THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220069
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Jim Reynolds, an 84-year-old retired engineer from Whittier, Calif., emphatically gave his vision of a family: ``There has to be a mother and father both to make a family. That's the only thing that works.''
Many fellow participants at the National Issues Convention agreed, but then Jayne Patterson, 40, a data entry clerk for the Dallas police, spoke up.
``I'm a single mother,'' she said. ``But so was my mother, and she raised me right, and I raised my kids right. They're grown now, and one is a funeral home director and one is a barber. It depends on the person. If the father had been there, OK, fine, but I didn't need him.''
Reynolds was doubtful, and he asked Patterson whether her parents or other family had helped raise the kids. No, she said, adding that she had moved away from her family to find work. And she didn't go on welfare.
A little later, Reynolds looked at Patterson and said: ``I was wrong.''
Patterson walked over and hugged Reynolds tight. The room burst into applause.
All over the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, 30 groups of 10 to 20 Americans spent the weekend together, debating, laughing and even chasing armadillos at the welcome festivities.
Along the way, they discovered the same thing Patterson did: They liked each other. They got along. Against all the images they've seen on talk shows, in Washington, and in the press, they didn't insult each other, they didn't yell, and most of all, they agreed more often than they disagreed.
A poll of the delegates taken both before the convention and as it ended will not be released until Friday. But many of the delegates interviewed said they believe the convention truly was a cross-section of America. And from that, they concluded:
Americans are tolerant. In group discussions about single-parent families, gays and welfare, the participants rarely even stumbled over the race and gender problems that could have arisen.
``Some of these things seem pretty well accepted here, which surprises me,'' said Lance Tyler, 51, a U.S. Forest Service employee from Pueblo, Colo. ``This group, and we're supposed to be a microcosm, seems quite tolerant in many ways.''
Americans agree on many things. Over and over, participants expressed astonishment at the fundamental themes they agreed on, themes of personal responsibility, the need for a sense of right and wrong in public policy, and a partnership between the government and private individuals to attack problems. They often agreed on specific issues.
On the subject of welfare, for instance, group after group reached the same stand: They want to provide a safety net for people who can't work, but they want able-bodied people to work and to go off welfare within a few years at most. That included some in the groups who are on welfare.
``All I hear on the news is that no one wants welfare cut at all,'' said Ken Enengin, a Coast Guardsman from Burlington, Vt. ``Then I come here and we all seem to agree.''
America's problems are not simply caused by bad people. When they met and got to know each other, the participants found their stereotypes didn't hold up. The mysterious ``they'' who seem to cause trouble mostly disappeared.
By Sunday, even their perceptions of politicians had shifted a little. Their one-on-one conversations with Sen. Richard Lugar, a GOP presidential candidate from Indiana, and Vice President Al Gore made them think that maybe some political leaders do care what they think. MEMO: [For related stories, see page A1 and A5 for this date.]
KEYWORDS: COMMUNITY CONVERSATION NATIONAL ISSUES CONVENTION by CNB