LETTERS

JUDGING THE JUDICIARY



D MAGAZINE and your writer, George Rodrigue, performed a real community service in the May issue with the article, “Judging the Judiciary” (Insights). In one page, you captured the problems that are besetting the election of the judiciary in Texas. It has become basically a game of name identification. Qualifications are purely coincidental. Texas needs to change the way it elects judges, but that will not happen until the community understands the problem. Your article will help.

The Committee for a Qualified Judiciary (CQJ) and its endorsements are no panacea, but until the law is changed, we can be of help to the concerned voter. Fortunately, 80 percent of those we endorsed in the primary were elected or are in a runoff. Of course, the real test will come in November when we will be endorsing judges on a bipartisan basis. Again, our selection will be made upon qualifications and not political affiliation. We hope the community will do likewise.

Russell H. Perry

Forrest Smith

Co-chairmen

Committee for a Qualified Judiciary



SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE

IN RESPONSE to your article, “The Scene of a Crime” (May), I can only ask, Did Jo Brans go to sleep in the Fifties only to wake up in 1982? We all lock our doors now, in the daytime as well as at night, and I have a particular disdain of the quickening of Mrs. Victim to wave her fingers at our Dallas Police Department. I say, let’s put the blame where the blame lies.

We make our homes susceptible to burglars. One more time, everybody: Install a burglar alarm (Mrs. Victim is finally catching on), lock your windows and don’t let your valuables be easily accessible, most definitely not on top of your dresser. Keep your yard well lit at night. When your home is unoccupied, leave a light on, turn the radio on, take your phone off the hook and pull the shades. Have your mail picked up when you are out-of-town. You may not wish to get a killer dog as the policeman suggested -remember he deals with these vandals on a daily basis-but what is wrong with a big dog? In a world where children are committing burglaries because as juveniles they can’t be jailed, it certainly couldn’t hurt. Mrs. Victim, if you really want to help the poor underprivileged robber that you let loose on society, don’t make his job so easy for him.

Let’s be realistic. There are only so many policemen, certainly not enough for every household and most certainly not enough for every burglar. Is it too much to ask the citizens of Dallas to practice a little discouragement instead of constantly encouraging these villains? I think not. God bless you, DPD.

Name withheld

Dallas



53 GOING ON 40



JO BRANS, hang in there-I loved your article (“The Other Side of 40,” April) and outlook. You’re my kind of person. I’m 53, happier, more content and enjoying life more than I ever did at 35!

Milly Vaughn

Cleburne



WIPED OUT



I READ with interest Floyce Korsak’s article “Wiped Out” (May). It seems many insurance companies subscribe to the golden rule -he who has the gold makes the rules. Never mind what is fair or equitable for the policyholder, just do what is necessary to save on the cost of the claim.

Maybe the time has come for stronger legislation on the insurance industry requiring them to make good their promises. If you say you will pay the replacement value of a car, then you better give the person the replacement value of the car, and you should be able to tell him where he can replace his car for the money you will pay him. It is simple; you shouldn’t have to go to court to get what is promised you in your policy. Any insurance company that can’t do business this way shouldn’t be allowed to write policies.

It is really a tragedy that we never find out about the type of people we are dealing with at insurance companies until it is too late. It is almost like buying gold bars every year for 20 years for your retirement. Upon retirement, you take one of the bars out and try to sell it, only to discover that the agent has been selling you near-worthless bars of lead.

Colin Tuttle

Oklahoma City



AMERICAN TIMEPIECES



MICHAEL BERRYHlLL’s assessment of the Ganz collection, “American Timepieces” (May), is only one person’s viewpoint. Here is another’s, who has a completely different opinion of the marvelous collection of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz Jr. It is one of the finest collections I have had the extreme pleasure to view.

Having been to the Prado in Madrid, art exhibits at the Vatican and Florence Ottawa Art Gallery, exhibits in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida, including the Armand Hammer Collection, I find the Ganz collection a precious treasure.

When considering the time, effort and discriminating arts exhibited, I can only say: God bless them for so generously sharing this exquisitely sensitive and soul-enriching collection.

Eleanor Meyers

Dallas



NO TRIVIAL MISTAKE



PEELER, TOOMER, Burton, Rosen-field, Anders and Larrabee strove hard in their concert to be amusing in “So You Think You Know Everything About Dallas” (June). The Love Field item will not be amusing to the family of the hero for whom it was named. Even as a relative newcomer to Dallas, I know that it was named for an aviator hero who died in World War I. Levity is not always justified. I apologize to that family for your uncouth journalism.

Tom Nabors

Dallas