THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200320
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS LENGTH: Long : 220 lines
Dear Reader,
Almost 500 Americans showed up here to talk over some things they're worried about, and you know what's funny? They found out they agree on an awful lot.
This is the National Issues Convention, a blend of old-fashioned town meeting and political caucus. Its creator, Jim Fishkin, wants to show there's a better way of running elections; the people he brought together want to tell their leaders what they care about.
The delegates, chosen at random from a national poll, are spending three days discussing problems, coming up with questions, and hitting the candidates with them.
The delegates think the American family needs some help. They don't mind us being the ``911 of the world,'' as one Richmond woman put it, but they want other countries to help. And they're not ready to give up, but they don't think the politicians are listening.
On that same subject, they're feeling as ornery as Texas longhorns because most of the candidates for president didn't accept their invitation to Austin. One candidate, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., will be here tonight in person, and three others by satellite. Vice President Al Gore promises to be here Sunday. But Bob Dole won't show, and neither will President Bill Clinton, the last anyone heard.
``How important are my feelings to them if they can't come here?'' said Peggy L. Myers, of Spring Grove, Pa.
If Clinton did come, as the ``delegates'' proudly point out, he would see America.
The organizer of the convention, Fishkin, calls the gathering a ``representative sample.''
Americans, it turns out, don't all wear suits and ties. They wear leather coats, and black cowboy hats, and Marlboro baseball caps, and very comfortable sweat shirts.
Some of the delegates braved snow and other hazards to get here. One delegate's car broke down, and he jogged two blocks to the airport, leaving his wife behind in the car.
Nearly 100 of the delegates had never flown before, and 29 others refused: They came by train or car.
The scheduled topics were foreign policy and the economy, but they tended to talk about what they felt like. Often, they wanted to talk about the threats to families, which isn't scheduled until today, and how bad politicians are, which you can talk about anytime.
Still, they liked talking about America's role in the world, too.
In the university's alumni center, one group of 17 met and talked under paintings of the Texas longhorn, a famously cranky beast which did its share of changing the United States.
Joe Diver, a machinist in Fort Myers, Fla., was inclined to think that America shouldn't stick its neck out too often, like in Bosnia: ``When you get into religious wars that go on for 2,000 years, longer than our country has been around, I don't think there's much we can do.''
But in a few minutes, Diver was saying, ``I don't know, I guess I shouldn't say we shouldn't be there. But I don't know if we can do anything.''
``But look at the Rwandans,'' Peggy Myers said. ``All those people got slaughtered and nobody helped. How do you determine who gets help and who doesn't? It's so hard.''
``Shouldn't Europe get involved, though?'' Diver said. ``Isn't it their back yard?''
``That's what I don't understand,'' Myers said. ``Why is it always us?''
Ruby Seering, a retiree from Reston, Va., said, ``Sometimes we intervene in these other countries to have them on our side, when we need allies, like when another Hitler comes along.''
Bill Gooden of Mooresville, N.C., is an accountant who recently hiked 85 miles through the Rockies with his son. He was slow to talk but often set the tone of the room. He said on this subject, ``I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who can't settle their religious differences. But when it gets into mass genocide, that's something different.''
Over lunch, Larry Clifton's group wolfed down turkey sandwiches with French's mustard and washed it down with a bit of politician-bashing.
They were talking about national politicians. But Clifton had admitted earlier that he is a two-term member of the Collbran, Colo., School Board.
The day he was elected, he said, a friend walked up to him and said, `` `You're a politician now.' I said, `No, I'm not.' But I really was.''
Clifton looked stricken.
Doug Zokatis, who is retired and lives in Vacaville, Calif., shook his head. ``Politician,'' he said, ``has come to mean something derogatory.''
After lunch, they started talking about the economy: their jobs, and their bills, and what the heck to do about welfare.
``The price of groceries goes up every time you go to the store,'' said Peggy Myers. ``I set aside a certain amount of money, and that doesn't change.''
``The incomes now are certainly more than my parents got,'' said Judy Charlton, of Brooklyn, Conn.``But I don't think they've evened out with the prices going up. When my kids get sick, I think, God, do I take them to the dentist, do I take them to the doctor? Because that's cutting into the food money.''
Somebody mentioned ``the American Dream.''
``It's not the American Dream,'' Charlton said. ``It's the American Farce.''
Not everyone was satisfied with that. Bill Gooden grew up poor in Appalachia, he said, but he got two college degrees and is doing all right. Joe Diver said he works 12 to 14 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week, to be successful.
Jill Wells, a Richmond lawyer, said, ``I feel like the further apart the income gap is, the worse off we are. But how do you make that person making so much money make less?''
Perry Levinson said, ``It's interesting that with such a cross-section of people here, we do agree so much on how things should be.''
``Right,'' Charlton said. ``If we can sit together for 10 minutes and say, `Hey, that makes good sense,' why can't the politicians figure it out?''
In another group, the delegates came to a similar conclusion about the American public.
Doug Zokatis: ``If we're a cross-section and we're not apathetic, then is America really apathetic?''
Nope, said the guys at the lunch table. Americans are concerned. They're upset. They want to do something. Don't just look at voting turnout, they said, to see whether America is apathetic. It doesn't say anything about apathy. People don't vote, they said, because it doesn't make a difference.
``All you can do is vote them out,'' said Rick Engles, who works with electronic imaging for the Department of Defense in San Bernadino, Calif.
``But who are you going to vote in?'' MEMO: ITS ORIGIN
The National Issues Convention is Jim Fishkin's baby. Fishkin, a
government professor at the University of Texas, Austin, came up with
the idea in 1988 because he felt the presidential election system was
flawed.
Unable to find financial backing in the U.S., Fishkin took his idea
to England. Two conventions have been held there.
Last year, Fishkin put together backing from the university, the
Public Broadcasting Service, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.,
American Airlines, the Kettering Foundation and others to hold a
convention for the 1996 election.
With the help of the National Opinion Research Center, Fishkin found
600 people nationwide willing to come to Austin. That group was a
precise cross-section of America, but bad weather and other problems
reduced that number to the 476 who actually showed up Thursday night.
VIRGINIANS
Six Virginians were selected and agreed to attend the convention.
Purely by chance, none is from South Hampton Roads:
Robert ``Rob'' Stephens, 21, a political science major from Bowling
Green. He came partly because he was impressed by the idea of a
cross-section of America coming together.
``It sounded like a great opportunity,'' Stephens said. ``Everybody
gets stuck in their own structures and their own lives. This is a good
chance to meet and talk with people you otherwise would never know.''
Robin Jill Wells, 27, a lawyer from Richmond. Wells said the
convention appealed to her ``sense of adventure.''
``It sounded like a great idea, and I wanted to see if it would
work,'' she said.
Ruby L. Seering, 52, a former bill collector now retired on a
disability in Reston. Seering said she always has read newspapers and
never misses voting.
``I love to talk,'' Seering said. ``I don't imagine I've been shy a
day in my life.''
Lewis Wright, 32, of Hampton; Donna Tillman, 28, of Doswell; and
Teresa Farris of Midlothian also are at the convention.
QUESTIONS FOR TTHE CANDIDATES
At the end of each session - after deliberating for two hours on a
topic - the delegates worked up questions for the presidential
candidates. PBS will use these to quiz the GOP candidates tonight and
Vice President Al Gore on Sunday morning. Here's a sampling:
On America's role in global affairs:
Why focus on the ills in foreign lands while neglecting the ills at
home?
Which is more important to you: foreign policy or domestic issues?
Why?
Our group felt that foreign policy is based on economics more than
on human rights and moral standards. Why can't our government be more
straightforward with the American people about what our policies are
based on?
Why is foreign policy based on wishes of lobbyists and not the
American people?
How do you ensure you'll implement the wishes of the American public
and not just special interests?
Should the U.S. be involved militarily in countries where there is a
moral or humanitarian issue but we have no vital national interest?
What can be done to stop nuclear proliferation and monitor nuclear
powers so our world can be a safer place?
How far can we reduce nuclear weapons and maintain the security and
safety we need?
On pocketbook pressures in the economy:
Does the government have a role in encouraging private industry to
retrain and retool displaced work forces, such as AT&T? If so, what is
it?
We believe the current tax code does not work. What would you do to
make it better with respect to nonprofit institutions and special
interests?
Should the government be more or less proactive in: 1. the
free-market economy; 2. redistribution of wealth among all social
levels; and 3. affirmative action?
What changes would you promote to give incentives to welfare
recipients to become independent and self-reliant?
How do you propose to make health care affordable and available to
all people?
How can you make us believe that this country once again is for the
people, by the people, of the people?
A number of states and cities are experimenting with plans that move
welfare recipients into the work force and extend health care and other
benefits for a year or more to ease this transition. How could this be
expanded nationally?
TV COVERAGE:
WHRO-TV plans to televise the National Issues Conference from Austin,
Texas, at the following times:
Today:
Democrats, 10-11 a.m.
Republicans, 5 p.m.
Democrats, 8 p.m.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Stephens
Wells
Seering
KEYWORDS: NATIONAL ISSUES CONVENTION by CNB