Letters for February 8, 2010
How To Send Rick Perry On His Way
I don’t like our current governor and am ready for a change. Fortunately, I have a couple of strategies to put Rick Perry on the toll road to private citizenship. First, whether you are a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or an Independent, you should vote in the Republican primary in March.
Bill White is a strong candidate and will almost certainly win the Democratic primary with or without your support. In recent elections, the governor’s race has been decided in the Republican primary, and it makes sense to cast your vote where it matters. Yes, you can do that in Texas and still vote for any candidate you prefer in the general election.
I plan to vote for Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary and either her or Bill White in the general election.
I stole the second strategy from the Democrats and Independents. Specifically, in the last governor’s election where they proved that even with 60.3 percent of the vote, you still can lose if you are willing to split the vote three ways.
Since Kinky Friedman and Carole Strayhorn aren’t busy being governor, I figure they may have some time available to do consulting work for Republican candidates.
Debra Medina should hire Kinky as her campaign manager and run as a Libertarian. She could draw the extremist fringe from the Republican Party and let Kinky show her how to extend her whoopin’ good time until the general election.
Hutchison should hire Strayhorn, run as an Independent and target moderate Republicans. She wouldn’t win with two dozen supporters, but it would be an earnest effort.
That would leave Perry, with his purity-tested core constituency of true believers, as the sole Republican candidate. There might even be bipartisan support for that.
Gurney King
Galveston
There Ought To Be A Law About Gas Service
Imagine this: Hurricane Ike destroys your Bayou Vista home, and your husband is terminally ill with cancer. You and your husband move into your office — he sleeps in a hospital bed; you sleep on a couch.
A year later, you move back into your house, and your husband dies shortly thereafter. You have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, belongings are in three storage places, have no idea where things are, your husband of 37 years is gone and you live in a fog of grief. Then you wake up on Jan. 23 without hot water and no heat from the furnace.
You wish your husband were here because he would know what to do. Then it occurs to you — you haven’t seen a gas bill since you returned home. You have been a customer of a particular gas service for 20 years, same address and phone number.
Without notice, your gas is cut off. You call the company that hasn’t sent a bill and isn’t required to send notice but obviously knows where you live, and they tell you it isn’t their responsibility. Can you imagine?
This happened to my mother.
There should be a law against disconnecting residential gas service without notice.
D. Shawn Edwards
Missouri City
The Hitchcock school board will discuss whether it will take action against one of its members, Shirley Price, after many parents complained her talk about sex with a group of fifth- through eighth-grade girls was inappropriate.
Taking Up For Shirley Price
I wasn’t at the Shirley Price talk, given recently to Crosby schoolgirls. All I know about it is what has been reported in the newspaper.
Ms. Price’s response to all the furor was printed in the story “Trustee: Sex talk’s time, place inappropriate” (The Daily News, Jan. 26), and based on her response, I have to come down strongly on Ms. Price’s side.
A few things I do know: First, children start talking about and being interested in sex as early as 5 or 6 years old.
Second, the more factual information children have, the more likely they are to make good choices. All children would benefit from the type of discussion Ms. Price describes.
Third of all, we are all — like it or not —products of sexual acts. Trying to pretend this is not so is akin to an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
All our children would benefit from frank, open discussions about sex. In the words of Ben Franklin, “Honesty is the best policy.”
In closing, I have this to say: You, go girl!
Gordon Thomson
Hitchcock
Just Looking To Be A Resident
I sold my hurricane-damaged home in Galveston recently. My next home will not be in Galveston, not because the threat of hurricanes but because of the city itself.
Here, I am not a resident, I am a part of the “tax base.” My home was on the West End.
I will be considered a resident of my new city. I hear other mayors express concern for their “citizens,” not their tax base.
I’ll have real city services. If I pay a municipal drainage fee, the drainage system will actually work and, if not, the city will get it fixed.
Not like Galveston, where the city can’t seem to understand that no matter how deep they dig the ditch, water will not run uphill.
The final kick came with my final water bill. It was almost double its regular price because of the cutoff date. Even though the house has stood empty since Ike and shows no water used for the entire 41 days, on the bill everything had to be prorated for the extra days.
I won’t miss being a property owner here and look forward to being a resident of whatever nearby community I make my home.
Tina Pearcy
La Marque
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