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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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Animal Cruelty?
To the editor: Thanks for your help in changing the way animals are treated at the Fort Worth Herd (“Steered Wrong?” Oct. 17, 2002). However, you stated that Chito (a longhorn steer) was euthanized. If so, how and by whom? My information makes no mention of that. Also, you failed to mention that rescue efforts did not start for hours. Drovers were told to come back and do the cattle drive.
I reserve the right to speak up for any animal being abused. I consider any person or agency that is aware of abuse but fails to take action a gutless coward. Current employees are forbidden to discuss these issues with anyone. I feel that taxpayers deserve to know when an animal is “transferred,” abused, or dies. I have an affidavit that details a current Herd employee beating a steer in the head with a bullwhip on numerous occasions. I propose that someone other than me take these charges to the appropriate agency. Current drovers should be interviewed outside the presence of supervisors with no threat of reprisal for telling the truth. Employee in question has demonstrated a capacity for violence, as he had to be physically restrained by coworkers to keep him from assaulting a coworker. Perhaps Jim Lane could be notified of results. Thanks.
Dennis Merrell
Alvarado
Lake Neglect?
To the editor: I read with interest Gayle Reaves’ account of the budding plans to build a “City Lake” on the Trinity near downtown (“Holy Trinity,” Oct. 10, 2002). Missing from the story, though, is any examination of the city’s history in maintaining the lakes that it builds. Lake Worth, for instance, was dammed 88 years ago; it still awaits its first dredging as it chokes on its own silt, even after the federal government appropriated funds for that purpose in the late 1980s. Why, except for possible inappropriate political influence, would a downtown lake receive any better care?
Chris Bellomy
Fort Worth
One Big Mac with Froth
To the editor: I am a 15-year registered nurse at John Peter Smith Hospital and I wish to inform you that as of Wednesday, Sept. 18, all Fort Worth Weekly newspaper racks have been rounded up and removed from our hospital campus. The papers that had just been delivered were quickly removed and placed in trash dumpsters.
This move was in response to Fort Worth Weekly’s attempt to slander and ruin our hospital’s image with your over-reactionary articles concerning the fact that we have a McDonald’s restaurant on campus (“Ronald’s in the Hospital,” Sept. 12, 2002). In case you were not aware of it, our hospital’s having a McDonald’s is none of your business whatsoever. Word was passed down to have all Fort Worth Weekly paper racks removed and there were absolutely no objections to seeing your slanderous, insult-laden tabloid rag removed from our campus for good.
You should very well expect action such as this when you make a career at peddling alarmist, reactionary, and, I might add, knee-jerk articles about a reputable healthcare provider like John Peter Smith Hospital. We decided that our patients and visitors would be better served if they no longer had brain-rotting birdcage fodder like Fort Worth Weekly in close contact with which to offend their sensitivities, nor having pages scattered around our waiting rooms and hallways posing a litter and/or fire hazard.
This is our way of retaliating against your paper’s attempt to hawk sales at our expense. People are still eating at our McDonald’s restaurant and will do so in the future. From our perspective, you failed in your attempt to blackball our hospital.
Fort Worth Weekly tried its best to slander our community image and paid for it with the removal of all racks from the campus. Think of this as an interception and the ball is in our court, with Fort Worth Weekly ending up with the losing end of the stick. But please, have yourself a great day with a Big Mac with extra cheese.
Annette Goddard, RN
Fort Worth
Editor’s note: Wow. Let’s see, where to start. First, we hope no one had a coronary over this. Second, it’s hard to “hawk sales” of Fort Worth Weekly, since it is given away free (one paper to a customer). As the paper plainly states, however, taking multiple copies is prohibited (although they can be purchased at our offices for $1 per copy). Courts have held that removing multiple copies of papers like the Weekly from racks without our authorization is a crime, so if you’d like to volunteer information about any such removals, we’d love to turn it over to Fort Worth police. Third, hospital officials assured Weekly publisher Lee Newquist that, in fact, open racks of all newspapers have been removed from JPS — and that news coverage had nothing to do with the decision. The Weekly continues to have closed racks at several locations on the JPS campus and is considering adding more, Newquist said, due to the apparent popularity of the paper at that location. Fourth and most importantly, what happens at a public hospital is the business of this paper and of every citizen in Tarrant County. And finally, thanks for calling us “reactionary.” That’s a new one for us.
Backward Progress
To the editor: Is it just me or do other people miss some things in Fort Worth? The old M&O subway is now history, making way for a RadioShack campus, and as I write this the “7th Street,” last of the big screens, is no more! It seems that some Fort Worth classics are gone or not the same. Even former No. 1 hamburger joint Kincaid’s is not the same. Still a large burger, but a new higher price, very bland and greasy! I think money is the bottom line and not product. Some things just change, too bad!
Roy Dan Conner
Fort Worth
Corrections
• James Timmons, Fort Worth, should have been given credit for the photo of the nuclear medicine room in “Poisoned Lives,” Oct. 17, 2002.
• The Oct. 17, 2002, story “Poisoned Lives,” should have said that a Bureau of Prisons official declined to comment because of pending litigation, not legislation.
• In the Oct. 3, 2002, story “Latin Transformation,” Brazil was wrongly identified as a Spanish-speaking country.
• The MPA Foundation — not the FPA Foundation as stated in the Oct. 17 Static column — raises money for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The FPA has concerned itself with creation of a “gateway to the cultural district,” including renovation of the intersection adjacent to the museum, purchase of several adjacent properties, and demolition of the historic 7th Street Theater. The two foundations share the same president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer.
Fort Worth Weekly regrets the errors.
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