Shut Up and Pay Up|In the Blood

Shut Up and Pay Up

I am amazed by the statement that all we want is more money ("Squeeze Play," by Sam Merten, January 31). Clueless! It is about doing what is right, about ethics, about respect and acknowledgement of what Little Mexico stands for. Little Mexico is where young lives were formed, where parents/families struggled to maintain a home for their kids and to raise them with hard work ethics and honesty. Certain people are clueless and blinded by dollar signs and their arrogance.

There have been lawyers, doctors, policemen, musical artists, city council persons, etc. [who] come out of Little Mexico. Little Mexico deserves respect and acknowledgement for what it is, for what good things it has produced, and cannot just be swept away like a discarded item. I am a businessman also. I lived in Little Mexico as a young person. I was there. I saw/experienced the daily struggle firsthand. Those old homes mean a lot to me and the people that lived in them. They are much more than peeling paint, 100-year-old wood and cracked cement. They are part of Dallas history. It is where parents taught their kids what life is all about!

I find it interesting that Commissioner Emmons is trying to impugn the morals of the families involved. "They're not defending their community; they're defending their bankbook." Seriously? So Harwood and their flunkies have been pulling out every dirty trick and beating down the families' doors for years strictly for altruistic reasons? Harwood stands to make a ton as it is, and gaining these properties just adds to the cash pile. Acting like the families are bad guys because they a) would prefer to keep their property and b) know what it's worth, is BS. Emmons talks about moral weight of generational ownership. He talks about the greater good of 5,000 new residents. Whatever. The people who are not there now are not impacted by this at all, and the people who want to buy the properties don't live there and never will. Maybe Harwood will buy his place instead.

Shame on Harwood International, Executive Vice President Julie Morris and attorney Gary Scott. Why would they sully their reputations with reported/documented stories of lies, deceit, setting family members against one another, bullying and greed for a 35-story high-rise condo with 5,000 new residents and a grocery store? Given the real estate market, can Dallas fill another downtown high-rise? Why is our city government official, Neil Emmons, siding with big business over homeowners?

They should give these homeowners their asking price. It's peanuts to them. These homeowners will turn around and spend this money in our fair city.

In the blood

Great article on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas ("Blood Brother," by Jesse Hyde, January 31), but I was disturbed by one sentence: "Tattoos and shaved head notwithstanding, he didn't arouse the suspicions of many of his neighbors, who had no idea what they were in for." The writer is suggesting that tattoos and a shaved head should be an indication that a man is dangerous. Yet I know countless men who have tattoos and shave their head who would never harm anyone and who are among the finest men I've had the pleasure to meet. Please don't stereotype.

Good article. People who lurch through childhood without a family are likely to build one out of whatever scraps are available once they get older. Less important than the color of the prison gang is the fact that many teenagers are recruited in their first go-around through prison. Be their skin black, brown or white, many of them identify with the blood oaths—the idea that this is a family through good times and bad. It gives meaning to the word "family," unlike the bullshit meaning so many of them experienced as children.