Washington Fax of Life Denied to Average Voter

Just the fax, that’s all Wayne Tyson wanted.

As a concerned constituent, he asked staff members of California’s U. S. senators for the phone number of the office fax machine. What better way to alert Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson of his feelings about important matters, Tyson figured.

Wrong! Wilson’s and Cranston’s fax numbers are not for the public. The press, the bureaucracy and other elected officials, yes, but not the public. The public is told to mail a letter.

Tyson, a San Diego environmental consultant, found this strange and unacceptable. A fax is faster and more dramatic than a letter, and less likely to get lost in transit, he said.

He wondered: Could this be a case of the powerful unwilling to adapt to a new mode of communication that provides more power to the people?

“The new technology--like computers and fax machines--is starting to level the playing field,” Tyson said. “The power brokers have always had immediate access. Maybe there’s a natural resentment of the intrusion of the common people.”

Senatorial staff members plead the crush of numbers: That 28 million constituents could tie up the fax machine interminably with matters that could easily wait a few days for the mail to arrive.

Washington, it turns out, is rife with tales of fax wars. Legislators swamped with fax messages from pressure groups, such as one side in the debate over funding for the contra rebels in Nicaragua clogging the other side’s fax machine for a crucial 48 hours with nonsense messages.

In Tyson’s case, Wilson and Cranston both support the cause that he had hoped to plead: a $2.3-million appropriation to save the tortoise breeding grounds in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Still, Tyson worries about the idea of an unlisted fax number in an age in which fax is power.

That may change soon. A book is set to be published soon in Washington listing the 1000 most important fax numbers. Sales are expected to be brisk.

School Trustee Bows Out

It’s a year before the primary, but San Diego school district Trustee Kay Davis says she will not seek a third term representing a district that runs from Point Loma to Linda Vista.

“I think nine years is enough time to have helped the schools make some changes,” Davis said.

Governmental consultant Scott Harvey, a one-time aide to Mayor Pete Wilson, says he is considering a run.

Mania for Musicians

A novel attempt at both fund-raising and consciousness raising is set for Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego on May 18.

A coalition of groups concerned about the mentally ill will sponsor a “Moods & Music” concert by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra--featuring the works of Schumann, Wolf, Handel, Mahler and Berlioz, all of whom had manic-depressive illness.

Three narrators--a musicologist, a psychiatrist and actor James Arness--will interpret the works and explain that creative people often are afflicted with mental illness, particularly manic depression. Tickets range from $5 to $40.

“Maybe it will help if people realize that some of our most creative people and some of our best leaders--Lincoln and Churchill--had serious disorders at times,” said Bob Haack, chairman of the San Diego Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

North: Magnetic and True

One of the (many) debates about Oliver North concerns the accuracy of the NBC movie based on his life, “Guts and Glory.”

In once scene, North, dressed in camouflage and his face smeared in black, bursts into a classroom of Marine Corps officer candidates, firing an automatic rifle wildly and scaring the hell out of everyone.

Believe it.

Jack McGrory, San Diego assistant city manager, was there. It was 1971. McGrory was an officer candidate fresh from Colgate University; North was a gung-ho captain with his own ideas of how to teach survival skills.