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,
    One day, someday soon, I’m gonna get my shit together and open a Vulcan Academy. There seem to be none, if my Internet is any indication, what with its plethora of Klingon sites and Andorian blue zones. Yet I will sit down one day and calmly found a school of logic, wherein we will teach our students in the ways of reason, so says Surak, so says we, wherein the forces of emotion do not control us, we do not get hotheaded, we do not give ourselves over to the heat of the moment, we do not get bent out of shape; we do not give ourselves excuses for the mistakes we make, we do not say it’s her fault that I’m asshole because she doesn’t feel about me the way I feel about her, we do not say it’s their fault if we can’t say what we mean to say, we do not say we cannot find a way to live in peace. One day, someday soon, I will found a Vulcan Academy, teaching sanity, as I seek solace for my broken heart, knowing I break my own heart, despite what the songs say.

Dear Editor,
    Over the years The Austin Chronicle has published 30 or so articles in which I figure prominently, written by seven different writers, and I’ve only been interviewed one time. Thank you, Amy Smith.
    Wells Dunbar spent his entire column (“City Hall Hustle,” News, March 25) wondering repeatedly “just what is the end game … for the original complainant, Brian Rodgers of ChangeAustin?” Dunbar was referring to the case currently under review by the Travis County Attorney’s Office about whether our entire City Council has been violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.
    What could Brian be up to? Good question to ask Brian one might suppose. That’s what reporters do, right? Interview the people they write about, gain insight, and relay that insight to the readership? Aren’t they taught that in journalism school?
    But Wells Dunbar has never interviewed me. Not for last week’s column and not for the previous 10 or so of his columns where my efforts were central to the story. He has never interviewed me once, period.
    This approach frees Dunbar to ventriloquist his subject’s motivations, to put thoughts in their heads and words in their mouths. Then Dunbar can cleverly dismantle those arguments, trash those motivations, look so smart in the process, and sneer at the dummy.
    Chronicle readers, when you see my name in one of Dunbar’s opinion columns, please take note that you are probably reading fiction, Dunbar’s own agenda-driven concoction of another man’s thoughts and motivations with whom he has not spoken and knows not.

   [Wells Dunbar responds: Rodgers' claim I have never interviewed him is belied by a glimpse, appropriately enough, at my e-mail archives, showing we have corresponded about the city budget, historic tax exemptions, economic incentives, Waller Creek development, and more.]

Dear Editor,
    We thank Amy Smith for her story about the Dream City development, a church with benefits [“'Dream City' or Neighborhood Threat?,” News, March 25].
    Austinites take note: this can happen to you. An important precedent will be established if this outdoor events center – an amplified entertainment venue – is approved in residential zoning. Whether religious, quasi-civic, or a pseudo commercial outlet for the prayerful, fundraising music fan, an entertainment and recreation complex could be built anywhere without a public hearing – as long as developers claim “religious assembly only” purposes.
    There are reasons civic and entertainment facilities are reviewed through more demanding regulatory processes than the relatively straightforward administrative approval granted routinely to religious assemblies. Such developments have higher (even negative) impacts on the surrounding community than a typical neighborhood church. They require greater infrastructure service commitments from the city. Traffic generated can cripple existing transit arteries and neighborhood streets, particularly for the special events Pastor Randy Phillips dreams of: concerts featuring his award-winning, top-airplay touring band.
    Amphitheatre seating capacity of 2,500 with one driveway, insufficient parking, and no turn lanes on a dangerous stretch of shoulderless highway – all on septic without adequate sanitation facilities for events? Really? This without considering occupancy of other state-of-the-art structures planned for this Barton Springs contributing zone site.
    Pastor Phillips is right to be “troubled” by public response to his plans. Our concerns are real and practical. The Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods resolved to support our subdivisions, to persuade Pastor Phillips that his dream be adapted to our community’s needs and values rather than imposed upon us.
    We’re thankful the writer cut to a core issue: religious assembly has extraordinary special rights to property and development. The issue is not piety, but citizens being vigilant about the use of these special rights. Not being “sleepy,” as the pastor so quaintly puts it, but residents being protective of their reasonable expectation that existing zoning and neighborhood plans be respected. We’re still waiting for the church to “continue working” with us.

Dear Editor,
    The first "Alpine" Open Meetings Act case started, ironically enough, not with secret face-to-face meetings but with e-mails written between council members, allegedly a criminal violation of the Open Meetings Act ["City Hall Hustle: Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence," News, March 25]. The principles of open government in the decision handed down recently affirm the public's right "to observe how and why every decision [by public officials] is reached," not just the final decision. Viewed in context with the e-mail issues of the Austin City Council, the same principles about the public's right to open government apply. These bedrock principles of democracy are violated regardless of whether public officials are secretly conducting public business face-to-face or by secret e-mails through Facebook.
    No elected official should even try to defend such anti-democracy tactics regardless of how clever the tactic is technologically or where the tactic is deployed, at any level of the government. But the public, and especially the press, must remain vigilant about public officials who do not really take open government to heart and instead seek to destroy it outright or incrementally, an inch, or an e-mail, at a time.

Dear Editor,
    I'm a foster parent. Recently I went to the state Capitol to rally and lobby to restore the funds cut from the proposed state budget for the agency that oversees abused and neglected children. I won't bore you with the details, but the proposed cuts would devastate a protection system that is already last in the country in helping children.
    I was brushed off by a staffer for my local state representative, Dawnna Dukes, but did find out that this Rep. Dukes was actually responsible for writing this section of the proposed budget. She defends the budget by saying how much worse it could be.
    I sat down in the halls of government and watched and prayed and thought.
    Everything in the Capitol building is oversized, gilded, hand-carved, and covered in leather. Twenty-foot-high ceilings and doors. Marble walls, columns, statuary. Enormous wooden doorframes and stair railings. Huge paintings of the important battles. Portraits of every governor. And gold- and bronze-gilded everything. The place was designed for 15-foot-tall humans who stride like gods through the halls.
    I went out onto the grounds of the Capitol and found what the plaque said was a collection of six statues of schoolchildren created with funds donated by schoolchildren in 1993. A Tribute to Texas School Children. Only four of the statues were there.
    I wanted to cry.
    The giants of the Texas Legislature and the schoolchildren of Texas.

Dear Editor,
    The Town Lake Animal Center needs to have a plan of action for when aggressive dogs attack another dog in the walking area. I was there on March 19 when a customer carelessly unleashed a large, aggressive dog before it was safely back in its own pen.
    The dog immediately ran over and attacked another loose dog as it was bound to do. Customers stood around helplessly as the savage attack continued for a few minutes until I ran over to try and help. Thankfully, with the help of a staff member, we were able to tear the dogs apart after a few more minutes. My leg was bitten in the process. As I was washing up, another fight broke out. I saw a man trying to wrestle two dogs apart, so I ran over to assist in that fight as well. This attack was so savage that at one point I thought the other dog had actually died there on the ground. We were able to break this up just in time.
    I was so appalled to find no plan of action and a failed system there where tragedy is inevitable. Staff members are indistinguishable from customers because some wear no uniform. Young children are allowed to walk dogs too large for their control.
    Please be more responsible before a child is mauled next time. You owe it to the public and these animals.

   [Editor's note: For more on Austin's animal-welfare community, see “The Unflinching Abigail Smith,” News, March 25.]

Dear Editor,
    Re: 2010-11 Austin Music Awards [March 25]: So, just to be clear – is it acceptable for one band to win across multiple genres? Doesn't that seem like ballot stuffing to a degree, and/or skewed results?
    I am curious because apparently One-Eyed Doll is industrial/goth, punk, rock, indie, metal, and experimental.
    Doesn't that seem like flooding, stuffing, and a tilting of chances in the favor of a band that doesn't fit in at least four of the six genres?
    I am just curious. Thank you.