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“When a nation’s young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.” Henry Ward Beecher The left/liberal/ progressive political magazine for Bryan/College Station A Journal of Opinion, Comment, and Investigation P.O. Box 2711 College Station, TX 77841-2711 Email: [email protected] http://www.rtis.corn/ touchstone/ pcadi t idze its 1999 M 9aika,./ Enter a new Observer subscription or renew your old one before Labor Day, and you’ll be eligible to win round-trip airfare to Austin and a celebratory lunch with the one and only Molly at Threadgill’s World Headquarters compliments of The Texas Observer. Molly promises to be witty, charming, and completely Y2K-compliant. This is your last chance before the new millennium to lunch with Molly Ivins! Don’t miss it! Subscription orders must be received and paid in full by Labor Day. The Observer will provide a round-trip ticket for one from any airport served by Southwest Airlines; arrival and departure will be for the same day. \(Austin residents will student subscriptions of one or more years. One entry per one-year subscription; two per two-year; three per three-year. Recipients of gift subscriptions will be entered in the drawing unless otherwise specified. DIALOGUE ONE FOR SCHLITTERBAHN… Editor’s note: Pennsylvania subscriber Ann Murray was the first to fill out the questionnaire/application form for our first annual T.O. Schlitterbahn Seminar Weekend in New Braunfels \(see Left Field, “Port Out, Starsomewhat pricier, seminar cruises being offered by our favorite magazines on the left and right. She adhered to the spirit, if not the format, of our multiple choice test. We await further applicants. As a new subscriber, I’m really pleased with your work. It’s wonderful. Now that I’ve said something nice, you owe me. Here’s what I want: 1.2.Ralph the diving pig. 3.D \(the Vatican has a great porno library, 4.C for observation; D for comfort. 5.The margaritas from No. 1; the altar boy to help me which could be Ann Murray Shippensburg, Pennsylvania …AND ONE AGAINST According to the San Antonio Express-News, on June 28 the fair city of New Braunfels completed its wall against San Antonio growth. A quote from a New Braunfels councilwoman, Juliet Watson: “It just makes good sense as a city to protect our borders.” Excuse me lady, but your Freudian slip is showing. Where have we heard the same rhetoric about protecting borders? What exactly are borders being protected against and are the same borders being constructed against Austin? If it’s San Antonio and its Hispanic population this councilwoman is concerned about, sorry lady, you have got it all wrong. Hispanics don’t look north; they face south, where the future of this world is a reality. Additionally, the New Braunfels city council vetoed an ordinance to ban gas stations over the Edwards Aquifer. After all, the New Braunfels water in the aquifer flows south down through San Antonio. This action makes good business sense, because if the water parks in San Antonio are polluted only SillyBaun in New Braunfels would remain uncontaminated. Yet the question remains, would the people of San Antonio be welcome in Fortress Alemani a? Santiago Escobedo Bejareno de San Antonio THANKS FOR POGUE I have just read Alan Pogue’s photo essay about Iraq, “Salt on the Wound” \(January 22, and want to thank you most sincerely for publishing this essay. At the time of the bombing, I remember searching the press for a casualty count. The whole thing was presented as if no one had been hurt. And of course, the effect of the sanctions are just never reported. Thank you for publishing this poignant essay and for making a bit of the truth known. Lisa Majaj Cambridge, Massachusetts THANKS FOR NOTHING Mr. Holland’s statement in the Observer, that “Texas poetry, like biochemistry or the history of early music, appears to be written for other specialists,” is a slip of the tongue that reveals part of the problem \(Dick Holland, Dialogue, not specialists, anymore than novels are written for English scholars. Mr. Holland’s myopia in evaluating the significance of poetry reflects an overvaluation of the scholar, as well as his or her own isolation from the oft-unacknowledged importance of poetry in our society. Its importance is not a numbers game, but one of influence. Any future discussion of Texas literature and culture that excludes poetry will simply be incomplete, and future essayists are on notice. In any case, Mr. Holland is to be complimented for making us aware of Mr. Pilkington and this important work, State of Mind, which will surely be, as far as it goes, regarded a classic. Jim Cody Lubbock 2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER AUGUST 6, 1999 P.A., ,