Noose around our necks: If there is such a thing as grace and such things as blessings, I hope they are yours in reward for such a thing as caring to write this story ("The View From the Bottom," October 24).
Paging Dr. Keynes...our economy is broke and broken fundamentally. It needs fixing. Sadly, our president is whistling down the same path that led his father to distinction as a one-termer. What we need is a good Keynesian as well as a few crusaders at the SEC, FTC and FCC, and a house-cleaning in Congress.
Keynes was not a social reformer as accused, just a keen observer of economics. His formula was simple: To keep it, you have to give it away. Only the wealth that remains in circulation via sound investment increases. Sadly, this car drives in reverse as well.
This is the third significant bloodletting in the workforce in my adult life. And my conclusion is this: Our leaders and movers and shakers must learn how to get it right and do so quickly, or they will pay the price for decades to come. If we in the workforce cannot depend on the stability of the economy as it is, we will change the economy. We will buy modest homes and live in them the rest of our lives, buy economy cars and drive them until the wheels fall off, pay cash rather than enrich lenders via double-digit credit card rates. We will shrink the economy of necessity, and why not? It is tightening around our necks as it is.
Diane Wolfe
Via e-mail
Downsized: This article really hit home for me. After working as a corporate technical recruiter for Allegiance Telecom, Inc. for more than two years, I was downsized along with most of the people that I hired. I can recall these people in these articles calling me in regard to any opportunities that we had. They were open to pay cuts of over $30K just to get benefits. Times in the telecom field have become difficult; most people that I have worked with are trying to find another career field other than telecom just to get a new job.
I myself have been downsized, and this article describes most of my days and those of the people that I have kept in touch with who were downsized. I have now started looking for new employment outside of the D-FW area so that I may have some options--other than 100 percent commission positions. There are a lot of people trying to scam these people who are looking for work. There are so many companies and people taking advantage of the unemployed person by having them pay to upgrade their résumés and pay to search Web sites for jobs that aren't real, etc.
Hopefully people will realize how difficult these times have become for those of us trying to find a new job, but with our experience we are usually overqualified and not even considered.
Heather Reynolds
Dallas
Hire American: You are my hero! Finally someone tells it like it is! Yes, what you wrote is what is really going on out there. Keep up the good work. Get on board with the H1-B visa issue if you can. H1-B's still have jobs and Americans do not!
Ken Schiffman
Dallas
General Jerry
J.J.'s QB: I hope Jerry received a personal copy of your article ("Jerry Rigged," October 24). It was brilliant! Your evaluation of his speaking style is dead-on. Thank you for thinking more of the Dallas public's IQ than Mr. Jones does.
Alexine Anderson
Dallas
Her Bitchy Best
Liner's diatribes: As a member of the Dallas-area theatrical community, I am discouraged to see that you have continued to give Ms. Elaine Liner space in your publication to not review or critique productions but instead to launch into fiercely personal and unprofessional attacks and diatribes against specific actors and lambaste shows for her own amusement. I have noticed this trend in her writing for a while now, the most recent example being the slam against talented actress Rebecca Graham in Theatre Three's production of Comic Potential ("Built for Laughs," October 24). Ms. Liner's review of the show, which I have seen, is overall favorable, but the paragraph where she unjustly attacks Ms. Graham's portrayal of Carla Pepperbloom adds nothing whatsoever to the review. It only served to attack and degrade. As I said, I have seen the show and think that Ms. Graham (whom I have seen in other productions around town) is at her comic bitchy best in this wild show and certainly possesses none of the grandmother-esque qualities Ms. Liner describes.
Please reconsider Ms. Liner's placement with your organization.
Tommy Looney
Dallas
Homegirl
Instant icon: The first time I heard Norah Jones ("Don't Know How," September 19), I experienced the same exhilaration I did the day I caught Sade for the first time back in the 1980s. I knew I was hearing a sound that was one-of-a-kind, performed by an artist who would be an instant icon.
So I was so pleased to read in your fine profile of Jones that Norah has that same modesty and ambivalence about fame that Sade had at the beginning and still has today.
After buying her album, I thought I knew everything there was to know about Norah Jones until I read the Observer. Thank you for the best article yet about your hometown girl.
Doug Bruckner
Los Angeles
