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 Editor,
   The arresting of musicians, no matter their popularity, is not important ["Not Quite 'Ya Se Fue!,'" News, March 26]. The targeting, brutalizing, and killing of less "hip" people is. The only real potential benefit of this publicity is the greater scrutiny of APD, a consequence that City Council seems determined to prevent. In a sickeningly sycophantic gesture, Brewster McCracken invites Ozomatli to play a gig for City Council, while offering to make things right by letting Sixth Street be loud late. Is this an act of starstruck chagrin, legislative enlightenment, or perhaps a deft diversion? The focus on the noise ordinance exemption, while a tiny step in a rational direction, distracts from the real issue, blatant and repeated police misconduct. Noise regulation and excessive force are two different subjects that must be dealt with according to their importance. Those who struggle for police accountability are not anti-police, they are anti-abuse of power. There is a power imbalance that is dangerous and must be accounted for, not ignored. Hopefully some celebrity agrees.

Dear Chronicle,
   Please tell Thomas Tucker I'll pray for him ["Postmarks," April 2]. I happen to go to mass at the University Catholic Center where Father Sabatte preaches. Maybe Mr. Tucker should come sometime and witness an honest, contemporary, and "conversion"-worthy sermon about the life of Jesus. Paulists rock and Father Sabatte is a master of making the Gospel accessible without Hollywood theatrics. As far as the movie which calls itself The Passion being the "best sermon" that Americans will hear and see, what a very sad outlook on the part of Mr. Tucker. Mel Gibson's lousy objectification and prostitution of the death of Christ is both pathetic and uninteresting. It's offensive that one would create a film on the life of Christ with objectives of greed, profit, and furthering one's own already delusional sense of self-importance. Maybe I'm crazy, but how about going out and serving the poor and working in your own neighborhood or abroad (both of which I've done and do) to experience the word and life of Christ? Wait, isn't that what Jesus did and told us to do? There's enough despair and real life injustice around the corner and down the block that I don't need to go to a fucking blockbuster, offensively violence-ridden flick to get off and feel better about myself and somehow closer to my God – who has never left my side in the first place.

Dear Editor,
   If you care about freedom of speech and nonprofit organizations, please review the rules change that the Federal Election Commission is proposing and comment by April 9. It is another attempt at squashing criticism of elected government officials and could hurt many organizations regardless of their political beliefs.
   Details at www.allianceforjustice.org/spotlight/fec_prop527.pdf.

Dear Editor,
   As a person living in Maryland I am curious about something that happened there [in Texas] lately; maybe you or your readers could help me.
   I have read that a women that killed her children and said Satan told her to do it was found guilty and sent to prison for the rest of her life, yet a women who killed her children and said God told her to do it was found innocent by reason of insanity. Does this mean in Texas that if you believe in God you're crazy? Just asking.

Dear Editor,
   This is a joke, right? "How is it that in a city flamboyantly dedicated in theory to neighborhood and environmental preservation, so many individual planning decisions come down in favor of asphalt and poured concrete?" ["Betty Baker Rules," News, April 2]. How? How come you can't figure it out? This City Council is not about even giving lip service to neighborhood and environmental protection, all they're concerned with is, and I mean all they care about is money. "How much money can we generate for ourselves to spend and dole out to those who beg us for the cash?" is more like it. Stratus Corporation the evildoer in the Barton Springs fiasco? Not at all, they bought the land after the city decided not to turn the land into a park. See, turning that land into a city park would have meant the City Council couldn't tax it. They could however tax Stratus Corporation and any subsequent developments or homes or businesses. So, while struggling with "environmental concerns" the council said "screw Barton Springs, we have cash on hand." Same way they do the streets. A complete street closing would allow work to be finished in weeks, but "street closings" are a negative when trying to attract businesses to a city, so once again, money forced the council to say "Fuck the people who live on and the businesses who are on streets we're spending years fucking around with." It's all about money to the council; nothing else matters to them. Nothing. And anyone who says anything else matters is lying.

Dear Editor,
   I have just read Jena Selman's lovely letter to the editor ["Postmarks," April 2] concerning her beliefs on gay marriage, and I for one say, "Thank God for Jena Selman!" She is one of a strong few, the proud, the devout, the concerned.
   We should all thank her for exposing the truth about so many Christians such as herself: They are deluded hatemongers, twisting Jesus' message of love into political attacks directed at the people they love to pointlessly oppress, and to encourage people based on such hatred to physically attack them as well.
   It is unfortunate that there are not more upright citizens like Jena who provide great examples of the great lie that Christianity has become, and how far it has strayed from the words of its namesake. No longer is Christianity about peace and compassion for those different from you, it's now exposed for the political propaganda corporation it has become.
    Thank God for Jena Selman!

Howdy y'all,
    Re: "Betty Baker Rules" [News, April 2] – "How is it ... so many individual planning decisions come down in favor of asphalt and poured concrete."
    City Hall's Smart Growth gentrification-purge of lower-income Austinites has been up and running since 1998. The goal of this development-fueled purge is to remove Austinites from their homes by increasing higher property taxes through "managed" development. The city council is controlling this development-purge.
    Overdevelopment is the force (and the smokescreen) that drives City Hall's discriminating, bigoted, and unethical gentrification-purge of lower-income Austinites. How does City Hall push this gentrification-purge?
    Three weeks ago, at South Seventh and West Mary, city planning staff members painted a big red rectangle on the end of South Seventh where it dead-ends into West Bouldin Creek.
    A man pulls out from his shop-space there; he asks the mob of city planning staff what's going on. A city planning staff-person walks over and volunteers the following (recanted) information:
    "There has been so much development above South Seventh and West Mary [uphill toward Ben White], that the sewage in the main sewer pipe [located in West Bouldin Creek], that raw sewage has been backing up and overflowing out from the manhole covers and into the creek bed. The city is digging a new, bigger-capacity sewer tunnel here at the end of South Seventh to stop the sewage from blowing out into the creek [and down to Town Lake]. The new, big-capacity sewage tunnel will allow the city to encourage more development in the neighborhood, and that will promote more gentrification, which will make this neighborhood a nicer place to live."
    Whether it's APD leaning on struggling Austinites, or the city planning department leaning on struggling Austinites. They do what the Austin City Council members tell them to do.

Dear Editor,
   Although the article ["Who Can Vouch for the Charters?," News, April 4, 2003] was done in April 2003 and we are now in April 2004, I still wanted to communicate my thoughts with the Chronicle. So many times, we, as customers, take the time to complain, but don't do the same when a business does a good job. Well, I'm taking the time (although one year past the publication of the article) to compliment The Austin Chronicle.
   I found several great articles in The Austin Chronicle database comparing charter schools to traditional public schools. I commend you on bringing the facts to the table. The article included percentages and the actual number the percentages represented. Your article, although done in 2003, is helping make the decision on whether or not to send my daughter to a charter school and also is helping me decide which charter schools to consider. Thanks for a job well done. Keep up the good work. I am anxiously waiting for an update in 2004.

Dear Editor,
   Let's be honest. Both sides of the abortion debate bombard their opponents with emotive language to be dispensed whenever and wherever necessary in order to "prove their point." We should never forget Justice Kennedy's famous line: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Well that sounds warm and freedom-loving and tolerant, but I don't buy it. It assumes a relativistic stance on just about everything and doesn't solve the issue. In fact, it completely ignores the central issue, and here's why:
    The argument that abortion is about a woman's rights presupposes the nonpersonhood of the fetus inside the woman. If and only if the fetus inside is proven to not be a human, then you have a case for women's rights. Otherwise, there is no reason to abort the child.
    The "oak tree" argument – which purports to "disprove" the personhood of the fetus – is quite a bit more pathetic. It goes something like this: As an acorn is not a real oak, just a "potential one," such is the fetus, in that, it is not a real human, just a "potential one." The argument not only does not prove that a fetus is not human; it begins fallaciously with the supposition that an acorn is not an oak. The acorn is an oak, just an immature one. A fetus is a human, just an immature one.
    The many other "arguments" that some on the pro-choice side advocate are not arguments at all. They are appeals to exception and a presupposed relativistic moral code. Exceptions do not make rules. We cannot logically infer from a handful of situations that a new code ought to be established protecting a method of abortion simply because it's "happened before."
    I like to think for myself, and everyone else should, too – or at least those in charge of the whole abortion thing.

Dear Editor,
   Hats off to Jay Trachtenberg for his positive criticism of the latest Bad Plus recording, Give ["Phases & Stages," Music, April 2]. I so often appreciate his informed and intelligent sense of perspective.
   If the jazz purists had a fraction of the senses of adventure and humor of these three individuals that possess such remarkable musical character and instrumental facility, perhaps the lion's share of the world wouldn't damn near ignore the only truly American art form that has ever existed. And, everyone would tell stuffed-shirt traditionalists like Wynton Marsalis to shut the fuck up (I'm allowed to fantasize, right?) and look forward to the future while possessing a reverie of the past (long live T.S. Monk and the 'Trane, among countless others, for blazing the trails).
   Thanks again, Jay, for giving a band with such an original voice some coverage.

Dear Chronicle,
   I recently saw a picture of two band members who were arrested for violating the noise curfew ["Not Quite 'Ya Se Fue!,'" News, March 26]. Both looked passive as the police put handcuffs on them, and if you look closely at their [manager], Amy [Blackman-Romero], her body language suggests passiveness but the female officer's face who she is confronting is contorted. Later Amy would be arrested for "obstructing a police officer in their duties" – a class B misdemeanor. One of the band members would be charged with "assault on a public servant" which carries a mandatory two-to-10-year sentence. Later a picture would appear of Amy crying as she was released from jail the next day.
   First, Amy, welcome to the real world. The concept of reasonableness: to protect and serve has been passé for years by the police. Countless young men who made the mistake of arguing and wrestling with an arresting officer who suffered an "owie" have been labeled felons and spent two to three years in jail because they did not have the money for a good lawyer.
    Upon consideration of yet another absurdity in our childhood expectations of the world, I think we might be headed to being a vicious society. Even in the most peaceful situations like a national forest we put wolves. Personally I would rather face a hunter a month out of the year than a pack of wolves 24-seven.
   Last, our not-so-rich citizens who get caught using an illegal drug receive a jail sentence up to life by the federal government, without the possibility of parole, yet our killers are released on a more relative basis. They're not trying to protect "the kids"; they just want to get them potty-trained for prison.
   Maybe the only answer, Amy, lies in just staying in the bars and hoping that one never has to face the real world.

Dear Michael Ventura,
   Thanks for the reminder to get off my butt and put my money where my mouth is ["How to Beat Bush," Letters @ 3am, April 2]! I think you are right that even little donations by lots of people may make a difference in this coming election. I have just made my contribution to MoveOn!

Dear Editor,
   When the issue was a possible policeman's head injury, Chron Editor [Louis] Black was dismissive, saying "If this is the biggest deal [during SXSW], this is great news for us" (as quoted in The Daily Texan, March 22, "Ozomatli Members Fight Arrests Following After-Show Scuffle").
   But when the issue was possible police overreaction, the Chron (in its subsequent issue) took a different tack, publishing a full-sized, strongly worded ("mini police riot") article ["Not Quite 'Ya Se Fue!,'" News, March 26] and also, separately, a large, strident political cartoon ["Naked City," News, March 26], showing a passive rocker being sprayed point blank in the face with pepper.
   This discrepancy is the more glaring because of the serious injury (e.g., eye damage) to which a person being hit on the head by a drum is liable.
   Such lack of objectivity is typical of the Chron, and does, I believe, bear resemblance to the racism which the Chron is always so quick to condemn.

   [Louis Black replies: I haven't read The Daily Texan piece, so I have no idea as to how I was quoted, but I certainly wasn't referring to a "possible policeman's head injury." I was trying to suggest that if this was the worst incident in the 18 years of SXSW, it said something about general safety at the event and the police's performance over time – even though I wish it hadn't happened at all. Lest this seem callous or dismissive, I was talking in relative terms and am, of course, very concerned. That said, I must point out that I can say one thing and the politics staff write another. We are not all of one mind, they do not have to adhere to what I think. Suggesting that there was a change in "the Chronicle's attitude" is to miss the regularity in which the politics section and I have different opinions.]

Dear Editor,
   Even with a working judiciary, our police forces make mistakes, sometimes fatal mistakes. Can you imagine what it is like to be a 16-year-old boy living in Iraq today?
   What does it feel like to be awoken in the middle of the night and to have a 19-year-old U.S. Marine pointing an M-16 in your face? Or perhaps your mother's or your sister's face?
   Two scared teenagers, wondering what's going to happen next. And who sorts out the mistakes from the legitimate need for security? Certainly not the American media.

Dear Editor,
   I think Ray Benson might need a math lesson ["With a Bullet," Music, April 2]. A million albums sold, where "the rate per song is somewhere around 8 or 9 cents," would yield $80,000 or $90,000, not "$800,000."

Dear Margaret [Moser],
   Thank you for writing the "With a Bullet" article [Music, April 2], I really enjoyed it, but you need to make a little correction in the following section.
   "Having a mainstream country artist play your song on the radio – that's the operative phrase: played on the radio – means a six-figure income," states Benson. Here's one little math lesson. If they sell a million records and the rate per song is somewhere around 8 or 9 cents, which is about $800,000 split two ways, and the publisher gets a share. That's on a million-seller record. But the performance rights – when it gets played on radio – the BMI/ASCAP dollars are in the six figures for both for the life of the song."
   "About $800,000" for mechanical royalties on a million seller is incorrect by almost 10 times. The current statutory royalty rate is 8.5 cents per CD per song, so if a CD sold 1 million copies, there'd be $85,000 in mechanical royalties for the songwriters and publishers to split, assuming the label and publishers didn't negotiate for and agree upon a reduced mechanical royalty rate.

Dear Editor,
   As a fourth time visitor from the UK to SXSW, again we were overwhelmed by the superb local hospitality. This time for our musical banquet we ventured a little farther afield than Sixth [Street]. Highlight though I have to say, standing not 10 feet from the great Kris Kristofferson on Town Lake and for free. Nobody back home believes it. Much the same as no one over there believes that our fuel costs are more than $6 a gallon. One Texan asked in all sincerity if anybody drove in the United Kingdom. Sadly, like yourselves, we too have to get to work and the supermarket. And whilst in Texas another budget pushed the price of "gas" yet up a few pennies more. So, Texans, whilst you feel you are paying the cost of the Bush/Blair Iraq war, spare a thought for us Brits as at a minimum hourly rate of $8 and the highest taxes in Europe, we too have had enough. Thank you for a tremendous visit and God willing we'll be back for 2005.

Dear Editor,
   Your article about medical privacy while long overdue, is missing a major piece of the puzzle ["Letters @ 3am," March 19]. If you read the complete HIPPA act, you will see that it mentions that the PATRIOT Act grants the president or the attorney general at their discretion the ability to simply demand the release of your personal medical records. They do not need to state a reason, they only have to demand that a medical facility release this information.

Dear Editor,
   I believe capital punishment should be abolished because sometimes innocent people are put to death. Life in prison without parole should be the maximum sentence allowed.
   Our legal system is still "practicing" law. We don't have it down yet. And honestly, it's a joke. Case in point, O.J. Simpson. He was acquitted in criminal court and convicted in civil court for the same crime.
   If our system wasn't so sad because of those unjustly in prison, it would be funny.

Dear Editor,
   More than half of all television shows contain sexual content. It is inevitable that children are exposed to sexuality and virtually impossible to control their exposure to it. Whether parents approve or not, children are confronted with choices about sex, and they need to be prepared.
   According to an article by the health editor for MSNBC, 66% of high school seniors have already had sex. We cannot let them do this ill-prepared and uneducated. Texas needs to do more to help children cope with and understand sexuality by offering a comprehensive sex education program in Texas schools.
   A recent study by the Kaiser Foundation found that the vast majority of American parents support comprehensive and medically accurate sex education. Some say this only encourages children to become promiscuous, but a study conducted by the World Health Organization on 35 sex education programs around the world found no evidence supporting this. In fact, sex education helps delay sexual activity, encourages use of contraception, influences teens to have fewer partners, and teaches them about the option of abstinence.
   Currently, Texas teachers and administrators can provide only limited information on safe sex. For example, they can only mention contraception in a negative way: Condoms are not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy (instead of they are at least 95% effective).
   Attitudes and policies such as these are simply not preparing our children to face life's dilemmas. It is obvious that many teens choose to have sex, risking STDs and unwanted pregnancy. It is our responsibility to help them fully understand the risks and teach them how to protect themselves.
   Our children already have too many choices to make to let them face this one on their own. Let's mainstream the discussion and ensure our children make healthy, informed choices.