LETTERS

BASHING BEST & WORST

I can’t begin to thank you enough for rising up from the ashes, like a glossy, full-color, editorial phoenix, and returning to your rightful place as the definitive guide to Dallas. I found your coverage of our premier area galleries [“Hanging Around,” January] most informative and very helpful for artists all over the Metroplex, including myself. On the other hand, I was completely dismayed by your “worst” review [“Best & Worst,” January] of the Tunnelvisions project which I co-directed as art director. It was painted by more than 90 artists and executed in only two days. The artists that took part were varied in their experience, ranging from the finest muralists in the DFW area to beginners who showed promise and ambition enough to be included. I feel young artists truly do need and deserve guidance and belief in their ability, or they may end up never taking the risks it takes to break out beyond the mundane 9-to-5 world,

It is not easy to maintain a graffiti-free canvas of this magnitude. By just mentioning the defacement, you glorify disrespect for our privately funded drive-through art.

FRANK CAMPAGNA

DALLAS



Your “Best & Worst” item on commuting through the M streets via Homer as a way to avoid construction was misinforming and potentially dangerous. Currently, commuters who cut through the M streets travel at speeds close to 45 mph. This neighborhood tries to keep a friendly atmosphere and has learned to deal with reality, which is why we have fought hard for speed bumps paid out of our pockets and installation of additional stop signs. Take a bus, and in the future, the light rail ! And for you D staffers, do a little more research and be more constructive (no pun intended).

AMY C CRENSHAW

DALLAS



PICTURE THIS

ONE MIGHT GET THE IMPRESSION FROM YOUR article, “Does Dallas Get the Picture?” [Inside Dallas, January], that the Dallas City Council’s approved budget increase for the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Film Commission was in some way responsible for the fact that “less than two months (later), three motion pictures began shooting here.” In fact, the three projects you refer to-The Curse of the Inferno, Lily Dale, and Frequent Flyer (for ABC-TV)-were all recruited and facilitated by the Irving Texas Film Commission (a division of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau). A Promise to Carolyn, the CBS-TV movie also made mention in your article, was likewise brought to our area through the work of the ITFC. Irving’s had the picture for years!

ELLEN SANDOLOSKI MAYERS

Director, Irving Texas Film Commission

IRVING



GALLERIES: THANKS, BUT…

THANKS FOR INCLUDING THE FLORENCE ART Gallery in “Hanging Around” [January], While some might think that the tongue-in-cheek attitude Gail Sachson took in describing our gallery is funny, she falls short of being a successful comedienne. Let the record show, we did not get where we are today by selling cotton candy and catering only to the Tammy Faye Bakkers of the world. We proudly represent regionally, nationally, and internationally renowned artists, in addition to our prosperous secondary art market.

ESTELLE SIIWIFI

Florence Art Gallery

DALLAS



OUR 18 RICHEST CHURCHES

thanks to glenna whitley for “our Brother’s Keeper” [December 1995]. I have lived in Dallas for almost 50 years, and I believe the answers were shocking to many Dallas residents. The people support the churches, and the leadership needs to practice what they preach! How about some research on salaries, housing allowances, expense accounts, country club memberships, travel and entertainment, free educational benefits, pension plans, gratuities, etc.? God wasn’t into any of that! It makes no difference as to the denomination. We are talking business.

ETHEL DENTON

DALLAS



Your article missed the point entirely. The goal of the Christian church is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers, and to further educate believers. Hence, church finances are, as they should be, spent: primarily to accomplish this mission. Perhaps unbelievers can’t understand this because they view the church, and religion in general, as a “feelgood,” philanthropic institution. Perhaps it makes unbelievers feel more comfortable to think that the business of the church is to “do good” in the here and now, rather than to save souls for all eternity. But it isn’t that simple.

In light of the true meaning of the Christian church, a more accurate article would be to investigate how many souls the Christian church is saving; but that, of course, is impossible. And because this cannot be measured, D’s article is irrelevant.

MARNIE STRANZ

HEATH



YOUR STORY WAS INCORRECT IN SEVERAL WAYS about Voice of Hope.

First, we don’t have 14 paid staff members. Currently, we have 12 paid staff (eight full-time and four part-time). Second, the number of volunteers involved this year is much less than 600 as stated in your article. Your article implied that we have more volunteers than we need, which isn’t the case. Third, I’m not “a black man from the neighborhood.” I’m an African-American professional male who grew up in Miami in similar circumstances as the kids in West Dallas. There are many other African-Americans who have given up their careers to come back to inner-city communities like West Dallas. But we can’t do it alone. We need the large churches in Dallas to help bring the expertise and funding needed to bring hope and economic development back to our inner cities.

God bless you and thank you for bringing this issue to light.

NORMAN HENRY

Executive Director, Voice of Hope

DALLAS



WE ARE NOT A CULT

“Operation Nanny Hunt” by Catherine Newton [December 1995] was misleading in its reference to the Worldwide Church of God as “widely perceived to be a cult.”

Many Christians in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are unaware of the similarities between themselves and members of the Worldwide Church of God. Like themselves, Worldwide Church of God members embrace a theology characterized by the centrality of Jesus Christ. In addition, Metroplex members are regularly engaged in a variety of outreach efforts and local charities. Locally, our congregations provided disaster relief to the victims of the Lan ‧ caster tornado. Nationally, the Worldwide Church of God contributed $125,000 to victims of Hurricane Hugo and the same amount to victims of the San Francisco earthquake. We rejoice in the successes of other Christians while we search for more effective ways of accomplishing our own goals.

FELIX HEIMBERG, PASTOR

Worldwide Church of God

GARLAND

ETHNIC POLITICS

AS A FIRST-TIME READER OF YOUR MAGAZINE, I found “Who Runs Fort Worth?” [November 1995] very interesting. Being from New Orleans, where ethnic politics is a fact of life, I wish we had more people like the Bass family and their legal mentor, Dee Kelly, who have the dedication and wherewithal to make their community a better place for everyone.

O.K. LEBLANC

NEW ORLEANS



“MONUMENTAL MYOPIA”

YOU EARNED MY RESPECT FOREVER WHEN you wrote [“Judicial Juggernauts,” Inside Dallas, November 1995] that the suburbs of Dallas should erect a statue to Judges Buchmeyer and Sanders.

As a third-generation East Dallasite who left Dallas in 1972 and returned in 1985,1 saw in time-warp fashion what astonishing change the terrible twosome had inflicted during my absence. Whole residential neighborhoods had become practically devoid of school-age children. The elementary school next to my parents had again become a one-race school, ironically a casualty of efforts supposed to promote integration. Since both judges are presumably honorable and well-intentioned, with no overt agenda to devastate the inner city, I find their monumental myopia even more baffling.

ROBERT B. PARKS

DALLAS