| Letters for Tuesday 04/10/2001 India quake relief effort stalled
As if the calamity imposed by the Indian earthquake itself is not grave enough, a visitor experiences "aftershocks" of a different but difficult nature. The survivors feel they are "unlucky" to be alive; they are totally disgusted with so-called relief efforts. They ask, "Where is the help going?" and, "Who is helping whom?" Having visited a tiny area of the affected region, I can vouch for the disgraceful state of affairs. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no controlling authority. It is chaos – one that affects people's lives, livelihood, shelter and dignity.
Instantly, people have been deprived of everything (for no fault of theirs). Gone are homes, relatives, parents, children, property and a life's earnings. The Gujarat government's response is that it was an act of God; the government is botching its responsibility. Politics is showing its ugly head! Municipalities governed by political parties other than the ones that control the state and national governments are receiving a stepmotherly treatment or, worse, none at all. International efforts have not generated any hope, only hype.
Various grand schemes have been proposed to rebuild homes and other facilities. But the affected are not consulted at all. Experience from the 1995 Latur quake demonstrated that home rebuilding without proper planning on a mass scale is a cosmetic exercise at best. New "houses" built in Latur lacked a soul. They were dehumanizing, depressing and unfit to be called "homes." Will this be repeated in Gujarat?
People are skeptical about real gains from former President Clinton's visit to the quake-affected region. He was "winning hearts" in the Kutch area, but does this spell relief to the people wiped out by the calamity? The quake victims need tangible help – help that can be seen.
What is needed is a self-enforced code of moral conduct by officials in charge of relief with a sense of gratitude for a God-given opportunity to serve. Unless dignity toward the survivors is restored quickly, the living, too, will be buried.
C. VENKATA S. RAM, Dallas
Police memorial
With the dedication this week of the Police Memorial, it pleases me to see Dallas will finally have a fitting tribute to the officers who lost their lives serving Dallas.
A lot of people deserve to be recognized for their work in making this happen. For 20 years, Senior Cpl. Jess Lucio continued to push the idea. Retired Police Chief Billy Prince volunteered hundreds of hours to chair the Memorial Committee. Former Officer Kevin King also dedicated hundreds of hours selling the idea and fund raising. The many officers and employees who donated to the fund made this both an effort of the department and the community. Capt. Will Rollins chaired the design selection committee that chose a design that is truly remarkable. I have seen a number of police memorials and this is perhaps the most moving.
As the planning proceeded, fund raising stalled in 1998, far short of the goal. Robert Decherd, chairman, president and CEO of Belo, agreed to assist with the fund raising with corporations, foundations and individuals. Through his effort, the money was raised to begin the project.
Hundreds of people were involved in this project and deserve to be recognized and I apologize to each of them I have not mentioned, but I offer each of them my thanks for a job well done.
May God's hand touch the families and friends of those officers who have given their lives and may he be with the officers who serve this great city every day. I am proud that I had the honor of being a small part of it.
BEN CLICK, Dallas Police Chief, 1993-99, Munds Park, Ariz.
I'll give to Scouts
It is sad to see the Boy Scouts of America so dependent upon allocations from United Way ("United Way cuts Scout funds – 20 percent drop follows admission that troop rolls were overstated," April 3). Money is seldom delivered without strings attached.
My way to help ease the pain of reductions to the Scouts is to give directly to the Scouts and quit giving to United Way.
Thus, United Way receives a 100 percent reduction from our household. The Boy Scouts receive a like amount increase with no strings attached. The Boy Scouts will receive 100 percent of each dollar and will be able to move away from dependency on United Way and its social agenda.
FRANK M. WAGNON, Grapevine
Disgraceful sham
It is reassuring to note that racial discrimination received another setback by a new federal court ruling declaring affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School to be unconstitutional ("Ruling deals new blow to affirmative action," March 28). That racial diversity is "critical to the enrichment of everyone's education" is a disgraceful sham that has gone on long enough. I am confident that discrimination on the basis of skin color will someday be rooted out of all public and private institutions and America can be truly proud to be the land of equal opportunity.
TOM DONALDSON, Gun Barrel City
Refreshing
After eight years of the Bill and Hillary Clinton "I Know Nothing" legal soap opera series, submarine Cmdr. Scott Waddle steps forward and accepts responsibility for his command, how refreshing! I strongly disagree with the newspaper report that Cmdr. Waddle shifted some blame for the accidental sinking of the Japanese trawler to seamen aboard the submarine. How can you interpret a shifting of blame out of the quote, "I didn't micromanage my crew. I empowered them to do their job."
I, for one, wish fair winds and following seas for Cmdr. Waddle.
PHIL RUZICKA, Warsaw
Big oil profits
Exxon Mobil tops Fortune 500 list with revenues of $210 billion.
All Big Oil companies are making a killing with their outrageous profits. How do they do that? Maybe they are just smarter than say:
Ascendant Solutions of Garland, quarterly net loss $ 3.4 million.
Carrington Laboratories of Irving, net loss of $1 million.
Triarc Cos. (owner of Arby's), net loss of $29.4 million.
USData Corp. of Richardson, net loss of $15.4 million.
And on and on as the quarterly reports come in, the economy slows down, but not for Big Oil. Sooner or later maybe some of these losers will catch on: all you have to do is create a cockamamie shortage of your product and watch your profits skyrocket. You have to remember to blame the cause of the shortage on someone else, of course, but don't use OPEC; that's been taken.
ALAN HOLBROOK, Dallas
Atomic energy
Burn a pound of coal and you get about 2,500 Btu of heat energy and a bunch of carbon dioxide. Burn a cubic foot of natural gas and you get 1,000 Btu and some carbon dioxide. Burn a gram (less than an aspirin) of atomic fuel and you get 80,000,000 Btu and no carbon dioxide.
We have wasted over 20 years by being paranoid about atomic energy. Unless we want to spend our nights huddled in caves, hiding from the creatures of the night, we best change our ways and develop atomic energy technology. It is our only salvation.
JIM BELL, Dallas
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