Bile and disdain: Did Jim Schutze ("Absentee Minded," August 30), Thomas Korosec ("Vamoose") and Mayor Kirk (Dallas Business Journal) get together and decide that this is "kick the crap out of Laura Miller week?" I am a bit disconcerted over the bile I picked up from all three sources. Most people appreciate fair, hard-hitting journalism. However, the sarcasm and disdain embedded in the two Observer reporters' articles sully the authors and the Observer as much they appear to be trying to do to council member Miller. The mayor has a history of being nasty, so I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't aware that Schutze and Korosec did as well. How disappointing.
Name withheld
Dallas
Squashing the poor: I read this week's Dallas Observer, and I was appalled by Ms. Laura Miller's heartless, indifferent attitude toward a grieving, defenseless Hispanic woman and her children by stripping her means to make a living after her husband killed himself. Is this the way Democrats do the poor? Squashing down Mrs. Alma Vazquez when she had barely buried her husband? There is a God who looks after us!
Hermelinda Delgadillo A.
Mesquite
Surprised: I was surprised to read about the true colors of Laura Miller. Surprised, too, that I read it in the Dallas Observer.
Jesus Chairez
Via e-mail
Tell the whole story: Hey, as a reporter, you need to get all of your ducks in a row! You were very quick to say all of the negative things that you could think to say about Laura Miller but failed to mention all of the detriments that the bus terminal adds to our neighborhood. I live in the "increasingly expensive" Winnetka Heights Historic District and would love to see any cleanups of the area taken seriously. The fight over that space the bus terminal was in had been going on for months and months. It didn't just start when the man killed himself.
What about all of the traffic problems? What about all of the safety problems that this bus terminal caused? What about all of the dangers to the passengers/pedestrians in the area? Why did you not address these? Why don't you get the whole story next time?
Brett M. Read
Dallas
Really bad deal: In "Absentee Minded," Jim Schutze completely misquoted me. I never said It's a Bad Deal!! volunteers were afraid to walk in South Dallas neighborhoods during the campaign. After the election, when we tried to investigate some voting fraud stories, we found the neighborhoods where we had to go were pretty rough.
We did not walk or go door to door in any neighborhood in any part of the city. We telephoned voters--in North Dallas, in East Dallas, in South Dallas, in Oak Cliff, West Dallas and Northwest Dallas. I made that very clear to Jim Schutze.
For him to take our not walking in any neighborhood as somehow racist was not just a stretch, but deceptive.
We did not have the unlimited financial resources of the pro-arena gang to "buy volunteers." We were not afraid to make an appearance in South Dallas; we just used our resources in the most effective way we could. No one in the It's a Bad Deal!! campaign was paid. We did pay one advertising group to design one mailing, but the remainder of the mailers were done by volunteers.
We were outspent by more than $3 million to our measly $80,000, and Reed's gang could only steal the election by less than 1,700 votes. The It's a Bad Deal!! volunteers were wonderful citizens who had nothing to gain personally or financially except the satisfaction of standing their ground against a bad deal.
There's Another Bad Deal on the horizon for November 6. The same gang who lied to Dallas voters in the arena election and the Trinity bond election is preparing its campaign to put over Prop 2012 for the Olympics $14 million guarantee. Where is Reed going to get the millions for that campaign?
Sharon Boyd
Publisher, DallasArena.com
Dallas
Jim Schutze responds: I quoted Ms. Boyd verbatim from notes, based on a 45-minute discussion on a single point--why her campaigns never include black people. The streets she describes as "pretty rough" are places where I found that I was well-received.
Half a story: Bruce Parrott (Letters, August 23) compares Jose Plata to a jellyfish because he did not attend the July 2000 called board meeting to consider Bill Rojas' future with DISD. As DISD board president, I called the meeting. I knew full well Mr. Plata could not attend. When I posted the meeting, he was on a hiking vacation in a remote area of Mexico. I was unable to reach him to make him aware of the meeting.
Upon his return, he was clear that had he known, he would have been present. Mr. Parrott needs a more reliable source of information.
Roxan Staff
DISD Trustee
Dallas
Courage to stand up for what's right: Lois Parrott ("Divided She Stands," August 16) does what those who elected her to office want her to do. Thanks for the publicity. That was a beautiful picture of Lois on the cover.
If it wasn't for Lois Parrott and Hollis Brashear, who had the courage to stand up for what was right and what was wrong with the school system, there wouldn't be any Dr. Moses to lead us out of the wilderness of crime and corruption that has permeated the system. I am proud of Lois Parrott and Hollis Brashear. They had the guts to put their names on the ballot and run for office and to stand up and say what they knew was morally wrong and bad for the school district. This took courage. It's easy to sit back and criticize when you can hide behind newspaper print rather than face the public. Don't kill the messenger just because the messenger may bring news you don't want to hear.
When you're criticizing the school board and particularly Lois, remember, as Laura Miller said, this is the school board that brought us Dr. Moses.
Mrs. T.D. (Ethyel) Stallings
Dallas
