D Letters

Gay Ink



I just wanted to write and say thank you to Eric Celeste for providing a glimpse of sanity in an otherwise homophobic and negative war (“Gay, Inc.,” June). A war that Martin Luther King fought. A war that we still fight daily. The right to have rights. The right to live our lives with freedom and respect from society. The right to be. “Gay, Inc.” was intelligent and thorough reporting about an organization that I have associated with for years. And thank you for having the guts to publish it.

MARCO E. SALINAS

DALLAS



Thank you very much for your recent gay-positive article. I was pleasantly shocked and grateful to read something like that in such a traditionally conservative publication. I hope the self-righteous fundamentalists aren’t giving you too much flak. Just remember, they don’t spend nearly as much money as gays!

JUSTIN WHITNEY

DALLAS



“Gay, Inc.” was very good coverage of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance. Reading the article from down Interstate 20 in Louisiana, I even see how the center serves some people who do not live in Dallas/Fort Worth. Organizations like Homosexual Information Center need support and help from the center, since we are unable to build up a large service due to population and geography (and often opposition from religious people and politicians). We need to get material and support from DGLA and often have no funds to repay them. We are often still hiding our homosexuality from our relatives or employers and save up just for a trip to Dallas and to walk Cedar Springs and see cafes and clothing stores, and if we feel brave, actually walk into the center. And visit the “gay” church. And we can find a paper that has news of services we can use. Hopefully these community papers will someday distribute copies to the outside areas, and people will save their material for. . future generations.

When the civil rights movement for homosexuals started in the ’50s, who would have thought it would have grown so fast.

WILLIAM E. GLOVER

HOMOSEXUAL INFORMATION CENTER, INC.

BOSSIER CITY, LA.

While I congratulate you on the general scope of “Gay, Inc..” I left my reading with a persistent understanding that AIDS remains an enigma in our thinking. Mr. Celeste avoided stating the actual scope of the problem in the Dallas area, but finally admitted, almost as an oxymoron, that there are “changing demographics. The percentage of gay men who test HIV+ is shrinking.”

Yet, just as then-President Ronald Reagan stated in 1983, when but 1,500 [cases] were known, that it was our “number one health problem ” the public, via the politicos and media, stay fixed and mired in the myths of the syndrome.

Your highlight said it all-educate. That is how the community is beating AIDS- through its intelligence and rational behavior. But until we put the AIDS so-called epidemic in its proper perspective, it will continue as our obsession and lead to national suicide.

DON SLOAN, M.D.

NEW YORK, N.Y.



Pro Perot



There is a complaint in the country that the news media is trying to make the news rather than just report it. This is evident in Chris Tucker’s “Perot’s Biggest Battle” (June).

You gave Ross Perot two possible future options: “melt in the summer heat or be roasted by partisan flame throwers.” And the ultimate: “if he loses, as he almost certainly will…”

With the American public being given the option of a womanizer or a wimp who went back on his word and raised taxes (“read my lips”), I’ll take a man with a fresh approach and a record of over 30 years of making successful decisions.

IRENE PENCE

DALLAS



The Arts Divided



A number of us were surprised and saddened by the chutzpa of Dallas Museum of Art’s director Rick Brettell, quoted by Tom Smith in your June issue (“Nyet Losses?”) as saying that the Dallas Historical Society’s Catherine the Great exhibition “invaded sacred turf and that only the DMA has the expertise to put on such an exhibition. Bret-tell’s further view that competition between cultural institutions is a bad thing for Dallas is historically incorrect.

For many years, the Metropolitan Opera’s annual visit to Dallas, underwritten by the Dallas Grand Opera Association, was one of this city’s major cultural events but when Larry Kelly organized the Dallas Civic Opera, the older DGOA did not suggest that its turf had been invaded or that competition was bad.

Nor did SMU oppose or resent the competition of the University of Dallas.

Other examples abound.

Competition and cooperation are what built Dallas, not backbiting or peevish jealousy.

If Mr. Brettell will consider even for a minute or two how he and his members would feel if the DHS’s director suggested what the DMA should and should not exhibit, he will understand the error of his position.

In the event that he is unclear about chutz-pa, it is insolence compounded by an ignorance of history.

In the cultural history of Dallas, less is less and more is more, so the DHS cordially invites Mr. Brettell to join us in bringing Dallas more.

LEON HARRIS

TRUSTEE, DALLAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DALLAS



Site Sensitive



Dan McGraw reported that Ophthalmology Associates “rebuffed all offers” regarding moving or restoring the old Morton and Reynolds homes (“Doctors’ Orders,” June). No formal offers were submitted to us, as he mentioned in his story, but other factors, which greatly influenced the decision not to purchase the structures from the property owners, were not included.

Originally, we wondered if the owners would try to save the two old buildings. Unfortunately, bringing them up to city and American Disability Act codes in order to sell them was cost-prohibitive. The land was sold to us without the buildings.

We purchased the land because it is an ideal site to provide our patients with the best health care available at the most reasonable cost. We have never considered reselling that part of the property.

Because the state of Texas is demolishing our current offices for construction of a new interstate overpass, we were forced to comply with time constraints and proceed quickly with the construction of our new clinic.

We regret the loss of these two old structures, and we understand that this loss is felt quite deeply by some members of the community.

PHYSICIANS OF OPHTHALMOLDGY ASSOCIATES

FORT WORTH

Perot and Price



Kudos to Chris Tucker on his assessment of the subjects of his recent “Perot and Price: The Power of Hope” (May). That an editor could be so right on two people of such diametrical difference is a testament to the fect that there are a few journalists left who are able to objectively and fairly editorialize factual phenomena. Right in his assessment of the profound relevance of the maverick of John Wiley Price’s “Rebel with a Cause” campaign. Right on the unreasonable expectations of supporters of H. Ross Perot’s enigmatic presidential exploits. Anyone who believes Perot’s empirical penchant is a panacea for America is in for the shock of his/her life.

BENSON PLAUGH

DALLAS



Oh please, Chris Tucker, to put John Wiley Price and Ross Perot in the same article-a man of violent temper, stupid antics vis-a-vis a man of proven intellect, a calm, collected gentleman of class and an astute businessman.

Wrong!

CLAIRE B. PUTNICKI

DALLAS



More Native Dialogue



Under sports (“Native Dallas,” May) you forgot to mention the nationally known golfer Betty Jane Mims, an alumnus of Sunset High School. I know that Betty Jane is still a resident of Dallas County.

HARRY WILL

DALLAS