LETTERS

GOING IT ALONE



REGARDING THE October “Editor’s Page” on divorce, it is not often that I read an article that touches me in such a way that I become so empathetic as to feel myself in the very position of the writer. I could feel myself as you pained all the hurt, second-guessed yourself, had your last minute doubts, questioned the simplicity of the proceeding and finally came to the conclusion that you would do it all over agai

In contrast to you, I was one of the first of our group to get married and, consequently, the first to get divorced. It gives you an uneasy feeling when friends ask, “Where is Sheri?” or whisper to themselves that the girl you are with is not your wife. Too often word travels slowly, making you look like the adulterer or the gamesman. In conclusion, I, too, believe that ending a relationship or marriage (as the case may be) is a strength. All too frequently it is a weakness to place our dependence or hopes into a marriage that is disintegrating before our eyes (although we choose not to see it). Instead, we must muster the strength to see we can go it alone and seek happiness on our own.

Thanks for triggering my emotions and brain. Your column was a treasure.

Mark Ticer Dallas



REQUIEM FOR A SCHOOL



THIS IS MY last letter. I have written many to our city’s newspapers and magazines over the past 20 years on behalf of my neighborhood school, Longfellow Elementary School, and the Dallas Independent School District. When we moved into our neighborhood in 1962, every Realtor told us that, of course, we could not use the neighborhood school since it was “integrated.” This word was always delivered in an embarrassed whisper. When we became a part of that school, however, we found an academically sound school with a mixture of people of all colors and all economic classe

In 1975, Longfellow was the subject of an extensive article in D Magazine, that implacable foe of the DISD. (Wick Allison, you were right and I was wrong!) Then, as now, it was a school going quietlyabout its task of preparing children for life in the fullest sense, all the while fighting the bigotry that surrounded it and the cowardice of school officials in supporting a situation that was not yet fashionable.

A concrete example of the devotion of our community toward its school and children stands at our school today. It began at a PTA meeting with a complaint of a broken swing. It culminated four years later in a $65,000 community playground, built on school property with federal funds and private donations. It was built on a promise from DISD that it would be perpetually maintained by the school district. (We have a difficult time persuading them to replace the light bulbs on “their” playground

Then the public preoccupation with equality in our schools intensified. We observed the furor with a self-satisfaction bordering on smugness. We were integrated. We were diverse. We had educational excellence for all our children. And we were pleased that our school district was finally trying to achieve overall what we had attained individually. In 1976, in the name of desegregation, into a naturally integrated school were bused white children from North Dallas and black and brown children from West Dallas.

Slowly, and largely as a result of this part-time desegregation by bus, our system of public education began to fail. Public confidence diminished; white flight increased; public-school population fell; and with all this came financial problems. School closings vs. insolvency was the dilemma that haunted the DISD. But the name of our school was never mentioned. We, secure in the certainty that our school was and had been for years a prime example of what the entire district sought, never imagined that we would be a target. We could not believe that even our present school board would tamper with a school that could boast a long history of educational excellence, community support and “desegregation

But a nearby school was designated for closing. That school and its constituents did not respond with facts and information and reasons why it should be allowed to exist. Sudie Williams turned on its brother, screaming in a shrill voice with no hint of reason, “Take him; don’t take me!”

Our community met the challenge as we had all the others. We scrambled, in t

two weeks we were granted, to comply with the request of Jerry Bartos to give the school board facts and information on which to base its decision. But the school board did not want to be confused with facts, and, in a closed meeting – before we were given the courtesy of a hearing – greed and expediency won the day.

Our school is to be closed – not because it is unsuccessful, not because it is a “one-race” school, not because our children can be better educated elsewhere -but because our school is worth more dollars per square foot to the developer who is interested in buying.

This, then, is my eulogy for Longfellow Elementary School -a school that has enriched my life and the lives of my children-a school that was the very essence of quality education for all children. (How I’ve come to hate the lip service paid to those words!) Longfellow was an ideal that worked in reality, that proved its success year after year and child after child. It has been killed by DISD-by its unthinking, uncaring, dissembling bureaucrats who are, bit by bit, killing our system of public education.

Its death should be a warning to any of you who still believe in public education in Dallas. I do not.

Jane Greer Dallas

DEEP SLEEP

IN REGARD to your article, “Deep Sleep” (September) by Joan Rapfogel, we would like to call the following to your attention. Basically, the article contains erroneous statements that give the wrong interpretation of the facts about Presbyterian Hospital’s Department of Anesthesia. The article states, “At Presbyterian Hospital consultant anesthesiologists always supervise CRNAs.” We understand that the information released to your magazine was, “There is an M.D. anesthesiologist who acts as a consultant to the CRNAs.” We would like to make it clear that at Presbyterian Hospital the majority of anesthetics is provided by a physician anesthesiologist on a one-physician-to-one-patient basis, and the remainder is provided by CRNAs in the same one-to-one ratio with a consultant anesthesiologist available.

Also, as your article went into depth about “double-posting,” we would like to state that double-posting has never been a part of any operating room procedure at Presbyterian Hospital. Our medical staff and trustee policies would not consent to such a procedur

Carlos Botty, M.D. Chairman, Department of Anesthesia



Douglas D. Hawthorne

Administrator

Presbyterian Hospital

CHANGING CHANNELS

REGARDING YOUR article in the November “Inside Dallas,” “Cable ’Star’ Changes Channels”; if, as you implied, Anne Hall single-handedly gained the Dallas franchise for Warner Amex, she certainly did not do it with personality and charm. As Ms. Hall indicated, she could not build the system; therefore, qualified people were hired to do so. She chose to explore greener pastures. Warner Amex no longer needed a campaign manager to – among other things -mislead and make unkept promises to certain segments of the public. As a Warner employee, I was delighted to see her go -she is lacking in human-relations skills and professionalism. Whoever made the decision against “turning cartwheels to keep her,” made a wise one if they wanted to keep other employees.

Ms. F. Jackson Richardson

ON THE RIGHT TRACK



I WOULD LIKE to bring to your attention a slight error (actually a gross error from our perspective) on page 118 of your 1982 Auto Guide in the October issue. It was Road & Track magazine, not Motor Trend, that named the Saab 900 Turbo 5-speed as the Best Sports Sedan in our listing of 10 Best Cars for the Eighties. I hope you’ll be able to inform your readers on this poin

John Dinkel Editor, Road & Track