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.

Dear Austin Chronicle,
    Thank you for speaking out about Rick Perry's mandate [“On the Lege,” News, Feb. 9]. I haven't read your article yet, but a friend told me about it. I will be picking up a copy on my way home today.
    I have written several letters regarding this, and I plan on writing many, many more letters. This is being considered in states across the country. I feel that I owe it to the unsuspecting to take this as far as I can.
    Anyone who thinks that this doesn't affect them should really think twice. This affects all of us. Anyone who thinks that it's a positive thing to require this, just wait and see what comes next. There is plenty more to come unless we speak out and demand action. Aside from the audacity of Rick Perry, we are being governed by powerful lobbies and corporations. This is nothing new, but I for one have just had it. This has just been the last straw. Merck, Women in Government, and Rick Perry are putting a very powerful spin on this. What parent doesn't want to protect their child from illness or disease? But parents have not exactly been swarming to doctors' offices to vaccinate their daughters in the mere six-to-eight months since the vaccine has been out. This is not about potential benefits of a vaccine, nor is it about the cost of health care. This is about a lone company that has crossed the line; this is about a lone elected official who has crossed the line; and this is about governmental group that has crossed the line. Women in Government has allowed itself to succumb to Merck's marketing, and Merck's political and moral spin. The group has allowed itself to be courted by Merck. And now Women in Government is leading the charge. They are spreading the marketing and the political and moral spin. They, along with Merck, are courting state legislatures across the country. I'm sure there are plenty more companies and lobbies that are waiting in line to get a piece of this action. They are just waiting to see what happens with this. If this flies across the country, or even in one state, we are doomed!
    We are beyond the point of "Get out the vote!" It's time to "Get out the action!"
    So, in advance of reading your article, thank you for seeing through this "valuable" mandate to "save the health and welfare of our daughters"!

Dear Editor,
    What I find strange about Austin is the fatalism people have regarding its affordability [“Going Vertical,” News, Feb. 9].
    There are very simple mechanisms to make a city – even a popular city – affordable and keep it that way for much of the population, mechanisms that this paper has even discussed in the past.
    The two best are community land trusts and mandatory (not incentive-based) inclusionary zoning, mandating that a certain percentage of any new development be "affordable" with a clear and strong definition of affordability based on working-class wages.
    Honestly, no, it's wrong to say that only the rich should have easy access to treasured local landmarks. The rich didn't create Barton Springs; God and nature did. Developers just built fences around the damned thing. Developers didn't create the Hill Country; they just fenced it off and built mansions on it.
    If affluent folks are drawn to Austin because of its vibrancy, a vibrancy that goes hand in hand with a creative, artistic, working-class setting, where people can devote themselves to craft and artisanship and make enough to survive, then they're shooting themselves in the feet when they price working-class people out of homes and drive them to the periphery of the city.

Dear Editor,
    Re: New VMU development at 3130 Guadalupe [“Going Vertical,” News, Feb. 9]: What I don't understand is why the city doesn't make the developers of 3130 Guadalupe fix the street that they destroyed during construction. Guadalupe is all torn up right in front of 3130. They broke it; they should fix it. Not just slap asphalt on it, fix it. I pass by there at least twice a day dropping my wife off to work, or going to the Showdown. Where do I send a bill for my truck's busted shocks?

Dear Editor,
    It occurred to me the real possibilities of the United States becoming an Obamanation! Har, har hey!

Dear Editor,
    A little history lesson for our coal-fired governor. Approximately 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum, sea levels around the world were significantly lower. A recent high-resolution chronometric study by the Florida Geologic Survey puts the Gulf of Mexico roughly 400 feet lower than it is today. Much of what is presently ocean water was glacial ice during the Pleistocene. This allowed the colonization of North America by humans via the Bering Land Bridge and possibly along contiguous ice extending to Western Europe (though the later route is debatable). Slowly, over the course of 15,000 years, the sea level raised to its present level approximately 5,000 years ago.
    Today, more than a dozen coal-fired power plants are being fast-tracked for the TXU Corporation by their top recipient of campaign contributions, Rick Perry. The shortsighted ignorance of this is appalling at best. The emissions produced by the proposed power plants not only have health-related ramifications for the citizens of Texas in terms of particulate air pollution and mercury air emissions but will make Texas the seventh-largest greenhouse gas contributor in the world.
    With the increasing pace of glacial ice melt caused by global warming, we will soon see a human-accelerated version of the sea-level change seen at the end of the Pleistocene. Over the next several decades, we will start to see incremental increases in coastal sea level. Initially, this will cause increased flooding during high tide and storm events, and as time passes, we will begin to lose low-lying coastal communities. In a hundred years, the barrier islands will be reduced to a sliver if not completely inundated, and the town of Rockport (where I presently reside) will be largely underwater.
    Perry is only mimicking his predecessor, George Bush, who has taken this disastrous short-term gain today/environmental catastrophe tomorrow energy plan and made it national policy. Please raise hell, and stop this.

Dear Editor,
    A legislator here in Texas recently proposed to channel public funds to successful charter schools and withhold funds from those that were not meeting state guidelines. This sounds on the surface as a reasonable performance-based response, except that it assumes a tight connection between student performance and staff competence. There is a loose connection, but in reality, most high-ranking schools are in areas with higher incomes, better-educated parents, and to be blunt, kids with higher intelligence.
    From my years of itinerant teaching back in the days when student busing to other areas of town was mandated, I know the school they attended was not the most significant factor in student success. Busing programs eventually were phased out as failures. Throwing money at successful schools does nothing. Withholding funds from poor-performance schools ignores the underlying issues that caused failure to begin with and exacerbates the problems they face. No commenter questioned the underlying assumptions of this announcement. No rebuttal followed, and I'm sure the legislation is moving forward! Write your legislator and stop this insanity!

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Stephen Bosbach refers to Senate Bill 4, introduced last week by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, also known as the "Champion Charter Schools Act." The 194 Texas charter schools are public schools working under relaxed or adjusted operating rules. A few are quite successful, but many have been troubled by poor management, lack of accountability, and poor performance. So far as we know, neither conventional public schools nor charter schools are operating under the curious notion, proposed by Bosbach, that student intelligence is geographically determined.]

Dear Editor,
    Thanks to everyone who came out in numbers Saturday morning in support of Arms Around Northcross. It was refreshing to see so many united together for such an important cause. We must continue our efforts to stop Wal-Mart at Northcross. Shop responsible. Be involved. Our city is not destined to become a corporate cesspool. Take Austin back.

Dear Dave Denison,
    Molly's dog Shit must have been an egghead – he forced me to look up that fancy-schmanzy word "marplot” [“Point Austin,” News, Feb. 9]. When did Mary Ivins become Molly, and why? I only saw Molly Ivins once in the flesh, at Berkeley, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement. It was at the peak of the freedom fries nonsense. She reminded us that during World War I, similar dunderheads banned dachshunds but didn't have the balls to ban rottweilers. We all chuckled, doggedly.

Mr. Black,
    Although you and I have had our differences, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your column from yesterday's edition [“Page Two,” Feb. 9]. It was so enjoyable that I read it a second time.

Dear Editor,
    Who exactly is going to destroy the Ranch 616 ["Developing Stories," News, Feb. 2]? It happens to be the same developer that is claiming to save it … hmmm. They are demanding 400 feet, or they have no project. So tell me, if they don’t get the zoning change they require to put up a 400-foot tower, and they have no project, does the ranch still go away? Not likely, because that’s not what this zoning change is really all about.
    This zoning will drop a 400-foot tower directly across from the original city neighborhood – a Downtown, mixed-use, historic neighborhood that is far more iconic. Bigger is not always better everywhere Downtown. Supporting an out-of-context zoning change like this hurts Austin’s character and diminishes the texture and diversity Downtown. Please don’t fall for developers' PR tricks, rather than supporting the city of Austin’s commitment to planning and creating a thoughtful Downtown Plan that ensures Downtown is everyone’s neighborhood.

"Postmarks,"
    Just when I thought I'd heard it all, now I read where Louis Black is a Zappa fan, if not a true Zappa aficionado ["Page Two," Feb. 2].
    If you haven't heard the posthumous release of a collection CD called Cheap Thrills, I highly recommend it. The interview Zappa does with the hotel manager (of Mud Shark fame) is a gut-buster. What with all the no-talent trash that plagues the live music capital of the world, it's good to see real music is still alive and well. Much of Zappa's music, especially the lyrics and live shows, were off the wall, to say the least, but the epitome of multitalent genius none the less. Then there's Frank Zappa's total disregard for political correctness and hatred of agenda-seeking sellouts. Zappa still lives in the hearts of many.

P.S. p.s. Yo Louis, even though I have no idea about the "right-wing hate radio" you listen to (i.e., radio dial, names, times?, etc.), I'm sure I sympathize with your morbid curiosity. Why do you think I read The Austin Chronicle?

Dear Editor,
    I have lived in Austin for 12 years now. The population here has roughly doubled in that time. The amount of development is staggering but inevitable. What I truly cannot understand is the amount of litter strewn everywhere. I'd say this problem has increased by a factor of 10. It's disgraceful. I have had visitors from other cities comment on how trashed this town is. All one has to do is look down. You cannot turn your head without seeing litter. It doesn't matter if it's at a state park, a gas station, a grocery store, or along every road. There is an unbelievable amount of garbage everywhere. There isn't a parking lot in this town that doesn't have a fast-food bag lying in it.
    I actually stared in disbelief recently as some guy tossed his trash on the ground at Jack in the Box. He picked it up when he realized I was looking right at him – only to toss it in the back of his pickup. That bag certainly got sucked out as soon as he hit highway speed. That's where most of the road trash comes from.
    I pick up a lot of other people's trash. I do as much as I can. The city of Austin says to just call 311, and a manager of code enforcement will investigate the matter. I've tried that for Davis Lane. I got a call back, but I have seen no action. I realize there's a lot of area to cover, but it really seems like nobody gives a shit and everyone has blinders on.
    Sorry, but the Don't Mess With Texas campaign isn't enough. Minimum fines need to be dramatically increased for littering and need to be strictly enforced. I'm at a loss to come up with a better solution. Maybe the city could double the amount of code-enforcement managers. Clearly they are overwhelmed.

Dear Editor,
    The solution to Iraq is actually simple. Right now, we're in that country as an occupying force (no, not a liberator). They need a peacekeeping force. They need someone in there who doesn't tell them who their prime minister must be, which candidates are acceptable, how to worship, what crops to grow, who to do business with, etc. In 2005 the Arab League offered to send troops, Bush refused because they would not agree to be under U.S. control. We need to ask them again and include the members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. This peacekeeping force would be under the supervision of the United Nations. As the Islamic troops move in, we can move our troops out. I have no doubt that sectarian violence would continue for a few more months; it's hard to give up on hate and old habits. But sooner or later they'd begin to understand that they were killing other Muslims without the excuse of having a crusader force in their country. They'd be dealing with a force that spoke their language, followed their customs, and practiced the same religion. The main reason this plan would work is because after those few months of violence, they'd begin to realize that they really were in control of their country and didn't have the U.S. looking over their shoulders. Unfortunately, Bush won't accept this plan. The reason: The main reason we went into Iraq was to have control over their oil. Bush and his oil buddies would no longer have that control. Why, Iraq could even sell that oil to China, who might then give them billions in aid, which would further stabilize the country.
    This thought is so repugnant to Bush and Co. we’ll never see it mentioned as an option. Oh, well, the war is helping the economy at least.