LETTERS

Hearing Back From The Blue



We call attention to the mention of the Dallas Police Association in your May issue [“Street Talk”]. The writer apparently did not check out the facts and certainly did not contact me for corroboration of statements made. I would think that the writer should be knowledgeable enough to know that the DPA is not a “union.”

D Magazine is a well-liked and well-read periodical and we appreciate the fair treatment that our Dallas police officers have received in the past.

Monica Smith

President

Dallas Police Association



Thoroughly Appalled



In reference to Sally Giddens’s biased and inflammatory reportings on the activities of the Junior League of Dallas (“Inside Dallas ” May], I am thoroughly appalled. If she finds so much fault with this volunteer organization, then why is she still a member? It is not a sorority, not elitist, nor does its membership alienate the community. Membership into the Junior League is not one’s “coveted entree into society” but rather one’s commitment to helping runaways, pregnant adolescents, battered wives and children, the hungry, the homeless, and other needy people.

Marynell Murphy

Dallas



Superbaby-Take a Number



Lisa Kestler’s “Madness in the Housing Market” [May] was both entertaining and informative, but I must point out a minor inaccuracy. Superbaby’s admission to DISD’s Hotchkiss Montessori Academy is not guaranteed to follow his/her family’s relocation to Merriman Park. Because Hotchkiss is a part of the district’s magnet program, neighborhood children must apply to the school and join the thousand-plus children on the waiting list. DISD must consider expansion of the Montessori program as a means of returning the joy of learning (and of teaching) to the public school classroom.

Jan Davis Mallett

1st, 2nd, 3rd grade teacher

Hotchkiss Montessori Academy

Communication Breakdown



We appreciate your mentioning our service in the “Job Hunter’s Price Index” in D’s May issue [“Inside Dallas”]. I do, however, want to clarify for your readers that our job bank lists only business communications, public relations, advertising, and related job openings. The Communicators Job Bank is a volunteer project of local chapters of the International Association of Business Communicators and Public Relations Society of America; it is not a general-interest job openings service.

Cami Hardee

Coordinator, Communicators Job Bank



St. Thomas and AIDS



Re: the Dallas Gay Alliance’s attack on the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle [“Letters,” May]. The charges were that the church only became interested in the fight against AIDS after it became fashionable and there was a building campaign. If you were to try to identify the AIDS ministry of St. Thomas, you might have a hard time, unless you knew where to look. We have no AIDS minister, or AIDS Sunday school class, or frankly, AIDS anything else. When someone comes, they are simply grafted into our family. We love them; we hug them; we support them when they become too weak to walk. We put them to work, and they are on every guild and council of the organization. An interesting statistic comes from all of this. Our PWAs survive about eight months longer than average. I believe this is because of the prayer, love and support, and purpose that they find here.

Dean Willis

Garland



Needed: Ethnic Leadership



Putting your section on ethnic diversity in Dallas next to the article about Albert Garcia and Dallas Hispanics [“The New Majority?” April] makes a point that seems to be almost universally missed in today’s politics.

No matter what the ethnic or racial make-up of the Dallas population, civic leaders must recognize the needs of all if they are to lead successfully. And voters must recognize the needs and rights of groups outside their own geographical or social communities when they choose their leaders. We need more leaders like Albert Garcia and his associates. For them, it is appropriate that improvements in the lot of their own ethnic group should be at the top of their agendas. They should make it clear that they can represent the whole population as well, and that they understand that needed changes are aimed at shared political power and not domination by their own group. Improving the lot of specific groups should not lead to the sacrifice of equality for others. When these points are made clearly, their goals will be widely shared. These leaders will then deserve and earn city-wide support.

Arnold Romberg

Dallas



Thank you for the article “The New Majority?” which I have just read. I hope you are wrong. Garcia is bent on rewriting Texas history to suit himself, and adding to the problems Dallas already has with Hispanics. Education is very low on their priority list, and crime rather high. Their unbridled birth rate will certainly create a huge, uneducated, out-of-the-mainstream mass in the 21st century, since learning English is also low on their priority list, as compared with the Orientals, who turn in and learn the language right away, do not insist on their cultural patterns being forced on anyone else, and quickly become leaders.

V.Lewty

Garland



Image and Reality



In “The Changing Face of Dallas” [April], I wonder where the women are? The pictures show three women and eighteen men. I can’t believe that 83 percent of our wonderful new Dallas “American ethnic mosaic” is male. The camera may not lie, but it can certainly distort by the way it chooses to view reality.

Vivian Castleberry

Dallas



Richard West implies that all local Egyptians fled religious persecution in their country, which is not correct at all. Only some early Egyptian immigrants left Egypt because of persecution. Most left for various other reasons, including better opportunity and better living conditions.

Medhat M. Habashi

Colleyville



The Railey Scorecard



At last! An accurate report on the Walker Railey case [“Inside Dallas,” April]. Your scorecard captured the essence of it all-an eleven-month game. It would be thought-provoking to consider all the players in this media attack-but thoughr? What’s that?

Ann S. Waldrop

Dallas