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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.
AISD Mystery
RECEIVED Mon., Sept. 9, 2019
Dear Editor,
Everyone who has been paying attention understands that AISD cannot continue to tap dance around their impending budget crisis. Nor can we as a community continue to fail to address the real and longstanding disparities in how public education is provided in different areas of our city. Both issues must be addressed – swiftly and in earnest. Parents, students, staff, and faculty are ready to hear some hard news. Some are waiting for long-promised relief. However, a mystery remains: The district’s current proposal to close and consolidate a dozen schools is astonishing considering how quickly Austin has grown recently, and that AISD officials have repeatedly communicated to parents and media that a districtwide redrawing of school zones is both imminent and inevitable ["AISD Releases Plans for School Closures and Consolidations," News, Sept. 5]. So why is the school board hellbent on closing inner-city schools (within a breathtaking two- to three-month period, from announcement to decision) if a full-scale opportunity to reorganize funding, relocate students, and improve equity is just around the corner? Do they think that when this zoning battle comes they’ll have a better chance of getting what they want if they have fewer moving pieces, and fewer communities to answer to? The more prudent and humane course of action – one that minimizes waste and trauma –would be to wait for a full and considered assessment of how these looming boundary changes might be leveraged as low-cost starting points to simultaneously address campus underpopulation and economic segregation. Only after that should we consider shuttering schools, which eviscerates the communities that grow (and grow up) around them.
Everyone who has been paying attention understands that AISD cannot continue to tap dance around their impending budget crisis. Nor can we as a community continue to fail to address the real and longstanding disparities in how public education is provided in different areas of our city. Both issues must be addressed – swiftly and in earnest. Parents, students, staff, and faculty are ready to hear some hard news. Some are waiting for long-promised relief. However, a mystery remains: The district’s current proposal to close and consolidate a dozen schools is astonishing considering how quickly Austin has grown recently, and that AISD officials have repeatedly communicated to parents and media that a districtwide redrawing of school zones is both imminent and inevitable ["AISD Releases Plans for School Closures and Consolidations," News, Sept. 5]. So why is the school board hellbent on closing inner-city schools (within a breathtaking two- to three-month period, from announcement to decision) if a full-scale opportunity to reorganize funding, relocate students, and improve equity is just around the corner? Do they think that when this zoning battle comes they’ll have a better chance of getting what they want if they have fewer moving pieces, and fewer communities to answer to? The more prudent and humane course of action – one that minimizes waste and trauma –would be to wait for a full and considered assessment of how these looming boundary changes might be leveraged as low-cost starting points to simultaneously address campus underpopulation and economic segregation. Only after that should we consider shuttering schools, which eviscerates the communities that grow (and grow up) around them.
Ben Reed
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Wake-Up Fairy
RECEIVED Sun., Sept. 8, 2019
Dear Editor,
Interesting year, 2019. It's just been 80 years since we almost lost the world to fascism. Decompressing from that era, we may reflect on other worldly events and their anniversaries. One of the most distant is the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad linking the country together in 1869. Fifty years later, 100 years ago in 1919, Dwight Eisenhower led the first transcontinental Motor Transport Corps from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Fifty years hence and 50 years ago, in 1969 astronauts landed on the moon. The world has come a long way in a short time thanks to American grit and imagination.
So 1969 is a good year to reflect on. It represented a peak of American aspiration, but it also measured the depths of depravity, and mindless selfishness. It was once joked that in 1969 JFK's inspiration got men to the moon, but his brother Ted couldn't cross the Chappaquiddick Bridge. What could contrast more, a month after Neil Armstrong's “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” than to be slipping, sipping, stoning, singing in the mud in Yasgur's Farm at Woodstock in upstate New York? Not to mention poor Charles Manson making a mess of everyone's lives in California.
Surprise, presidential candidates are a perspicuous bunch. Many born since 1969, reflect values that … in geologic terms are a discontinuity. They know no better. They have lived in a world where “value relativism” is the norm. By judging everything in the false long narrative of the present, they cannot see the future.
Trump may bumble, but the greater truth is that since World War II, we have been dividing the world we live in into zones of self-righteousness and ideologies. Today it's a world of straw men. Pull out your man: white supremacist, racist, communist, socialist, sexist, etc., while ignoring cabals and collusion, not to mention human trafficking.
“Wake up” is the subtext of the Trump Phenomena. We have a future to unfold as human beings here on this lovely, rare planet, Earth. Consider Trump your “wake-up fairy.”
Interesting year, 2019. It's just been 80 years since we almost lost the world to fascism. Decompressing from that era, we may reflect on other worldly events and their anniversaries. One of the most distant is the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad linking the country together in 1869. Fifty years later, 100 years ago in 1919, Dwight Eisenhower led the first transcontinental Motor Transport Corps from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Fifty years hence and 50 years ago, in 1969 astronauts landed on the moon. The world has come a long way in a short time thanks to American grit and imagination.
So 1969 is a good year to reflect on. It represented a peak of American aspiration, but it also measured the depths of depravity, and mindless selfishness. It was once joked that in 1969 JFK's inspiration got men to the moon, but his brother Ted couldn't cross the Chappaquiddick Bridge. What could contrast more, a month after Neil Armstrong's “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” than to be slipping, sipping, stoning, singing in the mud in Yasgur's Farm at Woodstock in upstate New York? Not to mention poor Charles Manson making a mess of everyone's lives in California.
Surprise, presidential candidates are a perspicuous bunch. Many born since 1969, reflect values that … in geologic terms are a discontinuity. They know no better. They have lived in a world where “value relativism” is the norm. By judging everything in the false long narrative of the present, they cannot see the future.
Trump may bumble, but the greater truth is that since World War II, we have been dividing the world we live in into zones of self-righteousness and ideologies. Today it's a world of straw men. Pull out your man: white supremacist, racist, communist, socialist, sexist, etc., while ignoring cabals and collusion, not to mention human trafficking.
“Wake up” is the subtext of the Trump Phenomena. We have a future to unfold as human beings here on this lovely, rare planet, Earth. Consider Trump your “wake-up fairy.”
Fred Stewart
Indescribably Devastating Loss
RECEIVED Sun., Sept. 8, 2019
Dear Chronicle,
Nice job being petty by not mentioning a word about Chad Holt (10/3/1972-8/18/2019) passing away a few weeks ago. He was one of the most well-known people in this city and will be missed by hundreds if not thousands of people here, and more than likely quite a few folks around the world. I’ve been scouring your magazine since March when he made the announcement that his cancer had returned, and of course since he died last month. Not one word has been mentioned about him, and you know damn well that he was one of the most recognized people in this city. I realize that you all must still have your feelings hurt about the whole SXSW episode, but it's time to let it go. It's not good for your soul. He paid his debt. Too bad you don’t feel like you need to give him the respect he overwhelmingly deserves by giving him a few words in your magazine. Whether you guys personally liked him or not, being friends with Chad was one of the only things left about this city that still made it feel like Austin. Losing him is an indescribably devastating loss to his many close friends, the entire rock & roll community, the film community, and the last few remaining women that missed the opportunity to be charmed by him. The absence of Chad has left an immeasurable void in his friends and family's lives that will more than likely never be filled. It is an undeniable fact that he was a local icon, and the fact that you snub him in death is tacky and totally transparent. We see you, Chronicle. We ALL see you.
Nice job being petty by not mentioning a word about Chad Holt (10/3/1972-8/18/2019) passing away a few weeks ago. He was one of the most well-known people in this city and will be missed by hundreds if not thousands of people here, and more than likely quite a few folks around the world. I’ve been scouring your magazine since March when he made the announcement that his cancer had returned, and of course since he died last month. Not one word has been mentioned about him, and you know damn well that he was one of the most recognized people in this city. I realize that you all must still have your feelings hurt about the whole SXSW episode, but it's time to let it go. It's not good for your soul. He paid his debt. Too bad you don’t feel like you need to give him the respect he overwhelmingly deserves by giving him a few words in your magazine. Whether you guys personally liked him or not, being friends with Chad was one of the only things left about this city that still made it feel like Austin. Losing him is an indescribably devastating loss to his many close friends, the entire rock & roll community, the film community, and the last few remaining women that missed the opportunity to be charmed by him. The absence of Chad has left an immeasurable void in his friends and family's lives that will more than likely never be filled. It is an undeniable fact that he was a local icon, and the fact that you snub him in death is tacky and totally transparent. We see you, Chronicle. We ALL see you.
Ms. Corri Mava
