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 mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    Almost anyone who's lived in Austin for a while can give you a "panhandling horror story." One time my fiancé gave a "spare-changer" $20 when he accosted us on Congress Avenue. The very next day, the same man approached us again and ended up screaming obscenities at my fiancé when he declined to give the man any more cash. I have seen the men and women (with and without squeegees) who step in front of cars at stoplights, tap on windows, and invade my personal space when I'm walking down the street. I'm not writing about those people.
    There's a difference between them and the people who stand unobtrusively on a street corner with a sign, trying to make a living. If you want to give to them, you can. If you don't, you won't. I have known several of them personally; one of them was my dad. Usually these are people who do receive some sort of subsidized income (through Social Security, etc.), but it's not enough to cover their living expenses. They are usually disabled and/or elderly. Some (by no means all) are addicts in various stages of recovery.
   It is not an easy life. Nobody is getting a "free ride" by standing under an overpass, holding a sign in the heat, cold, and rain, being spit on/yelled at/having strange and disgusting things thrown at them, and having people like Mr. Tillotson [“Postmarks,” Oct. 2] randomly calling the police on them. Panhandlers are not all the same; they're not all breaking the law. Some of them are simply trying to make a living.

Dear Editor,
    I woke on this chilly Saturday morning to the news I didn't want to hear. My girlfriend had turned on the TV. Through my fog, I heard her say: "That friend of yours, Rusty? They just said he died yesterday."
    An aspiring teenage musician, I came across a review for an artist with a new album. On the strength of the review, I bought his album at the record shop. Once home, I was transfixed by what I heard: A loner stumbles upon an old town one evening and hearing music, finds his way to a barroom. Inside he finds laughter, whiskey and "a scarlet lady" who offered to take him "on a mystic ride.”
    They dance all night around the room, only for him to wake to a dusty abandoned room in a ghost town in the morning light.
    Subsequently, I watched and taped a new program, Austin City Limits with Rusty Wier & the Filler Brothers, copying it until it was beyond hope. His performance was riveting to me.
    A few years later, he played San Marcos at the Too Bitter. My girlfriend and I made it in, despite only being 17. I still have the picture of Rusty and myself after the show, yet my best memories are the shows Rusty gave on Christmas nights at the Saxon Pub. He almost never failed to play "Black Hat Saloon" whenever he saw me.
    I asked Rusty for advice on singing once; he said, "Figure out what you can do, and do it!" Sage advice. He lived it.
    I am imagining on this gloomy, cold morning that Rusty is somewhere smiling and singing in his own Black Hat Saloon.

Dear Editor,
    The newest issue of Playboy has revealed its cover as Marge Simpson in a slick, seductive pose. The magazine producers are hoping that with the shock value, sales will increase and they will also target a much younger group of adult men. Magazines such as Playboy and many others vindicate their exploitation of young females by simply claiming their product serves women by showing their beauty. What these companies fail to mention is how these models are not admired by viewers but loathed. They have become fantasies to these men who look down at them as lesser beings. Instead of becoming empowered, these models seem more pawns to be used and thrown away when needed. Playboy is just another institution created by men to control women and give them a false sense of authority. This is even more evident in the newest edition, where they spread their control to the animation world and use one of the most iconic females in American media for their own personal gain.

Dear Chronicle,
    After a very pleasant evening at Titaya's Thai Cuisine last week, I was surprised to see Mick Vann rate it so poorly [“Thai Me Up – Thai Me Down,” Food, Oct. 9]. My tastes in Thai food are not very sophisticated, but here are three things that stood out. First, I was in a not great mood when my wife and I entered, but the friendliness of the staff and the great service quickly changed that. Secondly, they had a mixed whole grain rice as an alternative to white rice. I'm always looking for those restaurants that are giving us more healthy, whole grain options. Last but not least, my fisherman's soup was great, and I told my wife that we need to come to Titaya's more often.

Dear Editor,
    The city of Austin recently tried to sell recyclables and pay for the new blue bins with the profits. It was supposed to be a win-win. But after the recyclables market dropped out and after the city had already distributed the blue bins, our garbage collection rates went up (mine from $18 a month to $24 a month). This was said to be a “cost increase” but not attributed to the blue bins.
    I find it odd that as a very low-waste household, I will go sometimes three weeks without putting my garbage can out, but if I have just a sliver hanging out the top, they ding me for “over waste,” all the while charging me full price for the month in addition to that ding.

Dear Editor,
    We are pleased the Chronicle is covering the economic incentives issue [“City Hall Hustle,” News, Oct. 9]. However, in his column, Mr. Dunbar said Austin Interfaith leaders had a preconceived notion about a surplus of local work. When I said low-wage jobs already exist, I meant exactly that: Too many of our families are stuck in low-wage jobs with no chance at advancement. I was not talking about unfilled jobs, and we are as aware as anybody that many of our families are unemployed.
    As part of conversations before their election, including at our accountability sessions, every member of the current City Council and the mayor committed to support a requirement that any company receiving tax abatements pay all of its employees a living wage of $18/hour with benefits, a career ladder, and a strategy to hire locally. This includes all of the public officials quoted in Dunbar’s article. Eighteen dollars an hour is 175% of the federal poverty level, well below the threshold for city social services to kick in (200% of poverty or $21/hour for a family of four). The Center for Public Policy Priorities pegs the current living wage in Austin at $22/hour. If the city is going to offer economic incentives and tax abatements to corporations, they should not be used to subsidize poverty wages.
    We welcome companies moving to Austin and understand that the jobs they offer may be at different wage levels. However, when we begin to subsidize private companies with public tax dollars, we have the right to demand certain standards. Austin Interfaith leaders believe that the city should not use public revenue to subsidize low-wage jobs. It makes no economic sense to give $10 million or $15 million to a corporation that pays wages that keep workers dependent on public assistance. Our families are worth more than that.

Dear Editor,
    Our esteemed daily doesn't seem to be able to get the facts right concerning the either sweetheart or backroom deals between for-profit C3 Presents, the nonprofit Austin Parks Foundation, and the city. Are y'all so gaga over Austin City Limits Music Fest and the free passes that the Chronicle staff gets to not care about getting to the bottom of this giant scam either?

Dear Editor,
    Read “The Hightower Report” [Oct. 9] concerning the dirty, lowdown way the Hyatt Hotel chain used its regularly employed housekeepers to train an outsourcing firm's employees and the resultant firing of the regular employees (trainers) and the hiring of the outsourcing firm's employees (trainees) to replace them.
    It appears that the Hyatt Hotel chain learned from the practices that are common in Texas state government, particularly in the year of 1987, under the second term of Gov. Bill Clements.
    Jim Hightower, where were you in November 1987, when more than 100 long-term employees of what was then the Texas Department of Community Affairs were utilized in the same fashion as what Hyatt has done? Beginning in March 1987, the Clements administration began hiring employees for job vacancies that did not even exist; they filled every empty office space and even had to place some of the newly hired employees (trainees) at tables in the library. For the next nine months, the regularly hired employees (trainers) had to train these new trainees. And, lo and behold, guess what happened? Pink slips were given to more than 100 employees (trainers), and the newly trained trainees were retained. They and the programs were transferred over to the newly created Texas Department of Commerce, which has since been disbanded and does not exist (basically because of ineptness, loss of institutional memory, and shady and wasteful utilization of federal and state tax dollars). Some former employees tried to sue, but in the good ol' state of Texas, it was legally determined that there was nothing illegal with such actions!
    Oh, Jim Hightower, why weren't you a voice for these employees back in November 1987? By speaking up back then, you could have assisted these wrongfully discharged employees as well as performing a great service for the taxpayers of Texas.

Dear Editor,
    Sad news received through the musician grapevine: Cosmic cowboy, songwriter, and raconteur Rusty Wier has died. Aside from being one of the funniest storytellers and a great songwriter, Rusty also was an extremely generous mentor to young songwriters, including myself and countless others who came to know him through his hosting of open mics over the years. I first met Rusty as the host at Ego's Sunday open mic in 2000 and later followed him to the dearly missed Gino's in South Austin. I once came armed with an old copy of Rusty's seminal 1975 album, Don't It Make You Wanna Dance, and presented it for him to sign. He invited me into "his office" in the back of Gino's kitchen to tell me stories about the players on the record and offered these encouraging words along with his autograph: "Sounded great tonight. Keep on pickin'." I will, Rusty. Thanks for showing so many of us how it's done.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “AISD,” News, Oct. 2, by Richard Whittaker: As Community Education Partners are paid with public money, the public may believe they have the right to scrutinize CEP practices and claims. CEP cures that vanity. Dr. Robert Kimball criticized CEP practices. CEP initiated a lawsuit as the result.
    Community Education Partners accepts public money but disallows public scrutiny? CEP creates a profitable paradox; it is so successful it cannot afford critics. Yet, the Houston Independent School District and CEP have had a long contractual history unimpaired by Kimball. HISD’s department of research and accountability should have compiled long-term studies by now by tracking all CEP students. A longitudinal study showing measurable long-term benefits for all CEP students is the only justification for continuing HISD’s contractual relationship with CEP.
    Otherwise, the only method for taxpayers to determine CEP’s return on their investment is to divide the millions of tax dollars spent by the total number of students CEP graduates. Maybe Kimball’s attorneys will do the math.
    And maybe HISD’s research department has a longitudinal study of all CEP students using sound scientific research supporting CEP’s claims. CEP’s attorney could use those statistics to juxtapose Kimball's research and buttress their claims.
    The caveat for CEP being if HISD neglected to use rigorous research models to study CEP, then there are only two implications. HISD admits to fiscal nonchalance bordering on malfeasance, or, to paraphrase Twain, it just doesn’t take HISD long to examine a hot political warehouse.
    From a teacher's point of view, it appears as if CEP thinks its lawsuit is clever when really it's mean, and I wouldn’t be surprised if CEP nonsuited instead of going to trial. Their claims of slander and tortuous interference are flattering Kimball too much while flattering themselves not at all.
    Dr. Kimball simply has no selfish motive in wanting to dropkick CEP back to pre-Paige days. He was a high school dropout who became more and has empathy for those who could be more, too. It is easy for a teacher to see the most important difference between the plaintiff and defendant. CEP cares about losing money, and Bob Kimball cares about losing kids.

Dear Editor,
    Thanks to Marc Savlov for the informative article "Faces of Homelessness" [News, Oct. 9]. I have been to several workshops and conferences on the homeless and volunteered for Caritas, but this was the first time I feel I got a decent understanding of some of the core issues facing the city.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Faces of Homelessness” [News, Oct. 9]: The social services rhetoric surrounding the latest punish-the-homeless initiative is complete nonsense. The current idea of the Downtown Austin Alliance and other head-'em-up-and-move-'em-out vigilantes is to pretend to create an Austin where everyone who is homeless will be somehow provided with free meals and a place to sleep and treatment options for the drug addicts and alcoholics, and, all that being the case (at least in the DAA's imaginary world), anyone who is still out panhandling is a bad actor and should be jailed.
    Well, there are several problems with this foolishness. First, we are for the most part offloading the problem to charity, which, to be blunt, does not solve problems but rather assuages guilt and, by virtue of being in effect a low-level tax on the good-hearted, helps absolve the hard-hearted of the obligation to pay the rather hefty real taxes that are going to be needed to truly address homelessness, drug addiction, alcoholism, and untreated psychosis, if and when any of that ever happens.
    Second, it is transparently intended to move a problem no one has any honest intention of solving to some other part of town. And guess what part of town it will be?
    Third, it doesn't build any free places to live (I emphasize the word "free" because, remember, the only money the hardcore homeless have is gotten through panhandling).
    Fourth, it doesn't provide the hardcore homeless with alternative sources of money ("of course not, they might spend it on bad things"). It's worth noting that many homeless psychotics are never going to hold and keep a job. A lot of the drug addicts and alcoholics are in the same boat. Let's be realistic. Are you going to hire them, Mr. or Ms. DAA vigilante? I didn't think so.
    Finally, it (thankfully) doesn't even do what most of the vigilantes would secretly like to do, which is put all the panhandlers in jail. There's the small matter of due process, and there's the even greater practical matter of the expense. It would be cheaper to provide them all their own apartments than long-term prison accommodations.
    So this whole business is a hypocritical charade. And yes, I'll personally keep giving to panhandlers as long as the charade goes on.

Dear Editor,
    There is surprise over President Barack Obama being honored with a Nobel Peace Prize. As Americans, we celebrate our independence on July 4. This is the day we decided we were free. Most countries celebrate because of a battle. We celebrate because of a shift of our intention. This peace prize is the same. It honors our president for the shift of our intention, as a country, to a commitment to peace.

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Hyatt Riot” [“The Hightower Report,” Oct. 9]: This situation has been happening all across America. It's cheaper to hire temp workers with no benefits or contract workers who get paid low wages. Outsourcing still costs about the same, just without having to pay any kind of health care and pension benefits. The outsourcing corporation honchos make great wages on each worker they provide while only paying a small percentage to the contract workers.

Dear Editor,
    Re: Marc Savlov's review of Paranormal Activity [Film Listings, Oct. 9]: How is it that Metacritic has 15 positive reviews posted to your lone negative review? Who should I believe: the consensus or you? Your feeble attempt to stand out by slamming this film just reeks of publicity-whoring. Look at me! I'm the only critic who didn't find a single redeeming aspect of the film. I'm special. I'm different. I'm lame.