LETTERS

GIVING CREDIT TO SCOTTISH RITE



ON BEHALF of the board of trustees and the staff of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, I would like to extend our compliments to Chris Tucker and D Magazine for the excellent article “Scottish Rite” [December]. I am sure my opinion is biased, but we have had many compliments from individuals who are not associated with the hospital.

We felt that Mr. Tucker did an excellent job in describing the care that is provided by the hospital to children from across Texas. Thanks again for the excellent coverage.

J. C. Montgomery Jr.

Executive Vice President,

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital

for Crippled Children



THANK YOU for your beautiful article, “Scottish Rite.” The article was especially poignant to me: I am an alumna, so to speak, of the hospital. Eleven years ago I was given a new life by Scottish Rite when they straightened my spine for scoliosis. I will never forget the sincere kindness, compassion and concern shown to me by the doctors and staff and how they tried to make a long and painful hospitalization as easy for me as they could. I hope more people in the commu-nity-at-large will learn of the hospital from your article and of the priceless gift they have given thousands of children. They deserve commendation, especially in light of the complaints currently voiced about the lack of compassion, concern for money and prestige, and increasing impersonality of the health-care industry.

Grace Loehr Farmer

Irving



I WAS a patient at Scottish Rite Hospital during the Thirties and early Forties, mostly as an outpatient. I have four distinct memories: (I.) The loving care of Dr. Girard and Dr. Carrell, (2.) the aroma of breakfast being served to us in bed, (3.) waking up and finding a beautiful, filled Easter basket by my bed and (4.) having a gentle man sing Carolina Moon while he fitted my leg brace. For all of this and much more I am truly grateful to each person who has contributed to this hospital, and I thank you for giving them recognition.

Carolyn Selzer

Dallas



BITING REMARKS



IF THERE’S anything going on in Dallas that’s important besides food, you wouldn’t know it to read D Magazine. November’s issue marks the third time in this calendar year that food has been the topic on the magazine cover (March featured junk food; November, ethnic food). And at the end of 1981 you featured fast food [July 1981] and “Let’s Party” [December 1981] on two of your magazine covers.

I, for one, spend only about 45 minutes per day eating, leaving 23 hours and 15 minutes for other worthwhile endeavors. So there must be something else going on in Dallas besides food. I would definitely enjoy reading about it.

Cami Coe

Dallas



NO PAID POLITICIANS FOR CITY COUNCIL



I CERTAINLY agree with your editorial comments on the fact that Dallas does not need paid politicians [“Editor’s Page,” December]. Our city has been best served by the volunteer system of leadership and the city manager form of government. As a matter of fact, the only voices ever heard for a paid political Council have been from elected Council members who were most anxious to have the non-paying position. One of the better aspects of a non-paid Council is that it enhances turnover and helps to discourage someone from staying in the job too long. It gives more people the opportunity to serve.

Charles T. Terrell

Dallas



BAR NONE



THANKS FOR the delightful article in reference to Dallas’ in and out nightspots [“Cheers!” December]. I find it comforting that I may now leave decisions regarding my social calendar to your magazine. Just because I’ve dined with Princess Caroline in Monte Carlo, Christine McVie in London and Warren Beatty in Los Angeles surely doesn’t mean I should be so socially bold as to make a bar decision on my own. After all, who am I? Obviously, according to D, not someone qualified to decide on a bar for a drink. And to think I enjoyed East-Side because of the atmosphere, great bartenders and delicious drinks.

David P. Fechtman

Garland



TRUE BELIEVERS



I IMAGINE that many people are alarmed, as I was, by the article about Terri Hoffman and her Conscious Development group [“True Believers,” December]. During the past several years, a few different individuals tried to encourage me to go to meetings. An intuitive feeling, plus analysis of some of their attitudes and approaches, always kept me away. But I would like to stress that it was my impression that many of the people who attended were not the typical “nuts” one usually thinks of in association with “cults,” if, in fact, that’s the correct term for what they had. They were intelligent (one was my college professor) and sincere.

There is a human tendency to judge and condemn a leader and a group like that. I found myself tempted to take this condescending approach, and then I asked myself how Christ-like I was being. We live in a world that is very difficult to figure out, to put it mildly. I am sorry for Terri and [for] her followers that some mistakes – maybe some big ones -were made. I’m certain that they also accomplished many good things of which we are unaware. At any rate, we can all learn from it by our speculations, but it is our Creator’s place to be the true judge. I feel He is the Father to see the whole truth and account for it, and to continue to love and offer guidance to Terri, as to all of us with our many shortcomings.

Cat Collins

Dallas



I FEEL sad for George Rodrigue after reading his lengthy jumble of trivia oddly titled “True Believers.” He simply could not transcend the one-sided information he gathered, enough to think for himself and to question the motives of those he interviewed: disgruntled relatives, ex-husbands and malevolent former group members-all of whom had somehow failed to get what they were after, be it money, goods or recognition.

Instead, Mr. Rodrigue succumbed to crafting slanderous innuendos against a lady of light and love who has spent most of her life helping countless others and teaching the highest, most helpful spiritual truths I have encountered in my own search for many years.

Calling Conscious Development a “cult” was kind of a laugh because it is the most diverse group of independent individuals one could ever hope to meet. All freely come, study, question, stay or leave if they so choose. How easily and superficially the media drops buzzwords like “cult,” seeming to be more interested in being chic rather than accurate.

Rosalynne Meyer

Dallas

DEEP ELLUM: WHAT’S IN A NAME?



CHANGING THE name of Deep El-lum is an absurd idea [“Dallas’ Soho,” December]. From the classic old blues song of 60-plus years ago to the redevelopment of its near future, Deep Ellum is not called Deep Ellum for “lack of a better name” any more than Oak Lawn, Oak Cliff or, for that matter, my native Dallas. It remains, simply put, an area that once was a thriving black community. My 86-year-old grandmother still sings that song and remembers catching the trolley in Deep Ellum and witnessing the carnival atmosphere that prospered for decades preceding the Depression. It’s a name and place recalled with fond affection. Further, although true that it suffered drastically after the Thirties, it is equally true that to allow some uninformed real estate broker to explain the “imagery” of the name (shantytown, indeed!) without any suitable retort is shabby reportage and benignly racist.

J. Williams

University Park