Postmarks
Our readers talk back.
Fri., Jan. 4, 2002
Accused Cops Have Good Records
Editor:
Thank you for Jordan Smith's article "A Very Fuzzy Profile" [Dec. 28]. It certainly should raise some public concern over what's taking place inside the Austin Police Department. One fact, however, continues to be overlooked: Officer Enlow's girlfriend, shown in the picture, is also an Austin police officer. She received a 90-day suspension arising out of the same arrests where she was present with Officer Enlow. In fact in an interview given by Chief Stan Knee to KXAN news, he accuses her of racial profiling as well:
"Because they think that individuals of this type are drug runners or some other type of criminal individuals, that is very inappropriate, and we deal with that very harshly," Knee said. What the Chief fails to mention is that Enlow was known throughout the Department as being one of the most effective drug interdiction officers on patrol. He also fails to mention that in two of the arrests the subjects were found to have crack cocaine either on their person or in their vehicle. In one case alone the subject had almost two ounces of crack cocaine on his person with a street value of almost $2,000.
Three of the suspects arrested had warrants out for their arrest including a total of three felony warrants and one misdemeanor warrant.
Given the Chief's most recent "oversight" in the new crime statistics, which show that contrary to what Chief Knee has told the City Council, crime actually appears to be on a sharp rise in Austin, it is not surprising that he "overlooked" mentioning the above facts as well. Too bad a police family had to be put near financial ruin because of these "oversights." Enlow's attorney is right. The public should be up in arms.
Sandy Caine
Reclaim the Facts
Editor:
There are so many areas to refute in Mike Clark-Madison's article that he wrote without talking to anyone on the opposing side for balance, but one statement stood out: "while anti-rail die-hards still think last year's loss should settle the matter, rail backers feel that there are at least 2,000 people out there who would have voted for the A-train had they known where it was going to go" ["Riding the Rail," Dec. 21].
R.O.A.D. contends that there are considerably more than 2,000 people who would have voted against light rail if they had known where it was going, how much it would cost, and how little it would do to help relieve Austin's traffic problems (ask any city that has it.) But when you pit our meager $235,000 campaign war chest up against a $1.3 million machine (directed by the chairman of Capital Metro's board) and Capital Metro's own bottomless money pit, it's difficult to get all the facts to the voters. Something your paper could do if you weren't so enamored by all the pretty wrappings the city and Capital Metro has shrouded this not-so-rapid-transit-call-it-what-you-want-but-it's-still-light-rail project in. There are mounds of statistics and historical data that demonstrate the fallacies and failed promises of light rail, including the government's own recently released GAO report. It's clear that neither Capital Metro nor the city of Austin will provide this information to the public. Let's not confuse the issue with facts!
Kathy Pillmore
Executive Director
Reclaim Our Allocated Dollars
Payne Supporter 'Clueless'
Editor:
I must respond to Chad Evans' letter, posted in Dec. 21 "Postmarks" ["St. Michael's: Unfair Portrayal"]. This letter is indicative of the yawning chasms that have existed among faculty and administration since I began teaching there in 1998.
I was a member of the theology department faculty until this academic year. I lived through and have many pages of documentation that were the results of altercations with John Payne during the last academic year. Chad Evans was not at SMA in that year. John Payne had not yet consolidated his power base by the time Chad left. As a member of Chad's department, I was made aware from the beginning his antipathy toward Jack Kennedy's administration. During my time at St. Michael's, there was a grinding feud between teachers who preceded Jack's tenure and those who were referred to as "Jack's people." I was one of the latter.
Chad Evans' logic is inconsistent when he claims that the teachers who were less than enchanted with John Payne were newcomers to SMA. Evans did not experience Payne's abuses. One does not have to have been an "old timer" in order to perceive emotional and mental clerical abuses. Evans' argument fails in the face of the facts that I have documented.
Let me give the most persuasive fact of all. I am the one person most qualified to testify against Payne -- who, by the way, has not earned the courtesy of "Father." At the beginning of the 2000-01 academic year, Payne trapped me in his office and screamed accusations in my face over a really innocuous matter, over which he chose to exert power. His aggression was so overwhelming that I filed a formal grievance with Jack Kennedy, charging Payne with harassment and abuse of power. Kennedy recognized the seriousness of the issue and began steps to bring me resolution. Then he was fired. Avis Wallace, in front of the entire department, refused to state that Payne had gone too far. It took me months to decide whether or not to bring a suit against Payne, Wallace, the SMA Board, and others. I only dropped the idea because I did not want to drag the good people, especially students, through the mud. Payne has never admitted responsibility. In short, Chad Evans is clueless. He is merely one of a certain group who harbor resentments against Jack Kennedy's "people."
Sandi Fults
Conifer, Colo.
Oil's Slick, Slippery Slope
Editor:
Re: "Hightower Lowdown: Democracy or Autocracy?" (Dec. 21):
The important lessons learned from America's addiction to cheap oil was that it led to our war on terrorism, and incidentally to Attorney General Ashcroft's exposure as a mouse hell-bent on becoming a rat.
T.S. Corin
Babich vs. the World
Editor:
As Mike Melinger points out in a letter ["Postmarks: Math for Gluttons," Dec. 14] animals do not go on doubling in size indefinitely. Animals are equipped with hormones that regulate their growth. Eventually, they stop increasing in size altogether.
Populations don't usually grow the same way animals do. Bacteria in a colony keep doubling in a fixed time -- say once a day. So if there are 1,000 bacteria on day one there are 2,000 on day 2, 4,000 on day 3, 1,024,000 on day 11, and so on, until whatever the bacteria are living on has been consumed.
World human population doubled from 750 million in 1750 to 1.5 billion in 1900, to 3 billion in 1960, to 6 billion in 2000. The doubling time keeps getting shorter, and there may well be 12 billion people on earth by 2030.
Of course, this can't go on forever. Something's got to give. Either people will stop reproducing faster than they can die off, or there will be enormous catastrophes that kill billions of people. So far, world population growth isn't slowing down. It's speeding up.
Austin's population was about 22,260 in 1900. It doubled from 1900 to 1925, from 1925 to 1940, from 1940 to 1959, from 1959 to 1981. It is expected to double from its 1981 size by 2010. Note that the economic depression of the 1930s didn't slow population growth.
Business and government leaders in Austin are planning for the population to go on doubling. It means more and more money all the time. The call for more roads in Austin is based on a population that keeps growing. So-called "managed growth" does not include limiting population size.
The city of Austin has no hormones to regulate its population growth. If we don't address this problem, Austin's population will grow until stopped by a major catastrophe.
Yours truly,
Amy Babich
Atrocious Transit Planning
Editor:
I'm a native Austinite who has lived in Portland for the last two and a half years. The debate over light rail here is so ridiculous. Austin has its head so far up its ass it's not even funny. Do you know how bad, nay atrocious, the city planning of Austin is? It's so bad, that if you live in any of the huge apartment complexes near the Hwy. 290/MoPac interchange, you have to walk three miles to reach a bus stop, through frontage roads and intersections with no pedestrian crossings. Or in Austin proper, there aren't even buses running down Windsor Road/24th Street, a main avenue connecting campus to West Austin. Preposterous!
To add insult to stupidity, we have total morons like this R.O.A.D. guy, Gerald Daugherty, who's such a black-blood Republican that he thinks the solution is to build more roads!! He thinks trains wouldn't work because people (like him -- shudder) wouldn't use them. But the only kind of roads the idiotic planners around here know how to build are gigantic monstrosities that only increase the level of dependency of average Homo sapiens on their 15-by-8-foot steel prisons called cars that they isolate themselves within on their lemming trek from their overpriced Nice™ houses in the boondocks to their chattel 9 to 5 jobs.
What we need is a complete overhaul of the public transportation system. Using MoPac for the train would be the nonsensical. The rail needs to run through the transit stations that all the buses run through, especially downtown, along Congress. If we started today, this would be a long-term project, but we'll have to wait for all these moronic Republicans and their greedy strip-mall developer bedfellows to croak before anything intelligent and civilized will happen with Austin's city planning.
Sincerely,
Jonathan S. Gilbert
Ourselves & Austin in 2002
Editor:
A year has come and gone here in Groovy Austin, and we are all changed for it. Some for the better, some for the worse, but all changed forever. Our hearts have been broken by the loss of people who were so important to us all, Mambo, Champ, Billy, Shoe-Shine Charlie, and the thousands we watched in horror die in New York. But as in all loss, there is a comfort in knowing that some day, all too soon, we will walk into a room and hear the music of those past again. We will see those who fought so hard to live again, healthy, happy, and well, smiling and welcoming us to the "Best New Music Venue."
I spent July 4 in Zilker park with about 40,000 other people who all, as one, laughed and smiled at the most excellent fireworks over the lake, on an absolutely perfect night. I walked back to the car buzzing from the contact high of being around so many people who had, for the moment, left their worries and cares behind and actually got out of their SUVs and had some fun. Not isolated by air-conditioning and tinted windows, but sitting out under the stars with people they never met, enjoying the night together as friends. I've seen the smiles of the faces of Shelley King, Jane Bond, and Toni Price as they nailed a note and knew it, like masters tossing out treats to their fans, sharing something special with them. I have seen acts of kindness and compassion carried out by ordinary people just because it was the right thing. All in all, with all our problems and difficulties, we are damned lucky to be smart enough to live in this wonderful place. As always the New Year will bring us both joy and sorrow. All you can do is pray that the sorrow is not more than you can bear, and that the joy is more than you thought possible.
Peace campers,
Carl Swanson
Next Year: The Afghan Gift Guide
Editor:
Now would be a good time to have The International Love Gathering in Afghanistan. We rent the biggest bulletproof warehouses. Put airport security on the doors ... and inside is a festivity going on with lots of free food, tents, heaters, and music floating through the air. I would like to see if I can convince Afghans to help me build and market my designs for Gravity Machines, Rotary Engines, Rotary Pumps, etc. ... they could easily change their weapons manufacturing outlets into productive outlets ... Also, I own three four cavity molds for mass production of The Brain Stimulator ... A folding hairbrush that could read, "Made in Afghanistan" for the next Christmas' stocking stuffers ... Connect with me at [email protected] if you are interested in going or sending.
John Elton Bills
P.S. I thought your Japanese bombers dropping presents was great! But they were over the wrong city.
