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,
    Someone needs to inform Gov. Rick Perry that the government's job is to deal with reality not mythology. Stories in the Bible and other religious writings are like fables – they teach a moral lesson. Because of weakness and allowing power to go to his head, Perry is not as ethical, fair, and open as he should be. Truthfully, this country was not founded on Christianity but from a landgrab and the near-annihilation of the Native American peoples.

Dear Editor,
    The role of local government is not to subsidize billion-dollar businesses like Formula One racing; this is the function of Wall Street and should be accomplished by selling stock to investors who wish to take these risks. I suggest the $4 million would be better invested in our local education system, investing in highly qualified educators to educate our next generation of children. Alternatively, if the City Council doesn’t find that a worthy cause (somehow I doubt they do), maybe they could pay residents to xeriscape their properties and address the business of water conservation. Providing education and clean water to current and future Austinites is the primary responsibility of local government not subsidizing professional auto racing. In fact, I believe that doing so is a breach of the council's fiduciary responsibility to all residents of Austin. Aren’t you ever angry with how our elected officials spend/waste our tax dollars too? If so, please take three minutes and email or call the City Council today and tell them you oppose funding Formula One racing.

Dear Editor,
    I just wanted you to know that I have sent pages about redistricting [“Five Districts, No Representation?,” and “Reviving Bipartisanship,” News] and Planned Parenthood [“The State's Planned Parenthood Trap,” News] in the June 10 issue to both the attorney general and the secretary of health and human services. Hopefully the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice will now start the preclearance investigation of congressional districts and all districts redistricting with a view toward not approving them. Also hopefully, the Department of Health and Human Services will do to the Texas Planned Parenthood state funding ban what they did to Indiana's: kill it.
    Kudos to the reporters who wrote those stories.

Dear Editor,
    While City Council races are nonpartisan, Randi Shade made her Democratic credentials an issue when she took out an ad in the Chronicle saying she'd given more money to Democrats than Kathie Tovo.
    However, Shade likes to play it both ways. Her recent campaign and expenditure report shows she hired Lucas Sheffield, Mike McCaul's former campaign manager and the Texas coordinator for the American Majority, a political training organization for conservative candidates and activists. Even worse, she hired Mike Baselice, Rick Perry's pollster. Undoubtedly, Shade wants them to whip up Republicans to vote for her.
    So, while many of us are working our tails off fighting Republican redistricting plans, union-busting, trying to keep schools funded, and fighting the passage of anti-choice legislation, Shade is using developer money to fight our causes.
    So who's the better Democrat?

Dear Chronicle,
    This past Mother’s Day, around noon, just up the hike-and-bike trail from the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, my girlfriend was jogging; a dog knocked her down; she fell and hit the back of her head, had fairly profuse bleeding from her scalp, was woozy, and had to wait a few minutes before getting up. She went to an emergency room where she had to get stitches in her scalp.
    I was not there when this happened, but a couple of bystanders helped her. One in particular – a lady who said she is a dermatologist – was most helpful. Thank you! However, the owners of the dog were all about downplaying the injury and not giving out any info on who they were. My girlfriend is an animal lover and was clear that the dog didn’t do anything vicious – it merely responded a little over enthusiastically when the owner whistled for it. I agree – the dog’s not the problem – it was an accident. But I hope the selfish, thoughtless, uncaring, arrogant, self-centered asshole owners are fucking ashamed of themselves.
    Note to anyone who may have witnessed this – they had three dogs – a border collie (the accident culprit), a German shepherd, and a nondescript mix. Again, the dogs are cool; it’s the owners who suck. If you see them, please tell them.

Dear Editor,
    Mike Levy recently sent out a ridiculous letter trashing one of the City Council candidates. He derided her idea that we could simply conserve water rather than build an expensive new water treatment plant, by saying, "[H]er theories must include our being allowed to drink water in limited amounts only 2 days each week, and not between 10 am and 7 pm."
    Levy is either so unfathomably stupid that he actually believes that drinking is anywhere near one of the major uses of water in this city, or he's intentionally lying. I wonder which it is?

Dear Editor,
    Almost didn't notice the City Council elections. Then a flier arrived in the mail. Oh my goodness: A woman chowing down on steak, trying to win my vote for city council? I think not. Max Nofziger pegged his constituency, we eat a lot of macaroni and cheese. Went and voted, and now we face a run-off between Kathie Tovo and Randi Shade. Replacing the typical Austin campaign imagery of healthy people swimming in cool spring waters with a Hoffbrau steak swimming in grease is a good way to get attention, and my posse and I found good humor following the story of Miss Meat-and-Potatoes.
    This week, I received mail from the Committee for Even Minimally Sane and Rational Government in Austin. Inside, I find out Tovo is personally blamed for gang violence, 911 call wait times, and wildfires. A vote for Tovo means we might have drinking water rationed to two days a week. Ever notice the traffic signals are not timed correctly?! That's Tovo's fault too! It concludes: "please, please, please vote against Kathie Tovo."
    The text of this letter never once mentions how a vote for Randi Shade might help. It's a run-off. Between two individuals. Compare and contrast between the two would be appropriate. If Mike Levy felt he has "never had a politician scare me more than Kathie Tovo," perhaps he should have warned voters before the general election? This letter is the most despicable piece of campaign propaganda that has ever crossed my doorstep. The election and Randi Shade's attempts at campaign marketing were once sort of funny. Now, it is not. People whose friends write and mail such vile letters must not be allowed to shape policy for our city. Vote early, vote often, and vote to keep Austin healthy.

Dear Editor,
    I agree with Bill Bunch [“Postmarks,” June 10] that we don’t need Water Treatment Plant No. 4. However, let’s just suspend rational thought and assume that we do indeed need the plant. Then we’d have to ask ourselves just where all this water is going. All too often it’s to water St. Augustine grass, on public as well as private lands. The $1 billion price tag for WTP4 is a big fat St. Augustine subsidy. Money spent reducing St. Augustine acreage would be a much better investment than a new treatment plant.

Dear Editor,
    One consequence of the in-process City Council run-off election has been a revival of the Water Treatment Plant No. 4 debate. This back-and-forth blather inspired me to take a closer look at Paul Robbins' Austin Water report. My reading of this report indicates that we are losing about 15 million gallons a day due to leaky water pipes, and that there are 1,050 miles of old cast iron city water pipes which need to be replaced to prevent these leaks.
    I ain't no mathematical genius or nuthin', but it seems to me the money spent on WTP4 would have been much better spent massively accelerating the replacement of these cast iron pipes, all of which are more than 50 years old. One would think the first priority should be fixing leaky pipes before adding additional capacity. Now I can understand that City Council members are far too busy to think about mundane issues like the water supply, but no one at the water utility thought of this, either? Really? Does this help to explain why water is more expensive in Austin than it is in any other major city in Texas?

   [Editor's note: Read Paul Robbins report posted online with "Water Fall," News, June 17]

Dear Editor,
    It's discouraging that the Chronicle and Randi Shade continue to mischaracterize the Austin Sierra Club water policy position, particularly regarding Water Treatment Plant No. 4 [“'An Independent Person,'” News, June 3]. It is unclear if this is through intent or misunderstanding. If Council Member Shade had been truly listening the last three years, she should know that the Austin Sierra Club is not a "no growth" organization. To say our policy is based on, "If you don't build it, they won't come," is a blatant misrepresentation. We know that people are coming to Austin and Central Texas, in fact that is what guides our position. Increased density in appropriate areas (which we do support) will further the already downward trend of usage reported by Austin Water.
    We cannot "treat" our way out of the water shortage problems, WTP4 does not manufacture water. It will not give an additional supply of water. We must work on conservation now while we have the existing treatment capacity. The issue is not about treatment capacity but the resource itself … the dwindling supply of water. We are now experiencing the most severe drought in years. This cycle is projected to become the norm by most climatologists. We must have a complete shift in our approaches and methods to solve our new water challenges – 20th century solutions will not solve 21st century problems.
    What we do advocate is rebuilding our water infrastructure, i.e., pipe lines and delivery systems, i.e., pump stations (projects that have to be done anyway) in the same way we've updated and modernized our current treatment facilities. This in conjunction with expanding our water conservation programs, including onsite wastewater capture and reuse in new construction, will save water; create hundreds of new, permanent jobs; keep the community safe; and the money will stay in the community. Sure, the money may go to different contractors than those supporting Shade, but the economic benefits will be the same for Austin. Meanwhile ratepayers don't have to watch their bills go out of sight.
    We can put off WTP4 for years this way. Will we still need it later? Maybe. I might need knee replacement surgery in 20 years, but I'm not going to do it now no matter what kind of "special" they're trying to sell me.