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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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Smelling Outrage
To the editor: Thank you for the article “Same (Smelly) Song” (June 11, 2008). I lived in Riverside near the former Standard Foods, now “Five Star Foods,” plant for many years and tried in vain to get local help for the absolutely horrible smells that came from the plant.
When I went to the plant, they explained that they were “rendering” something. This would usually happen on Friday evening when no city official was available by phone to find out what was going on and to cite them for air pollution or whatever they were doing that smelled like death. I was amazed by the lack of help I received from city departments. The police said it was out of their hands, the fire department people told me to call city officials, and the city officials couldn’t come out in the evening. Apparently it’s OK to do anything you want if it’s after office hours.
I finally got some help from the Texas Natural Resource Commission. They apparently put a damper on what was happening for a little while in the 1990s.
Isn’t anyone besides writer Eric Griffey and Bill Cole outraged that, simply on the basis of the accusations of a company he’d complained about, Cole was jailed and had to pay bail and legal fees to get on with his life? He was the victim in this circumstance and was prosecuted. I fully realize they might have done the same to me.
Peggy Mitchell
Fort Worth
One Woman’s Justice …
To the editor: I just read Ms. Valda Combs’ guest column, “Aching for Justice” (June 25, 2008), and I have one question: Valda, what are you smoking?
Why can’t you believe the cheating wife belongs in jail? When her husband caught her with another man, she yelled rape instead of admitting to the affair. Her lie caused the husband to act to protect his wife, by killing the alleged rapist. Your assertion that the husband should have jotted down a license plate or called 911 instead of shooting is laughable. In her husband’s mind at that moment, this was a rape, not a stolen bicycle.
And no, the husband should not be arrested and jailed; he should have a medal pinned on his chest. He used a gun precisely the way it should be used — to defend innocent life from criminals.
Ms. Combs, if you’re a transplanted liberal from another state, I suppose I can understand your editorial. But please do the people of Texas a huge favor. The next time you receive a jury summons, don’t go!
Marty Esposito
Robinson
To the editor: The Rev. Combs made some interesting comments in her recent guest column about our criminal justice system and its shortcomings. You can bet that the HIV-positive man who received a 35-year prison sentence for spitting on a police officer was convicted because he had HIV!
In Tracy Roberson’s case, she was prosecuted to set an example. True, some would claim her infidelity deserved the punishment. Of course the argument would also go that a person can take deadly action if a felony is being committed on their property, such as sexual assault in this case.
The law looks through a kaleidoscope in administering “justice,” often color-coded and discriminatory as to gender and to medical afflictions such as HIV.
So I ask the Rev. Combs, pray for these folks who engage in the disparity of law and sentencing.
Carla Shultze
Fort Worth
Reward for a Fiasco
To the editor: So now TCCC has made the move to buy the entire RadioShack campus for its downtown college, while also completing the building started on the Trinity River site (“It’s Not Nice to Fool the Taxpayers,” www.fwweekly.com, June 25, 2008). And Chancellor de la Garza makes it sound so wonderful. I never imagined that the entire RadioShack campus would be needed, at the cost of almost $300 million after retrofitting two buildings. Then you have to add the cost of the new building for the administration and continuing education. I have to guess that the new construction on the Trinity is worth $170 million, as I have no new information on the changes that have to be made to the design. Here’s a question no reporter has asked: Where is the money coming from to pay for the new construction and the new campus? And de la Garza gets his office overlooking the Trinity, which is what he wanted all along. As far as I know, the only new funds will be coming at the end of 2008 after a new tax rate is set. Isn’t it a fact now that TCC will still spend $450 million or more for a downtown campus and a new administrative office? I don’t think the sale of their existing buildings will bring in that much money.
In the end, the taxpayers can and will pay for this. If the board of trustees and the chancellor were operating with their own money from the start, this fiasco would never have happened. The board is boasting about what a great job de la Garza has done. They must have been meeting with the JPS hospital board the last few years, as both have been asleep at the wheel — except JPS has been accumulating money that should have been spent for better care. The JPS board and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram forced the hospital CEO into retirement, but at TCC, overspending gets the CEO a new contract.
Gary Trammell
Arlington
Editor’s note: Fort Worth Weekly has reported extensively on the TCC downtown campus and is still asking questions.
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