ustxtxb_obs_1998_10_23_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

WAR UNENDING Monte Paulsen’s article about the killing of Esequiel Hernandez \(“Intruders in the Dust,” journalism for which the Observer is renowned. It gave me facts that I, for one, hadn’t seen elsewhere. Readers of the account might be interested to learn that Hernandez was not the first civilian victim of men in ghillie suits or of the JTF6’s war on drugs. I do not know who that unfortunate soul may have been, but the following people preceded Hernandez: Perry Jones, Peter Hipsman, Winston Blake, Jaydean Wendell, Peter Gent, and Michael Schroeder. All were followers of David Koresh, all of them, killed on February 28, 1993. JTF-6 trained ATF agents for the raid on Mt. Cannel, during which some of the agency’s snipers wore ghillie suits. Dick J. Reavis Austin WITH THE BARK OFF I must protest the insensitivity reflected in the cover of your most recent issue \(“The Hispanic Vote and George Bush’s Ad Men,” September tion of the Hispanic vote in Texas. I realize you wanted to be cute and eye-catching but I think this is irresponsible, insensitive, and unprofessional. Richard Munoz Waco The Editors Respond: The chihuahua on our cover was not intended to represent the Hispanic vote but, rather, to suggest that Governor George W. Bush’s Spanish-language ad campaign has all the substance of the Taco Bell ads that feature a Spanish-speaking chihuahua selling fast food. REMEMBER MATTOX The Republican Party money machine has begun to crank out its attacks upon Jim Mattox. Now is the time to remember and remind others of his outstanding record as Attorney General of Texas. I had the good fortune to serve under General Mattox in the early years of his Attorney General tenure. During my lifetime there has never been a more fearless lawyer for the people of Texas. Jim Mattox provided quality legal representation to the state of Texas and its citizens. His environmental protection division vigorously pursued polluters of our streams and protected the state’s open beaches. During the Mattox years his office was in the lead in prosecution of those who defrauded the consuming public and in the protection of nursing home residents. The list of Jim’s accomplishments is long and the record is there for the public’s view. In these dismal times Jim Mattox’s return to public office would be a breath of fresh air and give the people of Texas assurance that there Jim Mattox, Yellow Dog Democrat was someone in public office who was going to look after their interests. David Richards Austin WHAT SPECIES IS SANDERS? I read with interest, “Sanders To Sierra Blanca: to make it clear that the Socialist Party of Texas stands in solidarity with the heroic people of Sierra Blanca in their just struggle against the Yankee imperialists and Texas scalawags. However, I feel that Representative Bernie Sanders’ strange position, on Sierra Blanca and his autocratic behavior at the rally need to be put in context for Texans. Independent candidate Sanders has been effectively running as a fusion candidate with the Democratic Party since he was first elected in 1990. In 1996 he made this official by symbolically returning a campaign contribution from our national organization, the Socialist Party USA, stating his separate-but-equal policy of not accepting contributions from any political party. But what he gets from the Vermont Democratic Party is an empty ballot line and plenty of funding from union PACs and individual Democrats. Mutual Assured Destruction dictates this de facto fusion agreement, not necessarily any formal “deal.” Ironically this fusion candidacy, in which progressives supposedly have nowhere else to go \(Sanders is contemptuous of Vermont’s marginal, democratic socialist Liberty Union exacerbated his penchant for implementing bizarre, non-negotiable decisions like using non-union printing for his national fundraising Frederick Baldwin appeals to progressives. Although Sanders’ brainstorms are sometimes brilliantly successful, they’re “almost always deeply disturbing to progressives who value democratic processes,” according to Ellen David-Friedman of the Vermont Rainbow Coalition. Sanders finds that he must now inherently pull to the center on issues like Sierra Blanca in order to get re-elected. So he has resolved this contradiction, at least in his own mind, by waving a strange flag on one side is his old Red Flag of the class struggle, but on the reverse is the Confederate Battle Flag of states’ rights. His hands are tied by the approval of the three state legislatures, he wails. Since Sanders has always rigidly refused to compromise when he feels that he’s standing, however untenably, on principle, he simply can’t admit that the Sierra Blancans are being victimized by environmental elitism. “I haven’t studied the issue,” was his petulant reply in a radio interview. Earl Divoky Chairperson, Socialist Party of Texas Austin Write Dialogue The Texas Observer 307 W. 7th St. Austin, TX 78701 [email protected] Readers are invited to submit letters on any subject addressed in the Observer, and we ask that letters generally be brief \(300-500 words at the OCTOBER 23, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 ……410011111. I I/ Mr Al A. k WAIIIIr -.1-11 I