Democracy in action: I agree Ms. Cindy Sheehan ("Camp Death," by Craig Mailsow, August 25) has the right to freedom of speech just as you and I or anyone else does. I don't believe anyone is in favor of shutting her up. I find it hypocritical how leftist liberals always demand tolerance and freedom of speech when it comes to their radical ideas, but when anyone dares to oppose or differ with those ideas then tolerance and freedom of speech go out the window. Thank God we still have young men and women who are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice so that we, the people, can have the right to be or not to be idiots.
As for the situation in Iraq, I would think the leftist liberals in this country would be celebrating the fact that the Iraqis for once in their lives have the freedom to vote on what kind of government they want. How sad that when it comes to the Iraqis, darn if they do and darn if they don't. What's going on in Iraq is what we call democracy in action, which was impossible under Saddam's bloody dictatorship. Regime change, maybe, but by the people--not by a dictator or by the barrel of a gun. A great man once said that those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
The fact is we all see things from different perspectives; no two people are alike. But we all have been blessed to live in this country. Let's hope that no matter what our ideology is we will have the courage to defend and protect that which many before us have done with blood, sweat and tears.
Sofia Gonzalez
San Antonio
Great Gonads
Ode to corruption: If the world has gone mad, then Dallas City Hall is the big padded room where the criminally insane are kept.
Week after week, Jim Schutze has gone above and beyond the call of duty as a journalist to expose the infuriating graft and corruption on a mass scale that is on the verge of becoming institutionally accepted in the ever-smoggier Dallas. After reading Schutze's recent article "Payback" (August 4), I no longer find it surprising that Boeing so thoroughly shunned the thought of Dallas being their next headquarters several years ago, nor am I at all confused by the decisions of Dallas teams such as the Cowboys and FC Dallas to move their stadiums as far away from their home city as they possibly could. What business in their right mind would want to deal with a city government that seems to have taken lessons on embezzlement and political harassment from the worst governing bodies of the Third World?
The problems of the city of my birth continue to mount as the men and women who run it line their pockets with the money of the Wilmer-Hutchins school district and are unable to give an answer to the simple question of who owns the car they drive. Citizens put Schutze's forerunner, Laura Miller, into the mayor's office in an attempt to jump-start reform, yet she has seemingly become complacent to the crime around her, if not something of an enabler. Congratulations, Mayor Miller, for making it so firefighters can no longer collect money at intersections to support muscular dystrophy research. I'm sure they appreciate your concern for their safety as they might get bumped by a car cruising five miles an hour as it comes to a stop at a red light. Never mind the fact that no firefighter had ever been injured in the 35 years they had been doing it before you stopped them, that it cost them almost $300,000 in donations, or that these men who risk their own lives by running into burning buildings on regular occasions do not fear nor need you to protect them from a shitty driver at Preston and Royal. Perhaps once the city of Dallas forces WRR's general manager, Greg Davis, to pay back the $90,000 ("Dialing for Dollars," by Robert Wilonsky, July 14) he was overpaid, you can funnel those funds directly to the firefighters. No? You mean you're not even going to make an effort to get the money back? Well, color me shocked!
I have a vision of Dallas' future in two or three decades . It will come to resemble another well-known D-Town: Detroit. And it's not the basketball championships I'm referring to, unfortunately. The city could easily become hamstrung by looming deficits, a proliferation of violent crime and be burdened with a school system that bleeds money all thanks to the wonderful leadership and examples of men such as D'Angelo Lee and Don Hill.
That's a lovely bed you have made for yourself, Dallas City Council, but I do believe I will stay out here in Denton County until such time as a semblance of responsibility to your community is found. Maybe you should ask the FBI to check and see if they can find it in those boxes of documents they are digging through right now.
Mark Kratovil
Trophy Club
The cars, the cars, the cars: Thank God for Jim Schutze. He is the only one in the Dallas press corps with the gonads to tell it like it is about City Hall. His piece about the cars was very enlightening ("The Ride, Stupid," August 25). What has been done to "earn the right to drive" these luxury cars? How will we ever clean up City Hall?
Tom Brown
Dallas
