LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH



Each month, D will pick one notable letter-whether the most insightful, the wittiest, the most sarcastic, the dumbest, etc.-to be honored as Letter of the Month. Each October we’ll have a drawing from the anointed LMs. The winner gets dinner for two at one of our favorite restaurants.



Save Sheila Taylor’s article [“On Turning Fifty,” August]. As the tide of baby boomers to follow her crests and crashes on whatever remains of youthful vigor and progress in this nation, the same obvious conclusions and hardened-artery cogitations are sure to multiply.

You can run her piece, with the most minor of changes, for the next seventeen years under the byline of each boomer journalist who, in turn, wants to inflict the reading public with his or her wading pool introspections upon reaching forty, fifty, and thereafter.

We have endured and will continue to suffer through the half-bright expositions of every detail of these columnists’ family lives. We’re treated to a profound piece every time a relative dies or a child is born, since these miracles never happen to other people. Even if other people actually do have children or grow old, it’s much more interesting to read a middle-class white person’s completely inoffensive perspective on these things, don’t you think? These experiences aren’t real until Taylor writes them for us, she says.

You watch. I’ll bet the spritely woman will tear the factory tags off her pillows and mattresses, the ones that read “do not remove under penalty of law,” and then she’ll write about it. I can’t wait.

EDDIE VELA

ARLINGTON



Fifty Questions



I turned fifty last February also, and I feel much like Sheila Taylor. 1 really enjoyed her comments and those of others. After twenty-four years of marriage and two sons in college, now I’m all alone and fifty-wow!

I still believe in being young at heart and I am happier now than I have ever been. I know also what Taylor means when you look in the mirror, feeling thirty, and a fifty-year-old looks back. It’s hard not being the prettiest anymore-just “well preserved.” Ha!

Thanks again for Taylor’s feature and comments.

P.S. What happened to the men our age?

DEBBIE DIERKING

DALLAS

The Legacy of Racism

I read Ruth Fitzgibbons’s editor’s page [“Fire and Ire: So Much to Overcome,” August] with great interest. I concur with her assessment that the “process that began in an effort to bring Dallas together in an unprecedented atmosphere of hope and healing has ended in an environment of sickening divisiveness and racial mistrust.”

Although I have been away from Dallas for twenty-five years, I do not believe we can place blame for this atmosphere at the feet of any one individual or group of individuals. The legacy of racial discrimination in this city and country has manifested itself differently in the lives of Afro-Americans, Anglos, and Hispanics. Therefore, it is not unusual for different individuals to respond differently to this process.

As you and others of us in Dallas recognize, “power is rarely shared without a fight.” However, I am greatly encouraged by this community finally beginning to come to grips with the inequities that exist in Dallas. The racial tension is compelling this community to examine and reexamine its long-held beliefs about race relations. This has always proven difficult tor a city and very often difficult for individuals.

ALPHONSO JACKSON

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

DALLAS HOUSING AUTHORITY



The Best Defense. . .

Re: “Cry of Innocence” by Brad Bailey [August].

If Norman Kinne had defended Joyce Ann Brown she would have been found not guilty.

If Doug Mulder had defended Randall Dale Adams he would have been found not guilty.

It may well be time for Norm Kinne to resume his private law practice, much like Doug Mulder did.

DAVID ALEXANDER

FORMER ASSISTANT DA

DALLAS



I was very pleased to read that Ruth Fitz-gibbons chastised Mayor Pro Tem John Evans for his obnoxious attitude during the demonstrations at City Hall,

Anyone who is unfortunate enough to live in Evans’s district knows that he is little more than Mayor Strauss’s lap dog. Evans provides the North Dallas bloc with his “Little Sir Echo” routine, and in return he is allowed to play at being mayor once in awhile and is given a limitless supply of kibble.

We know he is obedience trained. Goodness, Strauss doesn’t even need to use the standard “Sit, Stay” commands. Simple eye contact usually does the trick.

JANE GOODWIN

DALLAS

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