Postmarks
Welfare Coverage Excellent
Fri., July 4, 1997
Once again, I am impressed by the Chronicle's excellent coverage of the fallout from welfare reform. More than 38,000 elderly and disabled legal resident immigrants in Texas stand to lose their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits by the end of next month. The compelling article by Kayte VanScoy ("America the Brutal," Vol.16, No.43) gave a face and a soul to thousands of people the U.S. Congress would prefer we ignore.
I also appreciate your listing in "Public Notice" concerning the 40 Quarters Work History Project, which helps legal resident immigrants maintain their SSI benefits. I did, however, want to clarify two points. The first is that when seeking to establish a record of 40 quarters of work history in the U.S., in addition to their own work history, legal immigrants may also be able to count quarters of work performed in the U.S. by some family members.
The second is that the 40 Quarters Project and the Evening Legal Clinics held at Brooke Elementary School and Webb Middle School are a collaborative effort among many outstanding human service providers, including Legal Aid of Central Texas and Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas (VLS), the pro bono project of the Travis County Bar Association.
Again, thank you for your responsible and timely coverage of this very serious threat to thousands of elderly and disabled people in our state. Both Legal Aid and VLS are working diligently to alert legal immigrants who receive SSI that they may not have to lose their benefits. I urge all of your readers to spread the word that their friends and loved ones may not necessarily have to lose their only means of support.
For more information about the 40 Quarters Work History Project, please contact Legal Aid of Central Texas at 476-7244 or 800/369-9270.
Sincerely,
Regina Rogoff
Executive Director
Legal Aid of Central Texas
Brake and Smell the Roses
Dear Art Quinn ["Postmarks," Vol.16, No.43]:Whoa buddy, what's with the rush? Yes, Old Spicewoods Springs Road is very beautiful and picturesque. And yes, I agree it is narrow and loaded with blind corners. It also has no bike lane or real shoulder and for some reason people seem to think it is their own private race track. In spite of that we highly recommend to everyone that they take a nice slow ride or drive on it some time. It will relax their mind and revive their soul. But honestly, you don't realize how silly you sound telling us cyclists to stay off it. That road is one of the last wonderful roads in this area. If you need to get to town in a hurry maybe you should take a route with roads designed for higher speeds.
Slow down my friend, life's too short already, and besides, that's our lives you're threatening to shorten with that car.
Trish Miller
Matthew J. Feiner
Seven Commandments
Letter to the Chronicle:Instead of the seven "commitments" that Austin Inter-faith asked of City Council candidates before the election, the following would have been more appropriate:
1. Thou shalt not meet in secret to make decisions in secret, thereby deceiving and confusing the public.
2. Thou shalt not needlessly spend taxpayers' money on consultants from afar (they are not the Wise Men from the East), to arrive at findings that are self-evident to ordinary citizens.
3. Thou shalt use the excellent resources latent in our own University of Texas and other institutions of higher learning that abound in our city and state.
4. Thou shalt remember that Austin has a city manager form of government, so council should not waste time on trivia, but should adopt the long and broad view in planning and perfecting this city.
5. Thou shalt not bow down to or baby special interests, be they political, financial, ethnic, or religious, when these interests benefit only a few and are inimical to the well-being of most citizens.
6. Thou shalt order better coordination among the departments of the city, so that one crew diggeth not up what a previous crew hath buried under.
7. Thou shalt concentrate more attention on parents, holding them responsible for their children's transgressions when the city has to deal with problems of education, delinquency, crime, teenage pregnancy, gangs, and the like.
As a final suggestion, let all the non-tax-paying churches in Interfaith estimate what their property taxes would be if assessed -- then give that amount of money to pay for all those services and activities they ask the city provide. Wouldn't that be wonderful -- and so godly?
Leoda Anderson
Hot Dogs
To the Editor:As the summer officially arrives and the weather heats up, The Humane Society of the United States reminds readers that pets, like people, can suffer from the heat -- especially when left in a parked car.
Like their owners, companion animals enjoy the opportunities warm weather provides for outdoor activities. However, the needless suffering, and occasional death, of an animal imprisoned in a car on a warm day is a tragedy that is entirely preventable.
On a hot and humid day, the temperature inside a car rises very quickly. On an 85 degree day, for example, the temperature inside a car with the windows open slightly will reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes. After 30 minutes, the temperature will reach 120 degrees. On warmer days, it will get even hotter.
A dog's normal body temperature is 101.5 to 102.2 degrees. A dog can withstand a body temperature of 107 to 108 degrees for only a very short time before suffering irreparable brain damage, or even death.
Although many pet owners may not realize the danger of leaving their dogs in parked cars even for a few minutes, their ignorance may prove fatal. A brochure to educate others about the hazards of leaving pets in hot cars may be obtained from the HSUS. It can be placed on a car, in store windows, or on bulletin boards. Please send a business size, self-addressed stamped envelope with your request for flyers to: "Hot Car," the HSUS Southwest Regional Office, 3001 LBJ Freeway, Suite 224, Dallas, TX, 75234.
Sincerely,
Dennis White
Southwest Regional Director
The Humane Society of the United States
Encuentro Is Coming
Encuentros of the Second Kind... the revolution continues... July marks the reconvening of international encuentros begun by the 1996 Zapatistas-inspired First Intercontinental Gathering for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism in Chiapas, Mexico. This year's Second Intercontinental will be held in Spain July 25 through August 3, with thousands participating. The encuentro process is committed to bringing down Neo-liberalism through non-hierarchical, self-governing decisionmaking.
Neo-liberalism is Jim Bob Moffett & Bill "the cunning" Cunningham, Henry Kissinger, it's Fujimori & Zedillo, General Electric, Disney, the G-7, it's greed and profiteering off the working class, it's the dominant corporate power structure that spans all boundaries and borders controlling every level of our lives, what we watch on TV, eat, and how we educate ourselves. Neo-liberalism doesn't allow its slaves to determine their own quality of life, and it ain't got nothin' to do with bleeding hearts! Neo-liberalism is worse than big brother, and is far more insidious because it is the political system. Neo-liberalism is Bill Clinton because he went along with Iran/Contra to win himself the presidency. Get used to the name, because Neo-liberalism is coming in your back door to stay. There is something you can do though, and that's pencil in Saturday & Sunday, July 12, & 13, on your calendar to attend the Austin Encuentro at the Living Well, 4503 E. St. Elmo's Rd., Austin. "Our wish is that you command"... so open your eyes, snap your fingers, and grab your ass, cuz it's gonna be a bumpy ride to take back the future. For more Austin Encuentro details call 512/302-9547. John Dolley, Austin
West Texas Dump
Dear Editor:The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) has granted a registration extension to MERCO, the private waste hauler which has been dumping New York City sewage sludge in West Texas since 1992. The extension will allow the company to operate an additional five years after its current registration expires in 1998, despite the fact that MERCO has now lost its contract with New York. It will also triple the amount of sewage the company is allowed to dump from three tons per acre to nine.
For those of us in West Texas this action is insulting and injurious. It occurs precisely at the time the TNRCC is preparing us for administration hearings for another dump in our region -- a radioactive waste dump adjacent to MERCO.
Our experiences with TNRCC have always been upsetting. We have questioned the motives of this agency since it approved the original MERCO registration five years ago practically overnight, with a nod to Texas Tech University and the $1.5 million the company paid the school for "research."
In March, an aide to Senator Robert Duncan stated to me that TNRCC Commissioner Barry McBee had recently visited their office and had explicitly endorsed the site for the proposed radioactive waste dump which lies in the senator's district. Not only is Mr. McBee a commissioner, he is Chairman of the agency and the site in question was then, as it is now, before Mr. McBee and his fellow commissioners for licensing review. We understood, perhaps naïvely, that the TNRCC commissioners, who will make the final decision on the license, are to remain impartial until the hearings conclude. Otherwise, why have the hearings? According to Senator Duncan's office, Mr. McBee has already made his decision. Should we be surprised?
These actions of the TNRCC display a nearly zealous support for waste dumping in west Texas. They fly in the face of local and international efforts to protect our increasingly damaged border environments. It is utterly a disgrace.
Sincerely,
Linda Lynch
Big Deal
Editor: Perhaps this is picky, but could y'all please look up the
meaning of the word "enormity?" The American Heritage Dictionary says: "enormity - n 1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness; outrageousness. 2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage." They go on to say, under a note on usage, that the word should not be applied to size. In this week's issue, Russell Smith speaks of the "enormity of (Ulee Jackson's) tenderness" in a context not meant to suggest, say, child abuse. To be fair, a couple of weeks ago one of the Margarets used it incorrectly, but it took a second instance to bug me enough to write. Thanks for your attention.
Sincerely,
Alicia Diehl [Editor's note: Apparently the jury is still out on this. The third edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language lists a third definition that reads "3. Usage problem. Great size; immensity." Under the usage note it reads "Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of enormity" to mean size, which suggests that 41% of the panel didn't have a problem with it. The usage note also says "This distinction between enormity and enormousness has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it. Also, the Chronicle only has one Margaret (Moser) writing for it.]
Another Coach Slam Dunk
Editor: A friend of mine in the TV business faxed your May 30 column
["Coach's Corner," Vol.16, No.39 ] on NBA coverage on TV to me and I wanted to
let you know how much I enjoyed reading it. Your witty overall assessment of
the television side of the NBA Playoffs is right on the money for the most
part, particularly your analysis of NBA television announcers.For someone who works in TV sports media relations, it is refreshing to read a column that expresses such a truthful, lighthearted look at our industry. And, yes, your column has been distributed throughout the Turner Sports hallways -- much to the delight of all who have seen it.
Keep up the good work and please let me know if I can ever be of assistance! Tom Hughes
Turner Sports Media Relations