D mail

War & Memory

With so much of what I read, especiALly lately, sending me into spasms of despair, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your May issue.

I picked it up off the rack due to my morbid interest in the latest in the T. Gulden Davis case [” ’They Say Time Heals, But It Doesn’t’ ” ] and our societal disaster, divorce [“The New Age of Divorce”].

However, this letter is really to commend Sol Villasana’s piece [“War & Memory”]. Obviously, the subject of Boomers dealing with the post-Cold War era is fertile.

Judge Tyson’s insight into her father’s psychic wounds allowed me to better grasp my own father’s very similar situation. It also reminded me of a piece 1 felt compelled to write when my Lt. Commander patriarch finally succumbed to a very rare blood disease. This sickness may well have resulted from his exposure to radiation during the years when we lived at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The concept of honor that was so instilled into me from 1950 to 1970 seems to have absolutely no place in today’s raw nerve-ending Corporate America. My personal trek through that particular “killing field” of ethics has almost done me in.

MARTIN BARKLEY

Dallas

I found Sol Villasana’s story about his father to be deeply moving, and I was struck by the excellent photograph of Villasana with his father. I, too, am the son of a World War II veteran, albeit a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant one. I see the pride, dignity, and caring on these fine people’s faces.

I also see their hurt and anger. What could he more crushing than to be asked to fight and die in the name of racial tolerance, then to face racial intolerance at home 1 That these men have suffered greatly yet persevered to become fine, upstanding citizens is an inspiration to all of us. The entire range of their feelings is a piercingly on-target reminder that the traditional power structure in our society has no monopoly on human decency.

ROB WILLIAMSON

Dallas



How Much Is Too Much?

In your series of articles on ’The New Age of Divorce” [May], it is implied and stated that Jimmy L. Verner Jr. is a cost-effective attorney. As a former Verner client, it is my experience and opinion that Mr. Verner is not “good value for the money” nor is he qualified to comment on other attorneys’ fees. Mr. Verner refused independent peer review of my complaints regarding his fees offered by the Fee Dispute Committee of the Dallas Bar Association. I believe that it is important that the readers of D Magazine are informed and offered an accurate representation of Mr. Verner.

SARAH RATHJEN

Dallas



Barney’s Roar

After reading Glenna Whitley’s “Purple with Rage” [May 1995), I was dubious whether children, let alone adults, have really turned on the ubiquitous Barney, Dallas1 favorite dinosaur.

So, I initiated some immediate research of my own by asking my precocious 10-year-old daughter what she and her friends at school thought about Barney. “Aaugg…barf…loser,” was the impulsive reply.

With some disbelief I asked, “You mean you don’t like Barney?” Remembering how not long ago my little angel sat entranced in front of our color TV watching this same innocuous clown of the green and purple colors, 1 stuttered, “But how could you not like that nice, friendly and lovable character who is so good to all children?”

With an air of pre-teen sophistication, she haughtily replied with some disdain and exasperation, “Get with it, Dad. Barney’s for little kids! But why do you ask ?”

I then showed my daughter the article in question. She glanced at it with fervent interest; then proceeded to read the entire feature herself (1 told you she was that precocious).

It was then I got a second surprise. She guffawed and squealed, “This is hilarious!” She laughed hard at the put-down song and comments about Barney in the maligning story, and especially delighted in the “Barney Rubble” cartoon.

It is incredible, I thought, that such a sweet young child could “turn” on such a benign symbol of love, respect and tranquillity. Of course, Glenna Whitley perceptively explained that phenomenon. But what struck me was how much my daughter enjoyed reading that article in D Magazine. It kind of suggests your publication may no longer be just for grown-ups. And 1 say thanks for perhaps presaging D as a “family magazine.”

Robert E. Carl

Dallas



AS ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR FOR THE Pepsi KidAround Festival, I have tried for three years to get Barney to donate his time to help the less fortunate children at The Family Place shelter. We in the entertainment industry hear horror stories of lawsuits against children’s parties with purple dinosaur costumes and clowns blowing up purple dinosaur balloons for the kids. The grass roots of kids’ rejection of Barney is the cause of his soon-to-be total demise.

RICHARD S. POLLAK

Rainbow Entertainment

Dallas

Bankers’ Hours

YOU WILL FORGIVE ME FOR CALLING attention to the position assigned to Ben Wooten in your April issue [“The Soul of Stanley Marcus”]. Though he served the S&L industry at various times, in 1958 Wooten was head of First National Bank in Dallas [D’s photo caption identities him as head of First Federal Savings and Loan]. Fred Florence was long-time leader of Republic Bank. Bob Thornton, in addition to being mayor, was head of Mercantile Bank. These were the great financial institutions of Dallas-sorely missed today.

MARSHALL E. SURRATT

DALLAS