The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 12

'11 DAILY Page 12-A Call Doug Toney at 744-3611 or 986-7711, Ext. 233 OPINION Wednesday March 29,1995 COUNTY Texas' Oldest 1842 Les Daughtry Editor and Publisher Emeritus Dolph Tillotson Editor and Publisher Doug Toney Managing Editor Editorials Public has a right to see public records A ny time public money is involved, the public has an inalienable right to know how tax dollars are being spent. That access also applies to the paper trail of government spending, policies and a whole swirl of public information. Every two years, however, the Legislature resumes its well-intentioned machinations, and someone in that august body tries to ratchet down the lid that keeps public access inaccessible. This Legislative session is no different, although a couple of public access advocates have sponsored bilk wielding a threatening pry bar to the secrecy which too often pervades Texas politics.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, has filed a bill that changes the name and the nature of the existing open records law. In Turner's bill, references to "open records" become "public information." The new wording reflects the warp speed technological changes in storage and retrieval of information. Turner's bill underlines the fact that the Texas Open Records Act should also apply to all public documents, whether they are on paper, computer tape or microchips. State Sen.

JeffWentworth, R-San Antonio, hopes to amend the current open meetings law, sealing a loophole which has led to widespread abuse of so-called briefings held in closed, executive sessions. Based on his experience as a county commissioner and a university regent, Wentworth noted that briefing sessions often become closed-door meetings where issues are negotiated before the posted public meeting takes place. His bill would make a briefing session subject to the same open meeting requirements, including posting notice, as other meetings if it met certain conditions. Wentworth's bill has passed the Senate and deserves to be passed in the House. Turner's bill is yet to be set for a hearing.

Both are important adjustments to the state's open records-open meetings laws. Elected officials may squirm when it comes to discussing an unpleasant truth about the taxpaying body they govern or releasing information which could document a mistake. But whispering about it behind closed rfoors only delays the inevitable and creates a suspicious public. Today's editorial was written by Wanda Garner Cash is assistant managing editor of The Daily News. Her e-mail address is GalvNews Today in history The Associated Press Today is Wednesday, March 29, the 88th day of 1995.

There are 277 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 29, 1973, the last United States troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War. That same day, President Nixon announced that "all of our American POWs are on their way home." On this date: In 1638, Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware. In 1867, the British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada. In 1882, the Knights of Columbus was chartered in Connecticut.

In 1943, World War II meat, butter and cheese rationing began. In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage charges. (They were executed in June 1953.) In 1971, Army Lt. William L. Galley Jr.

was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Galley ended up spending three years under house arrest.) Today's Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy is 79. British Prime Minister John Major is 52.

Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas is 39. Tennis player Jennifer Capriati is 19. IS FACT, MV CABINET IS Original islanders deserve respect ublication of Dr. Robert Life and Culture of the Upper Texas Coast" is a breakthrough in understanding the native people who inhabited Galveston Island beginning 2,000 years ago. The archeological study is of Mitchell Ridge on the Woodlands Corporation's New Pirates' Cove Development on West Galveston Island.

These inhabitants were not the Karankawa as was previously believed, but the Akokisa. They spoke.their own language, Atakapa, and developed their own culture, termed the Mossy Grove Tradition. They were hunter-gatherers. They ranged from Bay City to Nacogdoches, the Sabine River and the Gulf, The Akokisa had more rounded cranial and facial features than the Karankawa. They must have been hard workers; 30 percent of the skeletons had broken hands or feet.

Only two appear to have died violent deaths. These people enjoyed extensive trade of Gulf shells, and possibly included their ceramic pots. Chert and obsidian from Austin and Arkansas were used in the manufacture of their arrow heads and dart points. European glass trade beads from Florida missions arrived in Galveston even before French and Spanish traders Mark Muhich Guest columnist had established trading outposts on the coast. They ate a true hunter-gathers' diet: deer, fish, cotton rates, oysters and bison.

There is no evidence these folk ever cultivated crops. The Akokisa must have been a ceremonial people. They always buried their dead in cemeteries. Forty-nine of the 51 individuals found were interred with their heads pointed to the west or southwest. Most of the graves included offerings, such as shell necklaces or bead rattles.

Many individuals had yellow and red ochre designs painted on their abdomens. Especially unique are offerings of whooping crane bone whistles. The endangered whooping cranes once wintered all along the Texas-Louisiana coast. Being the largest most magnificent bird, scientists speculate the Akokisa used these whooping crane whistles to send their dead on their last, majestic flight. Like so many North American tribes, the Akokisa were destroyed by old world diseases, such as measles and small pox.

As many as 4,000 Akokisa inhabited Galveston Bay at the height of their culture. Mitchell Ridge is one of the most significant archeological discoveries in the nation in recent times. Renowned Texas archeologist Dee Ann Story said we owe it to the Akokisa to learn about them and preserve their memory. And we owe them more. All across the country Indian skeletons are being removed from museums and returned to their traditional resting places.

These Akokisa remains likewise should be removed from the University of Texas in Austin and returned to Galveston Island. These individuals should be reinterred in the National Historical site, and a city park, on Eckert's Bayou. Developer George Mitchell and the Army Corps of Engineers must find a means to replace the native Akokisa to their rightful respectful burials. The Galveston County Historical Museum will exhibit non-burial artifacts found on Mitchell Ridge beginning April 22. Mark Muhich is a resident of Letters to the Editor Sentence deserves protest from voters I was extremely pleased to read in The Galveston County Daily News that people are getting organized and protesting against the ridiculously low sentence that Judge Roy Engelke gave for the shooting of Officer (Charlie) Millo.

The day after Judge Engelke handed down the sentence, I called him to let him know that he works for the citizens of Galveston County, and we no longer want to tolerate judges that are soft on crime. I sure hope that Judge Engelke does not run again, because if he does, I will be very busy during election time ensuring that he does not get re-elected. Priscilla Boothby Galveston Don't shoot dogs for defending home Recently I have heard and read a lot about the poor dog supposedly abused and then killed by the two Bayou Vista Police officers. What bothers me. though, is recently I read in my local paper that a police officer was chasing a suspect through a resident's yard, and the resident's dog was shot and killed because it was simply trying to protect its yard.

A dog doesn't know the differ- ence between a policeman or any other stranger. After reading this article I became very angry. Could this happen to my dog, who I consider a part of the family? Nothing more was said of that dog innocently killed. Was it because it so happened to be an infamous pit bull? I hope not. Tom Marshall Burke Texas City Write Mail or fax letters to: Doug Toney Letters the Editor The Daily News P.O.

Box 628 Galveston, Texas 77553 Fax: 740-3421 CompuServe: 76440,3467 America Online: GalvNews Doonesbury (in THAT ASIAN OF HUMOR 1 REFERRAL? RBffgRAL Joseph Perkins Pandering to the basest instincts he blood of Scott Amedure is on Jenny Jones' hands. The 32-year-old Michigan man would be alive today had he not appeared on her tawdry TV talk show. Jones used Amedure to humiliate another Michigan man, 24- year-old Jeffrey Sehmitz, for the amusement of her national television audience. Sehmitz was lured to her Chicago-based talk show under the pretext that he was to meet his secret admirer. He was shocked when Jones informed him that this admirer was not a woman, as he fully expected, but the homosexual Amedure.

Sehmitz says he tried to put the traumatizing matter behind him, but was driven over the edge when he received an unsigned sexually suggestive note on his door. He confronted Amedure, who confessed that he had authored the note. Sehmitz went out to his car, pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun he purchased for the occasion, went back to Amedure's home and shot him dead. Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the folks at 'The Jenny Jones Show" were covering their posteriors. "There was no wrongdoing on anyone's part connected with the show," declared Jim Paratore, president of Time Warner subsidiary Telepictures Productions, which produces Jones.

"No one was lied to; no one was misled." Jenny Jones is hardly the only offender. All the talk shows pander to the basest instincts of the unwashed viewing public, putting before them in highly emotional and combustible televised settings, the mentally unstable, the sexually deviant, the intellectually impaired and the socially unre- deeming. Consider a sampling of the TV talk show topics for just one day this week. Ricki Lake did a show on women pursuing married men. Maury Povich countered with a show on family secrets exposed.

Leeza Gibbons weighed in on sex and friendship. Sally Jessy Raphael went with repentant cheating lovers. And Montel Williams scored with a woman in love with a serial killer. With the glut of talk shows on the air (some 100 hours of programming each week), the 25 competing hosts are battling cheek by jowl to win audience share. With an estimated 50 million viewers up for grabs, the talk shows are waging a "Schlock War" to see who will stoop lowest to get the highest ratings to get the biggest advertising dollars.

Well, it's time that the "Schlock War" be put to an end. The folks at Time Warner, Viacom, King World and other entertainment companies responsible for polluting the airwaves with trashy talk shows need to be put on notice that they are expected to be better corporate citizens, to be a little less concerned with maximizing the bottom line, and a little more concerned about the public. TV talk shows not only are a blight on the popular culture, they are having a powerful, deleterious effect on American society. If the executives and producers and hosts who fill the airwaves with 100 hours of talk-show trash each week refuse to voluntarily clean up their acts, then Congress ought to make them do it. Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

1995 Neii'spaprr Asincintmn.