| Letters for Thursday 04/05/2001 The system failed grandbaby Joel Moses
Re: "CPS needs money," Letters, March 19.
A while back I sent you a letter on Child Protective Services, because my grandson was killed while under the oversight and red tape of Child Protective Services. Like the letter writer, I, too, am an "outraged taxpayer."
The system failed my then 2-year-old grandbaby Joel Moses. He had been beaten and tortured by his stepfather so severely that he had to be put in a full body cast and then placed in foster care. Afterward he was returned by CPS back into the hands of the man now facing capital murder charges in Joel's death. The severe injuries suffered the first time by this helpless, defenseless, innocent baby were not enough for CPS to permanently remove him from his daily nightmares.
My son (who is Joel's biological father) and I have since filed a lawsuit against the state office of CPS. In my eyes, the state, the Legislature and the governor do not care enough about the safety and well-being of our children. They will continue to pour our hard-earned tax money into other worthless matters. These babies will continue to die in the hands of their caregivers and CPS. Every time we pick up a newspaper to read, another child has died just as my precious baby did.
RAQUEL FLORES, Dallas
Nothing learned
The day following the tragic automobile accident here in Grand Prairie, I went to pick up my granddaughter at Grand Prairie High School after school. I felt as if I was at the Texas Motor Speedway. Cars were screaming tires and literally racing past us. A car in front of us, making a right turn, barely missed a young girl crossing the street. This is a daily routine at this school and the speeding and reckless driving extend to the nearby streets and neighborhoods. There is seldom more than one police officer there. Why is this allowed to continue?
A police officer was struck by one of these cars last year in front of the school. It's an example of what these kids learned from the deaths of five young people: Nothing.
MRS. F.J. BEECHE, Grand Prairie
Miller protests
Re: "Miller seeks more protection from protesters," April 4.
We all need protection from John Wiley Price! It is time for Dallasites to finally tell John Wiley Price to "get thee behind me!" His newest attempt to thwart the people's rights shows him to be ignorant and self-absorbed.
I believe that Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton, like all Americans, should be considered innocent until proven guilty. I do not believe that questioning his participation in any situation is "racist." City Council members Laura Miller and Donna Blumer have the right, if not the obligation, to question and hold city officials up to scrutiny. Ms. Miller has always tried to look out for the best interests of the city of Dallas, unlike Mr. Price, who goes out of his way to penalize the people of Dallas. How many of us were enraged as he and his Warriors poked across Northwest Highway in front of the police station, or as they hindered our holiday shopping at NorthPark? I hope one day the people who put him in office will finally put him out to pasture.
As for Lee Alcorn, well, we remember why he is the "former local NAACP head," don't we? The protesters have no right to use vulgar language, orally or on signs, to torment Ms. Miller's children, neighbors or even Ms. Miller herself.
JAMES JORDAN, Dallas
Raises in jeopardy
How short our collective memory can be. Just a few weeks ago, there was a great hue and cry about raising salaries for correctional officers to bring them closer to the national average, and to stem the flood of employees leaving the department. Now, the Senate has a plan for a $118 monthly raise for the most experienced correctional officer, while the House is not planning any raise. Looks like more of the same neglect that has been coming from the Legislature.
If there is not a substantial raise in the near future, I fear that the department will find itself without enough officers to staff even its minimum posts, and that the public safety will suffer.
WILLIAM CULLUM, Channing
DSO predictable
The headline says it all: "Stick to the old" (Letters, March 16, by Silvio Azzolini). But I'd rather not. I gave up my subscription to the Dallas Symphony, which I had held for 25 years, because, under Andrew Litton, a numbing sense of predictability and complacence has descended on the orchestra.
Contrary to what the writer observes, audiences will respond positively to the works of contemporary composers. It's no secret that Michael Tilson Thomas has rejuvenated the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, attracting an expanded audience, by scheduling "new" music and actually challenging his listeners. I attended the "Ivan the Terrible" concert because I'm a big Prokofiev fan and because it was a curiosity. I agreed with Scott Cantrell's assessment – that's what critics are for, right? But what fun it was to see, to hear, and to talk about afterward! And the crowd that night did seem to be a bit younger (I'm 55). All very encouraging. So it sent a little chill down my spine to see a symphony goer getting worked up by one of the great 20th century composers, along with a composer-in-residence who is hardly testing his listeners.
Dallas has the concert hall; it has the audience; it has the money. It just needs a music director who has the interest, the energy, and the talent to create excitement in the concert hall. And a symphony board that will support that person.
MIKE WILKINS, Dallas
Happy faces
Re: The March 19 letter, "Her eyes were dead inside."
I hope letter-writer Justin Yandell looks at the people in and around his church. I believe that he will not find any "dead" eyes there, but mostly happy faces. At least, that is my experience at Highland Park Presbyterian Church. Cheer up, Mr. Yandell!
ANN BROWN, Dallas
Actions speak louder
Re: "An apology," Letters, March 26.
Bilal Rashid's very forthright apologies on the Taliban's destruction of Bamiyan Buddha statues make him as completely exempt from any personal culpability in regard to it as any non-Muslim who is not associated with it in this instance.
But I would like to remind him that all religions worthy of being so categorized may make claims to this effect: that the beliefs that they do not associate themselves with are also sacrosanct and therefore worth protecting. But it is not the scripture of a religion and its professions of tolerance/non-threatening nature (to other faiths) that make it automatically so. It is the actual behavior of its leaders and followers that would determine its overall tenor of tolerance or lack of it.
History leaves enough doubt about professions of tolerance of all religions on that score.
Mr. Rashid has one factual inaccuracy: He mentions: "[When] Hindus demolished the mosque in India and made a mandir" – there are literally thousands of mosques in India (and they have been respected always and still are), and the mosque that he refers to was the mosque that was built on the ground consecrated (several centuries earlier) to Rama the icon of the Hindus. It was bad enough that the militant Hindus destroyed it, and it richly deserves condemnation as the other act that preceded it. But no Hindu mandir as yet has been built on its debris. To this day Hindus themselves are of two minds about whether to build the mandir, and thank God that they are!
SAURI P. BHATTACHARYA, Plano
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