Austin American-Statesman letters to the editor, Aug. 6, 2023
Zilker doesn't need a costly makeover.
It's lovely as is and it identifies Austin.
Re: July 14 article, "Austin parks department says there’s confusion about Zilker Park vision plan after criticism"
Zilker Park is an Austin jewel and doesn’t need a $200 million-plus makeover. I urge the Austin Parks and Recreation Department to carefully reconsider the Zilker Park vision and focus on keeping this an open and welcoming place.
Money should be used to maintain the existing facilities and to care for erosion issues, but not to build a welcome center. The park land itself is a welcome center for countless Austin families. It remains a fond memory for my family. We first visited the park after seeing the UT housing apartment we were renting. I asked my husband to take me someplace nice before we moved in, and he took us to Zilker Park.
It doesn’t need new buildings and a parking garage to become an outdoor entertainment district. It’s a lovely open space that identifies Austin .
Mary Lou Gibson, Austin
White grievance is alive in Abbott's
border policies. They're not working.
Texas has a problem at its border, but clearly our governor’s policies are not working. Mexicans, Cubans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and others have been major players in U.S. history as farmworkers, miners, property owners, businessmen and women, politicians and intellectuals.
Yet, our governor leads those who claim white victimization and discrimination. White grievance is alive and well in his border policies. They encompass his larger issues of lashing out at women, gays, lesbians, transgender people and the poor, all who challenge his authority.
With time and perspective of history, Texas’ Operation Lone Star, with its brutal and ugly images, will join the 2017 event in Charlottesville and the January 6, Washington, DC, insurrection against the U.S. Capitol, places that connote the rise of visible, violent and emboldened groups that put white supremacy and the struggle against it in sharp relief. We need a change in policy.
Barbra Mann, Austin
The one question God will ask
about all those other people
When you die, God isn’t going to ask you about someone else. He won’t ask you about the two men down the street who got married. He won’t ask you about the girl who had an abortion. He won’t ask you about the atheist that lives on the corner. He won’t ask you about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man.
He will ask you how you loved those people as He called you to do.
And some of you didn’t. From The Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses,as we forgive those who trespass against us"
Armando Zamarripa, Austin
Understanding, empathy and solidarity
are the casualties when we ban books
I don’t understand those proposing book bans. What they are advocating is they don’t want students to step inside someone’s shoes; they don’t want students seeing the world through oppressed or marginalized eyes.
Banning books prevents understanding, empathy and solidarity—virtues to which we all aspire.
Book banning discourse reminds me of a concept that I taught in my argumentation course: "self-risk." Self-risk is the idea that to engage in genuine argument, one must acknowledge at the outset of debate a willingness to be open to changing their beliefs, even if persuasion isn’t the outcome.
That requires standing inside the shoes of others in order to reflect on the merits and validity of the opposing position. Self-risk is the opposite of dogma and results in empathy, understanding and solidarity.
If one believes in rational argument and cares about education, how could they oppose these virtues, insisting that banning books is desirable?
Richard Cherwitz, Austin
Reversing global warming gives us
the best chance to sustain the planet
The large majority of individuals and corporations now accept that man-made global warming is occurring. The intense heat the world is experiencing (along with multimillion-acre wildfires, rising sea level, massively more powerful hurricanes and flooding, and other undesirable impacts too numerous to list here) is the result of a less than 1.5C (2.7F) human-caused rise in earth’s temperature. It is a small taste of what is to come when we heat earth by a likely 2.0-3.5C by the end of this century.
We will not make the required progress in combating global warming until the large majority also comes to accept that it will cause (actually, already is causing) immense damage to our economies, social order, governments, health, agriculture and the environment – and that halting (and ultimately reversing) global warming will give us a far more healthy, prosperous and environmentally sustainable planet earth.
Mark Warren, Austin
For Trump, there is a bright side
if he should be sentenced to prison
The prospect of Donald Trump going to prison should not be considered a bad thing. He’ll have the opportunity to learn a skill that will benefit him in the future.
He should look on the bright side.
Richard Metzger, Austin
In Texas' brutal heat, even our pets
are treated better than prisoners
I am outraged that Texas treats its prisoners like animals, not even worthy of healthy temperatures. What if it happened to you? You must know what these heat waves are doing to the human body. Even your dogs and cats are given better treatment.
My friends and I are all reading about you. What kind of sadistic people are you? I will never visit Texas again and I hope others around the country feel the same way.
Janice Oakley, Sagamore Hills, Ohio
How to submit a letter to the editor
Send letters of no more than 150 words by noon Thursday by using our online form at https://bit.ly/3Crmkcf or send an email to letters@statesman.com.
We welcome your letters on all topics. Include your name and city of residence; we do not publish anonymous letters.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman letters to the editor, Aug. 6, 2023
