Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1985 Page: 2 of 14
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PAGE 2A
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17,1985
Editorial
PORT ARANSAS SOUTH JETTY
Scattershooting-
SpinQff
Meeting our goals
-By Mary Henkel Judson
AS OF THIS ISSUE WE’VE PUB-
lished our second annual Fall/Win-
ter Visitors’ Guide. Two Spring/Sum-
mer guides are behind us now.
All of the guides have been well
received and, abandoning modesty,
that's an understatement. Murray
is the first to admit that he is not a
salesman. He has not had to be
where the guides are concerned.
They sell themselves, he says.
This edition of the Fall/Winter
guide exceeds its three predeces-
sors - a fact we had not expected
during the “ofF season. We are cer-
tainly pleased by this, for more than
the obvious reasons.
Advertisers’support of the guide,
the fourth time around, is a strong
indication that we are meeting the
goal we set out to achieve. The
guides are providing useful infor-
mation to our visitors. The content,
in advertising and editorial matter,
is strong. We did not set out to sell a
package to gain revenue. We set out
to provide a package that truly
benefits visitors to our community
as well as the advertisers and the
community in general. These pur-
poses are being fullfilled. We have
seen too many promotions filled
with ads that do not offer a reader
what is promised by the title of the
publication — frankly and obviously
schemes to pad the pocketbook.
They rarely show up more than
once because an advertiser will not
continue to support such a farce,
such an open effort at making some-
one else’s bottom line look good.
These things have to work three
ways: benefit to the audience, the
advertiser and the publisher.
We take no small amount of pride
in the fact that our visitors guides
continue to pass the three-way test.
When they do not, they will be
discontinued.
Adding greater measure to our
sense of pride is the fact that it is no
small accomplishment to pull off
these guides with our “lean and
mean" staff. We’ve got our hands
full with the weekly paper, yet these
people “shore up” and pull off, in
the case of this year’s Fall/Winter
guide, a 44-page special section.
Since you cannot possibly appre-
ciate that, let me assure you there is
plenty of reason to be appreciative.
We are our own toughest critics -
and when we’re happy there is
cause to celebrate.
As of this writing, we haven’t seen
the final, printed product. But
when we put “our baby to bed” we
were proud.
We appreciate the support the
advertisers have given these efforts,
and we will continue to improve our
efforts to meet their needs and the
needs of our visitors for whom the
guides are intended.
From the mailbox
Letters
-to the editor
A pox on the blight
Great idea on the blighted area
the council will consider to con-
sider. Only let's expand it. Let’s
cover the entire island, kick off all
the people and give it to local devel-
opers to make their money with. It
seems to me this is the name of the
game. I have to put up with the
influx of Spring Breakers so that
local retailers can make money, so
why not now put up with the local
develoers as well? To heck with the
people in the blighted area - the
city will make more money.
As you can guess, my house is in a
blighted area. Well, I have a few cho-
ice words on the subject. How dare
anyone say my neighborhood is
blighted and how dare the city even
consider it?
Enough is enough. I am seriously
considering changing my voting pre-
cinct to run as a councilman and
work to find others that believe as I
do.
My plank would be simple. First, I
would close the beaches during the
Spring Break period to traffic and
put a curfew to those on the beach.
If the island were back to a family
destination status again it would
prosper as much as the influx of
monies derived from the breakers.
Second, all laws passed would be
enforced as in the dog issue. Third, I
would work to re-establish the
mayoral form of government. And
fourth, if anyone asked me to de-
clare my neighbors’ (and my own)
homes as blighted I would not con-
sider to consider the consideration
of any consideration to make any-
one anything at the expense of my
constitutents.
First, there was put a chicken in
the pot of everyone, then put a car
in the garage, then two cars, now I
say put a politicals ear in the home
of everyone. My fellow Port Aran-
sans. enough is enough.
If the Port Aransas dream is to let
the individual propser at the ex-
pense of others, enough is enough.
Sincerely,
Larry Coffen
Sugarland
More star throwers
I surely hope you’ll pardon my
handwritten letter just this once. I
am compelled to write to say I
really enjoyed Jack L. Moore's “The
star thrower". I share the Rev.
Moore’s enthusiasm for Loren Eise-
ley writings.
This state and nation need “s. ar
throwers” badly. We must find a
method(s) to convince our govern-
ments and industries (labor and
management individually) that we
wpn’t countenance mediocrity and
more! Reluctantly, I must add basic
education and our public schools to
that list of demands.
1 read, this week, of one assembly
plant (one of the big 3’s luxury
cars) was shut down for a week
because its “re-work” yards were
full. These $16,000 plus automo-
biles had to be remanufactured
because the plant's own inspectors
wouldn’t pass them. Can you visual-
ize a $26 an hour production
worker putting the wrong door on a
luxury car, or failing to adjust the
fit of a trunk lid?
All our manufacturers would
prefer to pay lawsuit awards rather
than correct the problems of fac-
tory or on a recall, it seems.
Ford's incendiary gas tanks and
perverse automatic transmissions,
Firestone’s 721 steel belted radial
tires, GM’s thousands of cars with
bad brakes, etcetera are only a
small part of the problem.
Chemicals, killer drugs, negligent
physicians and hospitals, soft-
headed jurys, poisonous birth con-
trol devices - all need someone
throwing “stars" at them. Obviously
our justice system and government
regulators are doing an inadequate
job.
Please, let’s throw “stars” before
someone gets serious at throwing
bombs.
Sincerely
Jack Patterson
Houston
P.S. I included a New York Times
article concerning Florida’s beach
traffic (automobile) problems and
state action to prohibit same.
Seems the lawyers and courts are
wrecking some local budgets!
Who’s fastest?
PUT UP OR SHUT UP We at Dol-
phin Docks are very proud of our
captains and their fish catches. Al-
though we feel we have the best
captains on the Gulf Coast, we try
to give them an edge by furnishing
to them, at great expense to us, fast
boats. The last boat we had deli-
vered was the Shark Hunter Ex-
——f ■■
In the eye of the beholder
Justice, according to my Webs-
ter’s is 1. (a) The principle or ideal
of moral righteousness: EQUITY,
(b) Conformity to moral rightness
in conduct or attitude: RIGHTEOUS-
NESS. 2. The upholding of what is
right and lawful, especially fair treat-
ment or punishment in accordance
with honor, standards, or law: FAIR-
NESS. 3. The quality of being fair or
impartial. 4. Sound reason. 5. The
administration and procedure of
law.
Despite Mr. Webtser, how’ever, it
is abundantly obvious that what
represents justice to one man or
nation is grossly immoral and un-
just to folks who hold differing
personal or political philosophies.
Last night, for example, in one of
the more ridiculous charades that I
can imagine, Yasser Arafat ap-
peared on television castigating the
United States. There’s nothing so
unusual about that except this
time he was whining about our
planes forcing an Egyptian plane to
land in Sicily. Which then permitted
Italian authorities to arrest the
four men who hijacked the Itlaian
liner and killed an American citi-
zen.
Arafat was outraged because
“the United States knew those men
were going to be turned over to the
PLO and we would investigate the
incident and take appropriate ac-
tion." I mean, he was serious.
But rational people in this coun-
try could not have expected any-
thing different, right?
Let’s shift gears and listen in as
U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese
explains his position on justice. Re-
membering that this controversial
public servant was “accused” of giv-
ing government jobs to people in
return for monetary gifts, low in-
terest loans, etcetera. Accused but
cleared by a special committee ap-
pointed for that purpose.
In a recent interview with U.S.
News & World Report, Meese is
quoted as saying that suspects
would not be suspects unless they
were guilty. Thus, he reasons, it is
not necessary that an accused per-
son have an attroney present when
being questioned by the authorities.
Perhaps he had forgotten he had
been “suspected" of felonious be-
haviour. And had employed legal assist-
ance to the tune of $750,000 paid,
ironically, by the government - to
defend himself.
The protection of the innocent is
the backbone of our law. Certainly
this must mean innocent citizens
being preyed upon by criminals.
But it also has to mean the rights of
-By Jack L. Moore
all to be considered innocent until
proved guilty.
Like you, I have inwardly raged
when persons trapped in the mid-
dle of committing a crime have
been set free by a legal technicality.
And I have been outraged that our
court system is so crowded and so
slow that often justice is perverted
by inertia and the passage of time.
But I do not believe justice - that
which is moral and right and fair - is
well served when those suspected
of wrongdoing are presumed guilty
until they are able to prove other-
wise. And there is nothing just
about suspects being questioned
without having the right to have an
attorney present.
I have strayed.
Justice, I wanted to point out,
involves us all. Not just in the area
of criminal law. But in our relation-
ships with one another, the interac-
tion of people from differing parts
of the social, economic and political
order.
A man named Isaiah admon-
ished those around him to “learn to
do good, seek justice, correct op-
pression..." And, speaking to the
legalistic Pharisees, Jesus pointed
out: “You have neglected the weight-
ier matters of the law - justice,
mercy and faith.” He put justice
first.
Earlier, of course, Amos cried,
“let justice roll down like waters...."
while Micah questioned, “What
does the Lord require of you but to
do justice?".
What seems most important is
that we seek that justice which is
just! And moral! And fair! And right!
All of that, in the eyes of the Judge.
Tidemarks-
Our brothers’ oppressors
-By C. M. Henkel Jr.
press in July 1985. We spent in
excess of $90,000 on the engines
'alone to assure us that there would
be no faster party boat in Port
Aransas.
Then in October of this year,
along came a new Kingfisher, which
as the South Jetty stated on two
occasions, was the fastest, or none
faster, party boat in Port Aransas.
We challenge this. We at Dolphin
Docks have posted $10,000 at the
South Jetty office and invite the
new Kingfisher to do the same and
to hold a race with the Shark Hun-
ter Express and the Dolphin Ex-
press with the winner take all, on
Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 5 p.m. from
Brown and Root dock to the low
range marker in Corpus Christi
Bay, approximately 10 miles, with a
representative from the South
Jetty to be the judge.
We challenge the Kingfisher,
crew and staff to accept our invita-
tion. After we win we will donate
the $10,000 to the EMS.
Sincerely,
Paul Dirk and
Captains, Crews and Staff
Dolphin Docks
Neutral manager
Mr. Cline’s article on Industrial
Revnue Bond financing and the
controversial blighted area desig-
nation for commercial projects in
the Oct. 8 issue drew heavily on
information which I provided him.
Contrary to the tone of the article,
however, I am neutral (withoutquo-
tation marks) on this issue. My job
is to objectively research the topic
for the Council, not to advocate a
position. I would appreciate your
clarifying this fact for your readers.
Sincerely
Joyce Pulich
City Manager
[Editor’s note: Any conclusion a
reader may have come to regard-
ing Mrs. Pullch’s position on this
issue had to come about from the
reader’s stance. Mrs. Pulich was
simply the source used in obtain-
ing information, not a representa-
tive of one side or another. This
was pointed out by identifying her
neutral position, therefore elimi-
nating any need for further clari-
fication.]
LAST WEEK LONG TENURED
Columbia University Professor 1.1.
Rabi, an intimate of Robert Oppen-
heimer, recalled the first thought
that came to Oppenheimer when
he watched the explosion of the
first atomic bomb in 1945: "Now I
am become death — the destroyer
of worlds.”
The line from the Bhagavad-Gita.
How strange I thought that the
mind of a famous scientist on such
an occasion turn to a Hindu epic.
For the first time in many years I
opened the rather yellowed pages
of Swami Paramananda’s transla-
tion. The Bhagavad is a conversa-
tion between a warrior, Arjuna, and
his charioteer who is really the god
Krishna. On the brink of a great
battle Arjuna refuses to fight when
he learns that many of his oppo-
nents are kinsmen. Krishna then
explains that no one can be killed
because mans’ soul lives forever.
The conversation then extends to
cover every phase of ethical and
religious questions, justification for
rituals and sacrifices, manifesta-
tions of god and ends with the plea
that all men accept Krishna as the
refuge to whom all men of all
classes can come and find peace
and salvation.
Why did the mind of genius at the
moment of that awesome explosion
turn to those particular lines from
the Bhagavad? Or, if the world as
we know it is destroyed, do men’s
souls still live? Perhaps but the idea
gives me neither joy nor conso-
lation.
OPPENHEIMER, YOU WILL RE-
call, was one of the victims of the
notorious Sen. Joseph McCarthy
whose vicious crusade ruined or
destroyed the careers of many hon-
orable men and women. Even today
I can again hear that convincing
McCarthy voice on the radio in the
1950’s. And saying to myself: “This is
impossible, madness, yet how can a
man say such things, make such
charges unless there is substance to
what he says?” Even today I cannot
explain the inner voice that told me
that McCarthy was a paranoid fana-
tic. Had I been a man of political
stature I might have been fright-
ened because does not everyone
have things in his life that he’d as
soon have forgotten? Good, honest,
patriotic men and women in the
McCarthy days must often have
gone to bed at night to sleep rest-
lessly, fearing that the scourge of
the Potomic might by morning be
ready to face the podium and
denounce them. Yet this happened
in America, the land of the brave
—and in our own time.
ONE OF THE SADDEST, AND
often tragic characteristics of hu-
mankind is the eternal tendency to
attribute specific characteristics to
others, because of language, nation-
ality or race. Designations are com-
plimentary and otherwise. Specific
groups of people are characteristi-
cally stodgy, excitable, trustworthy,
treacherous, on ad infinitum. Var-
ious peoples as a nationality or race
suffer or benefit because of their
real or assumed traits.
Last Sunday Bob Krueger, former
congressman turned columnist, refer-
red to the Irish Republican Army as
thugs and terrorists. That they are,
but some people find it hard to real-
ize that the IRA represent a minor-
ity of the Irish, Northern Ireland or
the Republic of Ireland.
The Israelis represent the Pales-
tinian people also as thugs and ter-
rorists, sensible as representing Mc-
Carthy as a typical American in the
1950’s. Actually, the Israelis have
their own record as terrorists, al-
though today, since becoming an
established nation, they elect to
spurn the work, substituting repri-
sal raids as a name for terrorism.
Meanwhile as said here so often
before, troubles in the Middle East
lie squarely at the door of the Uni-
ted States. It can only be hoped that
our country will awaken to the
facts of life before it is too late, and
too late may be as early as to-
morrow.
CAUTION:
BLI &HTCD,
i r ■ -uMitikmL’11 Ail
An editorial in last week's South Jetty brought this response
Friday morning. Just what the message is, however, is
unclear. Whatever their position, they felt strongly enough
about it to go to a lot of trouble to express themselves.
BIGOTED RACISTS IS WHAT
all too many of our politicians with
a penchant for name-calling like to
call white people in South Africa.
There they meddle in a way that
they would call intolerable were
outsiders to thrust their views or
enact sanctions against the United
States. As said often enough, I don’t
know what the outcome of affairs
in South Africa will be, except
change is inevitable. However, if it
comes to a blood bath, and that is
what some of our politicians seem
to want, no small part of the blame
will be ours.
HERE A HISTORICAL FOOT-
note of sorts may be in order, albeit
one that is not unarguable. When
people of different languages or
color live under the same govern-
ment, one group inevitably prevails,
dominates. One of the great wond-
ers, and even perhaps the great
strength of the United States, lies in
the circumstance of people from
many nations with many languages
having melded into an English
speaking country. The language
might as easily been French, Ger-
man, Chinese — but one language.
Nowhere in this world has this ever
happened before. Never mind that
there are those in the country who
would destroy this circumstance
which binds us as a nation.
In the past three decades espe-
cially there has been increasing under-
standing between people of differ-
ent colors in the U.S., but difference
will continue. Again history dic-
tates that one race will always be
[ dominant in any nation. It is doubt-
ful then that complete commonal-
ity will ever be accomplished. Lan-
guage barriers may be overcome,
but scarcely genetic differences.
This does not mean that different
people cannot live with mutual
understanding and respect.
With dye a blond can become a
brunette, but when the dye fades
the blond hair returns. In reality
the blond has never been anything
but blond, genes do not change.
THE SUGGESTION THAT SEPA-
rate states be established in South
Africa for blacks, whites, coloreds
and Asiatics makes sense, but only
briefly. Quickly one realizes that the
idea is too simplistic. Each group is
dependent upon the other in vary-
ing degrees. However, blacks would
suffer most. Having been exposed
to western civilization they would
be obliged to return to the tribal
conditions under which they or
their fathers once lived, yet still a
condition under which something
like half have always continued to
live. Whites would suffer because
they need black labor. Without the
blacks it would be necessary to res-
tructure the entire economic sys-
tem. Whatever the answer, good or
bad, it is best and rightly to be left to
the people of South Africa. No
American intervention needed —
not wanted.
Southern Publishing, Inc.
749-5131
P.O. Box 1116 Port Aransas, TX 78373
141 W. Cotter
Second Class Postage is paid at Port Aransas, Texas 78373
_Publication Numher: 946:020 _
Co-Publishers
Murray Judson Mary ludson
Advertising Manager
Murray Judson
Managing Editor
Mary Judson
Reporter
Paul Cline Jr.
Office supplies/Classified
Kay Phillips
1
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1985, newspaper, October 17, 1985; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth662803/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.