No lake illness encountered
Re: “Dallas Rower Makes Case for Clean Lakes — Because nasty bacteria makes people sick, Congress must maintain funding for wastewater infrastructure,” by Jordan Stock, Monday Opinion.
As the parent of two daughters who rowed at Bachman Lake, I read Stock’s column with interest. Like Stock, my daughters loved the sport and also gained opportunities at elite colleges that actively recruit rowers.
I cannot speak to the precise water quality at Bachman, but despite being splashed and immersed in the water during rowing, neither of my daughters ever became ill.
Opinion
White Rock Lake, where I have sailed for 25 years, has surprisingly fresh, clean water. It is the crown jewel of Dallas nature and its vast watershed ensures that water is constantly refreshed after rains. In all my years on the lake, I have never known anyone to fall ill from contact with its waters.
Swimming was prohibited at White Rock not because of water quality, but because it was Dallas’ official drinking water source from the 1910s to the 1930s. And then it was used as a temporary water source during droughts.
The real challenges today are silt and runoff from upstream development, which require dredging. This is a local issue — Texas law prevents Dallas from holding upstream cities financially responsible, so cooperation, not legislation, is the solution.
White Rock Lake has a bright future as an oasis for all Dallasites who treasure the chance to row, sail and relax in its peaceful environment, especially since council member Paula Blackmon has obtained $20 million for its dredging. That is a good start toward the future.
Jeff Snoyer, Dallas
President, Corinthian Sailing Club Educational Foundation
Dallas does it again
Re: “An Oops in Hiring Dallas Watchdog — City Charter requires an attorney to lead the inspector general office,” Wednesday editorial.
The Dallas City Council’s recent decision to hire an inspector general who does not meet the charter’s qualification is deeply troubling, yet not surprising. Our elected leaders, many of whom are attorneys themselves, either overlooked the plain language of the charter requiring this position to be held by an attorney or willfully chose to ignore it. Neither explanation is acceptable.
The irony is glaring. The Office of Inspector General was created to bring accountability and transparency to city government. Yet Timothy Menke’s hiring and the fallout from placing an unqualified person in this critical role have been handled almost entirely behind closed doors in executive session. What is supposed to be the city’s mechanism for shining light on misconduct has instead begun in darkness.
Equally concerning, this is not an isolated incident. The council has already disregarded the charter by allowing the City Plan Commission chair to serve years past his eight-year term limit. Now, with this latest hire, the trend of sidestepping voter-approved rules grows clearer.
Dallas deserves a Council that respects the rule of law and the ethical standards it was elected to uphold. When will City Hall start taking accountability seriously?
Natalie LeVeck, Dallas
Democracy vs. wealth
On our trip to Washington, D.C., in October last year, my wife and I visited the Smithsonian. I took a picture of the following words of Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, as even then I feared they would not survive.
Justice Brandeis said, “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can’t have both.”
I am watching with great interest to see if his words will be preserved.
Chris McGowan, Coppell
More on gerrymander bill
Re: “Headed for a crash,” by Gary Stewart, Tuesday Letters.
Stewart wrote that “The Democrats in Congress introduced a bill to outlaw gerrymandering. All Democrats voted for it, and reportedly all Republicans voted against it.”
What he left out is why Democrats voted for it and why Republicans voted against it. Republicans voted against the bill because the bill also included several poison pills: automatic and same-day voter registration; expanded early and mail-in voting, online voter registration, expanded voting rights for felons and restrictions on voter poll purges. This seems like some very important information to include.
I will bet you if there was a stand-alone bill to end gerrymandering, all the Republicans would vote for it. Now you know the rest of the story, folks.
Democrats and the media often leave out certain parts of a story to get you to believe their way matters. If we had the whole story from the media, I don’t believe Americans would vote for Democrats in the numbers they do.
Gene Tignor, Emory
Independent redistricting
The solution to gerrymandering is to have statisticians and truly independent experts logically and fairly partition districts. This would benefit both parties, assuming both parties want fair representation in elections.
Based on what I’ve read, it is the Trump administration that is pushing for this mid-year reapportioning of districts.
Joe W. Milkes, Plano
Keep phones for emergencies
Re: “Land the helicopter,” by James Alstatt, Wednesday Letters.
I went to school in the ’60s and ’70s like Alstatt. But unlike him, I want my grandkids to have reasonable phone access at school. Phones off during class time, even between classes. But in case of emergency, personal phones become necessary.
Back then, I drank from the hose, too. I never rode in the back of pickups because that is just crazy. But we also didn’t have mass murders in our schools, either.
My 5-year-old grandson just learned how to hide and be very quiet in kindergarten last week. All I worried about were fire and tornado drills.
It is a different world now. And parents are scared.
Pamela Gozdecki, Plano