The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 262, Ed. 1 Friday, September 1, 1995 Page: 4 of 16
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Baytown Sun and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Sterling Municipal Library.
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Page 4-A ❖ Frida}7; September 1,1995
PAT ON THE BACK...
To Tracey Wheeler and the rest of the folks at the Baytown Chamber of
Commerce, for their tireless efforts in helping to organize the grand-open-
ing ceremonies of the Fred Hartman Bridge.
FEEDBACK: To comment on this page, call the Newsroom, 422-8302.
tPje Paptoton limn
Hie Baytown Sun is published Monday' through Friday' and Sunday at
1301 Memorial Drive in Baytown.
Gary Dobbs David Eldridge
Editor and Publisher Managing Editor
Jane Howard
Asst Managing Editor
Social policies of
GOP under fire
“Shouldn’t we do more to protect and strengthen the American fami-
ly?”
The question is posed in the “Contract With America,” but the effect
of the social and tax policies of the GOP-dominated Congress is anti-
family for America’s working poor and low-income families.
Moreover, anti-immigration policies have led to proposed legislation
that unnecessarily would split families by placing income criteria on
immigrants and their U.S. relatives.
In the interest of a socially and economically healthy nation, the
American public must oppose many of the policies that may become law
by 1996. If the policies become law, the already put-upon middle class
will be paying locally to replace a lost safety net for millions of poor
families.
The social- and budget-policy debate has focused on mushrooming
entitlement programs for poor people such as Medicaid, Aid to Families
with Dependent Children, food stamps and the earned income tax credit.
Rarely do critics mention, however, that programs such as Medicaid
benefit poor working families, not just unemployed welfare recipients or
teen-age mothers, who have become the central image of the debate.
While the GOP is correct to search for means to reduce the budget
deficit and fraud in government programs, policy choices must be made
on the basis of economic parity, not who has the most powerful lobby.
—Austin American-Statesman
Today in history
Today is Friday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 1995. There are 121 days left in
the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 1,1945, Americans received word of Japan’s
formal surrender that ended World War II. (Because of the time difference,
it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took place.)
On this date:
In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of trea-
son.
In 1894, a forest fire destroyed Hinckley, Minn., and about a dozen other
towns, killing more than 400 people.
In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Confederation as the eighth
and ninth provinces of Canada.
In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by
an earthquake that claimed some 150,000 lives.
In 1932, New York City Mayor James J. “Gentleman Jimmy” Walker
resigned following charges of graft and corruption in his administration.
In 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
In 1942, a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime deten-
tion of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.
In 1951, the United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual
defense pact, the ANZUS treaty.
In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.
In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in
Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
In 1983,269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747
was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet air-
space.
Ten years ago: The crew of the space shuttle Discovery redeployed a
Leasat III satellite that they had retrieved from orbit and repaired in the
spacecraft’s cargo bay.
Five years ago: President Bush announced that he and Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev would meet in Helsinki, Finland, for a “free-flow-
ing” one-day summit on the Persian Gulf crisis and other issues.
One year ago: Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations with
Israel. Chicago police found the body of 11-year-old Robert “Yummy”
Sandifer, a suspect in a gang-related killing who himself apparently became
a victim of gang violence.
Today’s Birthdays: Former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird is 73.
Actress Yvonne De Carlo is 71. Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards is 62.
Conductor Seiji Ozawa is 60. Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin is 56. Singer
Barry Gibb is 49. Singer Gloria Estefan is 38. Former White House Press
Secretary Dee Dee Myers is 34,
Thought for Today: “The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors
themselves.” — James A. Garfield, 20th president of the United States
(1831-1881).
—The Associated Press
Politically correct lawyers?
Colleges and universities must now pro-
ceed at their peril if they enact codes punish-
ing speech that might demean other stu-
dents’ race, sex, religion or sexual orienta-
tion, among other categories. Courts, declar-
ing these attempts to enforce civility overly
vague, have ruled them invalid.
Nonetheless, the 117-year-old American
Bar Association—with a membership of
370,000 attorneys—has decided to monitor
the language of its ranks. Despite the ABA’s
record of advocacy of free speech, its House
of Delegates has recently revived “political
correctness” by passing a resolution enthusi-
astically offered by its Young Lawyers Divi-
sion, one of the largest in the ABA.
The resolution condemns bias — in words
or conduct—by lawyers in the course of
their professional activities on the basis of
“race, sex, religion, national origin, disabili-
ty, age, sexual orientation or socio-economic
status.”
The only exception to the use of offensive
words is when they “are otherwise permissi-
ble as legitimate advocacy on behalf of a
client or cause.” (“Legitimate advocacy” is
intriguingly undefined as is the more prob-
lematic “illegitimate advocacy”)
As the ever vigilant Young Lawyers Divi-
sion points out in an accompanying report,
lawyers words under this resolution must
“Be regulated both inside and outside the
courtroom... in every circumstance where a
lawyer is present by reason either in whole
or in part” because of his or her status as a
lawyer. (How can one be sure which part is
the lawyer?)
One huge problem with this reckless reso-
lution —which demeans the ABA and
therefore its members — is that it does not
provide any clear definition of when a
lawyer can be charged with violating its
overly broad language.
U.S. Elected Officials
PRESIDENT
Bill Clinton (D-1996)
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
(202)456-1111
VICE PRESIDENT
Al Gore (D-1996)
The White House—West Wing
Washington, DC 20500
(202)456-7045
SENATOR
Kay B. Hutchison (R-2000)
283 Russell Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-5922
(713)653-3456
1 asked a number of the speech code’s pro-
ponents if there will be a list of impermissi-
ble words and phrases that an ABA member
may consult before he or she speaks “inside
and outside the courtroom.”
I was told there is no such list or any set of
specific guidelines. Yet, as any law student
knows, you can’t be convicted of breaking a
law that is too vague to be understood.
Furthermore, since this ABA resolution is
not limited to exchanges in courtrooms, it is
a policy without boundaries. Ronald Rotun-
da — a law professor at the University of
Illinois active on ABA committees, and a
guardian of the First Amendment in all sea-
sons —provided this hypothetical in the
Wall Street Journal:
“If two lawyers are discussing tax policy,
and one says, ‘We should reform welfare
because some of its recipients are lazy,’ he
has violated the ABA policy because he has
manifested ‘by words’ an indication of bias
based on socio-economic status.”
1 put this hypothetical to Geoige
Kuhlman, chief ethics counsel of the ABA.
He agreed that Professor Rotunda was cor-
rect. The use of the word ‘lazy’ in that con-
text would be speech unbecoming an ABA
member.
Kuhlman added, however, that this speech
code is not part of the ABA’s Model Rules of
Professional Conduct. Therefore, there are
no actual punishments. The code, Kuhlman
stressed, is “aspirational.”
But a leading member of the Young
Lawyers Division told me that in time, this
resolution will be moved as an amendment
to the Model Rules and if it passes, there
will indeed be sanctions for the ABA mem-
bers, young and old, who do not hold their
tongues. But the sanctions may well accom-
pany the speech code just as it is now. In the
July 17 National Law Journal, Gail Diane
Cox reported that even codes which have not
yet become part of the Model Rules of Pro-
fessional Conduct can get lawyers into trou-
ble. She quotes Seth Rosner, chair of the
ABA’s professional committee:
“Stories come back to us about judges
who, once they have something in writing
from a bar group, imposed sanctions. It just
makes them feel more comfortable about
moving against lawyers who go too far.”
Dissidents at the ABA predict that the new
speech code will also be used in some disci-
plinary proceedings against lawyers around
the country— even though it is supposed to
be only “aspirational.”
Defending the policy of deploying speech
police within the ABA, one of its officials
told me, with asperity, that “some people go
too far in protecting the First Amendment.”
But it’s more dangerous, I suggested, when
the powerful American Bar Association goes
in the opposite direction. Consider the exam-
ple set for the nation when it’s most visible
group of lawyers diminishes free speech in
the name of a greater good.
Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned
authority, on the First Amendment and the
rest ofthe Bill ofRights and a columnist for
the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
SENATOR
Phil Gramm (R-1996)
370 Russell Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-2934
(713)229-2766
DISTRICT 9 REPRESENTATIVE
Steve Stockman (R-1996)
417 Cannon House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)225-6565
(409)838-0061
DISTRICT 25 REPRESENTATIVE
Ken Bentsen (D-1996)
128 Cannon House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
(202)225-7508
(713)229-2244
DISTRICT 29 REPRESENTATIVE
Gene Green (D-1994)
1024 Longworth House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
(202)225-1688
(713)923-9961
Texas Elected Officials
GOVERNOR
George W. Bush (R-1998)
State Capitol
P.O. Box 2136
Austin, TX 78768
1-800-252-9600
512)463-2000
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Bob Bullock (D-1998)
State Capitol
Austin, TX 78711
(512)463-0001
r
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 262, Ed. 1 Friday, September 1, 1995, newspaper, September 1, 1995; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1020778/m1/4/?q=denton+history: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.