To the editor: I want to say thank you for sending me and my unit your weekly issues of Fort Worth Weekly. I’m from Fort Worth, while the others in our unit are from all over. We are currently here in Baghdad and will be here until the summer. Your newspaper is so informative about what is going on in Fort Worth, and all the soldiers enjoy the articles – and of course, the pictures of our beautiful ladies.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and in your hearts. I hope that you enjoy these pictures that I have enclosed for you. This is proof that even in wartime, your newspaper has made it here to be read and to bring smiles to those who are fighting (when we get a chance to rest between missions). Thank you for everything.
Staff Sgt. Paul Acosta
A Company, 1st Battalion
141st Infantry
Infantry Brigade Combat Team
36th Infantry Division
Baghdad, Iraq
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Hanging it Up
To the editor: Just read your article on JJ’s Blues Bar’s closing (HearSay, Jan. 13, 2010) and was not surprised to see that Jim Schussler is still the same pompous guy he’s always been. This is someone so arrogant that he was actually proud of hanging up on anyone who dared asked for directions to his place – in his mind everyone should know where his Blues Bar was. I usually hate to see these old honks die, but I can’t seem to muster much sympathy for someone as self-important as Schussler.
Mick Rue
Fort Worth
Divide and Conquer in the Shale
To the editor: Your article (“He Won’t Pipe Down,” Jan 13, 2010) gave the impression that Scott Avenue homeowners “gladly” signed away our mineral and easement rights, knowing that a pipeline was planned for Carter Avenue. As a Scott Avenue homeowner, I can tell you that is absolutely not true.
None of us knew about plans for a pipeline or gas well anywhere near our area. Scott Avenue residents never signed pipeline easements, just mineral leases – and we received a pathetic pittance compared to neighborhoods that negotiated later for bonuses of thousands of dollars per lot.
Several of my Scott neighbors offered to appear before Fort Worth City Council to oppose the Carter Avenue pipeline. But they fell by the way when rumors circulated that our fight against the Carter route might cause the pipeline to be rerouted to Scott. Important neighborhood leaders sat on the sidelines, hoping their silence would protect their own neighborhood from development.
This is what urban gas drilling does. It poisons our relationships along with our soil, our water, and our air – pitting neighborhood against neighborhood.
We hope the efforts of Davis, Burnam, Hicks, and others will protect Carter Avenue. We hope Chesapeake Energy now understands the folly of running gas-gathering pipelines under Fort Worth homes on any street, no matter how humble. … The jury is still out on this one.
Brooke Cooper
Fort Worth
Turning Green – In a Bad Way
To the editor: It’s painfully not funny to me to see a gas well going into a college campus directly on the corner of Harwood Road and Highway 26 in Hurst. They have erected a fence there, and then above that they put this stuffed-paper insulation stuff about 30 feet high around the job site, so that you can’t even see the drilling rig. All of that’s grand and good for the moment – it keeps the job site quiet and is supposed to keep the dirt from blowing.
But I’ve lived in West Texas. Wait ’til they see the soot from a well blowing out or a refinery catching fire. Benzene and a host of other byproducts of this industry are more than slightly toxic, and they poison humans in record time (“Greening the Gas Field?” Jan. 6, 2010).
But wait a minute! The Barnett Shale has put the well behind a pretty stone fence. I suppose that’s going to keep me safe from their darned toxic gases? And even if they aren’t toxic, the smell of sulfur never really goes away, and it’s not pleasant. If folks would like a sample, I encourage them to take a 250-mile weekend tour out to Big Spring. Before you get to the city limit, take a good whiff and ask yourself – is that what we want in our backyard?
Chris M. Waring
Hurst
To the editor: Gayle Reaves’ “Greening the Gas Field” was a fine story. Fort Worth Weekly has been the ultimate people’s advocate in the crusade to convince Austin of the need for legislative redress against these intrusive, pandering, bullying gas companies that are exercising in full regalia with their scams, putting people and the environment at risk with impunity. These recreants, including the public officials who are their enablers and those who fall prey to the lure of gas industry bucks, should all be stuffed into a piñata so that we, the people, can beat the stuffing out of them.
Money and politics go together like a horse and carriage. It’s time to unhook the horse and vote out incumbents who don’t serve their constituents nor give a tinker’s dam about others’ safety and health. Mayor Mike Moncrief tops the list because he’s being convinced to do nothing, not to mention the fact that he has a vested interest in gas and oil.
And so what if more regulations would send the gas companies to Haynesville? That’s a subtle threat just to get Moncrief to allow the “boom” to continue and flourish in Fort Worth. So in the interest of greed, the rest of us are placed in jeopardy as victims to the gas companies? Makes for a great epitaph!
Eva Hoffsetz
Fort Worth
Fatally Retentive
To the editor: Gwynne Dyer’s Jan. 6 guest column (“More Latex Gloves?”) made some interesting observations about terrorists potentially using their body cavities to carry explosives.
It seems that every time a terrorist gets on one of our planes, attempting to kill our citizens, even if they fail, we lose more of our freedom. We are already subjected to long lines at the airport, and now they want to X-ray and photograph our bodies in public.
Who are these folks who will be using radiation on pregnant women, cancer patients, and small children? What if it is not used properly? Or the machine malfunctions? This happens even in hospitals.
I agree that good intelligence work is the most comprehensive protection we have now against terrorist attacks, but let me ask this: What happened to the armed sky marshals who were advertised to be flying the skies and protecting the passengers?
Delbert Cantrell
Fort Worth
