Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this
postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to
mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.
RECEIVED Wed., Jan. 28, 2004
Dear Editor,
Why is it that when someone is against the death penalty, that person is portrayed as "progressive," yet when someone is pro-life (or, as someone insultingly put it last week ["Postmarks" online, Jan. 22], "anti-choice"), that person is seen as an "extremist"? Aren't both arguing for the preservation of life? Or do convicted felons simply have more right to exist than babies?
Just wondering,
David Rigsby
RECEIVED Wed., Jan. 28, 2004
Dear Editor,
This past Saturday, Jan. 24, there was a march by the abortion folks from Fourth and Guadalupe up Congress to the Capitol, and I'm wondering how many arrests were made. Anytime I've been to a peace protest of the war the cops are there waiting! They arrested many folks at the Congress Street Bridge, and when we were at the arrival of [Mexico's President Vicente] Fox to be with [Gov.] Perry at the mansion, the motorbike cops came out in major force. I left that scene quickly. I've seen it at other rallies also, so thank you for your time.
James Johlnson
RECEIVED Wed., Jan. 28, 2004
Dear Editor,
After allegations of discrimination and abuse by the Austin Police Department, some citizens have posed the question, "Who polices the police?" After reading Louis Black's "Page Two" from Jan. 23, I am led to ask a similar question: "Who edits the editor?" Black opens his essay with an interesting and provocative question that deserves asking: "What would have happened if we had not invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?" Frustratingly, Black never even ventures an answer. The essay instead reads like a rambling and sloppy amalgamation of his previous writing on the Iraq war. I have no idea whether I agree or object to Black's argument, as I have no idea what he is trying to say. Surely the grammatical low-point is the following sentence: "Bush's intuitive genius for resonant political actions is disturbing, especially as they are divorced from history, lack sustained consideration, and oblivious to negative consequence and defiantly ignorant of the future." I cringe even as I retype it. Please, please, please can someone make his clauses agree? You do a disservice to your message (unsure as I am what that is, exactly) by printing such sloppy writing. I know that publishing a weekly is a tough business, but the Chronicle can do better. Your readers deserve better, too.
Thanks,
Tedd Holladay
RECEIVED Wed., Jan. 28, 2004
Dear Editor,
Here's what Bush must run on in November:
1) An unjust war, responsible for thousands of civilian deaths and hundreds of U.S. military deaths, based on lies for the purpose of re-election and Republican profiteering
2) A foreign policy that has destabilized our position in the world
3) Health care policies that benefit large insurance and drug companies while sticking it to most Americans
4) A phony Wall Street economic recovery, inflated by deficit spending and tax cuts for the rich (the "Leave No Millionaire Behind" policy), that has not produced good paying jobs for the middle class
5) A loss of more jobs in America than any other president since Hoover
6) Unfunded mandates in education that leave all but rich children behind. The U.S. is now last in education among first world countries.
7) The richest 20% of the U.S. population now owns 85% of the nation's total wealth, while poverty has reached an all-time high.
8) Homelessness has risen by 40-50% on a nationwide level.
9) The worst environmental record of any U.S. president
10) The national debt is now over $7 trillion; that's $7,000,000,000,000.00!
Now he wants to spend a trillion dollars to go to Mars. I think he should go. Alone.
Stan Beard
Georgetown, Texas
RECEIVED Wed., Jan. 28, 2004
Hello,
I was thinking that there are more music store closings than were on the list ["Is Sound Exchange's Fate the Future of All Record Stores?," Music, Jan. 23]. Here are some I thought of: Neptune, System 7, Treasured Tracks, CD's & More, and a mystery store that opened on Bee Caves Road about one quarter-mile down from MoPac on the right side. I was there one day and went back the next month, and it was gone. Never got the name of it. So, I hope that will help complete the list. Thanks.
Ken Ittigson
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Editor,
Could you please thank Ms. Virginia B. Wood for her kind mention of Thai Tara restaurant in her Jan. 23 "Food-o-File"? It was a pleasant surprise and was very much appreciated. I invite her to stop by anytime. We will create something just for her!
Sincerely,
Yupa Rushing
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Editor,
Since 9/11, I have each of your commentaries on the war. I am inclined to agree with many of your points, but I am left with this question: What should we have done then? Al Qaeda was running terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. We had experienced the results. We were supposed to go on tolerating that? The Taliban had Osama; they could have turned him in and kept their nightmare regime. Twelve years of sanctions on Iraq had not had the intended effect of forcing Saddam to come clean as he agreed to do; instead the people of Iraq went on suffering under an uncaring ruler. So it doesn't seem like the right thing to do was to continue the sanctions. But lifting the sanctions on a despot who at the very least clearly intended to develop WMDs and had shown no restraint in using them, indeed, who hadn't shown much restraint period when it comes to dealing out death and misery, and who is sitting next to one of the lifebloods of the world, doesn't seem wise either. Negotiations by third parties and us were repeatedly unsuccessful. So what should we have done?
Ted Christopher
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to Mr. McJunkin's condemnation of Gov. Howard Dean ["Postmarks" online, Jan. 22].
Don't be so quick to judge a man based on an out-of-context 30 seconds of overexuberance, when there is an 11-year record in Vermont to examine. Upon this examination, you'll find a man of courageous leadership and well-honed management skills who produced tangible results – for example, he extended health care to almost all children in the state, provided a meaningful prescription drug benefit to Vermont's older citizens, extended conservation lands, promoted rural economic development – all while balancing the budget, 11 years in a row. Gov. Dean delivers results, not rhetoric.
Gov. Dean earned my respect because of his proven leadership and candid nature – he stands up for what is right, even when it isn't popular. The governor didn't lose my respect when he showed himself to be human and fallible. I urge you to take a closer look at substance, not image.
Sincerely,
Hanna Day-Woodruff
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Editor:
Mark Twain was horrified and heartbroken at his nation's mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and spoke up clearly. In The Mysterious Stranger, he insightfully wrote:
"The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of gross self-deception."
No rationalizations justify this U.S. government's wave of avaricious war escalations. Let's keep in mind that we know why and for whom they are happening.
Barbarous atrocities are done daily in your name, demanding headlines and national outrage, but rating mostly buried innuendo and the mutter of Nuremberg guilt. Let's keep pressuring big media and personally let others know how we feel.
Realize that Ashcroft v. Twain, under PATRIOT Act II, would be possible, and that he could simply be disappeared. Speak up and take action now, as humane people who fairly and fiercely guard our freedoms and those of our compatriots everywhere.
Larry Piltz
Austin, Texas
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Sirs,
In reference to your most recent cover story, "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: Can Record Stores Survive the Digital Age?" [Music, Jan. 23], by Jim Caligiuri and the fact that we were excluded from any mention: We are the only locally owned CD store in North Austin. I wanted to let you all know that we – after our best Christmas sales ever – are doing quite well thank you.
Sincerley,
Charles Lokey
Encore Video & CD
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Editor,
It's a given that denial is an agenda-seeking staple of modern-day liberalism, but only an imbecile could dispute the fact that history does repeat itself. "Page Two" by Louis Black is usually just a Prozac moment in print, with the rare flash of insight much like a blind pig finding the occasional acorn. But to insist that history does not repeat itself is indicative of arrested development at best ["Page Two," Jan. 2].
Even a liberal who is so far left (as to risk falling off the western edge of a flat Earth) should note the profound similarities between black slaves who were sold into slavery by their own people (and sold into bondage to do the dirty work that was beneath their owners) and the relatively recent influx of illegal workers in the U.S. They come not in iron chains but in the chains of economic realities. Outcasts of Third World incompetence, greed, and exploitation, the modern-day slave risks life, limb, jail, deportation, and economical exploitation in the name of hunger and survival. They are not going to go back where they came from anymore than self-serving, self-righteous, race-beating liberal blacks will move to that wonderful black-run country where there is no civil war, famine, or AIDS pandemic. Refresh my memory please, what is the name of that country?
Then there is the Middle East. A good Christian and a biblical scholiast like Black must have noticed the historical animosities and repetitious generational warring of the sons of Ishmael vs. the sons of Isaac.
No, there must be some insidious deceitful agenda to be met to insist history does not repeat itself, but for the life of me I can't put a finger on it. Maybe Black is just an insufferable Cubs fan ...
p.s. And FYI: You can spare me your race-bating bigotry, I voted for Alan Keyes in 2000.
Kurt Standiford
[Louis Black Replies: Not that Standiford has any interest in accuracy, but what I wrote was, "Even history, though a guide, is not a concrete draft. Over the years, we've received inane letters that begin with Plutarch's observation that 'history repeats itself' and proceed to take as law that the past offers a concrete guide to unfolding events. Even accepting that assumption, let's remember that the past, now behind us, appears clearly organized – history being a discipline for ordering and coding it. Current events (not yet organized by 'history') are a chaotic, sprawling mess, with little discernable shape. In this context, better to meditate on George Santayana's observation that 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it' than look for any specific predictive." The point being that history is relevant but not an absolutly rigid guide to current and future events.]
RECEIVED Tue., Jan. 27, 2004
Dear Editor,
Howard Dean isn't nuts ["Postmarks" online, Jan. 22], he just has a very severe case of monkey butt. And why shouldn't he join his "supporters" in acting like the most recent Fear Factor winners? Same mentality.
William Roberts
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
I applaud Michael Ventura's Jan. 23 column on the Bush administration's continued frantic dissembling of our constitutional rights ["Letters @ 3am"]. Since the PATRIOT Act was made law, I (an educated, practicing voter) have felt as though I were standing in a crowded room, screaming at the top of my lungs to an uncaring audience. Tragically few people truly understand the scope of this legislation. Thank you Mr. Ventura, for shining some light into this dark corner of the Ashcroft Justice Department. Not to be dramatic, but I am truly frightened of government retaliation against whomever is labeled "a threat." Considering the blatant disregard shown for the rights and opinions of the gay population by the government, may we too be labeled, stripped of our citizenship, and shipped to detention camps? The tools of Bush Jr.'s leadership are intimidation, sleight of hand, and fear. Indeed, I am very, very afraid.
Sincerely,
Shannon Porter
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
Well, it looks like we're stuck with the Texas Legislature's congressional redistricting plan, which carved up Austin and put the parts into three weirdly shaped districts stretching from the Hill Country to the Mexican border. As a practical matter there isn't much we can do about it, but we can still act like Austinites and make the redistricting plan into a perennial butt of national jokes by turning the whole thing into a work of art.
In that spirit I propose we initiate a competition to design the "Gerrymander Memorial," to be placed on the exact spot where those three sad, silly districts meet at a rather undistinguished intersection on 38th Street, one block west of Guadalupe.
I'm sure we can get prominent academics from the UT School of Architecture and the local political world ("Ann Richards, are you busy?") to be judges. Personally, I'd also invite a sprinkling of big-name artists, political figures, and critics to help, along with the mayor of Austin. Once they've selected a winning design, all we have to do is raise a bit of cash to put it up, and then force our City Council to vote to allow the memorial to be erected on the site.
In my mind's eye I see a bronze statue of the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the Texas House hunched over a computer terminal, reading a precinct printout, with one of them pointing off into the distance toward Mexico; or maybe just three arrows and live webcasts from the farthest reaches of each district, two from the Rio Grande river, one from the high plains. But I'm not an artist ... although I'll volunteer to be one of the judges and to put up a bit of the prize money.
Dave Miller
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
Louis Black was right-on when he wrote: "Bush's intuitive genius for resonant political actions is disturbing, especially as they are divorced from history, lack sustained consideration, and [are] oblivious to negative consequence and defiantly ignorant of the future" ["Page Two," Jan. 23].
While there is a lot of commotion over MoveOn.org's many entries in their political ad competition that depict George W. as Hitler-esque, it should be noted that the winning entry had no words, just scenes of children working unskilled jobs, indicating that future generations would be paying for our Iraqi occupation.
I do not believe anyone seriously compares our president to Hitler. The latter was a genius, not a term that applies to W.
It is fair to say, however, that W. is the front man and puppet of corporate entities that are acting as textbook fascists, in that the PATRIOT Act hands law enforcement capabilities over to them. We shall see whistle-blowers against corruption snatched away without due process as domestic enemy combatants.
As far as world overpopulation goes, what do you suppose is the solution of the Powers That Be? It is in fact the same final solution that Hitler employed: Genocide. And it is being implemented presently.
Sincerely,
Kenney C. Kennedy
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Chronicle,
Space – the final frontier. The moon. Men on Mars. How about sending a man to the White House? So many unqualified volunteers. How much could this cost? What about exploring the Bill of Rights? Send a team of people to see if there's life in the Constitution.
Let's explore the systems we live in – government, religion, finance, marriage, family, corporation – and see if we can discover something valuable. Why do we only search outside of ourselves for value and meaning? Because we rarely take or make the time to put our priorities in the correct order. A small thing, yet so important, and in these days urgent.
We designate so much time, energy, and money to trying to make meaningless things meaningful. Until we come to a worldwide recognition of the importance of being, in fact, the great people whom we hope to be, planet Earth will eventually resemble something like Mars.
James M. Paine
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
Wes Marshall's insightful account ["The Dinertainment Dilemma," Food, Jan. 16] of his Kobe Steak House dining experience was both entertaining and enlightening. I readily resonate with his wry observation of how appalling can be a waiter's habitual disregard of basic hygienic considerations; to wit: the thumb inside the realm of a vessel's contents. Even if there's no charge for a glass of water, its healthy presentation is a matter of significance to many discerning diners. After all, each of us humans is about 70% water. It is our basic ingredient.
Which leads to my present quandary. At home I use a simple carbon filter to remove the taste and odor of chlorine from water I imbibe. Of course, that chemical serves a purpose – to hold in check the teeming millions of microbes which in its absence would surely multiply exponentially during the miles-long voyage from treatment plant to my house. That said, chlorine is a poison, its by-products (trihalomethanes) carcinogenic, and its taste and aroma distinctively offensive. The more I avoid it, the more heightened has become my sensitivity to its presence.
So if a simple carbon filter can dress up my water at home, why can't restaurants purporting to cater to their patrons' desires and pleasures do at least as much to present a healthy and appealing glass of water? Well, of course they can but won't until they get the message that we patrons expect it. Gentle reader, every one of us can help to hasten this revolutionary appreciation for water quality by always inquiring of waiters and especially of restaurant managers, "Is this water filtered?" Eventually they'll begin to meet out expectations.
Hal Strickland
RECEIVED Fri., Jan. 23, 2004
Dear Editor,
You ignore our amazing 20th birthday party [Sound Exchange], you relegate our closing to a small box (complete with a baffling reference to Buffalo Exchange), and when you finally put us on the cover, almost exactly a year after our death, there is not one word about us in the copy ... and not really much to the article, either ["Is Sound Exchange's Fate the Future of All Record Stores?," Music, Jan. 23].
Glad to see some things haven't changed in Austin.
Craig Koon
Former Sound Exchange Manager
Phoenix, Ariz.
[Editorial response: Ignored? Hardly. We covered the 20th anniversary both before and after , while the store's closing was covered in full as part of a cover story, Rent Party Blues, Music, Feb. 14, 2003.]
RECEIVED Fri., Jan. 23, 2004
Dear Editor,
While out-of-sequence editing may have become a recent fad thanks to Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction, I believe it not only works well in 21 Grams but adds considerably to the story.
The message of the film, to me, is quite obviously the need for one to think through an issue before acting on it. The nonlinear representation of this story demands attention and forces the audience to think while watching.
There are far too many films out these days that do not require much more from the movie audience than the price of admission. I thoroughly enjoyed having to spend two hours totally consumed by what transpired on the screen and came away not only entertained and stimulated, but I learned a valuable lesson as well.
Polo Leyendecker
RECEIVED Thu., Jan. 22, 2004
Dear Editor,
Seeing the heading of an article in your last issue ("The Fruit of the Pro-Lifers' Labors") [News, Jan. 16] made me feel compelled to write and request the Chronicle consider a new editorial policy as a public service and in the interest of journalistic accuracy. To buy into these fanatics' spin and refer to them as pro-lifers does a disservice to the public, to the truth, and to the term "pro-life." Very few of them in my experience are against the death penalty, as ought to be requisite of anyone who would refer to themselves or be referred to as "pro-life." And given the extremely flawed, very racist death penalty system that we have in this country (not to mention the concomitant rabid presumption of guilt and propensity to so casually convict an accused person that are sad realities of our society these days and significant factors in the system's fallibility), more is the hypocrisy and shame for anyone who embraces such a system and would have the temerity to call themselves a pro-lifer. Even the Catholic Church, as out of touch with modernity as it often seems to be, is consistent in this regard. I would request the Chronicle start referring to these extremists as what they are: anti-choicers.
Chip Waldron
RECEIVED Thu., Jan. 22, 2004
Hi editors,
Remember a few weeks ago when Alanda Ledbetter expressed her appreciation that I didn't call her any names the first time I rebutted her "abortion leads to suicide" rubbish ["Postmarks," Jan. 9]? Well, after reading her "Postmarks" online entry posted Jan. 21, I'm sorry to have to betray that appreciation. She's a loon.
Shaking my head sadly,
Martin Wagner
RECEIVED Thu., Jan. 22, 2004
Mr. Black,
"What would have happened if we had not invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?" ["Page Two," Jan. 23] What intellectual masturbation. We did invade. The results are not clear yet. I realize that in this real-time world, where all results are expected to be accomplished immediately, the establishment of a government in one country formerly ruled by a decades-old dictatorship and another ruled by extremists should have been instantaneous. And we are not the most popular country in the world because of it, especially in the Middle East. Then again, we were never really popular there to begin with.
The reasons for invasion have always been dubious: 9/11 connections, WMD, torturous regime, terror training ground, etc. Oh well, you can pick the one you like, all can be scrutinized. The fact is we are there now, and this scares the shit out of many neighboring countries. Diplomacy with a hammer. In Iraq, we took out a secular government (albeit a dictatorship that regularly used torture as a tool) and are trying to replace it with a more U.S.-friendly secular government that could possibly torture people as a means of control, in our interests of course (I seem to remember a guy named Pinochet). It may seem alien to many that our government acts in such a selfish manner, but isn't it their job to promote and protect the interests of our country before placating the needs of the rest of the world? Our so-called European allies do the same; France and Germany have rarely acted in anything other than their own interests. So much for diplomacy. I prefer the hammer.
In addition, you seem fascinated that a politician tries to please all voters by hiding the painful realities. Isn't this what politicians regularly do?
Alex Aguirre
RECEIVED Thu., Jan. 22, 2004
Dear Editor,
After watching Howard Dean bolting back and forth, reciting the states, and looking like Beavis on crack, I have decided to support John Edwards. I liked Dean, but sorry folks; he's nuts!
John McJunkin
RECEIVED Thu., Jan. 22, 2004
Chronicle,
Richard Perle and the current administration's use of fear as a driving political force is a last-resort attempt to scare people into thoughtless submission, where the requirement is to relinquish our common sense and decency for the possibility, the promise of safety. Our religions employ this technique masterfully.
This brand of fear accomplishes nothing more than keeping people confused and distracted. Are we now "one nation under fear"? Is this what unifies the American people? Fear is the breeding ground of evil. A shallow perusal of history tells us so.
The only thing we ensure through fear is failure, the brunt of which is looming on the horizon.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
James M. Paine