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,
    Re: Your article on the Town Lake Animal Shelter ["What Happened to the No-Kill Millennium?"; News, Nov. 18, 2005]: This week's news release that the Williamson County Animal Shelter has become a "no-kill" facility prompts this letter to the editor, my first letter to an editor, ever. Reporter Rachel Proctor May's investigative article on the Town Lake Animal Shelter remains vivid in my memory today. I first saw the front page in the distribution rack in the lobby of the building where I work Downtown. As one of the "human companions" to our dogs, which were rescued from the Town Lake Animal Shelter and other situations, my first reaction to the cover pictures was the thought of what a real, honest-to-goodness "gutsy" publishing decision that was to address one of the biggest "closet" issues in Austin. Ms. Proctor May's two articles in that edition were the first public advocacy, in-the-public's-face assistance the animals (unfortunate enough to find themselves in the care of Town Lake Animal Shelter) have received in the 30 years I've lived in Austin. Subsequent to these fine articles, in 2006, one of the local news channels managed to attend a public meeting of the Town Lake Animal Shelter where the the topic of discussion was hiring a nationally known no-kill shelter expert to resolve the yearly massive killings at Town Lake Animal Shelter. That meeting adjourned with the proposal being tabled for three additional months. To date nothing has been done to correct the existing problems with the shelter nor to bring in no-kill experts to redirect the shelter's efforts to a no-kill facility – such as Williamson County did. Please, please, revisit this situation as a follow-up to the Chronicle's Nov. 18, 2005, articles on this subject. It is sad to think that an innovative city such as Austin, with so much to be proud of, has failed to provide a right-to-life option for its smallest inhabitants. More in-the-public's-face journalism is needed to get the desperately needed changes made at the Town Lake Animal Shelter. If Ms. Proctor May's heart can handle another visit to the shelter to address this issue again, I know all the little animal hearts still beating there would be most appreciative. Thank you again for the great articles, and I apologize for not thanking the Chronicle sooner.

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Alas, the inimitable Rachel Proctor May no longer reports for the News department, having moved on to the less feral confines of City Hall, where she works for Council Member Brewster McCracken. We miss her, too.]

Dear Chronicle editors,
    As a Downtown resident, I was frustrated by your recent cover article “We Were the Urban Pioneers” [News, March 23]. Your premise was to understand who are the “urban pioneers” moving into Downtown but, in a glaring oversight, failed to talk to any. Instead we are provided with two reporters who mockingly dress up as stereotyped residents and then proceed to cast judgment on this, my neighborhood, all the while holding themselves up as the ideal occupants.
    Surely you did not waste all of this ink to make fun of the pitches of salespeople, which is a trite exercise. It also couldn't have been to understand Downtown residents because you didn't talk to any. So why then did you write this article and put it on your cover? If I am left to guess that this article was designed solely to protest the types of residents moving in Downtown – an attitude that may well have stemmed from good intentions but is sadly deprived of perspective.
    My immediate neighbors are a secretary, a retiree, a small-business owner, a military serviceman, and a schoolteacher couple with a small child. None of us are wealthy, most of us contribute to the creative life of this city, and all of us are proud Downtowners. I do not recognize your “Burton” and “Shanti” characters but would argue that, were they to exist, they should have an equal right to live in this neighborhood free of prejudice or parody just as anyone else.
    Downtown has not been called home by “artists, musicians, and slackers” as your article suggests or really too much of anyone for the past 25 years. That in large part has been the problem, and now that people are finally moving here and are trying to improve their community, your publication complains that those individuals are not sufficiently like yourselves.
    Affordable housing remains an ongoing concern, but an attack on this neighborhood is misdirected when there are numerous other areas that are far behind Downtown in both acknowledgment and action on this issue.
    Lastly, your article failed to mention how all of those who visit, work, and play in Downtown benefit from having 24-hour residents here. You made no mention of how the presence of residents attracts new retail and services that make the area safer and more vibrant; no acreage equivalent to what 25,000 residents would consume in suburban sprawl nor what it would cost in utilities or roadways.
    In the end, I am left to conclude that your article was a disservice to both your readers and to this city.

Dear Editor,
    You guys suck for turning in non-SXSW parties to the Austin Fire Department. Please pass this on! Don't hide; publish an article about it! SXSW founders should be ashamed for their corporate bulldogging!

   [Editor's note: For more on this, see this week's "TCB" on p.55.]

Dear Editor,
    Last Friday I went to UT to hear one of the forums on Watergate and its repercussions, featuring Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein [Naked City, March 30]. The auditorium was packed, as expected; several interesting points were made; and there was a good discussion of historical events in relation to the present-day circus in Washington. One comment by Carl Bernstein, however, struck me as a bit … shall we say "delusional"? At one point, in discussing the role of the media, he stated that he felt that the media had "done its job" in relation to exposing the misdeeds of the Bush administration.
    What planet has he been inhabiting for the past six years? The mainstream media has done a terrible job, swallowing just about everything the administration has spooned out to them, then asking for more. Only over the past few months have they shown some promise of actually growing something that passes for a spine.
    Now if we could only get Congress to do the same. The bill that was passed on Friday is a travesty – it doesn't go nearly far enough in bringing the madness in Iraq to an end.

Dear Editor,
    The higher the stakes, the greater the spin.
    Voting to provide more "emergency” money to the war is a pro-war vote. Despite the spin by Democratic leadership and MoveOn apologists (who failed in their “polling” to inform their members of key facts about the bill: See CodePink and United for Peace Web sites for more), this is no “small step” toward anything positive. It is a huge step toward extending the war. By ignoring any political or diplomatic solutions, it legitimizes the failed military strategy – and makes matters worse by now committing untrained troops to the war. It is not funding the return of troops – it is funding the latest surge.
    It says "yes" to war and occupation by funding its very continuance.
    With the provision that the president can now bypass Congress to go into Iran (just like they irresponsibly gave away their powers with Iraq), this bill brings us that much closer to that war.
    Assuming the far-out date is acceptable for the situation at hand (it’s not), anyone who thinks any date in a nonbinding resolution is going to be adhered to … I’ve got some land in Fallujah to sell ya. Case in point: two supplemental bills ago was language that there would be no more supplemental bills!
    Now activists have even more challenges. Congress now has less reason to work for a nonmilitary solution and no impetus to work on legislation safely moving our troops out of harm's way now.
    This $100 billion blank check dishonors the will of the American people, it dishonors the troops, it flies in the face of the Iraqi people, and it subjects us to more insecurity from without and to more negativity within our collective soul.
    The war is illegal and immoral – the expansion of it abominable.

Dear Mr. Black,
    I attended SXSW a couple of weeks ago and - now that I'm getting caught up on things - had to write you and share what a blast I had at The Austin Chronicle's party at La Zona Rosa. What I'd expected for SXSW schmoozing was exactly what I got at the event - a lively mix of creative thinkers, some great music, and a vibe of unbelievable coolness. I had the best time!
    I photographed the Interactive and Film portions of the event, including that party, and those images are now on my Web site. If you or any of your readers would like a pictorial rewind of SXSW's Interactive and Film, have them check out: www.ctphotoartist.com/sxsw.
    Thanks to you and all your staffers for putting together a killer party! Can't wait for next year!

Dear Editor,
    Why is the U.S. threatening Iran? One reason is that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee wants Iran attacked. This powerful Israeli lobby, also behind the Iraq occupation, often dictates American policy in the Mideast. Questioning Israel is labeled "anti-Semitic." Congress and the press remain silent while the tail continues to wag the dog to ruinous effect.

Dear Editor,
    Your article on urban pioneers is probably the worst-researched article I've ever read in the Chronicle ["We Were the Urban Pioneers," News, March 23]. You've ranted on and on about the Spring Condo's using their sales brochures that have absolutely no relationship to current market conditions while all along not even knowing where the property is located. Does anyone at your paper even proofread these articles? Do the authors even live in Austin? Do they not know that Third and Bowie is not Fifth Street West?
    Have you been following the vicious downturn in real estate values throughout the nation? Oh, I forgot, it can't happen here.
    I believe that there is a very good chance that the vast majority of units permitted to begin construction Downtown will not be built during the current economic cycle. Speculators who purchased condo units recently completed Downtown are seeing their investments depreciate on a daily basis.
    The Fed has just replaced one liquidity bubble with another. Remember the last one, Austin?

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Gary Liddy is correct about the photo: Due to a miscommunication between the reporters and photographer, we used the wrong photo for the Spring property. That error has been corrected online, and we apologize to our readers for the confusion.]

Dear Austin Chronicle editor,
    "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate ... and clean and a nice-looking guy." This is Sen. Joe Biden's quote that started the controversy. I agree with your response, in your March 23 issue, to Jackson Williams' letter ["Postmarks"]: Sen. Joe Biden may have said that he was referring to "political baggage" after he made that quote, but I think it was a racist comment because that quote represents the second time that a statement construed as racist came out of Joe Biden's mouth. Remember that Biden once said something like, "You can't walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-Eleven without hearing an Indian accent." If I recall it correctly (and my memory isn't flawless), that statement certainly seems bigoted to me; making that type of statement once might be pardoned as a faux pas (and I personally doubt that it is) but making it twice tells me that the statements reflect unconscious racism. If Jackson Williams cannot discern that, then he acts as an apologist for unconscious racism or, more ominously, he may suffer from it himself.
    Regarding Sam Allred's use of "clean darky" to satirize Biden's comment, I don't think the satire was very effective because it did not make Biden look any more foolish than his own comment did; Allred's comment only made him look like a racist, and it made his KVET employers look embarrassingly ignorant for hiring a racist. If listeners think Allred is racist then they won't listen to the show and the station will lose ad dollars; it doesn't matter if he really isn't a racist. Therefore, I think KVET was right to suspend him. KVET is first and foremost a business: They have to make money, regardless of personal feeling.

Dear Editor,
    The Chronicle printed a letter I wrote last week about unions and the power to strike ["Postmarks," March 23]. The Chronicle title writers did an absolutely horrible job ("Unions Are Good; Strikes Are Necessary"). I was making the point that the power to strike was necessary to ensure fair labor negotiations. Actually striking is not necessary if the company is fair. I don't know any union members that want to strike, as pretty much everyone needs to get a paycheck.

Dear Editor,
    Re: The March 23 cover [“We Were the Urban Pioneers,” News]: Covert investigations? Come on guys, whoever came up with this idea must have been chewing on too many of the “Weed Watch” pages.
    If the people on your cover of the March 23 issue are the ones chosen for this investigation, how can this be underground? Kim Jong-il and the ever-tired-looking Jordan Smith as your secret operatives? That is as conspicuous as a bear in a church.

To the editor,
    Your news item on the Sudan divestment effort ["Retiring Our Investment in Darfur," News, March 23] may have left readers with the false impression that there would be a "financial hit" to Texas state pension funds as a result of the divestment legislation.
    When the Pension Fund managers withdraw the problematic investments, they are not going to put the funds under a mattress. They will reinvest the money in other profitable companies. It’s a false notion that companies that support genocide are more profitable than those that don’t. In fact, quite the opposite may be true. For example, the Texas employee and teacher retirement pension funds have more than $30 million invested in PetroChina, one of the most egregious offending companies. One has to wonder why we have so much invested in a company whose stock is down 19% this year.
    The number of foreign companies propping up the genocidal Sudanese regime is relatively limited. While there are more than 500 multinationals operating in Sudan, only a few dozen play a truly detrimental role in the country.
    Senate Bill 247, which passed the Texas Senate last week 29-0, surgically targets those few dozen companies. The bill is now pending before the House Pensions & Investment Committee.
    Over the course of the last few months, Texans have been horrified to learn that their money is indirectly aiding the genocide. We must act now to end this tragedy.
    Hopefully, Texas will join the other seven states that have already passed this legislation and continue to serve as a role model to the world. When we say "never again," we truly mean "never again."

Dear Editor,
    I read with some interest Marc Savlov's review of the movie 300 [Film Listings, March 9] As many, I deplore the war in Iraq – and all the others raging worldwide – and wish we could have a lasting peace. And I realize that it's tempting to use one's position to push one's political views as well. Still, I find it odd and disturbing that Mr. Savlov would compare one of the defining moments in the development of Western-style democracy (which incidentally makes it possible for all of us to air our opinions and beliefs without fear of being murdered for them) with an insurgency that is dedicated to carnage and mayhem and little else. As a rule, the so-called insurgents can't seem to agree amongst themselves about much anything, except that whoever disagrees with them should be killed.
    About the only similarities between modern Islamic extremism and the Spartan stand at Thermopylae is that both groups are/were willing to kill and be killed. But the Spartans were warriors devoted to freedom and went to war against other warriors. The insurgents that Mr. Savlov so blithely compares them to have primarily gone to war against noncombatant civilians and children.
    Perhaps Mr. Savlov slept through his Western Civilization classes while in college. If so, and if ignorance truly is bliss, he must be one happy guy.

   [Editor's note: I would think carefully about writing "But the Spartans were warriors devoted to freedom," especially before raising the question as to whether a critic had "slept through his Western Civilization classes while in college." The Spartans were committed to Sparta's independence but not exactly to "freedom" as we think of it now.]

Dear Editor,
    If a timetable and benchmarks are viewed as necessary to get the Iraqi people to do more to take care of things for themselves, why can we not apply the same things to the Katrina refugees and other welfare recipients?

Dear Editor,
    Dian Fossey called, and she wants her apes back. Where did you find the snide "journalists" who wrote the article about Downtown condos ["We Were the Urban Pioneers," News, March 23]? They were so busy flinging verbal feces at everyone they "interviewed" they couldn't be bothered to do any basic fact checking. The photo of the "Spring" condos is actually the Monarch apartments. Spring hasn't broken ground yet. Did they actually visit the sales center? This article fails to be entertaining, informative, or journalism. No bananas for Wells Dunbar or Jordan Smith.

   [News Editor Michael King responds: Unlike Robert Mellema, who obviously attended charm school, we occasionally make mistakes. We regret publishing the wrong site photo with the Spring floor plan, and we apologize to our readers for the confusion.]

Dear Louis Black & good folks at The Austin Chronicle,
    We wanted to send a big thank you to y'all for your stalwart assistance and vital help in prepublicizing last weeks' Million Musicians March!
    A big thank you goes out to the more than 3,200 citizens who participated in speaking out clearly, intently, and insistently to call for the end of the illegal war now upon the innocent people of Iraq. Thank you to more than 1,000 marching musicians who came and played and blessed the event with their gift of music, to our honored guests, and to all of the visitors witnessing and cheering the parade as it passed.