To the editor: Once again Fort Worth Weekly and its team of thorough investigators (in this case, Dan McGraw, Jeff Prince, and Jimmy Fowler) excelled with detailed reporting only days after the event at the Rainbow Lounge (“Rainbow Revolt,” July 8, 2009). Every base was covered.
As mentioned, the GLBT community in Fort Worth has historically kept a low profile while contributing, like most citizens, to the city’s infrastructure by improving property, starting businesses, paying taxes, keeping stable employment, doing community outreach and being all-around good neighbors.
It remains to been seen how “reports” and “internal investigations” will be conducted and interpreted. However, if it turns out that officials were unnecessarily aggressive, the lounge and its patrons deserve nothing less than whatever restitution they are willing to accept.
And a bottom-of-my-heart thank-you to Dallas’ gay community for their support. When we’re done here, can y’all stay to dance?
Allison Marks
Fort Worth
To the editor: If the Texas Alcoholic Beverage commission were really concerned about drunken patrons being served alcohol, they’d need to look no farther than downtown Fort Worth. When the downtown bars close, there are frequently young people heaving on the sidewalks and engaging in near- sex acts and other behavior consistent with drunkenness, but the TABC is evidently not concerned about them.
The violence at the Rainbow had nothing to do with black or white, straight or gay – it was all about money. Like they said during Watergate, follow the money. There is an economic vision for the Near South Side, and it does not include a thriving alternative lifestyle community.
Phyllis W. Allen
Fort Worth
To the editor: I salute Fort Worth Weekly for its story on the Rainbow Lounge. This miscarriage of justice against the lounge and its patrons needed a comprehensive view from those in the journalistic field who write the unvarnished truth and are not proselytized or unilateral toward any one particular agency or individual.
The general media has covered this travesty extensively, too, but not with the passion with which the Weekly tackles it. This “incident at the Rainbow Lounge” has all the trappings of official oppression and, yes, terrorism – by the dictionary interpretation of the word: to bully, harass, or intimidate … in this case, all three.
The Weekly has been the consummate reporter of news stories, and this Rainbow (with as many colors) story will ultimately result in appropriate action by the city, state, and maybe even feds if it evolves into a civil rights violation case since all the ingredients are there for those charges.
Thanks again to the Weekly’s experienced staff for bringing to light yet another chapter of discrimination that needs to stop.
Dick Templeton
Fort Worth
Challenge the BS
To the editor: Betty Brink’s latest crusade about TCC (“Land Mines on the Bluff,” July 15, 2009) has the attention of everyone on the TCC board. In reality those who voted for the de la Garza debacle as enablers to his shenanigans and favorite contractors aren’t concerned with any problems because it’s the taxpayers’ debt to pay, not theirs! The “lost profits clause” that guarantees the originally agreed-upon profits to a contractor regardless of whether the work is cancelled is every contractor’s dream come true: They still get paid! This patent BS needs to be challenged by the taxpayers and changed, pronto. Aren’t there enough people on the board who are smarter than a fifth-grader?
At least we have an honest, hardworking friend to the taxpaying public, Bobby McGee, who sits on the TCC board. He has openly objected to the high costs, the contract, and its provisions orchestrated by de la Garza. Now the chancellor is gone but certainly not forgotten, since he used tax dollars like kitty litter.
De la Garza isn’t going to grant an interview to the Weekly or any other publication and respond to questions about the TCC debacle. Why should he? He was paid millions to walk away and laughed all the way to the bank. Our tax dollars at work!
Delores Taylor
Fort Worth
