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 [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
   It is unusual to feel the need to defend a politician, but I do in response to Mike Clark-Madison's recent concerns about the visibility and impact of our mayor ["Where's the Mayor?" News, June 4].
   I have a small-business point of view as the owner of Downtown Lounge. My first encounter with the mayor was during his election when he was first tentative about the smoking ordinance. I watched as he became more informed about the facts and consequences of a smoking ban and saw that it was a largely symbolic gesture that could have the unintended consequence of hurting our struggling entertainment community. I respect a person who listens and learns.
   I see the mayor speaking to the downtown businesspeople about development in the city. I see him speaking at the opening of the new Austin Visitors Center about attracting tourists to Austin. I see him dragging his ass to Europe to attract solar-energy business to Austin. I see accelerated action on Block 21, Seaholm, Green Treatment Plant, the Federal Courthouse, improving traffic patterns such as at San Antonio Street, commuter rail, relocating Austin City Limits to downtown to nurture a world-class entertainment district. Progress on the Second Street retail areas to attract tax-generating business, the acceleration of plans by developers to building more resident units downtown, etc. I see that on the back of his office door is a sign that says "How many jobs have you created today."
   I also see that there is much more that can be done downtown to help make parking more friendly, to refine some of our policies on panhandling, vagrants, noise control, traffic patterns, and continuing to work with the APD to make the area more friendly to businesses and visitors.
   I see his fingerprints all over the revival of Austin.

Dear Editor,
   Following up on Mike Clark-Madison's performance review of Mayor Wynn for year one ("Where's the Mayor?" News, June 4), I'd like to point out the mayor's strong record when it comes to the film industry. Both as a council member and as mayor, Will Wynn has set the tone for Austin's impressive courtship of the film industry. The results are self-evident: Austin received an 84% share of the budgets of all films made in Texas in 2003, and earlier this year, we were named the No. 1 city in America for making a movie by MovieMaker Magazine. We would like to give the mayor credit for his vision and leadership in this area of Austin's civic life.

Dear Editor,
   Contrary to Representative Mike Krusee's notion, the recent Center for the American Dream assessed data for rail regions in 13 categories, including transit ridership trends, congestion trends, rail cost effectiveness, safety, and energy costs ["Here Come the Transporters," News, June 4]. The survey used data from 23 regions, which are among the 50 largest urban areas. The comparisons were between rail districts and bus districts, not rail and nonrail areas.
   Now just to show the survey was accurate, New York City scored high! Hey, transit makes sense in NYC, but if New York didn't already have rail, given the high cost, it probably wouldn't make sense to build it today. Even adding to the present New York system has been estimated at costs a whooping $2.1 billion a mile.
   The study concludes: "Rail transit is even more difficult to justify in other urban areas. Bus-rapid transit can carry as many people as fast as rail at a far lower cost, while freeways are 14 times more cost effective than rail." Add to, bus rapid transit is forever flexible compared to rail which is permanently "nailed" to the pavement. The study suggests entities "abandon" their trolleys saving taxpayers dollars and providing space for bus, autos, and pedestrians. In the 24 regions, rail lost 14,000 riders during the Nineties. Bus actually gained 53,000 riders during the same period. Rail transit reduces so called "livability" by encouraging congestion in 16 of the fastest growing areas. Rail has, in fact, reduced "livability" in every area it has been built.
   Krusee and his pals might want to site areas where rail transit has improved livability. How about Los Angeles, Mike? The study can be found on the Independence Institute Web site www.i2i.org.

Dear Chronicle,
   The plan to build $2.2 billion in Austin-area toll roads, largely with borrowed money, is the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever come up with ["Here Come the Transporters," News, June 4].
   World oil production will reach its peak and begin a permanent decline within the next few years. If you want proof, read "The End of Cheap Oil" in the June National Geographic. More scientific evidence can be found in the Oil and Gas Journal, or at www.peakoil.net. The energy crisis is here to stay. So the idea of paying off the proposed 30- to 40-year toll road bonds is nonsense.
   As the road lobby's "official statement" to the bond houses admits, the bonds are sound investments only as long as the price of gasoline does not rise above $2.50 over the lifetime of the bonds, and as long as basic travel behavior in this area does not change in the future. No modern metropolitan area can afford to risk bond default because we depend on borrowed money for so many public projects.
   The "road lobby" consists of unelected bureaucrats within TxDOT, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and "Citizens for Mobility" – the same special interests in real estate and construction that have always promoted road-building in Central Texas. These groups are now trying to pressure our elected officials on CAMPO to immediately approve the entire $2.2 billion toll road package in July after only one public hearing. A large part of the future costs will be paid for by suburban residents who will be charged toll fees on existing roads they've already paid for with tax dollars.
   These same special interests are trying to hold a relatively small $65 million regional rail plan hostage to the immediate approval of their far larger $2.2 billion toll road package. Mike Krusee's threat is that if rail advocates don't support the toll roads, then the road lobby will slash Capital Metro's budget and permanently cripple rail. But a modest and workable rail plan should not be held hostage to fast-track approval of billions in future debt for ill-conceived, special-interest toll road bonds that will never get paid off.
   TxDOT's mismanagement crisis is so acute that it hasn't even reserved money to maintain the roads it's already built. Now they want taxpayers to go deeply into debt to continue business-as-usual road-building policies as the "End of Cheap Oil" is upon us. Voters must demand that elected CAMPO officials delay toll-road approval long enough to carefully examine, diagnose, and try to cure the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever concocted.

Dear Editor,
    Can we please move on? The presidential election of the year 2000 was an example of government at its worst, but it is over. I do not want to read another letter from someone who feels that Al Gore ran a poor campaign. I have already pointed out the fact that Mr. Gore received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history ("Postmarks," July 18, 2003).
    Could we please just move on? Thank you.

Dear Editor,
   Me and several friends sat on Highway 71 between 620 and R.O. Drive Saturday morning (around 11:15 to 1:15) for about two hours, waiting for an accident involving two motorcycles and a semi-trailer truck to be cleared. The two bikes were destroyed and the truck burned. I have searched and read all the media outlets I could get/find including the Chronicle and have found nothing about this horrific accident.
   Does the Chronicle have anything on this accident? It really seems strange that there was no mention in the papers, nothing on the TV or Web sites about this accident. I know it happened, since I was sitting close enough to see the truck burning, and the two bikes lying on the ground nearby.
   p.s. I read the Chronicle often. Several of us here at work make a special trip at lunchtime to pick several copies up for all of us. Keep up the good work.

Dear Editor,
   "Liberals expect the nation to 'MoveOn.org' from Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes and perjury in front of a grand jury but simultaneously insist on harping on a lost election from four years ago. How ironic is that?" ["Postmarks Online," June 3.]
   Actually, Mike, in my opinion, not that ironic at all. Maybe when it is beneficial to "conservatives" through the broken looking glass that y'all use it is, but I don't think that I am the only one who believes there is a big difference between a blow job and the "election" of the highest office in the land, to elect the man who will rule and represent the most powerful country in the world.
   Do you really think the two are on the same level? If you honestly do, you really are delusional. As far as affecting our nation, Bill's hijinks may have cost us some of our authority to use the "moral high ground" to help push our agendas. However, this pales in comparison to the pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib, which will cost us worldwide for decades to come.
   The president of the United States should take ultimate responsibility as the top of the command chain, regardless of if he is a Republican or a Democrat, a "liberal" or a "conservative."

Dear Editor,
   You were oh-so-correct about the rousing speech on taking back Texas that Ben Barnes delivered to the group gathered at Mother Egan's for the last John Kerry Meet-Up ["Barnes: 'Take Back Texas,'" News, June 4].
   Let me, however, take gentle exception to your head count. Your article said there were around 60 people in the audience. Wrong!
   As a veteran of many Clark and Kerry Meet-Ups at that same venue, I went home and immediately sent out messages to my friends telling them that we had standing room only – well over 125 souls who showed up to support our next president and to hear Ben Barnes.
   When I saw Lee Nichols' article, I turned to the evidence to check my estimate – the photos we took that night (which incidentally can be found at www.austin4kerry.org/Pics/pics-5-27-MeetUp.htm). I count over 90-something different individuals in the photos alone. Further, given that I know this crowd, I can see that 25 or more avid Kerry supporters who were present are not in these photos.
   So, in the spirit of amicable corrections, I would like to invite The Austin Chronicle to join the fun next time we meet and count noses for yourself. See you on Thursday, June 24, 7pm at Mother Egan's. If you want to lift an elbow with us, we will even help you count.

   [Lee Nichols responds: The 60 figure was arrived at by a visual estimate, not a hard count.]

Dear Editor,
   Regarding the sham presidential election of 2000, every time some enlightened individual mentions that Gore didn't even win his home state ["Postmarks," June 4], I'm reminded that Bush didn't even win his home country.

Editor,
   Understanding the toll revolution requires some key facts ["Here Come the Transporters," News, June 4]. First, this a Republican plan. Republicans, locally and statewide in the lege, voted unanimously for it. Second, it is a redistributionist plan. The toll rates are not set to user costs but are increased to generate tax revenues. The tolls are also intended to be permanent and they increase every five years.
   It's true that the taxes can only be used for limited purposes. They include building more roads (free or tolled), rail systems (freight or passenger), airports, and utility systems (for instance, power lines or sewage lines).
   Republicans had the opportunity to vote for a Regional Transportation Authority, which can only build roads, but they chose to give us a Regional Mobility Authority, with its expanded menu of allowable projects. We know that Mike Krusee wants to use Travis County tolls to build regional rail, and it is reasonable to expect that taxes collected in Travis County will fund utilities and free roads in Williamson County.
   My estimation is that the typical Travis motorist will soon be paying $1,200 per year to support bedroom communities in Williamson County. It was reported last week that just one road, U.S. 183-A, may be priced at 50 cents per mile. Driving those four tolled miles twice a day for 300 days per year will cost $1,200. We have 120 tolled miles planned and CTRMA won't reveal how many additional miles of existing roads are planned for conversion to toll.
   Libertarians support user fees, either gas taxes or tolls, but we oppose redistributionist taxing schemes. I would think some progressives would oppose this Robin Hood in reverse plan, too. If not they will soon be paying for the construction of sewage pipes to dump Williamson County sewage in the Colorado in East Austin.

Dear Rachel,
   I was very grateful to see the Chronicle endorse Veronica Rivera in the ACC board run-off ["ACC Run-Off: Levin Defends His Record," News, June 4]. I do wish you had included at least one of my comments about the union's support of Veronica instead of an out-of-context, incorrect quote about her opponent's stealth candidacy. Veronica has the vision, energy, and dedication to be a great board member during a time of tremendous challenge. ACC needs the kind of reasoned, progressive leadership Veronica will provide. She is supportive of the faculty and staff that have made ACC one of the best community colleges in the U.S. We need her support because ACC is suffering from years of administrative incompetence. The college needs leaders who put students first and have the courage to make the tough decisions that will take.

   [ Rachel Proctor May replies: Mark Goodrich is correct that I misunderstood one of his statements about ACC Place 6 candidate Marc Levin. Goodrich was speaking only for himself when he said Levin did "pretty well" on an assessment of his stances; I mistakenly thought (and wrote) that he was speaking for the ACC faculty/staff union as a whole. This is not the case: Many union members did not rate the longtime conservative activist "pretty well" at all. For that, I apologize. However, Goodrich seems to be most concerned about what I didn't write rather than what I did. This story was about Levin's ability to convincingly present himself as a moderate despite a long history of far-right views, not an assessment of each candidate's positions and strengths. With such a focus, a listing of Rivera's many endorsements seemed enough illustration of the support she enjoys within the ACC community, without necessitating glowing quotes from supporters.]

Dear Editor,
   I enjoyed reading your article about the Kerry Meet-Up at Mother Egan's ["Barnes: 'Take Back Texas,'" News, June 4], especially since I attended. I do have one minor quibble with your otherwise excellent article, however: There were well over 60 people there. In fact, there were at least 100. Austin is leading the way in taking back the state, and the numbers at that meeting reflect that fact. Keep up the good work in reporting, though, and feel free to drop by our meetings any time.

   [Lee Nichols responds: The 60 figure was arrived at by a visual estimate, not a hard count.]

Dear Editor,
   It's 4:35am and I can't sleep because of the bikers roaring up and down Koenig Lane. I despise the Republic of Texas Biker Rally.
   The visiting bikers can take their conspicuous consumption, their I'm-too-cool-with-it attitude, their congestion of my city's streets, their consumption of my city's police, fire, and EMS resources and shove them all up their tailpipes.
   They can also take their alleged $30 million local economic impact and shove it, too. An alleged $30 million divided by an alleged 40,000 bikers equals $750 per biker. Oh please. Every biker, including each person in a couple, will each spend $750 in two 2 1/2 days? What will they spend it on – gasoline? I don't spend $750 on a piece of furniture, let alone consumables and mementos of a single weekend.
   ROTBR could earn my undying gratitude by ponying up $1 million in advance to fund my city's EMS operation for their 2005 rally weekend, and an additional $1 million to help keep my city's libraries open every day. Otherwise I fervently hope they go away and don't come back.

Dear Mr. Editor,
   It hailed on Memorial Day this year. On an Austin afternoon when the temperature reached 100 degrees, ice actually fell from the sky. At the time I thought that it might have been an omen of some import, but it was not until now that I discovered why: Robert Burns had died.
   Louis Black detailed Robert's public accomplishments ["Page Two," June 4], but I never worked with him; to me he was just a good friend, and I will miss him. He was literate and witty (Robert always maintained that he had a brother named Rug Burns) and he possessed one of the sharpest minds I knew. Let me give you one example.
   I will never forget a conversation that I had with Robert back in 1991 about palindromes. Palindromes are, as you know, words or phrases that are identical when spelled backward, like "dad" or "level" or "gateman's nametag." I mentioned the longest palindrome that I knew ("A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!") and remarked to Robert that, at 21 letters long, it would be difficult to come up with a longer one. He then gave me a six-line poem that he had recently written. It is in free verse and is a palindrome of 73 letters, quite possibly the longest palindrome in the English language.
   This is Robert Burns' palindromic poem:
   Sure, vote.
   Go there, gnaw.
   A rat race!
   We fill a minimal life.
   We cart a raw anger, eh?
   To get over ... us.

Editor,
   What is interesting to me with regard to Mark Vonderburg's challenge ["Postmarks," June 4] is that he complains of a lack of intelligent discourse within the "Postmarks" section even as he himself is offering simplistic admonishments in a sneering, superior tone (hey, I thought that was the province of the liberal elite). I would first like to point out that the amount of space given to the letters in "Postmarks" is limited. In order to be published, writers must constrain themselves to the 300-word maximum, so by default any argument is cut short.
   Vonderburg is right when he states that we need intelligent discussion. Personally, I don't think we the people are as divided as our partisan leaders would have us believe. But if by "discourse" he means "shut up and listen to how stupid and wrong you are," I haven't time or interest.
   I concede Vonderburg is also right about Gore running a terrible campaign: It was timid, lackluster, and safely centrist. But Bush was not elected; he was appointed by the Supreme Court (ostensibly under the impression that our fragile democracy would perish before a recount could be completed). A good many voters in Florida were denied the right to vote, either through erroneous purge lists or by tactics at the polls (they never saw the infamous butterfly ballot).
   We have a responsibility within a democracy to question the actions of those who would lead us. All the legal maneuvering by the Bush team combined to offer at least the appearance that our democratic system was sabotaged in 2000. At worst, we had a coup d'etat and the "liberal media" failed to comment on it.
   This November, most of the country will rely on the new electronic voting machines that remove the problem of the annoying butterfly ballot ... and a paper trail as well. Recount not an option. As citizens of this democracy, I should think that would make us all a little nervous.

Dear Editor,
   If you close the door to the garage, and turn on your car engine, you may soon die of carbon monoxide poisoning. That process is still happening, it just occurs at a slower rate since the "garage" in this case is the atmosphere.
   If vehicle exhaust was piped to the inside of your car, you can be damn sure emission standards would be stringent. However, since the poisonous gases from your vehicle exhaust spew out onto the streets for walkers and bikers to breathe, you can zoom quickly away with the windows rolled up, right? Don't fool yourself, my friend. So, still think the solution to the traffic/air problem is to build more roads? How can this make any sense? The only way you can improve the traffic problem is to get your car off the road. Most people keep expecting someone else (that would be anyone other than you) to solve the traffic and air quality problems. But the reality is, if you are in your car, and you are driving, then you are the traffic problem.
   We need to ask our decision-makers for more options.
   Here are a few quick facts:
   Travis County total population 2003 estimate: 867,929
   Travis County age 15+ population (i.e., eligible drivers): 715,476
   Number of registered vehicles in Travis County: 689,903
   Number of exempt vehicles (e.g., school buses, police cars, city of Austin vehicles, etc.) in Travis County: 215,846
   Total number of exempt and registered vehicles in Travis County: 905,749
   Number of options for taxpaying citizens to travel other than by car: good question.

Dear Editor,
   I am stuck in the stinking sinkhole called Houston, and I can dream about the pristine Hill Country. But now I read about all the developers raping the Hill Country ["Westward Ho!," News, May 28] and I know you are in danger of losing the most precious thing you have, the integrity and beauty of the land. Houston was never worth saving, but Austin and the surrounding Hill Country are worth saving. Fight the developers; fight the whore politicians who sell out to them. Support candidates who will protect your land. Austin is the only place I know in Texas where the citizens have the brains and backbone to fight back.
   I promise not to move to the Hill Country and pollute your land. I will keep my dream alive of the lovely, unspoiled Hill Country, Barton Springs, Hamilton Pool, etc. And if you lose it all, please don't tell me about it. Dreams of the Hill Country are all I have left, don't destroy that, too. Keep your dreams a reality; hold on to what you've got.

Dear Editor,
   I was amused and encouraged by your statement that Charles Soechting has "quickly developed a reputation as a bit of a loose cannon" ["Soechting Rallies the Troops," News, May 28].
   I'm not aware of the loose cannon label but I'm very aware of some descriptive titles he's earned in the whirlwind seven months he has been the Texas Democratic state chair.
   Charles is intolerant of several things including apathy, inactivity, and not supporting our Democratic Party.
   Chairman Soechting is a natural leader that has "made things happen" in the Texas Democratic Party to an extent I haven't witnessed in years. Scores of precinct chair vacancies have been filled, sustaining memberships have skyrocketed, long dormant Democrats have been rejuvenated, and our party exudes a vibrant, enthusiastic attitude that has been missing in many quarters.
   Justice Brister better get used to hearing a spade called spade. Soechting, and his staff, have too much to catch up on to waste time sugarcoating problems. I like people that are forthright! My wife and I both like the job Charles Soechting has done since the first week he was selected and both endorse him without reservation.
   The DNC has written Texas off as "Bush's state" and a lost cause. That's odd – I live in Texas and I damn sure don't consider it Bush's state. I've found that generally you're not whipped until you tell yourself you're whipped. (Read – when the DNC supports us, we'll support them.)
   I take no offense to your article; it's very understandable. Just remember that other cannons have played significant roles in our state's history. Back during our struggle for independence one "loose cannon" got so loose the Texicans captured it from the Mexican troops and wouldn't return it despite the Mexicans' insistence. In fact, that cannon is depicted on the "come and take it" battle flag flown during our war for independence.
   So cannons, loose or otherwise aren't necessarily bad. If Charles Soechting is a bit of a loose cannon that's apparently just exactly what our party needed to "blast" us out of our lethargy. Long live cannons! (As long as they're ours.)

Dear Editor,
   While Cinemania weekend was a failure costing the sponsors tens of thousands of dollars, I'd like to point out that the nonprofit, DIY Ladyfest Texas took place that same weekend and met with great success – with no financial sponsorship and very little press coverage (though not from lack of trying by the organizers).
   Ladyfest Texas has achieved this two years in a row now, by simply relying on a handful of scrappy organizers and a dedicated grassroots music and arts community that believes in the Ladyfest Texas mission. It seems a shame to waste all that money on a doomed Cinemania weekend when there was a viable, amazing festival with a proven track record right under their noses that really could have used the additional promotional help – but I guess we're just a bunch of "chicks" anyway.

Dear Editor,
   I just wanted to congratulate you guys on getting some great work out of Korey Coleman for this week's cover [June 4]. Does this indicate some sort of cross-employment détente between you guys and XLent, or is Korey willingly giving up his affiliation with the dark side for a shot at salvation?

Dear Editor,
   Austin Chronicle and Michael Ventura: Thank you sincerely for publishing this article ["Letters @ 3am," May 28]. Lane McCotter: Wherever you are, you will be called to account for your actions. Ashcroft: Your staff knows and some among them will one day condemn you publicly and see you sentenced. It may not be patriotic but it is American to demand "justice for all."
   Austin Chronicle publishers: You will very likely get a ton of flack for this article, but know this, what you are doing here is right, it is above reproach, and above all, it is American. Please encourage Michael Ventura to write the facts as he learns them ... the American people are depending on you.

Dear Editor,
   There seems to be many changes in the Chronicle lately. Your articles ... and your paper in general seem to be more "vanilla." It seems you are not willing to provide Austin the "weird Austin perspective" that you once provided. I find myself no longer reading your paper. Just thought you'd like some feedback from a longtime reader who now sees a "ho-hum" newspaper.

Dear Editor,
   (Sung to the tune of "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah!")
   
   Many kudos, Margaret Moser,
   You're the real thing, not a poser.
   Loved your piece on
   Music called filk ["The 'N' Word," Music, May 21],
   Praising Savages, the Spankers, all of that ilk.
   
   Those who like it,
   Me included,
   We're not geeky,
   Nor deluded.
   When we go out,
   Spend that dollar,
   We just wanna laugh and dance and hoot and holler.

Dear Editor,
   Diesel exhaust from construction equipment is the largest unregulated source of air pollution in our region. These emissions are considered carcinogenic (cancer causing) and the U.S. EPA estimates that annually up to 40,000 people die prematurely due to long-term exposure of particles from diesel exhaust and from other sources. Prolonged exposure by children, the elderly, and those with existing lung conditions should be avoided in and around the construction corridors on South First Street, North Lamar, North MoPac, and U.S. 183.
   Regulators have been slow to recognize and take action against these unhealthy emissions. The Texas Emission Reduction Program, which offers grants for retrofitting older diesel engines, holds some promise, but future program participation levels are uncertain.
   Governmental entities such as TxDOT and the city of Austin that fund massive road projects have to take a leadership role in contracting for cleaner air. The contractors who do most of their work are not required yet to use the cleanest engine technology or the cleanest fuels available. For example, the language for road bond projects should specify that clean engines and Texas Low Emission Diesel fuel be required. TxLED fuel has been available by tanker truck shipment for over 18 months.
   Maintaining air quality is not an option; it is essential for a healthy community and can help reduce additional health care expenditures from asthma attacks, etc. We all realize a hidden cost of road building by some adverse health effects suffered from diesel exhaust.
   I would encourage the road building community, including the Capital Area Transportation Coalition and Citizens for Mobility, to support efforts to reduce unhealthy diesel exhaust by contracting for cleaner air.

Dear Editor,
   I wholeheartedly agree with Mark Zuefeldt's commentary on Nader ["Postmarks Online," May 27]. I did not read Louis Black's article ["Page Two," May 21], but I did read his response to Zuefeldt and about died laughing. Mr. Black seems to forget that Gore was about to pull even in the Florida recount when the conservatively packed Supreme Court stepped in and halted it. Nader got a tiny 3% of the national vote and Black wants to blame it on him? Blame it on a Gore campaign that was lacking in anything working people wanted and needed to hear and that could not whip an opponent who could barely speak coherently and responded with sound bites while looking and sounding like a real dummy. Blame it on Clinton for not being able to contain his sexual impulses and tainting Gore by association in a horrible impeachment embarrassment. Blame it on 50% of the electorate who didn't bother to vote because they didn't want either Bush or Gore. There was nothing stopping Gore from adopting any or all of Nader's platforms and rendering Nader's campaign meaningless. Nader challenged Gore to do it. Instead Gore could only talk about phony social security lock boxes and old folks prescriptions and a few more things his handlers scripted for him. If Gore had promised to raise the minimum wage he could have brought out millions more poor voters. But no. If Gore had run a meaningful platform instead of the same old shit, he should have easily stomped Bush. Blaming Nader is too stupid. It plays right into the hands of corporate conservatives who would dearly love to discredit their worst enemy. Mr. Black, if you're still not convinced, call up Jim Hightower and get him to explain it to you after he stops laughing at your rationale. Go ahead. I dare you.

Editor:
   There is an interesting placement of two consecutive letters on the editorial page in the May 28 issue ["Postmarks"]. The first, on p.10, belabors a point about the 2000 presidential election. If Jason Meador would remove his partisan blinders, he could see that the recount for which he and his fellow Democrats were shrieking was conducted by two well-known left-wing publications. The Miami Herald and USA Today determined that President Bush did win the popular vote. Visit this URL for more details: www.fair.org/activism/usatoday-recount.html. Liberals expect the nation to "MoveOn.org" from Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes and perjury in front of a grand jury but simultaneously insist on harping on a lost election from four years ago. How ironic is that?
   The letter that immediately follows Meador's screed includes "It is the soldier, not the reporter that has given us the freedom of the press." A subsequent letter in the same issue by David Horton cites "funny stuff with the overseas military ballots." Horton is obviously referring to the Democrats' efforts to have the military ballots thrown out because their numbers favored President Bush. Numerous adjectives could describe such a plot, but as a son of a veteran, I would hardly consider political attempts to disenfranchise our troops "funny."
   Does each hand on the Chronicle's editorial staff know what the other is doing? Just as inept dancers have "two left feet," inept editorial staffs apparently have two left wings, as the Chronicle's editorial staff just demonstrated on its own pages. On the subject of editorial pages, an interesting piece appeared in the liberal newspaper of record, The New York Times on June 30. Visit www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30bott.html?pagewanted=1&hp.
   As a conservative, I read the Chronicle because it makes me feel so comparatively intelligent. Publish this letter. I dare you!

   [Ed. Reply: Michael, we all know you are more intelligent than we are, don't worry. Letters from the readers are exactly that – they don't reflect the Chronicle's views but those of the letter writers, so they are often contradictory to one another. Even with the staff, however, there is not a mandated point of view, so if there are two pieces on essentially the same topic published months apart by different writers, there could be conflicting editorial takes. Finally, as we publish almost every serious letter that disagrees with something we've published or attacks us in general, daring us to print something is foolish. The Chronicle thrives on discussion, disagreement, dissent - almost anything to do with the free exchange of ideas.]

Dear Editor:
   I am writing about J.P. Lund's comment ["Postmarks," May 28] that Envision Central Texas appointed itself as regional caretaker. ECT was invited by numerous civic leaders (the true regional caretakers) to survey the citizenry and then compile that information. It is a reasonable step in the usual legislative process for leaders to ask their constituents what they want. And while it is true that low voter turnout can demonstrate the public's lack of support or interest, change and new ideas are rarely wholeheartedly accepted in the beginning, so it's not surprising. It's so much easier to imagine an invisible process that just evolves naturally, but strong communities don't just happen – it takes good leadership and hard work. Just as importantly it takes participation from all of us to create a plan that truly represents all of us. In a community with diverse interests and concerns, collaboration and cooperation are valuable tools, and that is the role that ECT played. It is now up to our community leaders, not ECT, to take that information and use it to shape and then implement a collective vision of our area's future. If facilitating communication and consensus are activist qualities, then count me among them.