WALKING A ROAD TO RECOVERY

Tulia Continues To Fend Off Attacks From Outsiders

Editor's Note: Globe-News Staff Writer Greg Cunningham has covered the
controversial Tulia drug bust for three years. Forty-six people were
arrested in the 1999 bust, 39 of them black.

TULIA - Like a bruised and battered prizefighter heaving himself off the
stool for the championship rounds, the small town of Tulia continues to
shuffle forward, defense up, head down.

For nearly four years, the town of about 5,100 people has absorbed body
blow after body blow from the national media in the wake of the
controversial 1999 drug bust.

The attacks come in the same form each time. The reporters come to town,
spend a day or two, and do their stories. When the stories come out, the
word that stings the most never fails to come up.

Always implied and usually applied, the term racist slaps the town upside
the head every time.

Every once in a while, the town mounts a counterattack when a prominent
resident or civic leader steps forward to defend the town's honor, then
it's back to defense - hands up, elbows in tight to the rib cage.

The latest person to take up for Tulia is Swisher County Commissioner Lloyd
Rahlfs, who said he has had enough of being silent while Tulia is attacked
by outsiders.

Rahlfs makes many of the same points that have been made about the town by
prior defenders: Tulia was trying to do the right thing with the bust,
taking care of a serious drug problem; the community backs the bust because
of its faith in its law enforcement officers; no one who really knows Tulia
could say the town is racist

"That's one thing that really gets me," Rahlfs said. "People come down from
New York City for a week and think they know all the defendants and their
histories, and all of our histories. They think they're qualified to make a
judgment about who we are and what happened here."

But in the midst of making all the points that have been made before, a
tint of a new perspective works its way into the conversation. Rahlfs talks
about reconciliation - not just leaving the bust in the past, but trying to
heal the wounds and reunite the town.

"We've been slammed so much," Rahlfs said. "We've been called racist. It's
time to put an end to all this. It's time to put it behind us.

"We need to go on with our lives, both sides.

"We've cleared the slate here. Let's try to end this and get our
relationships back."

What Has Gone Before

That tone of reconciliation may signal a new turn in the Tulia saga,
holding forth the possibility for the town to truly put the past four years
behind it.

The struggle to do so no doubt will be difficult, but another Texas town
has been through the process and laid down a road map.

The small East Texas town of Jasper in 1998 found itself in much the same
position as Tulia today. Seared by the national spotlight in the wake of
the brutal dragging death of James Byrd Jr., painted by the wide brush of
racism and facing an eternity of its name associated with a national
controversy, Jasper needed a way out.

The majority of people in Jasper felt the same way then as the people of
Tulia feel now. They were upset that their town was being attacked because
of things over which they had no control. They were mad that the label of
racist was being applied to a town they knew was not racist. They didn't
want the name Jasper forever connected to the Byrd tragedy.

But rather than drop into a defensive crouch, Jasper changed its tactics.
Like a wily veteran fighter, Jasper found a way to not just survive the
fight, but to actually adjust its approach and take a shot at winning it.

Leaders of the city - civic and religious - stepped forward to say Jasper
needed to examine itself and what happened there. A commission was formed.
Town hall meetings were held.

In the midst of all the dialogue, a funny thing happened. People found out
new things about themselves and their neighbors. New understandings were
formed, and Jasper emerged a better place to live.

"We did open up some serious dialogue throughout the community and began to
really discuss some perceptions and some misperceptions about the culture
and about racism," said Walter Diggles, who helped lead the reconciliation
process as executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of
Governments. "It helped us a lot to really come to grips with real racism
that was present in our town - in the way we do business and enforce our
laws - but that many never saw."

Diggles said the process was painful and by no means involved the entire
town, but a large portion of the population did participate, and the town
became a better place to live as a result.

Jasper is a long way from Tulia, and no one is certain that a
reconciliation is possible or even wanted in the Panhandle town. One thing
is certain, however, doing nothing will leave the wounds Tulia has suffered
over the past four years to turn into deep scars with no prospects for
proper healing.

Religious Leaders Step to Forefront

The conscience of any community rests in its churches, especially in a
deeply religious community like Tulia.

Religious leaders are expected to take the lead in matters of morality, and
they appear to be doing so in Tulia. Conversations with several religious
leaders in town indicate that they have already planted the seeds of the
process.

"The whole thing has to be centered around prayer," said Matthew Veals,
pastor of New Fellowship Baptist Church. "We have to bring God into the
equation because it's just down to the point where there's been so much
outside interfering that nobody's really even considering that maybe there
is such a thing as a racial harmony."

Veals said his mostly black flock is strongly supportive of a process that
can lead to greater racial understanding in Tulia. That process is under
way among religious leaders, Veals said, but is in such an early stage that
no details can be released.

The push for reconciliation won't be coming just from Tulia's black
churches, however.

Rob Lindley, pastor of First Methodist Church in Tulia, said he also
supports the idea of getting supporters and opponents of the drug bust to
reach across to each other and heal the wounds.

"We need to come together with our differences," Lindley said. "We can
continue to have our differences, but we can still come together, because
it's our community. As long as we keep our community in the forefront,
rather than people's vendettas or agendas, we'll be healthy." Lindley knows
the task will be difficult because he still sees a lot of anger in his
parishioners over the plight of Tulia.

That anger is present in many Tulia residents, most of whom refuse to talk
on the record to the media anymore.

One Tulia businessman, who asked not to be identified, said he thought the
anger is so fresh, that it may be some time before people in Tulia are
ready for reconciliation.

"People are still plenty mad about what's been said about this community,"
the Tulia businessman said. "They (the media) came in and jumped all over
us, and they didn't know the first thing about us."

The Obstacles

Lindley's idea of maintaining differences but finding common ground could
be crucial because supporters and opponents of the bust still hold onto
beliefs that appear to be diametrically opposed.

Like many in his flock and many in town, Lindley supports the idea of the
bust, saying it was done for the right reasons. He admits there may have
been problems with the way the undercover agent, Tom Coleman, conducted the
investigation, but he says that's no reason to discount the entire
investigation and certainly no reason to indict the entire law enforcement
community.

Another common belief shared by Lindley and many in Tulia is that there
really isn't even another "side" to reach out to. The media has repeatedly
painted Tulia as a town divided between black and white, but many in Tulia
say the division is actually between a large majority and a tiny few who
oppose the bust.

Many in town put most of the blame for the damage to Tulia on the
defense-support organization Friends of Justice, and its two most
high-profile members, Alan Bean and Gary Gardner.

A conversation with Bean reveals that many of his beliefs are just as
strong as those held by his opponents and could be just as big of a
roadblock to reconciliation. Bean said he is willing to participate in
discussion, but his strong beliefs would appear to leave little room for
compromise.

"I'm willing to sit down with anybody, anytime, under any conditions and
talk about this in a civil manner," Bean said. "I think if there are people
on the other side of the issue who are willing to take the same stance,
we're in pretty good shape.

"I am perfectly confident in my position, however. I have no doubt that I
am right about this thing. I think my views have been borne out. If people
don't understand why this is so, I would like nothing better to sit down
and to tell them why I think this is so."

Gardner, for his part, rejects the idea of dialogue, saying there is little
hope for the people of Tulia to achieve any sort of racial reconciliation.

Gardner points out that Tulia differs drastically from Jasper in that the
residents of Jasper spoke out immediately against the crime in their city
and moved quickly toward reconciliation.

In Tulia, four years have passed, and any effort at reconciliation could be
described, at best, as nascent.

"I think this whole deal is like a nasty cut on the finger," Gardner said.
"You just put a Band-Aid on it, ignore it and go back to work. A lot of
people talk about the thing. I say just let them get on with their lives."

The defendants from the bust also express an eagerness to get all the
enmity and strife in Tulia put behind them, but they also have impediments
to being successful in that regard.

Some of the defendants are angry over their time behind bars, and most hold
some distrust of the town that sent them to prison, which could make it
difficult to participate in reconciliation.

Freddie Brookins Jr. seems to exemplify that mind set. Brookins said he
would love to see Tulia move on, but he's just not sure it's possible.

"I believe that we could put this behind us," Brookins said. "But there's a
lot of people who still don't want to. After all the facts have been shown,
they still think we're guilty.

"The only way we're going to be able to put this behind us, is just if
people stop being ignorant and look at the facts."

Who Will Lead?

Those strongly held beliefs on both sides are a significant hurdle to be
overcome on the road to reconciliation, but they are by no means
insurmountable obstacles.

Jennifer Kunz, professor of sociology at West Texas A&M University and an
expert on race relations, said a dialogue among willing people could
overcome those opposing beliefs, if the conversation can be started.

"A person doesn't have to believe they are prejudiced to benefit from this
process," Kunz said. "A willingness to listen can be enough.

"Often, people find they are prejudiced in small ways they weren't aware of."

Kunz said what is needed to get people involved in the dialogue is a
trusted community leader or leaders willing to take the first step toward
starting a conversation.

Candidates for this position are many, including Tulia Mayor Boyd Vaughn or
Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart, both of whom expressed a willingness
to engage in talks but not much interest in taking the lead in staking out
middle ground.

"If they would like to get together and talk, if they think something's
really bad, we'd be happy to sit down with them," Vaughn said. "If the
community wants to get together and have a town hall or do it in small
groups, we'll sit down and get with them, too."

Stewart said talks would be a natural thing for Tulia.

"I don't think you could ever go wrong with trying to understand each
other," Stewart said. "This is a good community with great people. Any
community with good folks like this would be willing to sit down and talk
with our neighbors."

Perhaps what is needed to create a willingness to compromise is someone to
show that compromise is possible, even desirable.

That demonstration could come from the most unlikely of places in the form
of Randy Credico. At the beginning of the Tulia controversy, the New York
stand-up comic and social activist made himself one of the most disliked
people in town with his grating personality and attacks against the people
of Tulia.

Things started to change for Credico, however, as he spent more time in
town. Despite all the grenades he lobbed during his fight against the bust,
the people in town always treated him civilly. He began to change his mind
about folks in Tulia.

Then, an even more interesting thing happened. Credico started talking to
Stewart. Slowly, the incendiary critic of the bust and one of its
staunchest defenders started to see eye to eye on a lot of things.

Now, Credico has come full circle. He was in Tulia this weekend to talk
with Stewart and city leaders about how he can help undo some of the damage
he helped create at the beginning of the controversy.

"You have a nuclear explosion on this city, and when the dust settles, and
all the media leaves, where is everybody?" Credico said. "You can't just
leave things this way."

Credico said he is committed to doing what he can to heal the wounds of
Tulia, a town which has won a place in his heart. Credico is showing his
commitment by raising funds for a community project - such as a swimming
pool or community center - to help bring Tulia back together.

"Tulia didn't deserve all of this," Credico said. "I said a lot of bad
things about it, but Tulia's no more racist than any other city. I like the
people there. I think it's a great city."

Tulia has several rounds left in its fight and a couple of options for how
it will play out. The town can continue its tight defense and last through
the final rounds, or it can follow the lead of Jasper and change tactics,
looking for a new way to win the fight.

If reconciliation is the choice, it will no doubt be difficult and will
require a leader to show the way to common ground, a leader who has yet to
step forward.

But it's hard to resist the compelling image of Credico, the bust's most
vocal opponent, and Stewart, its most ardent supporter, and their unlikely
reconciliation leading the way to a better future.