OPINION

Re: "Let's face country's challenges with civility -- Solutions are attainable if we'll listen to each other, say Andrea Weinstein and Steve Gutow," Feb. 23 Viewpoints.

Some events contain enough evil for many lifetimes. President John F. Kennedy's death was that telling experience for me. I do not doubt that Kennedy was shot by a lone monster. But he was really killed for being the target of hate generated by movements that many of us once hoped were extinct. Unfortunately, they are not. The present target is President Barack Obama.

This column suggests that the authors don't appreciate our experience. Perhaps they are not old enough. They call for civility. No one in public life has shown himself more civil than Obama.

Weinstein and Gutow suggest that there are two sides to every story. In too many cases, that means one is right, and the other is wrong. If I say 2 plus 5 equals 9, and you say, no, 2 plus 5 equals 7, it is inappropriate to compromise and say that 2 plus 5 must equal 8.

Weinstein and Gutow are reasonable and intelligent, but the side making most of the noise is not. They should be careful with their reasonableness.

Re: "Home lawsuit shifts again," Wednesday news story.

Conservative Republicans have sung the praises of tort reform for years. Supported by millions of dollars from supporters like Bob Perry, even the Texas Supreme Court is entirely in the debt of tort reformers. The McDonald's hot-coffee lawsuit, although an anomaly that was corrected, cast a tort reform spell on otherwise reasonable people.

Now a tiny light shines through in the case of Bob and Jane Cull. After 10 years, numerous hearings and challenges at every turn, they have finally prevailed to the tune of $58 million awarded by a jury in Fort Worth. But the fat lady has not sung yet. Billionaire Perry pledges to tie up the case for at least another decade.

Should we support reform? Yes, for all the rest of us Bobs and Janes. Like that Fort Worth jury, we need to let justice prevail over wealth and political privilege.

Re: "Hatred's not new for IRS -- Plane attack was an extreme example of venom aimed at workers," Wednesday news story.

People feel anger toward the IRS because the tax code is so big and keeps getting bigger; because it is incomprehensible and continues to become more convoluted; because it incorporates social engineering into what should be a simple tax-gathering process; because it is used by Congress to reward friends and contributors and punish enemies. Congress is the culprit. Congress makes the laws; the IRS merely tries to implement them.

If the brainpower consumed to create this grotesque monstrosity that is our tax code -- and on finding ways to thwart it -- had been channeled into efforts to benefit mankind, we would have a cure for both cancer and the common cold.

I do not understand the big deal surrounding Dallas' new once-a-week trash pickup.

I have had once-a-week pickup, with the addition of recycling pickup a few years ago, for more than 30 years here in Forney. We also have on-call bulk pickup.

It works for us!

Have you driven down a street with trash carts and bags out in front? It is ugly.

We have had our garbage picked up by the truck going down the paved alley for more than 55 years. Now the city wants us to put our garbage in front of the house, which will look bad and be unreasonable because I would have to move the cart more than half a block in the street.

Apparently the people controlling garbage pickup are not interested in the look of the city. They want us to invite visitors to a city that has the appearance of slums. Those who are responsible should be fired and run out of the city; the sooner, the better.

Re: "Hard times ahead for states," by Sanford G. Thatcher, Saturday Letters.

Thatcher claims that conservatives and Republicans will have problems overcoming internal struggles to pass bipartisan legislation if they can regain control of Congress, which may result in many states becoming economic disasters such as California.

He believes that Republicans have only one goal: to oppose whatever Democrats and President Barack Obama want to accomplish.

Indeed. It appears that Democrats and the president are obsessed with the horrific legislation they are trying to dump on our nation, causing it to follow a destructive path economically.

Conservatives and Republicans have been trying for the past year to stop them and offer alternative solutions. However, it must be pointed out that many independents have joined the ranks of opposing Obama and the Democrats.

Any internecine struggling going on is with liberals and Democrats. Not to worry, with the upcoming November elections, many Democrats and liberals in Congress will be given opportunities to find employment elsewhere, so their struggling days will be over.

Let's see. The U.S. Postal Service is virtually broke, Freddie is back at the trough begging for more money, Social Security is almost broke, Amtrak is losing money, Medicare and Medicaid are in dire straits, etc.

And we want the federal government to run our health care? Have we lost our minds?

Re: "Strapped post office may end Saturday delivery -- Rate hike also weighed as mail volume falls, $7 billion loss projected," Wednesday news story.

Mail delivery should be a government function, not a private-sector business. It is a service that those of us in business use on a daily basis, and we rely on it to communicate with clients when electronic delivery is not appropriate.

I don't care about Saturday delivery, as that is usually junk mail, but this is one of the few cases where the government should step in and provide funding for reliable delivery.

Victor Carrillo, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, blames his loss to an unknown challenger in Tuesday's GOP primary on voter bias against his last name. "Given the choice between 'Porter' and 'Carrillo,' unfortunately, the Hispanic surname was a serious setback from which I could never recover, although I did all in my power to overcome this built-in bias," he says.

The victor, David Porter, says he worked hard for this victory and writes off Carrillo's comments as "sour grapes."

That was my initial reaction until I also looked at the extremely narrow victory in the Democratic primary of Hector Uribe in the Texas land commissioner's race. Here was a guy who had strong backing from the Democratic Party. He had spent 12 years as a state senator and House member. He was well-versed in the workings of the Legislature. The most impressive experience the other Democratic candidate, Bill Burton, offered was a short tenure as a justice of the peace in Henderson County.

I talked to both candidates, and of the two, Uribe was clearly the better qualified. Uribe narrowly won, with a 20,000-vote lead out of more than 560,000 votes cast statewide.

I think Carrillo might be making more of an issue out of ethnicity than he should, but I do believe it deserves more thorough examination. For both parties, I doubt Hispanic voters were well represented in the polls, and without them to balance out the results, I do believe non-Hispanic voters who weren't familiar with the candidates chose the non-Hispanic surname more often.

One of the perplexing elements of the Dallas County constables saga has been the apparent reluctance of District Attorney Craig Watkins to get to the bottom of it.

Watkins has gone out of his way to make clear that if anyone is going to investigate allegations of criminal corruption in his county, it's him and his prosecutors. Statutorially, he has a point. The question has been why, from the start, he just wouldn't say he was doing that, when we knew some number of constables employees had filed affidavits with Watkins' office alleging misdeeds.

Another angle that got washed away in the torrent of information was the possibility that Watkins faced a conflict of interest. I was reminded of that this morning, reading our news account by Kevin Krause and Ed Timms detailing the release of a report on the civil investigation into Precinct 1 Constable Derick Evans.

Here's the letter to supporters from defeated Texas Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo as it was posted on Burka's blog.

It's filled with anger, arrogance and perhaps several uncomfortable grains of truth. think I understand Carrillo's anger, but this missive ranks as the most ungracious response as I've ever seen. And it shows some of the arrogance Carrillo displayed as RR commissioner. And in our recommendation edit in this race, we expressed concerns about his lack of leadership on replacing gas couplings and other matters. And we had even greater concens about Porter.

David Porter, the man who ousted Carrillo, didn't sit down to be interviewed about his candidacy, so I called him to give him an opportunity to talk before the DMN published its recommendation in this race. I got an astounding level of anger from Porter who seemed to assume the entire world, including the DMN and MSM, was against him. I don't know how that could be since I seriously doubt that anyone in the media had heard of him until he got into this contest.

I think I understand some of Carrillo's pain and anger, namely the lack of support from the GOP and the issue of race. .Still, Carrillo's letter ranks as the ugliest exit I've ever seen.

Things are continuing to heat up both on my blog post and ensuing comments from yesterday off the Johnson victory and on today's post, which features an analysis by Gerald Britt.

To read more and comment, click here.

1. SBOE -- Overlooked somewhat in the midst of this week's election is the significant electoral changes to the oft-overlooked state Board of Education. Two incumbents were unexpectedly defeated - one incumbent we recommended, the other we didn't - and the fact that this board now finds itself with two new faces suggests that changes may be afoot. If that's the case, we'd generally view that positively since this is a board we've spent a lot of time criticizing. We're confident Ratliff will be a positive force and we explain why. While we didn't embrace Clayton because he seemed less informed than Miller, we'd be happy if he proved us wrong and contributed to making this board a more constructive force for education. We explain to readers why we think this board is as important as we do and we spell out what we'd like to see it do differently - as specifically as possible - in the future. Bill writing on behalf of the board.

2. FUNDING -- We praise some aspects of Obama's race-to-the-top education funding ideas, even the portion that allows state flexibility re standards. But we're quick to note the importance of accountability here. Standards are meaningless without it. Bill writing on behalf of the board.

Please feel free to add your thoughts in comments below.

This blog post is written by Tony Laws of Oak Cliff, who works in marketing and promotion and is a Community Voices volunteer columnist. His e-mail address is anthonyplaws@yahoo.com.

I read, with the usual interest, James Ragland's column about U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn's prison sentences imposed on former mayor pro tem and City Council member Don Hill and his crew of greedy cohorts. While I agree with the sentences imposed and the need to use this embarrassing affair as fair warning to all who might, in the future, think that this type of behavior is acceptable, necessary or warranted, it pains me that a deeper, more villainous and more damaging if not addressed, lesson is not being mentioned in this huge schematic that is American politics, American laws and the American psyche!

I'm shaking my head in total puzzlement over this decision by Dallas Housing Authority head MaryAnn Russ Which sounds to me to be:
a) overly legalistic
b) purely ideological and personal
c) all of the above
I can't imagine that this issue hasn't come up before. I'm betting that housing executives have found ways to be flexible, something the HUD spokesman in Washington seemed to suggest. According to the spokesman, the Fair Housing Act does not prohibit religious activity in common areas of public housing as long the activity does not result in unequal treatment of residents. Seems pretty simple to me.

MaryAnn Russ seems to be making a mountain out of a mole hill. She compares her decision to barring prayer in public school. Good grief. These are senior citizens who want community worship -- it's voluntary and not even slightly coercive.
Doesn't DHA have better things to worry about?