Postmarks

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Free the Marketplace

Editor:

Can a self-styled "progressive" writer be trusted to provide an accurate and truthful portrayal of events and trends if published in the Chronicle? I will refer to the piece on the World Trade Organization by Cheryl Bishop ["The Profit Motive," Nov. 26]. Using NAFTA to illustrate a point, she states that wages have been falling in Mexico because U.S. corporations employ Mexicans at a "pittance." May I direct your attention (as well as Ms. Bishop's and Jim Hightower's) to a recent Wall Street Journal (10-29-99) front-page article which focuses on the "plight" of the poor Mexicans living in the north of the country where U. S. companies operate? Unless the writer is making up a blatant lie, that region is in the midst of an economic boom with schools, roads, and shopping centers going in at a feverish rate. I suggest to you that those facilities would not be going up unless Mexicans have sufficient income to support them. Do you think Mexicans appreciate American "progressive" rabblerousers portraying them as poor? Worse, do you think they appreciate Americans telling them that they shouldn't have the right to choose to work for a foreign employer and to enter the middle class, as apparently they are? In a similar vein, why can't busybody liberals concede that I should have the right to choose in the marketplace and that this is a necessary component to democracy? For example, I think that I should have the right to buy raw milk from a willing provider, do you? Apparently the Texas Legislature thinks not. If you and Jim Hightower agree with me on this one, as I would hope, why does freedom of choice not apply to Europeans with regard to American beef? If they truly don't want it, as Ms. Bishop asserts, then they will reject it in the marketplace; but it seems that to be a "progressive" means wanting a patronizing Big Brother to force the decision on the individual purchaser because He always knows what's best. As usual, economic acts between consenting adults are suspect in the liberal worldview.

Thomas Groover

Houston

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Beware the WTO

Editor:

Thanks to the people who marched and supported in any way the worldwide demonstrations during the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. The WTO, speaking in Orwellian newspeak, has almost completed a global power structure policed by the U.N., already overriding the laws of sovereign nations, that walks like, and talks like, a duck called Global Martial Law. Quack.

Anyone not a member of the ruling class who does not understand this is still under the delusion that the press releases and public statements have anything to do with the truth about WTO. Forget that. "Trade barriers" means such things as child-labor abuses, starvation wages, sweatshops, environmental crimes, and goon-enforced policy. Venezuelan oil is being sold in the U.S. in violation of the Clean Air Act, an example of WTO power. Venezuelan oil was found to be too "dirty" by the EPA and was overruled by WTO. The Clean Air Act was a "trade barrier."

The magic words, "free trade," allow a mindwash of the TV people. Anyone who gets their news from TV deserves the WTO, and has already, by default, accepted martial law. At the present increase in the rate of incarceration in this nation, within five years there will be 33 million Americans incarcerated. We already have the highest rate in the world, and a new prison opens every week. This is an indirect result of the GATT-NAFTA-WTO empire, owing to the millions of American jobs lost to the shift of corporations to third-world slave-labor markets. It would be asking too much of the couch potatoes to accept a conspiracy, but the WTO is such a public, blatant conspiracy as to be unmistakable. People out of work either become welfare recipients or criminals. Henry Kissinger was quoted as calling such folks "useless eaters."

To those wondering how to refer to the year 2000, I suggest we call it oh-oh. Kill your television and prepare for some very strange times.

Sincerely,

John Washburn

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Non-Native Tongues

Dear Editor:

Now that Kevin Fullerton has done his snotty Yankee act, and told us why Texas does not deserve high-tech industry, he needs to be reminded of a few things.

First of all, Kevin Fullerton is no rocket scientist himself.

As for Texas ranking 48th in literacy, the Anglos are not to blame for that. Since 1980, the vast majority of people moving to Texas have been foreign. Maybe they could pass a literacy test in Spanish, but not in English. They are effectively illiterate in this country. (Nunca va pasar Aztlan. No pueden competir contra los asianos.)

And in spite of how backward we are, the number of out-of-state students keeps growing at UT and other Texas schools. The students in science and engineering are usually foreign, since few Americans have the math or science background for these majors, because of 40 years of the dumbing down of American education by American educators. And those educators have not usually been Republicans. They are liberals like you, Mr. Fullerton.

Yours truly,

John Clay

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Complicated Conception

Marjorie [Baumgarten]:

I enjoyed your Dogma review, though I knew before I opened up the paper that y'all would have a positive review of it.

I hope you will want to know the Immaculate Conception to which you refer ("-- yet even though Smith jokes about Mary's marital sex life both prior to and following the birth of Jesus, never does the filmmaker question the principle of immaculate conception."), refers not to the status of Mary's virginity, before or after Jesus' conception. Rather, it refers to the state of grace under which Mary was herself conceived. That is, Mary was conceived without original sin.

Regards,

Reenie Mastrella

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Ventura's Winter

Mr. Black,

I'm worried that Michael [Ventura, "Letters at 3AM," Nov. 26] is sinking into one of those beautiful depressions again. Might I suggest my own defense against the giant hand of time? Slingshots!!!

Todd Alan Smith

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The Concrete Prison

Editor:

The struggle over the Champion sisters' proposed development out on RM 2222 reminds me of similar struggles all over town (the Triangle; Auditorium Shores Redevelopment, etc). In all of these conflicts, there seems to be one common evil that is feared. It's not crime or gangs or prostitutes: It's cars. All of these developments had to scale back on desirable things -- movie theaters, restaurants, retail shops, coffeehouses, etc -- because such desirable activities are always surrounded by asphalt-ocean parking lots, and they attract people (other people) and their smelly cars. The residents along the 2222 corridor are howling for development to stop or to scale back. Funny how folks can so quickly turn against new development the day after the moving van unloads their stuff into their brand new house in the sprawling hills. The days are gone when the hills were private little enclaves of VPs, quirky software CEOs, and the occasional movie star. Now there are multitudes of working-stiff techies cashing in those stock options and heading for the promise of the American Dream out in the hills. You know the promise. If not, pick up any real estate brochure and read the schlock: "Rolling Hills, River View, Large Lots, Country Feel, just a "short drive' to the city and major employers. It's the best of all worlds!" But they don't tell you what happens when we boom for a decade and thousands upon thousands of people are suddenly wealthy enough to horn in on your dream: You get stuck in traffic and ozone and strip malls while the real estate and development moguls count their stacks of money. I think the time has come to consider denser living with a built environment that does not enslave us to the almighty automobile. You take offense? You are no slave? Try going a single day without your car (sitting at home all day watching TV doesn't count).

Phil Hallmark

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Cars the Root of the Problem

Dear Editor,

When neighborhoods object to construction projects that would increase population density, they usually complain not of the increase in people per acre, but of the increase in car traffic. Most disputes about zoning in this city are really about cars.

At present, it is illegal to build anything, residential or commercial, without providing parking for cars. Parking lots are taxed at a low rate, so it is cheap to pave over valuable land for cars.

Some of us don't have or want cars, and some who drive cars would prefer not to drive them. Can't we have zoning that allows for car-free housing, without parking lots or driveways? Can't we have a zoning category for car-free areas? It's sad that there is nowhere you can go in this city where you don't have to breathe tailpipe exhaust and dodge deadly cars.

This ubiquity of cars affects not only our quality of life, but also our local ecology. It's ridiculous for a 150-pound person to use a two-ton gas-burning tank to travel even a few miles. People like to say the Austinites are ecologically aware, but the evidence does not support this claim. It would be awfully nice if this "ecological awareness" included awareness of one's own personal car and fuel use. But it doesn't. Louis Black cheerfully reports driving his car all over town to listen to the radio. He seems unaware that radios are available which don't burn gasoline.

Isn't it time that we had at least one car-free zone in Austin?

Yours truly,

Amy Babich

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Moving Sahm Salute

Editor:

Thanks to everyone at the Chronicle who helped put together the wonderful tributes to the late Doug Sahm in your recent issue (Nov. 26), which I had the pleasure of reading online [http://www.auschron.com]. As a long-time Doug Sahm fan (first saw him perform circa 1969, and he damn near blew my mind!) I was greatly saddened by his passing. He was "bout a mover, for sure. Thanks again for providing a vehicle for so many who knew him and his music to share their recollections with his many fans in the various "Groover's Paradises" around the world.

Steve Hoffman

Takoma Park, Md.

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Annotated Canada

Editor:

Lorne Opler indicated the ignorance by Texans of Canada ["Greetings From the Great White North," Nov. 26]. That may be true of the majority today, but I had a fifth-grade teacher that not only made us learn all the Canadian provinces but also their capitals. Maybe it was easier back then since there were fewer provinces. Newfoundland and Labrador (the full name of the province) didn't decide to allow Canada to join them until 1949.

Nelson Haldane

Dripping Springs

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Rule No. 1 of Film Reviews

Editor:

I'd like to tell Teddy Vuong ["Postmarks," Dec. 3] that, in essence, I agree with his take on Sam Grimes' and Joy Williamson's letters regarding the film Being John Malkovich. I believe artists and filmmakers are not simply permitted, but in some sense obliged, to show us the ugliness of life, in this case spousal abuse. However, I also share Grimes' and Williamson's anger at the way these things are handled by reviewers.

I'm one of those folks who knows all too well how pervasive domestic abuse is in our society. That sad chapter of my life is closed and long behind me, but the scars are never truly healed. I love going to the movies, and I have a tendency to become immersed in films while I'm watching them. I read movie reviews religiously for the simple reason that I can't stand to be caught off-guard by graphic violence. An unexpected fight or rape, shown in lurid detail or disturbing realism, might send me reeling for days. Irrational? Absolutely. But it's real, and if great artists can be respected for depicting human pain, then human pain itself deserves some deference. It frustrates me how often mainstream films are vilified by critics for their violent content, but "artistic" or "intellectual" films are lauded for it. Frankly, I sometimes can't tell the difference.

Reviews for Malkovich universally used words like "quirky," "brilliant," and "hilarious." None even hinted at "tragic" or "disturbing." Critics routinely give away major plot points and good lines; why stop at revealing this turn of events? I might yet go see Being John Malkovich, but I have to thank Grimes and Williamson for warning me of what to expect.

Nancy L. Locklin

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Enough Millennial Nitpicking

Editor:

Okay, is anyone else getting sick and tired of the "chronologically correct"? What do they stand to gain from telling everybody that the 21st century isn't gonna start until 2001?

First of all, who was really keeping accurate count of the years from year one, anyway? The Gregorian calendar that we follow today wasn't even adopted until 1582. And the Dark Ages probably added to the confusion as to what year everyone was following. In fact, many historians now believe that Jesus Christ, the man that all Christians base their years on, was actually born some three to five years before the mystical Year One. So the 21st century may be here already anyway.

So there was no Year Zero. Big deal. Just lump in 1 BC with the first century if it's killing you that much. Do we say that 1980 was a part of the Seventies? No. Did our ancestors ever have these big arguments about whether or not 1900 was a part of the 20th century? Maybe in a few parts of the world. But what matters is this: The vast majority of us, including almost all of the media (not to mention General Foods with their Millenios), have designated the start of the 21st century and the third millennium at the point where "1" turns into "2" and all the nines roll over into zeros. Hell,that's what their computers think, if they're not so archaic they think next year is 1900. So to all you self-righteous nitpickers out there trying to correct us: Shut the hell up and enjoy the party.

Peace and Karats,

Thomas Overbeck

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Rubin Bashing

Greetings,

Am I the only one who thinks Mark Rubin is both pompous and arrogant? He talks endlessly about music, but if you have ever played a gig with him you know that he is average at best.

For example, I've played gigs with him where he showed up to play without learning the songs or even taking time to make charts. I have played other gigs with him where he talked incessantly onstage during the songs.

Never have I met someone who represents the phrase "Dancing About Architecture" more. Maybe instead of talking about Doug Sahm's "many oeuvres," he should listen to the records and learn about music. I'll be glad to loan him some of my records.

With Music Before Ego,

Mark Horn

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The Tornado's Tale

Editor:

How Can You Stop a Tornado?

They put you in the ground

with all your friends standing 'round

the Tuesday before Thanksgiving

and everyone shook their head

like they couldn't understand

How can you stop a tornado?

A true Texas tornado

of racing thoughts and endless plans

and music that still ain't been heard?

How do you stop a tornado?

A true Texas tornado

of words and rhythm and melody

that all rushed out together

to embrace you

like a long-lost friend?

They put you in the ground

with all your friends standing 'round

the Tuesday before Thanksgiving

and everyone shook their head

like they couldn't understand

How do you stop a tornado?

A true Texas tornado

that touched down and changed everything

and how it made you feel was right

all by itself

How do you stop a tornado?

Some say to just run away from its path

but in Texas they'll tell you

to leap into the swirling winds

and you'll never be the same again

They put you in the ground

with all your friends standing 'round

the Tuesday before Thanksgiving

they covered you with dirt is sure,

but they say the wind

just keeps blowing it away

in a funnel toward the sky

Tammy Sajak

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Preach Decency

Dear UT Students and "Christians,"

I really was shocked when I visited Hyde Park Baptist's Tuesday night program. They pressured everyone to parachute jump out of an airplane -- I saw this as a group panic.

This is what you will never hear at Hyde Park Baptist -- "Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor -- Pay him his wages -- otherwise he may cry to the Lord!" (Deut. 24:14). When this is preached, wages go up. Texas has one fourth of its population in poverty due to the low wages -- we need Martin Luther King-type preaching.

Frank Bartlett