Top 10 - The Austin Chronicle

POSTMARKScontinued from p.4Halt tHe HaNDlebarbariaNsDear Editor,We walkers who use our heels instead ofwheels to move about the city have long dodgedthe auto driving “carbarians,” but now we facethe bicycle “handlebarbarians” who disobey stoplights,seldom honk, and treat pedestrians likefixed pins in a bowling alley. Sidewalks and crosswalksare for walkers. Please give us a brake.STOP (Stop Terror on Pedestrians).Gene BurdDebatiNg guN coNtrolDear Editor,Doubting this letter will be published, becausethe editorial staff traditionally gets the last word,I decided, nevertheless, to write once again torespond to Mr. King’s reply to my letter in the Dec.28 issue [“Postmarks”]. As expected, Mr. Kingfalls straight into a defensive crouch to justifyhis comments while trying to invalidate mine. Hesays that “Adam Lanza was no Timothy McVeigh,”somehow thinking that Lloyd Bentsen-esque statementwould justify his position about gun control.As I wrote before, to which no cogent argumentwas made, no one in his right mind could possiblyargue that a disturbed mind bent upon death anddestruction would immediately abandon that pathjust because there was no gun handy. Besideswhich, I seriously doubt that Mr. King’s boldstatement that Lanza would not have attackedwithout a gun obviously does not come from asolid background in psychotherapy or counselingthe mentally disturbed. That is nothing moreOops!In our recent preview of the Austin FilmSociety’s Essential Cinema series(“Extreme Temperature Swings,” Dec. 28,2012), the Chronicle erroneously referredto the series as Asia: Hot and Cold. Theseries is called Asia: Hot and Cool.than a specious argument and a personal opinionthoroughly ungrounded in fact, but is apparentlyoffered because it looks good in print.Secondly, Mr. King accuses me of hoping “towish [the matter of violence] away” with my “willfulblindness,” or at least I suppose that was hispurpose, his logic being somewhat difficult tofollow. But once again, Mr. King, innuendo andpresupposition about what I believe is all youhave to go on. Slinging barbs at me to justify youropinions is unworthy of an accomplished journalist.In fact, I do believe there can be great stridesmade in the gun debate, but assuming that anysuch action will keep weapons out of the handsof those who seek to possess them for evil iseither an unfortunate wish or pure folly.Third, the minority is also not uniformly “guncrazy,”Mr. King, and apparently, once again, itis impossible for you to offer written contentwithout name-calling. The minority of which youspeak could be and likely is nothing more thanmany good Americans who seek to keep theirright to own firearms, just as you hope to keepyour right to free speech within this periodical.And, like me, most responsible gun owners wouldbe the first to agree that the problem with gunsis a desperate one, and that there could be manyroads to a solution, some of which they couldeasily endorse.Finally, a word of courteous advice: My nameis more appropriately Mr. Wilson, just as you mayobserve I have been gentlemanly enough to referto you as Mr. King.Bill WilsonctrMa booNDoggleDear Editor,The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authorityhas a 2012-13 budget of $43.2 million takenfrom Texas taxpayers and toll tax revenue. Theagency was proposed and pushed through 10years ago by former Rep. Mike Krusee, whomTexans did not re-elect because of his questionableactions motivated by special interests.The toll agency, which currently manages two tollroads, should be dismantled. The toll roads that itplans to build and manage on MoPac are a shamand are not needed. CTRMA borrowed $130 millionto add to the toll road building. The proposedtoll roads will not ease traffic conditions; they aresimply a source of new revenue. Furthermore,Texas does not need ongoing toll roads.Texans need an intelligent, well-managed, andreality-based Department of Transportation thatworks in the best interests of the entire community.There is no reason in the world that CTRMAExecutive Director Mike Heiligenstein should bemaking $250,000 annually for running an agencythat plans toll roads in Central Texas, except thathe is appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.Perry and Texas legislators refuse to let the gasolinetax catch up with inflation and also continue todivert gasoline tax revenue to their other interests,which is part of the reason TxDOT hasn’t sufficientmoney to build and maintain our roadways.Lastly, toll roads are an inefficient and poormethod of building and maintaining roads. 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