I personally want to thank journalist Ann Zimmerman and the Dallas Observer for the story "Dumped On" [August 7]. Our community is grateful for the story, which was well investigated and well written by Zimmerman. We love and thank her for speaking out in the defense of our community. We have endured many years of injustices. While others turned a deaf ear and looked the other way, Zimmerman heard the community and disclosed the largest illegal dump in the state of Texas, here in Dallas. We wish her longevity as a journalist and think she should be commended.
Harold Cox
Dallas
Ann's a pro
I must say that the article "Dumped On" deserves an A+ on Ann Zimmerman's abilities as a writer. This article needs to be sent to all journalists, newspapers, politicians, judges, ministers, world leaders, President Bill Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore. Everyone needs to know throughout our United States how one southern area of Dallas is suffering.
Yet our city and state officials (lawmakers) have taken our complaints and cries as if we (the taxpayers) mean nothing. The city lowering our property value is a slap in our faces. Many of us homeowners know what the city is doing to us. And for many of us, voting at any election is going to be slim.
Thanks to Zimmerman and the Observer for one of the most professional articles I've read in a long time.
Cynthia Herring
Dallas
Ignore the pettifoggers
There's an old adage along the lines of: "When there was only one lawyer in town, he dang near starved; but when there were two, they prospered very well." So it goes with Dallas Bar Association trial lawyers. The disgruntlement about Judge Candace Tyson ["Rotten Candy," Buzz, August 7] is perhaps about money.
Judge Tyson has courageously terminated litigation sport opportunities for both sides of the docket; witness, for example, her recent dismissal of thousands of out-of-state toxic tort cases that had otherwise been dumped here as welcomed grist for the local lawyering mill.
The real buzz is that the public isn't interested in, and certainly won't respect or support, the whining of lawyers on any issue. The public has correctly determined that anything preferred by 80 percent of lawyers probably isn't good for anyone else.
Thomas Shaw
Dallas
Respect the pettifoggers
One thing I like about Buzz: It ain't afraid to take potshots. Oftentimes, these shots are directed at specific targets. That is what is useful about Buzz--it gets the word out on the bad deeds being done out there.
However, the shotgun approach used in the last line of "Rotten Candy" is just so over-used and banal that I fail to see the point. The line "Buzz, of course, must point out the humongous caveat that attaches to these bar poll results--these are the learned opinions of a bunch of lawyers" is so typical and without novelty that I am surprised it came from Buzz. Maybe I'm not.
Attorneys, as do all with power, deserve to be slammed when they get out of line. But let us not indict the entire attorney population with such back-handed remarks. It is this very sort of pop phrase that corrupts the ignorant and aids in causing mass hatred of particular groups of people. We've all seen what damage that has done.
When the learned media ratify such hatred, it just magnifies and multiplies it. You all know that. So stop doing it. You would not openly bash other discrete groups of people without foundation. Don't do it to attorneys just because we are attorneys. It does not feel real good when you have not done anything to deserve such ridicule. It is just basic human decency that hopefully someone taught to you at some point.
I know it's hard. But just try. Just try to refrain from the ever popular lawyer bashing, unless it is deserved. My poor ol' PC heart just cannot take it.
Mark Falkin, Esq.
Dallas
Buzz responds: Buzz partially accepts Falkin, Esq.'s point. It was wrong of us to employ over-used and banal writing. In the future, Buzz will strive to be more original in its disdain for attorneys.
