Morales for the March 8 issue you did on the Senate race? Just wondering. Mary Brown Tyler RECTIFICATION CAMPAIGN Re Observer March 8: “Victor Morales, also a candidate, was not interviewed.” We all make mistakeswill you rectify this, please, so I can figure out what this man believes in? Pat Day Houston MENU: CROW We thank our readers for their understanding, and can offer no excuses for our error of omissionexcept lack of time and space combined with impaired judgement. As Ms. Day suggested, in our cover story for this issue we have tried to rectify our short-sightedness. SHORT TIME, LONG REACH I do not want the passage of Judge Spears to go without commentary: I remember Franklin at the University of Texas, as student body president, denouncing McCarthyism, much easier to do now than it was then, in a Texas which bristled with fans of the “tailgunner,” much as it does now for Rush Limbaugh. And, of course, San Antonio had its own McCarthy intern, Representative Marshall Bell. I remember Franklin, the lone liberal in a reactionary Bexar County delegation in 1959, building a progressive record to lead a resurgence in 1960. It brought in such stalwarts as Jim Barlow and John Alaniz, and retired conservative stalwarts, including the presumably unbeatable Frates Seeligson. I remember Franklin beginning on the Supreme Court in the same steady, patient way. His integrity and intellectual discipline were bulwarks for the sensitivity and compassion of his opinions, protecting them from charges of partisanship and dogoodism that weakened and undermined other opinions less powerfully founded. In the end he fell victim to a genetic timebomb, a condition always present in the back of his mind, based on observations of his own father, dead of a heart condition at forty-six, as well as other members of his family with similarly shortened lifespans. He felt himself to be, always, a “shorttimer.” Modern medicine \(including a added sixteen to eighteen years to his life. Although his time may have been relatively short, his contribution looms large. Contemplating his courage and his unswerving moral power, the community of Texas liberal progressives may count another major loss, to rank with that of Senator Yarborough and Barbara Jordan. Ed Cogburn Houston DIALOGUE The Editors 2 MAY 17, 1996