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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Curry Queries
To the editor: Betty Brink’s article, “Currying Favor,” (June 6, 2002), slams the Tarrant County District Attorney for not telling “the whole truth.” As a member of the Fourth Estate, whose responsibility should be to watch-dog governmental infringements on individual rights, Ms. Brink omits critical information:
While she reports that a Hudson Oaks “reserve” officer pulled Ronald Arrington over a “few miles down the road from the ranch,” she fails to mention that Hudson Oaks is infamous for trolling Interstate 20 to raise revenues by ticketing unwary travelers.
DWI arrestees are routinely videotaped. Assistant County Attorney Stephanie Alvarado, an excellent prosecutor who is certainly no pushover for drunk drivers, dismissed this case. Did she find it lacked merit or was deficient in some other way?
Ms. Brink quoted Arrington as saying this event was “a bullshit set-up by some stupid Keystone Kops out to bust people from Tim’s dove hunt.” Has it occurred to her that this may be the correct version?
The fact that the late Charlie Baldwin, a highly respected litigator and defender of the rights of the indigent accused (often at court-appointee rates) found Tim Curry worthy of getting a political contribution speaks volumes for the district attorney. Is there something wrong with having fundraisers?
I find it difficult to believe that Ms. Alvarado did not know Tim Curry’s supporters have, for decades, sponsored a dove hunt fundraiser for him. It is hardly necessary for Mr. Curry to tell the Parker County prosecutor this.
Terri Moore is an excellent attorney, with a wealth of experience as a prosecutor in state and federal courts, but in this case she misfired. She surely knows that the fact that people “came early and stayed late, and that there was plenty of booze there for ’em” says nothing about whether they were intoxicated. I have attended many of Tim Curry’s dove hunts and do not drink while shooting, which does not end until almost dark.
In my book, Tim Curry should be applauded for having the courage to furnish an affidavit attesting to the fact that he, probably one of the last people to see Arrington as he left, found him not to be intoxicated. Did Ms. Brink really think that Mr. Curry did not realize that, in giving the affidavit, he was opening himself for just this kind of smear tactic?
Gerhard Kleinschmidt
Fort Worth and Aledo
No Ode to Odom
To the editor: First time I have ever read Fort Worth Weekly and really enjoyed your article about Arlington (“Got Those Blue-Collar Suburb Blues,” June 6, 2002). It was nice to read something in a paper that is truthful and not slanted as other kiss-butt pro-establishment newspapers put out. I feel that Mayor Odom is very underhanded in the way he treats residents. For example, the way he used his office to try evicting Black Pearl Bar. Also I wonder whatever happened to the millions of dollars he got for his church from HUD. Maybe some day I will read the answers to these questions, and maybe in the Weekly. One thing for sure, it will never appear in Dallas Morning News or Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Thank you.
Bud Spaulding
Arlington
Don’t Ask, Don’t Breathe
To the editor: I thought your readers would enjoy an update on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s ongoing war against the dignity of Fort Worth’s gay and lesbian community (“Happy with Gay FW,” Letters, April 4, 2002).
You may not know, but of course could guess, that the S-T flatly refuses to allow gays to use its Romance classifieds. No excuses, no justifications, no hems or haws. They just don’t. Ditto on holy union or engagement announcements. What makes it so pathetic is that nobody takes responsibility for it. The ombudsman, David House, says it’s a classified department matter (with offices on Mars, presumably). Classified says it’s a management decision. Management grunts and nods and says, “Hmmm.” Of course the fact that dozens and dozens of large and medium-sized dailies, including many in the Knight Ridder chain, routinely accept paid and free ads from their gay and lesbian readers, is considered irrelevant here in God’s country.
What’s even more pathetic and depressing is the attitude of the many closeted gay employees at the S-T. I know more than a handful, and they act as if they are in the military. In phone conversations they whisper conspiratorially about how “higher-ups” have decided this or that, and how nothing can be done. Can you imagine, here in the 21st century, having to work in terror? Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t breathe. Sad.
Roy Treadway
Fort Worth
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