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 [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    Some political cartoons from Norway have enraged Muslims around the world because of the perception by those Muslims that their religion is above reproach, and ironically that their mighty Allah can have his feelings hurt quite easily.
    We American non-Muslims keep hearing about how Islam is really a peaceful and beneficial religion. Then we hear about the occasional flood of hate and anger from Muslims, because someone had the guts to criticize their prophet – not even their god, but the human they revere, who happened to be fallible too.
    So they burn effigies, surround government agencies, and threaten violence if the critics of Islam aren't silenced. Seeing this behavior in the news again and again, how can we not think that Islam is a hate-filled and dangerous religion that should be investigated, and systematically shut down – for the benefit of humanity? Or should the sensitive nature of religion trump the basic right to free speech? I sure am glad we don't have to cope with Allah in our faces like this. Just lots of passionate people.
    Now don't get me started on Christianity.

Dear Editor,
    The run-off for the special election is Tuesday, Feb. 14 – early voting continues through this Friday.
    No one knows the dangers of run-offs better than I. A double-digit lead means nothing if your voters are not as determined to follow through as your opponent's. We have a chance to undo Tom DeLay's brutal redistricting of Travis County and put a highly qualified Democrat, Donna Howard, in the Legislature. But, that will only happen if we do everything that needs to be done!
    If you live in District 48, and haven't yet voted, do it today! If you haven't voted early, move heaven and earth to get to the polls on Tuesday. (A woman came straight from the emergency room to Casis to vote for me at 6:45 on June 11 – I am forever touched and impressed by her determination.)
    If you don't live in the district but have friends that do, make sure that they vote. Call them all, accept no excuses, accompany them to an early-voting location.
    Volunteer a couple of hours to call voters or block walk. Just do it! Don't let's snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - every vote counts (surely we have learned that lesson well enough in recent years).

Dear Editor,
    I recently wrote to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison regarding my concern over global warming. She responded with a letter that said it wasn't scientifically established and was not in our best economic interest. OK. Well, it is a real shame to waste a senate seat, particularly on a woman since they are in such short supply there. I'm sorry that Ms. Hutchison does not support the environment, or any other serious women's issues. If we were to have a woman senator who thought like a mother or grandmother, she would surely not support a war that kills young people or an environment that may not be fit for her subsequent heirs. Give me a woman senator that really thinks like one – not one who is cowered by her male colleagues. And oh, by the way, any way to get rid of that Cornyn guy? Talk about lock-step.

Dear Editor,
    I am sorry that some of our elected Democrats and other liberals are upset that some of their phone calls might be listened to. If they are so concerned about civil liberties of terrorists, and think they can be talked to and reasoned with, I suggest that they catch the next flight to Baghdad, put their little feet on the streets, and meet them face to face.

Dear Editor,
    That was one of the more incredibly far-sighted and fair articles I have ever read in a newspaper about the struggle between management and union workers [“Point Austin,” News, Feb. 3].

Dear Editor,
    Right-wingers on the radio and elsewhere are saying, "If you've got nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid of Bush's domestic spying program." A real conservative (or liberal) would never say such a thing, knowing the importance of checks and balances in a democracy.
    My question to the right-wingers is this: If Bush has nothing to hide, why is he afraid of judicial oversight? The answer is obvious to someone like me, who lived through Nixon's paranoid regime.
    Bush's spying is not limited to terrorist conversations. It goes far beyond what even the compliant FISA court would approve. As evidenced by other surveillance programs, such as the Pentagon's TALON, what gathers information on American protest groups, Bush is doing just what Nixon did. He's preparing an enemies list. He will then use the resources of the federal government to persecute those personal enemies, just as Nixon used the FBI and IRS in his day.

Dear Editor,
    On Nov. 8, 2005, 75% of the Texans who voted did so to constitutionally outlaw gay and common-law unions. Rather than protect the sanctity of marriage, they revealed that it is in fact mortally corrupted; they did not exalt their values, but demonstrated the virulent hypocrisy of their movement.
    Not a day has gone by in the past 35 years that I have not been thankful to no longer be a child silently trapped in the pathetic illusion and neurotic cruelty of a fundamentalist Christian household, “the closet” manifest.
    So it was with bemused amazement that I read the reactions of some people to the cover for “The New Texas Family Planning” [News, Jan. 27]. One poor lady (“Postmarks Online,” Feb. 3), grateful she does not live in this den of iniquity called Austin, branded it “pornography.” She meant “blasphemy,” but the p-word really “sexed-up” her letter. She recoiled in horror at the thought her innocent children might have seen it. What a disservice she does them in her attempt to keep them insulated in her small, pretend-world.
    To me the cover illustrates that the neo-conservatives, under the banner of religion, think they will control the reproductive system of every female in the country, à la Alito. That this obscene reality is exposed enraged them, not the juxtaposition of a Bible and legs on an examining table. Their shame of the human life cycle could not be more apparent.
    As for the advertiser (Altex Electronics, also “Postmarks Online,” Feb. 2) who wishes no longer to be associated with The Austin Chronicle, (blatantly pandering to those busybodies who just cannot mind their own business – the social retardation of their children not sufficient), rest assured many Chron readers have taken note that their patronage is not welcome at your business.

Dear Editor,
    The picture on the cover of your January issue is absolutely horrid [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27]. I am a parent of two young children and am only glad when I saw this on the stand in open sight to all, they were not with me. However, while I stood looking at this cover in horror at least 15 younger children did come by and see it. Two adolescent boys thought is was funny but the impression is already there. I am a Christian but I am also pro-choice and can tell you the only thing you are accomplishing is alienating people like me from the pro-choice cause. I will never be associated with that type of shock value. I am disgusted and will no longer pick up the Chronicle, no longer vote in the polls, and not only that, but have sent an e-mail out to 15 people I know who feel the same as I, asking them to boycott the Chronicle as well. I can not even begin to tell you as a mother how much your choice to put that picture on the cover totally disgusts me and many like me.

Dear Editor,
    Update on Dec. 30, 2005 story by Emily Pyle [“Bringing the War Home,” News]: Alaa' underwent two surgeries on her right eye and one on her left, not the six reported in the article. She was however fitted for glasses last week and received them just a few days ago. She took to them – and a set of blocks and whatever else she could find – immediately and we are happy to report that she appears to be seeing well. Now comes the long process of learning to see well, but at least she has a chance at a life with vision. We were able to find a surgeon in California who will repair her hernia and then hopefully she can return to her home.

Dear Editor,
    I find it somewhat amusing, but mostly sad, that humankind insists on creating idols, attaching meaning to them, and then getting pissed off when someone “desecrates” their imaginary constructions. Sounds like little kids knocking over each other's sand castles on the beach. Don't most religions caution against worshipping idols?
    Whether it's a flag or a book or a prophet, or a newspaper cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27], isn't it about time we realize we don't need to be so thin-skinned about things that happen entirely in our heads?
    In prayer, I took a question to Jesus. I said, "Jesus, would you be angry if someone published a picture of you sexually molesting a goat?" He just gazed at me with a look of exasperated compassion.
    So as we all don't become extinct as a species, can't we give up the need to be offended by things that don't actually threaten us?

Dear Chronicle,
    Loved the cover last week [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27], and was amazed at some of the remarks I read this week by certain self-styled "Christians" [“Postmarks,” Feb. 3]. Desecration? Sacred object? Do you people worship God? Or do you worship a book? The remarks I read looked like nothing less than pure idolatry in my opinion.
    And if I had small children, I would love for them to see that cover, and I would explain to them how women's bodies are sacred, that their sexuality is divine and to be respected and honored, and that their fertility is a gift of the Creator, and to be treated responsibly – that women are the gatekeepers to the passage of life and death, and that their choices are to be respected and honored in how they use their gift of fertility and that power of birth. And that women deserve care and respect and the most thorough and medically accurate information possible when faced with decisions regarding their awesome power of birth and renewal of life.
    If we truly honored God's image as reflected in his creation of womankind, we would have comprehensive sex education, rather than tell young women to read the Bible and think of Jesus on the cross as a contraceptive method. Thinking of a bloody, tortured man definitely is a curb to a normal person's libido, but education that respects a woman's power to choose is more effective in the long term in preventing unwanted pregnancies from happening in the first place. Girls left ignorant will have sex, persuaded by their horny boyfriends that "you can't get pregnant the first time" and so on, and society will bear the burden of their uninformed choices. Everyone of us will be responsible too. Chickens, meet roost.

Dear Louis and staff,
    It's so sad to see how many of us "take issue" with Chronicle covers instead of gratefully recognizing you as voices in the dark – sometimes loud, obnoxious, and/or "obscene" – trying to steer our attention to the real perversions and obscenities in our society: the self-serving (religious) self-righteousness of men and women in power at the expense of the vast majority of their constituents, the destructive greediness of corporations, and the brainwashing of our civilization by the media.
    Thank you – Louis, Michael Ventura, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, and other good folks for challenging and inspiring my thinking.

Dear Editor,
    I was disturbed by the letters from Scott Spinola and Michelle Earle printed in last week's “Postmarks” section [Feb. 3]. These readers wrote in opposition to the cover photo of Jan. 27, which pictured a Bible between the open legs of a woman on an exam table [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]. Earle called the image disgusting, offensive, and inappropriate for family viewing. Spinola went further, saying the image was vile and a desecration of the Bible. Why? Because of where the Bible had been placed: between a woman's legs. These readers must find the female reproductive organs disgusting, offensive, and vile. Such thinking is backward and hateful. As a woman I am deeply offended by your remarks. If you find the female body disgusting, that's your problem. I don't believe the Chronicle or anyone else should tiptoe around your disordered orientation to human sexuality.

Dear Editor,
    Why doesn't the writer just call it abortion [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27]? If it is so noble, why refuse to call it what it is?

   [Editor responds: Maybe because family planning is to abortion as foreign policy is to war. President Bush believes the war in Iraq is noble but if instead of "Bush's foreign policy" you said "Bush's war" it would be wrong, dumb, and misleading. But that's just a guess.]

Dear Editor,
    Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
    While our nation's leaders are apparently being bought and sold by the neo-robber-baron corporations of the 21st century, our future and the future of our children and grandchildren is in peril. Simply put, this has become a country by the rich for the rich. While the multibillion-dollar corporate media apparatus distracts us with the infotainment pseudo-journalism, reality television, and Brad and Angelina updates, current events are marking a rape of the American people unseen since the Gilded Age.
    The recent budget cuts of $39.5 billion that disproportionately affect the poor uninsured, elderly, and those from lower and middle classes seeking higher education, will be completely offset by the proposed $70-billion tax-cut plan passed last week. Throw in a billion a week on the Iraq war (that has nothing to do with the man and organization that murdered nearly 3,000 Americans more than four years ago) and we're racing toward the $8.2 trillion debt ceiling John Snow says we will reach in March 2006 (and he wants to raise it).
    The coziness of corporate America and our government is apparent by the flagrant abuses of the American people that are ongoing and tolerated. While the American people get shafted on gas prices, Exxon posts perverse record profits. While United Airlines cut workers' pay and benefits to get out of bankruptcy, corporate execs get more than $400 million in perks. Corporation after corporation is bailing on their pension plans and We the People will pick up the tab through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Throw in legislation drafted by pharmaceutical companies, credit card companies, etc., etc., etc.
    People, this problem is real and it's serious. We're being fleeced by corporate America and our own government. This country is worse than broke, we are in hock.

Hi,
    I really enjoyed your article about Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy [“Renegade,” Music, Jan. 20]. I just wanted to inform you about another "renegade" by the name of Lee Person. I have been following him about 10 years and have seven of his CDs, and they all are really good. I've never seem anyone play the guitar with his teeth, behind his back, between his legs, with one hand, while singing! How about an article about him? Is he going to be in SXSW? How about the Austin City Limits Festival? God knows he's good enough.

Dear Editor,
    In response to Michelle Earle's letter in the last week's issue [“Postmarks,” Feb. 3], I'd like to remind her that Culver's is not a church but rather a business patronized by people from all walks of life. Ms. Earle, the world does not revolve around you and your self-righteous ilk no matter how many times G.W. Bush tells you otherwise. The only real disrespect in this issue is the way "Christian values" have made it harder and harder for women in need to get proper medical attention. If it takes a glaring red flag like the Chronicle's cover to make you consider the issues on even the most basic level, so be it. Some women don't want to be stuck with pushing out kids and then larding them up at Culver's, so get over yourself and realize there's more to the world than whatever is five feet in front of you.

Dear Editor,
    Thank you to the “Gay Place” for putting to rest an issue I have been struggling with for years. It has been hard to reconcile the greatness of our national heroes with their embedded bigotry. Our founding fathers, with all their great ideas, were misogynists, racists, and homophobes. And, when it comes down to it, screw anyone who is misogynist, racist, or homophobic. (Including Dr. King. Any prejudice is intolerable, even from someone we otherwise recognize as great.) But after reading the quotation by Coretta Scott King (“Gay Place,” Feb. 3) regarding her views on homosexuality, I can finally sing the Kings' praises and be certain they are worthy of their legacy. It feels damn good to know that their concept of equality is all-inclusive, not just limited to their own particular oppressed minority. I knew they were brave people, and now I can be sure that they truly were wise and wonderful people as well.

Dear Editor,
    Your Texas family planning graphic is obscene [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News, Jan. 27]. It is disrespectful of at least 80% of your audience. Even free publications have to have advertisers, and my bet is that you lose both audience and advertisers for this.
    Would you do that to any other holy book, including the Koran?

Editor,
    Tom DeLay has committed crimes of conspiracy and money-laundering and has excluded the Austin district from the democratic process. He uses his job not to serve the people, but to keep Democrats from being elected. Never has a recall been more deserved. His gangster's false smile should be on billboards suggesting that Texans will "Recall Tom DeLay!"

Dear Editor,
    The band that Jim Caligiuri credited as opening the Neil Young Hoot with "Sedan Delivery" so nicely was wrong [Live Shots, Music, Feb. 3]. It was Militant Babies, not Tammany Hall Machine.

Dear Editor,
   Why is everyone so offended by last week's cover ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27]? Using phrases like "spread-eagled woman" or "bible shoved in her crotch" ["Postmarks," Feb. 3]. I'm sorry, but if any man has ever had to go with his wife/girlfriend to her yearly ob-gyn appointment, that's what it looks like. Women deal with that "spread eagle, crotch showing" position every year (or they should). I guess that’s why most of the complaints were from men or pro-life people. Go figure.

Dear Editor,
   I am offended at your front cover depicting a woman in stirrups with a Bible between her legs ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27]. If it was "shock" you were going for, then you have succeeded ... I'm so shocked that I will never read your publication again.
   Your photograph trivializes the very complex challenges facing women's health care and is an insult to women, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Dear Editor,
   Thank you for the fine work you did on the "The New Texas Family Planning" article [News, Jan. 27]. Ms. Smith did an excellent job in researching and condensing the issues so that the article addresses the complex issues in a very understandable manner. The best job I have seen on the subject. Your cover art was wonderful and demonstrated how those of us serving low-income women with family-planning services feel about Sen. Deuell’s and Sen. Williams’ riders.

Dear Editor,
   I am writing to complain about the poor choice in a cover photo for the Jan. 27th issue of The Austin Chronicle ["The New Texas Family Planning," News]. I cannot believe a person would pose in stirrups for a photo at all, but placing a Holy Bible between one's legs and posing is even more appalling. It is our God who creates every baby knitted in utero, and to publicly disgrace our God fills me with nausea and disgust. How dare you place such a photo on the cover of your publication?! Do you think the next issue should have a photo of a woman in stirrups having an abortion performed? How about a woman in stirrups with a photo of Satan between her legs? I am absolutely appalled that any publication would ever choose to put such a photo anywhere for the public to view. It's fine for you to not agree or believe in God, because your future is none of my concern, but for you to publicly disrespect my God is absolutely unacceptable. I feel a photo of a mutilated baby would have made a much larger statement than the chosen pornography using a Bible as the filter. I couldn't be more offended, and I'm grateful that I don't live in Austin where my family would have to view that photo when walking into a shop that offers The Austin Chronicle in full view for all to be offended by.

Dear Kinky and all of his followers,
   I fought for years to keep a fundamentalist church from invading the schools and forcing their narrow-minded fundamentalist views on the children of Wimberley. State-sponsored prayer does not need to be in the public school system. Children are able to hold prayer groups, study the Bible as literature, have after-school religious functions, and pray in the schools now, as long as they do not force other children to participate or as long as the staff or the administration of the school do not take part. What is wrong with religion being in the churches, synagogues, ashrams, temples, or the home? Why do you insist on putting it back into the public school system where religious zealots in charge of educating all the children, (no matter what those children's religion or nonreligion is), can force-feed their fundamentalist views to impressionable children.
   I would so much like to see a change here in Texas. I would so much like to vote for an independent. I care about a lot of the same things you do, but I cannot vote for someone who would breach the separation of church and state. It's wrong. Please think more about this issue and what the ramifications of such an action would be.

P.S. p.s. Loved the Jan. 27 cover ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27]: It so points to exactly what I fear – religion being forced into our lives and between our legs!

Dear Editor,
   That was the best cover page I have ever seen ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27]. The picture conveyed the exact message. I was extremely impressed and I don’t know anyone who is not going to keep their copy. I hadn’t actually pictured a Bible between my legs but I realize now after having seen your cover picture, that I have actually felt it. Thank you.

Dear Sir,
    Bush continues to lose opportunities. How great it would have been if he had mentioned Biodiesel. If he were actually a Texan, he’d have been aware of Willie Nelson’s program.
    Mention less oil for vehicles, yet not mention Biodiesel.
   Hey suss!

Dear Editor,
   Congratulations to the Chronicle's art department for the most arresting cover of the year ("The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan 27). Regardless of one's politics, your image cuts through the rhetoric to bring home the core debate in a startlingly clear way.

Dear Editor,
   On page 32 in the Jan. 27 Chronicle, you posted a picture of some dancers from the FronteraFest's Dance Carousel ["Of Cactuses, Crickets, and Cars," Arts]. I don't know if maybe you forgot this, but you didn't mention any of the ladies’ names that were photographed in your article. You chose to display this choreographer's artistic creation, and didn't even give her or her dancers credit for it. I saw the performance pictured and it was amazing. I think you owe the choreographer and her dancers some credit. Her name was Mandie Pitre, and her dancers were Cybil G. and Amanda Moulder.

   [Arts Editor Robert Faires replies: No disrespect to Ms. Pitre, Ms. G, or Ms. Moulder was intended by the absence of their names on the photograph you reference, just as none was intended to the actors in Cricket Radio, Among the Sand and Smog, The Most Beautiful Lullaby Your Ever Saw, and You're No One's Nothing Special, all of whom were pictured in the same feature without credit, or for that matter, any of the artists in photographs that appeared beside reviews anywhere in the paper. The Chronicle was simply following a general policy that we employ with photos that run alongside reviews or recommendeds in the Arts, Film, and Music listings, identifying the show by title or the act by name rather than by individuals pictured.]

Dear Editor,
   After the shameful behavior of Democrats during the Alito confirmation hearings, no normal American would be persuaded that Sam Alito is "out of the mainstream." Everyone was reminded that the sole item on the Democrats' agenda is abortion.
   According to Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Roe v. Wade is critically important because "women all over America have come to depend on it." This precious right is the right to have sex with men they don't want to have children with.
   In the history of this nation there has never been a political party so ridiculous as today's Democrats. It's as if all the brain-damaged people in America got together and formed a voting bloc. The Republican Party stands for life, limited government, and national defense. And today's Democratic Party stands for the right of women to have unprotected sex with men they don't especially like. They're the hook-up party.

Dear Editor,
   Effective immediately, Altex Electronics, Ltd. will no longer continue to advertise in your publication, and we are canceling the remainder of our 13-week advertising contract.
   The cover of the Jan. 27 issue has resulted in our customers writing to us regarding our advertising support of your publication.
   There are many ways to illustrate your story point; we believe you chose poorly.
   Altex chooses not to be associated with The Austin Chronicle.

Dear Editor,
   Two local internet portals (Metroblogging Austin and Austinist) have both reported the theory that the effort to squeeze the Capital Metro union was due to Capital Metro's failure to seek federal funding for the commuter rail starter line despite pre-election claims that they would ["What Good Are Unions?," News, Feb. 3]. (Meaning that Capital Metro is on the hook for the full $90 million, or whatever it's grown to now, rather than roughly half.)
   I'm disappointed that the Chronicle chose not to mention this particular angle of the story. Unlike the 2000 light rail plan, which was viewed favorably by the feds and probably would have received substantial federal funding, this commuter rail line's projected ridership is so low that Capital Metro, in my opinion, didn't even want to ask the feds, because they knew what the answer would be, and what a PR black eye it would generate for them.
   Add that to the fact that part of this "deal with the devil" (Krusee, Daugherty, etc.) was to leave the 1/4 cent "rebate" alone, and it's no wonder Capital Metro needs to squeeze the union for rail dollars. But remember: It didn't have to be this way. A better light rail line that would have, unlike this system, served urban Austin would not have led us down this path.

Dear Editor,
   I find your cover photo of this issue extremely distasteful, and I am offended that you would desecrate the Bible in this manner on a publication available to the general public ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27]. Somehow I feel that you would hesitate to picture a Koran in the same manner. The debate about abortion is one thing, but there is no reason to insult or demean a religious symbol in doing so.

Dear Editor:
   In response to the letters regarding the picture on the cover last week ["The New Texas Family Planning," News, Jan. 27], I would like to ask: How dare you get all uppity about a photograph of the Bible between a woman's legs after all the horrible things followers of that religion have perpetrated since its inception? ["Postmarks," Feb. 3] To the person who compared that particular photograph to desecrating the Koran: Taking a photo of the Bible between a woman’s legs is hardly comparable to ripping it up and pissing on it. I'm getting really sick of you superstitious freaks speaking gibberish and pretending to talk to an invisible God and trying to act like supreme judges on all that is tasteful. I'm starting to understand why some of my illustrious predecessors used to feed you jerks to lions.

Dear Editor:
   Ah, so the editor thinks Hillary Clinton is a dead horse, eh [Postmarks Online]? Typical reaction from the left, "Hillary who?" Never mind she is the presumed front runner for the Democrats in 2008, it's me, not the 51% of voters who say they will not vote for Hillary under any circumstances, it's me dissing Hillary. Just like the concept of Bill Clinton's being the best president ever, and at the same time he had absolutely nothing to do with the global political situation in 2001. Mention it, and you're living in the past, beating a dead horse. Mention that Hillary has real problems with her base, the hard-core left, and you're quibbling. Mention a CNN poll finds only 16% of voters say they will vote for Hillary and it's my problem? CNN, who I used to work for, would not use the word "scandal" in any context in any story related to the Clintons, but their poll is "beating a dead horse"? Good thing the editor managed to find a clever way to dis me without addressing the facts in my letter. But hey. "Speak Ill of Hillary? Shoot the messenger!"
    Thank you for your time and consideration.

Dear Editor:
   Commissioner Gomez can claim her hands are tied by state law all she wants ["Capital Metro Srike Threat Looms," News, Jan. 27]. Are her hands really tied? She is glad for it. As a retired member of IBEW Local 520 I attended and participated in one of the first pickets of a Capitol Metro board hearing. Afterwards I sat through the hearings where I observed her attitude towards the transit workers and their families. She was openly hostile and condescending in the statements she made and her line of questioning towards the transit workers. It is obvious to me that she supports the negotiator hired by StarTran who openly brags on his Web site of his "union busting" techniques. Federal labor law requires that all parties involved in labor negotiations enter those negotiations in good faith. How is hiring a negotiator that brags about his "union busting" entering those negotiations in good faith? That alone should send out the message that StarTran never intended to negotiate with the transit workers.
   As a union member I am appalled and disgusted by the AFL-CIO's Central Labor Council's endorsement of Margaret Gomez for reelection to County Commissioners Court Precinct 4, a move steamrolled by AFSCME. They claim Commissioner Gomez has been good to them. What about the other union members at the transit workers? She hasn't been so good to them. This "we got ours, screw everyone else" attitude displayed by AFSCME is what is tearing unions apart. I suggest the leaders at AFSCME get out their dictionaries and look up the word "union." I don't think they will find it defined as "we got ours, screw everyone else." That endorsement was wrong when it happened and it is wrong now. I can only hope that at some point wiser heads will prevail, the CLC will come to its senses and that the endorsement is withdrawn. I realize that under the Bush administration statements like the following have become passe' but it is the morally right and ethically correct thing to do.