Pubdate: Sun, 18 Mar 2001
Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Amarillo Globe-News
Contact:  P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo, TX 79166
Fax: (806) 373-0810
Website: http://amarillonet.com/
Forum: http://208.138.68.214:90/eshare/server?action=4
Author: Greg Cunningham
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)

TINY TOWN AN UNLIKELY TARGET FOR FIRESTORM OF CONTROVERSY

The tiny, peaceful town of Tulia seems an unlikely candidate for a 
battleground in the war over racial injustice and drug policy. But a 
battleground is precisely what Tulia has become since 46 people - 39 of 
them black - were charged in 1999 with selling drugs to an undercover agent.

With an avalanche of national media attention and controversy engulfing the 
town for the past two years, residents are left wondering whether anybody 
will ever know the truth about their town, which they say differs greatly 
from the image portrayed by the media.

"I'm dismayed that they don't understand who we are and what we do," said 
Bob Colson, an insurance agent who moved to Tulia 20 years ago seeking the 
small-town life. "I guess that's their loss, but it hurts us, too."

The truth is Tulia is extremely typical of small towns in the Texas 
Panhandle. The town of 5,000 people, midway between Amarillo and Lubbock on 
Interstate 27, has strong agricultural roots. It has a deep current of 
conservative values running through it, although it sits in Swisher County, 
one of the more heavily Democratic counties in the area.

The residents of the town embrace the quiet, small-town life and resent 
anything detracting from that. People in Tulia try to support each other, 
every year contributing hundreds of dollars to the Love Fund, which gives 
Christmas gifts to about 300 disadvantaged children. Volunteerism is looked 
upon as the duty of a good citizen.

Residents seeking entertainment on a Saturday night often find themselves 
driving 25 miles to Plainview or 50 miles to Amarillo, and if they want to 
find alcohol, they head to the county line because Swisher is a dry county.

Tulia also is going through many of the same difficulties as other small 
towns in the Panhandle. Agriculture no longer brings in the money it used 
to because of low commodity prices and high production costs. Much of the 
county is rapidly running out of water for irrigation, leaving farmers 
struggling against the weather to raise dryland crops.

Tulia suffers from a decision in the mid-1980s to route the interstate 
around the town, a move that helped traffic flow but cut deep into the 
economy. Its historic town square shops are closing at an alarming rate. 
High-paying jobs are hard to come by, and many of Tulia's young people are 
moving away to larger cities to find work.

Added to all of this is the massive drug bust controversy, normally talked 
about with a hint of disdain and resentment at the toll it has taken on the 
town.

"There's no problem here," said Lana Barnett, president of the Tulia 
Chamber of Commerce. "What we've got is a bunch of low-lifes who got caught 
and are whining about it. There are some bleeding hearts in town who have 
taken up their cause. Then you throw in a bunch of outside agitators, and 
this is what you get."

That resentment flows through the town like a river, leaving its residents 
chafing at the image of Tulia portrayed through news reports and 
distrustful of outsiders, determined to ride out the storm and return to 
the way things used to be.

"Everybody's just taking it day to day," said Mayor Boyd Vaughn. "They 
can't keep this stirred up forever."

Vaughn's belief might be wishful thinking, however. Opponents of the drug 
busts say they plan to continue fighting, even while admitting Tulia did 
nothing unique to earn its place in the crossfire of the war on drugs.

"What happened in Tulia is nothing special," said Randy Credico with the 
William Moses Kunstler Fund For Racial Justice in New York. "It happens in 
other cities all the time. The only thing that makes Tulia different is 
that it's easy to articulate what's wrong with the system through these 
cases. All the issues involved with the drug war are encapsulated in this 
one small town."

But many residents say Tulia has done nothing to earn the criticism it has 
faced since the arrests. They say there was nothing wrong with the drug 
sting and, in fact, are proud that their law enforcement officers responded 
so forcefully to their concerns about drugs in their community.

They say Tulia is not a home to racism. They point out Tulia integrated its 
schools well before most other districts in the state. They note Greg 
Perkins, a black sergeant with the Tulia Police Department, was elected Man 
of the Year in 2000.

"This is a small town, so you don't have white neighborhoods and black 
neighborhoods and Hispanic neighborhoods," said Sue Riddick, who served on 
one of the juries in the drug cases. "We all live together, and we get 
along together."

Many members of the black community have a starkly different view, however, 
saying Tulia is racist and always has been.

"There's deep racism in Tulia," said Sammy Barrow, whose two brothers and 
two nephews were arrested in the drug sting. "It's a cynicism-type of 
racism. They expect certain things from you because you're black, whether 
it actually applies to you or not. The majority of them, it's not out in 
the open, but you just know. The message that's there is very clear."

So where is the middle ground between such diametrically opposed views of 
Tulia and the drug busts? It can be found in a current of reconciliation 
that exists in the town but seems to be waiting for the controversy to calm 
down before it comes out publicly. Several members of Tulia's black 
community said they support law enforcement and the drug busts, but they 
did not want to be interviewed or identified while the controversy is still 
raging. Even Man of the Year Perkins refused an interview, citing concerns 
he would offend the blacks, the whites, or both, and only add to the 
controversy.

That sentiment was perhaps expressed best by Ventura Ramos, who served on 
one of the juries and summed up the feelings of many in Tulia's sizeable 
Hispanic community.

"A lot of us are caught up with doing what we have to do in our daily 
lives," Ramos said. "We're going about our business without trying to 
meddle in anybody else's business. I think a lot of us just don't want to 
get involved and add to (the controversy). We'll wait until this all dies down."
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