Liberal Drivel
Dear Editor,
[Re: “The Luv Doc: Let Bleeding Martyrs Bleed,” Columns, Nov. 14:] You are perfect for the Liberal Austin Chronicle. You can’t answer a simple question without degrading Jesus Christ and Donald Trump. I wonder what good you have ever done for the world or the country other than provide your insulting drivel.
Jackie Dorsett
Kids Want Gun Safety
Dear Editor,
I’m a 17-year-old senior in Austin, and I don’t think adults realize how exhausting it is to grow up like this. We practice lockdown drills more than fire drills. We joke about escape routes because it’s easier than admitting we’re scared. And still, lawmakers like Gov. Greg Abbott refuse even the simplest gun safety policies that could actually protect us.
No one is asking for anything extreme. Red flag laws save lives. Universal background checks save lives. It feels cruel that our safety keeps getting framed as a political inconvenience.
Students deserve to learn without rehearsing how to survive. I’m asking our legislators to choose children over lobbying money. I’m asking adults to act like our lives matter.
Sincerely,
Maddie Cassels
Gash, Gash, Gash
Dear Editor,
It has been eight months since I last traveled with you, dear Reader, down Hairy Man Road in Round Rock. Since then, the flow of time has brought with it a new road, the Wyoming Springs connector, which gashes through the earth at Brightwater/Creek Bend Boulevard before razing its way down a gentle slope toward Hairy Man Road then extending over it. Gash, gash, gash. Whose animal families were displaced? Further down on Brushy Creek Road, large earthmovers shape the land, turning what was once fertile into something dusty and barren, soon to house more McMansions; oversized luxury homes stuffed to the gills with items. Round Rock should distinguish itself by its focus on wilderness and natural beauty, with a focus on preservation and regeneration. I hope the new Arts Center downtown will bring literary and arts festivals to Round Rock with programming connected to ACC, Dell, and Texas State University.
Padmini Narumanchi
Clean Sweep
Dear Editor,
I acknowledge that cuts are necessary, but our priorities do not seem right. In Brant Bingamon’s article “With Prop Q’s Defeat, an Era of Austerity Begins” (Nov. 13), I do not think enough context was provided for the police funding situation.
In fiscal year 2024-2025, $496 million was allocated to Austin Police, which was already a significant increase from the previous year. For fiscal year 2025-2026, their allocated budget has increased another $29 million, and this was not changed despite Prop Q’s defeat.
That increase is more than the ~$12 million “intended for more emergency shelter beds and long-term supportive housing.” These funds could actually help the homeless population, but instead Austin is opting to increase the police budget. At least the term “homeless encampment sweep” is honest: our city would rather treat these people like trash to “sweep” than fund emergency shelters and long-term housing.
Lucas Steffensen
TANSTAAFL
Dear Editor,
In a letter in the Nov. 14 issue, Tahiyah Rahman describes how health care should be “a right for all, not a privilege for a few” [“Health Care a Human Right,” Feedback].
Rahman would be hard-pressed to find a single person in the entire state of Texas, let alone Austin, who does not feel sympathy for the less fortunate. I guarantee there is not a single policymaker who does not wish to make health care accessible to everybody in the entire state, if not the country.
But talk of anything as a “right” is easy and cheap, and actually harms advancing access by obfuscating the hard trade-offs that must be made on the ground. Nothing is free. Which social services would Rahman prefer to see cut to expand access to health care? Or would Rahman prefer we raise taxes, thereby damaging our international competitiveness?
Rahman quoted New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s position on health care. We would do well to remember that NYC, despite being the Capital of the World, teetered close to bankruptcy in the Seventies in no small part to the “free” health care that it provided to many sections of society.
From the iron laws of economics and the basic economic problem there is no escape.
Ahmed Saidu
Coward, Liar, or Both?
Dear Editor,
Is Ken Paxton a coward? Or a liar?
On Oct. 7, Texas Attorney General Paxton issued an hysteria-laced rant of a press release in which he declared that “Corrupted ideologies like … Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people,” and vowed to “initiate sweeping investigations into radical leftist organizations.”
In response, I notified the AG’s office that I was a sworn Antifa fanatic – also known as an anti-fascist American patriot – and alerted Mr. Paxton that I would be publicly “confessing” my “radical leftist” Progressivism at the Austin City Council meeting on November 6. I added assurance that if placed under arrest, I would comply peacefully.
I made good on my promise to “confess.” I was not arrested, nor has a warrant been issued for my arrest. Which should make everyone wonder: Does Ken Paxton lack the fortitude to follow through on his saber-rattling? Or does he know damned well that his histrionics are bunk?
In other words: Is Ken Paxton a coward? Or a liar?
Liam Mathison Farmer
This article appears in November 21 • 2025.