Deep in the Heart of Texas Darkness

When Kelly visits Texas, she drives till it Hertz. My first taste of Texas was as a swabbie learning aviation electronics at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in 1945, with mostly liberties in San Anton, Houston and Austin. The furniture has changed, but the small-town attitude toward outsiders remains the same: cool imperturbability.

In the interim I've cruised its widest open spaces innumerable times and ogled all the places Kelly went, except for Crawford. But I was mainly interested in museums and architecture. So I also ran into a lot more civilized people than she did.

I think she makes the mistake of diabolizing the Lone Star State--all the caveman ideology she horrifies herself with can be found in South Philadelphia and in the Bobo Burbs.

We remain a schizophrenic people--in all 50 states--and we must do our damnedest to drag the First Simpleton and his Dubyiously undoubting supporters into the late 20th century. Whining, however elegant and articulate, won't do.

Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins never whine. They both have a brilliant instinct for the jocular jugular. We must teach him to expand that nervous smirk into a belly laugh.

PATRICK D. HAZARD
WEIMAR, GERMANY