The Pharr Press (Pharr, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 1985 Page: 2 of 10
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Page 2,The Pharr Press,January 17,1985
Editorials
Critical Problems In Arms Talks
Local Elections Deserve
Some Thought
It's that time of year again,
time to start thinking about local
elections. It’s time again, to
think about how those local elec-
tions are going to be held. You
probably already know that the
PSJA School District will have
four positions up for contention
in April while the City of Alamo
will have two commissioners
positions up for grabs. We are
going to suggest, as we have
before, that these two elections
might conveniently be held
together.
If you voted in last year’s
April elections, you probably
remember that you had to go to
one polling place to vote in the
school election and then to
another one somewhere else in
the city to vote in the city elec-
tion. You probably also remem-
ber the problems that resulted
from this.
Having different polling
places caused much confusion.
Having to go to one polling place
and stand in line to vote once
and then having to drive across
town or even out of town to vote
in another election was
discouraging for some. We also
had some people trying to vote
for a city commissioner at the
school election polling place and
vice-versa.
It could safely be said that
these problems kept some people
from voting. It should not have.
There is something that can be
done to reduce, if not completely
eliminate, the problem. We
suggested last spring, and do so
now again, that city and school
board elections be held at the
same polling places whenever
possible. The impact is obvious.
First, it eliminates confusion
about where the different polling
places are. Second, it would en-
courage voters to participate by
making it easier to vote. Voters
have to devote less time in
driving from one site to another.
Clearly, this would increase
the number of people voting for
our school trustees and city
commissioners, insuring that the
elections are more reflective of
community opinion. Now, who
could argue against greater
voter participation?
There we will be those that
will argue that this will increase
the cost of holding the elections,
that this will mean more work
for the cities and the school
district. There will be those
politicians who will be afraid
that the voter might forget his or
her name in the large number of
positions being voted for at one
site.
However. when these
arguments are balanced against
the importance of the right of
voting, these obstructionist
arguments become dust. We
must realize that ail of the cost
involved will have been worth it
if it encourages only one more
voter to participate.
By GEORGE F. WILL
GENEVA-Sensible U.S. of-
ficials have been swimming
against the riptide of media at-
tention and the consequent flood
of expectations that engulf the
semi-summit. They have
stressed that this was the first
chapter-the preface, really-of a
story on the scale of “Wwar and
Peace” or, perhaps it would be
more appropriate to say, “Don
Quixote.”
But it actually may have been
the fourth act of a three-act play.
Between the signing of SALT II
in the summer of 1979 and this
winter, the arms-control process
may have sputtered out.
That is unalarming. The
process has been sterile, coin-
ciding, through 16 years, with an
unprecedented Soviet buildup.
Kenneth Adelman, director of
the Arms Control and Disar-
mament Agency, notes that in
the years of most intense
“dialogue,” 1970-76, there were
five summits, and the Soviet-
sponsored conquest by com-
munists of five countries-South
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,
Mozambique and Angola.
(Ethiopia and Afghanistan
followed in the next two years.)
If arms control is-as )immy Car-
ter said and Richard Nixon
seemed to believe and Ronald
Reagan may be coming to
believe-the “centerpiece” of
U.S.-Soviet relations, it is a
purely ornamental centerpiece.
More than 12 years have
passed since an arms-control
agreement was ratified by the
United States. The ineqalities of
SALT I ignited the skepticism
that was to prevent ratification
of SALT II. SALT I limited but
neglected to define, “heavy”
missiles. At Vladivostok, the
runup to SALT II, the two sides
agreed to certain numerical
ceilings, but neglected to decide
whether cruise missiles or the
Soviet backfire bombers counted
against the aggregate.
When arms-control en-
thusiasts are described as
destitute of achievements but
not of certitude, they replay,
with certitude, that the 1972
ABM treaty was a great
achievement. It effectively
killed, at least for the United
States, ballistic missile defense.
But the Soviet Union is brazenly
violating it with a radar in-
stallation so gargantuan that it
probably had to be planned
before the ink was dry on the
treaty.
However, it is arguable that a
traditional aim of arms control-
enhanced safety through more
stable deterrence-may be a by-
product of the exhaustion of the
arms-control process. The
argument is as follows:
SALT I and SALT II did not
"limit” arms. Those agreements
were snapshots of the evolving
strategic balance. But arms
agreements do not halt an arms
race. Rather, they re-direct
competition toward uncontrolled
areas of weaponry. (Sen. Pat
Moynihan notes that the naval
treaties of the 1920s gave rise to
the pocket battleship-the punch
of a battleship crammed into a
smaller hull.)
Today, certain weapons are
apt to be unlimited because of
verification difficulties. They
are apt to be small because im-
proved accuracy makes a large
payload unnecessary for the
destruction of many military
targets. Being smaller and
mobile, they are hard to count
and keep track of. But the
qualities that make these
weapons hard to control with
verifiable arms agreements also
make them hard to destroy with
a disarming first strike. So, as
Adelman says, mobile ICBMs
and cruise missiles may be less
verifiable but more stabilizing
because they ease the fear that
in a crisis a nation must “use
them or lose them." Such
precarious “stability” at high
force levels is far from ideal, but
maybe the best that can be
hoped for in relations with a
Soviet regime bent on amassing
ofensive power.
A French observer says the
Soviet Union’s tactic is to do
what it wants to do and use
negotiations to stop what the
United States wants to do.
Today the Soviet Union wants to
magnify its advantage in offen-
sive systems while stopping U.S.
progress toward a strategic
defense.
But Ronald Reagan is an
American in every fiber of his
being. That means he believes
that something is technically
possible until it is proven other-
wise. And he is a moralist. Both
characteristics fuel his belief in
the possibility and desirability of
some defense against ICBMs-the
desirability of “defending lives,
not avenging lives."
Note the word "some.”
Reagan, as is his wont, has over-
sold strategic defense,
suggesting that it can provide an
impermeable “shield” that could
in no place be overwhelmed by
the multiplication of Soviet of-
fensive systems. A sufficient
argument for strategic defense
is that it would provide some
real defense (the Soviets could
not be sure how much) to some of
the U.S. retaliatory capability.
Thus it would enhance
deterrence by radically com-
plicating the calculations and
multiplying the uncertainties of
any Soviet leader contemplating
a first strike.
Given the barrenness of the
arms-control process, it is odd
that an objection made against
strategic defense is that such
defense might make arms-con-
trol agreements unattainable.
But an oddity of our age is this:
The sort of persons most eager
for ratification of the
meaningless treaty “outlawing”
genocide are apt to be ardently
opposed to strategic defense
systems. But such systems
would move us away from
deterrence based on the threat
to incinerate millions of civilians,
a strategy that is, strictly
speaking, genocidal.
Letters To The
Editor
u
To the Editor
Having heard that a P.B.T.V.
Station is likely to locate in thfe
Valley, I would like to applaud
the expansion in knowledge this
move will offer to the Valley
people, especially the children.
As a Winter Texan it will also
supply a source of classical
music, opera, news from the
North (on occasion even
Canada), all of which are
missing from the “entertain-
ment” diet offered by the
present TV and Radio Stations.
The Valley is a lovely place,
but curiously insular in its
outlook. The only information
relayed to listeners and wat-
chers here that is not gover-
nment inspired is disaster in-
spired. Often the two are the
same.
I would urge anyone in the
Valley to contribute what they
can to make this new venture a
reality. Particularly Winter
Texans who may even seem
closer to home as a result. I’ve
joined the Winter Texan T.V. 60
and up club. (Wwe are 60 and
STATE CAPITAL
HI6HU6HTS
By Lyndell William!
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
AUSTIN—Texas lawmakers
entered the 1985 session of the
Legislature last week surround-
ed by budget deficit forecasts
and pressures to reform last
summer's school reform law.
Compared with other states,
the Texas Legislature has al-
ways shown up as bottom-line
conservative. This new Legisla-
ture will probably be even more
austere with the tax dollar and
certainly more right-wing on
some political issues.
The Republican Party pres-
ence is now stronger than at
any other time since Recon-
struction days, and the com-
mon expectation is that state
agencies will feel the belt-tight-
ening pinch, criminals will feel
the slap of the long arm of the
law, and businesses will see
up, contributing $60 and up to
get T.V. 60 tower up) The com-
mittment I made isn’t large, but a
lot of small committments will fill
the void.
Let’s get with it, Y’all.
Art Heartz
Halefox, N.S., Canada
Editor’s Note: To contribute
make checks payable to RGV
Educational Broadcasting, Inc.
P.O. Box 2147, Harlingen, Tx.
78551.
Memo: 60 & UP Club
TU “
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
government back off their
pocketbooks.
The GOP now holds more
than one-third of the House
membership and seven state
senate seats. Gone are several
liberal Democrats, including
Lloyd Doggett from the Senate.
With his departure liberals lose
their top strategist, publicity-
maker, and even cult-hero.
The Senate
A new rising star in the Sen-
ate was elected president pro
tern last week: Ray Farabee,
D-Wichita Falls. Farabee is
highly respected for his ability
to pull various factions into a
solution.
Senate debate rules are such
that one needs a two-thirds
majority vote just to get a bill
out for a floor vote. Conse-
quently, a block of 11 senators
can roadblock any bill. The Re-
publicans need to locate only
four allies among the upper
chamber’s conservative Demo-
crats to effectively bottle up all
liberal legislation.
The reverse is also possible,
but when the traditional log-
jam peaks near adjournment,
expect the liberals to be scrap-
ing for budget concessions.
House Revolution
The House of Representa-
tives, meanwhile, is so solidly
conservative that after Speak-
er Gib Lewis was overwhelm-
ingly reelected last week, he
Starting The New Year With New Garden Variety
Something To Be Explored At Length
By ELLEN GOODMAN
BOSTON-There are two
things one should never do: go to
the supermarket hungry and
open a gardening catalogue in
the middle of January. Lust
overcomes reason. You are
likely to end up with food for a
banquet and perennials for a
baronial estate.
I break this second rule an-
nually and happily. Just about
the time when the landscape has
been reduced to white, gray and
brown, when the theremometer
felt strong enough to take pot-
shots at the federal judges who
have mandated new prison sys-
tem spending.
Lewis’ words were critical
and reflected a visceral feeling
of House members that federal
district judge William Wayne
Justice is encroaching on the
constitutional right of the Leg-
islature to distribute tax rev-
enues.
Speculation promptly start-
fed over whether Lewis and
House members will actually
defy the feds by refusing to
write court-ordered expensive
prison reforms into the scant
budget. Lewis immediately dis-
avowed such thoughts.
Bullock, Forecast
But the speculation isn’t far-
fetched. This session’s revenue
forecast is not enough for
everyone, and Texas lawmak-
ers don’t like being forced to
spend money by a life-appoint-
ed judge who will never answer
to voters at the ballot box.
The forecast is likely going
to get worse before it gets bet-
ter, warned Comptroller Bob
Bullock last week. The price of
oil on the world spot market
must pick up, or Bullock may
be forced to lower revenue esti-
mates.
“All I can tell them (legisla-
tors, state agencies) is we’re
scraping the bottom of a $25
barrel of oil and it might even
get worse before it gets bet-
has run out of degrees, the
catalogue from the White
Flower Farm, duly entitled “The
Garden Book,” comes through
my mail slot.
"The Garden Book” is the
“Masterpiece Theater” of
ft&vi^r catalogues. It isn’t
merely the glossy paper, or the
lush photographs, that tempt me,
it is the wonderful, fey,
anglophiliac prose of the author,
Amos Pettingill. “The Garden
Book” is the only catalogue I
read aloud. To be absolutely
frank, I am less avid a customer
than I am a reader.
Flowers are not exactly ad-
vertised between these pages.
They are, rather, listed, as if the
book were The Social Register.
A newcomer is welcomed into
the chosen White Flower ranks
with these words: “After
several years of detailed trials,
we are tickled to offer two fine
Lobelias, both originating with
the inexhaustible breeding effor-
ts of Dr. Wray Bowden from On-
tario." The first offering of wild
petunias is described as part of
“a small but distinguished
graduating class."
It is hard to do justice to the
literary style of Amos Pettingill
without noting how gently he
chastises those who ignore the
ter,” Bullock said.
No Spending Bills
Right now $25 a barrel is a
magic number that leaders in
the Legislature and the lobby
are watching with much dread.
Any price falling below it is
expected to seriously harm the
state's oil industry recovery,
even to driving the state back
into recession.
Loss of revenues in the pe-
troleum industry means loss of
tax revenues for state govern-
ment, and lawmakers are pres-
ently in no mood to receive new
legislation requiring spending
money.
State agencies which in-
crease revenues are favored
over those which spend rev-
enues to provide citizen ser-
vices. One state employee group
last week went so far to suggest
a hiring freeze to avoid mas-
sive lay-offs next September.
Tax Constitutional
Texas Attorney General Jim
Mattox issued a legal opinion
upholding the recent law mak-
ing the sale of newspapers sub-
ject to the state sales tax.
Newspapers were exempted
under the old law, but Mattox
said they were “singled out for
special favorable treatment and
that is no longer the case.’’
The opinion was sought by
Bullock, who must collect the
new tax but describes it as so
difficult to collect that “it’s
more trouble than it’s worth.”
Michaelmas Daisy: “We find it
strange that American gar-
deners show so little interest in
this lovely flower.” He is also,
like many gardeners, fond of an-
thropomorphizing plants. But
Pettingill's flowers have “bad
manpers” or “will sulk if put in
dark corners."
Here is horticulture with an
emphasis on the culture. It's the
sort of careful breeding that has
put White Flower Farm at the
cutting edge (or the perennial
border, if you prefer) of nouvelle
horticulture.
In the interest of full floral
disclosure, the 200,000 readers
of The Garden Book must be told
that Amos Pettingill is not a real
person. It is the nom de plume of
the first owners and authors of
the White Flower Farm, two
writers who emigrated from
New York City to Litchfield.
Conn., and flower farming.
The current Amos Pettingill is
indeed Eliot Wadsworth II--
which is not a nom de plume
although it sounds like one-the
man who bought White Flower
Farm in 1977. Wadsworth is a
Harvard hybrid, an un-
dergraduate English major who
went on the business school. He
now also publishes Horticulture
magazine.
Any disappointment in
discovering that Pettingill II is
actually Wadsworth II is
dispelled by talking with him.
Wadsworth speaks the way he
writes, with a charming, easy
elitism. He makes the Horchows
sound like riffraff.
Wadsworth, for example,
doesn't talk about customers,
but about an “audience.” His
audience is divided into two
categories. The first are the
“daffodil mixture, paper white
Narcissus" sort. The second
group are the serious gardenrs.
“the mainstream of our
business." These are people like
Wadsworth, who admits in his
cheerful, upscale way: “My ap-
petite for new plants is like most
people's appetite for macadamia
nuts."
This is what is changing
before our very own trend-
watchers. We used to think of
gardeners as dotty Barbara
Woodhouse types who spent
their lives training roses instead
of dogs. Now the same species
of people who went to 100 per-
cent natural fabrics and then to
fresh pasta and then to
renovating houses with quarry
tile, are turning their tastes in-
side out. They are not Yuppies
C«Ury h*« negative celeries—it
takes more calories to eat a piece
of celery than the celery has in it to
begin with.
(Yuppies live in condominiums
and build their muscles pumping
iron instead of digging earth),
but they are part of the baby-
boom gentry generation.
As Wadsworth, a 42-year-old
father of three explains, "I think
that one reason that ornamental
gardening is expanding is that
everybody in America is the
same age as I. It’s an age at
which you stop skydiving and
flying to Rio for New Year's Eve.
You are in the house you'll be in
for much of your life, you have
kids and a mortgage and serious
work commitment, and gar-
dening around the house is a
rewarding pastime.”
I never did skydive or fly to
Rio on New Year's Eve. But I
have been seduced by a
Silberian Iris, and happily
enlisted by a Rubrum Lily into
the growing species of semi-
serious gardeners. If the era of
gourmet gardening is upon us, so
be it. I’ll take my lessons from
the well-cultivated, florid pen of
the delighftul Amos Pettingill
Wadsworth II.
THE PHARR PRESS
319 South Cage
P.O. Box 710
Pharr. Texas 78577
Phone: (512J-787-2291
USPS 429-660
Serving Pharr-San Juan-Alamo
Since 1922
Juan CarJos Morales
Publisher
Arnoldo Mata
Managing Editor
Arnoldo Mata
Business Manager
Joseph Man gin
Sales Manager
Aida Garza
Production Manager
Teresa Cortez
Freelance Writer
Abraham B. Choy
Circulation Manager
The Pharr Press is published each
Thursday morning in Pharr, Hidalgo
County. Texas. Single Copy rate.
25®. Mail Subscription, 1 year at
$7.50 and 2 years at $13.00 and
$11.00 annually out-of-county.
Postmaster
send form 3579 for
change of address:
PHARR PRESS
POBox 710
Pharr, Texas 78577
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Mata, Arnoldo. The Pharr Press (Pharr, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 17, 1985, newspaper, January 17, 1985; Pharr, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth867019/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Pharr Memorial Library.