Texas lost one of its true legends with the passing of Lady Bird Johnson [“A Lady First,” September 2007]. It is all the more disappointing when you look around at today’s landscape and find it lacking in those larger-than-life personalities who shaped the mystique of this great state. Today’s kings and queens wear their crowns like children at a local Burger King, caricatures of the men and women whose shoes they have failed to fill. We are wasting the legacy that the great legends of Texas, like Mrs. J, built for us.
Michael Coppens
Houston
The patch of wildflowers that LBJ and Lady Bird are sitting in near the LBJ Ranch in 1968 is 99 percent coreopsis and not Mexican hat, as indicated.
Sergina M. Flaherty
San Antonio
Editors’ Note: You are right. We regret the error.
Law and Ordnance
I didn’t realize that you are a bunch of bleeding-heart liberals. Please tell Pamela Colloff that her slant and attitude on this important border issue are as much a part of the terrorist activity in the United States as Al Qaeda’s [“Badges of Dishonor,” September 2007]. That drug smuggler should have been shot dead, not just shot in the ass, regardless of whether or not he had a gun. And the federal attorney that gave this smuggler immunity and allowed him to come back and forth into the United States needs to be fired.
Jerry W. Ritcheson
Houston
I had hoped to find some real reporting in this article that might have changed my perception of this case. Instead, all I got was a poor mishmash of slanted journalism that lacked even internal consistency. Please tell me why Ms. Colloff should not be considered a liar for all her omissions? In the future, try and use some common sense and try and ask some questions about things like why U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton regarded the drug dealer as being wholly truthful. Ms. Colloff and Mr. Sutton must be the only people in the country who are so dumb as to think that the smuggler had to be an innocent illegal.
Arthur Randolph Erb
New caney
This person who thinks the two agents need to stay in prison is out of her mind. They no doubt will be out as soon as we get a president who has all of his faculties.
Roy Channel
Lawrence, Kansas
Johnny Sutton probably has it right. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are likely gross liars, obstructors of justice, and, apparently, a bit stupid. But quite frankly, this is one American who just doesn’t give a damn. Indeed, I suspect that if a few more agents played it as fast and loose with the rules as these two men did, our outrageously porous borders might just be less so.
Herb Wynans
Denton
Here’s the Beef
Gary Cartwright’s column on Jeanne Daniels is petty and mean-spirited [“The Terror of Tarrytown,” September 2007]. Let me see if I have this right. Cartwright is angry because he can no longer walk across the street to Daniels’ shopping center in Tarrytown and order a burger and sit around with his friends. For that, he insults and viciously attacks Ms. Daniels? Instead, Mr. Cartwright should be grateful. He will no longer be able to consume his growth hormone—injected, cancer-causing, artery-clogging, globe-warming burgers. If he has to walk a mile to the nearest burger stand, then that’s okay. I’m sure he could use the exercise.
Ernest Samudio
Austin
I found Mr. Cartwright’s diatribe against Ms. Daniels laughable. Times change. And so has our perception of animals. Many of us agree with Ms. Daniels and PETA: Animals are not ours to use or, more often, misuse. Apparently, Mr. Cartwright loves his dogs but does not recognize that cows, chickens, and pigs are every bit as sweet and lovable—and every bit as deserving of a long and happy life.
Susan Oakey
Dallas
Mr. Cartwright, Jeanne Daniels owns that corner of the world in Tarrytown and she can do as she pleases. And it pleases animals that would otherwise be forced to live their entire lives in windowless warehouses, in the end hung upside down to have their bodies sliced open. And it pleases the planet too, because cow farms create 16 percent of the world’s methane, a greenhouse gas that according to United Nations reports is destroying our planet. I understand the above doesn’t please Mr. Cartwright, but you can’t please everybody. He can just drive his lazy butt to one of the many McDonald’s in Austin, go through the drive-through, and let someone else slaughter an animal for him.
Timothy J. Verret
Austin
I can’t believe you’d publish this sort of small-minded hatchet-job crap. You should have at least given equal space to Ms. Daniels or her supporters. Is this Cartwright fellow [Austin American-Statesman columnist] John Kelso’s long-lost twin?
Michael Harris
Austin
Give Us an Oops!
I almost agree with your list of the top twenty high school football teams, except for one missing school that should have ranked somewhere in the middle: Breckenridge [“Go! Fight! Win!” September 2007]. The Buckaroos are five-time state champions (1951, 1952, 1954, 1958, and co-champs in 1959).
K. D. Freeman
Alvin
You missed a big one: Dallas Highland Park. Three state championships (30 points), two runners-up (10 points), and 42 district titles (126 points). That’s 166 points and should have been a tie for third.
Manfred Rottler
Dallas
With the help of a former Mart Panther, I applied your formula and found that the Panthers should have had 40 points for their four state championships (1957, 1969, 1999, 2006), 10 points for finishing as the state runners-up in 1986 and 2000, and 93 points for their 31 district championships. Shouldn’t Mart have been team number ten, with 143 points?
Cecile F. McKenzie
Kerrville
Editors’ Note: You are all correct. Breckenridge, Highland Park, and Mart should have been included on the list. We regret the omissions.
