ustxtxb_obs_1997_02_14_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

If you believe… …as we do, in the absolute necessity of a progressive, independent journalism for Texas, we ask you to help us sustain the Observer’s present, and plan for its future. We believe that there are thousands of disenchanted Texans who long for a voice like the Observer, but who simply don’t know where to find it. Help them find us; help us find them. Please take the time to spread the word to your acquaintances. Ifyou don’t want to sell the Observer to them, let us. Simply send us a list of oneor well send them a free sample copy of the Observer, along with an invitation to subscribe. The Observer is Texas’ only Journal of Free Voices. You’ve known it for some time. Please, pass it on. In 1996 Molly loins and Jim Hightower we gave you all this. Tell your friends. T ill TOXAS server 7 PCB and dioxin reports James Galbraith on economics Freeport and Shell Eighner, Kellman on the arts Memorial for Ralph Yarborough Communities in action across Texas The demise of radio rightist Rollye James The fight for the future of West Texas The battle over affirmative action Reporting from Las Americas Redistricting and Texas courts The real Larry King, live Analytical election reporting Dagoberto Gilb on life and letters Naomi Shihab Nye and Texas poets Rod Davis on the future of Texas writers The Alliance for Democracy Victor Morales as Quixote… In Memory of Mark Adams “HIS RELIGION WAS SOCIAL JUSTICE” Mark Adams, 86, of Oak Harbor, Washington, died January 18, 1997, at Whidbey General Hospital in Coupeville, Washington. Mr. Adams was a founding supporter of the Observer, and his widow, Ann Adams, sent these remarks. Mark Adams was born March 20, 1910, in Lindale, Texas, to Silas and Ora Woolley Adams. He was married to Willena Casey January 19, 1935. From 1936 to 1942 he was a writer and researcher at Farm Security in the Roosevelt Administration in Washington, D.C. In 1942 he was given a commission in the U.S. Navy, and he served on aircraft carriers in the South Pacific in World War II. After the war Adams worked as a newspaperman, printer and writer, at the center of the liberal movement in Texas. He was on the first board of directors of the Texas Observer, and was its first printer. His religion was social justice. During the 1960s he worked on the copy desk and in the composing room of the Austin American-Statesman. He moved to Oak Harbor in 1982, and with his second wife, Ann, printed and published books in their hot metal print shop. At the time of his death, he was writing a personal history of the twentieth century, which will be published posthumously. Mr. Adams is survived by his wife Ann of Oak Harbor; his first wife, Willena Casey Yane, of Austin, Texas; their two daughters, Saskia Scoggins of Oak Harbor and Kathleen West of Bastrop; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Attached is a poem he wrote about death when he was in the Navy in 1945. As he was dying in the hospital \(and knew he was to run from death.” He was thirty-five years old when he wrote the poem. Ann Adams From “A Pagan’s Prayer Before Battle” \(Aboard H.M.S. Illustrious during a kamikaze attack, Lady Luck, once more befriend A pagan awaiting the empty end… About me I hear the initial rattle Of partisan metals joining battle Radar sees; a gun mount sings Response to death on streamered wings Whileobsolete flesh and bloodI wait To learn the random choice of fate. \(Though with this role alone entrusted I’m occupationally maladjusted, For I yearn to be, I hold my breath Mark Adams More information is available from Ann Adams, 4366 N. Hamil FEBRUARY 14, 1997 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3