Letters

We're Confused
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Annise Parker. I have been a community activist in Houston for almost 20 years. I am past president of Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus and an active member of the Police Advisory Committee. Many of my volunteer activities have centered around the police department and politics.

There is another long-time activist in town named Sue Lovell. She is a past president of Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. Much of her focus has been the AIDS epidemic and politics.

Last year, the Press had a story about a secret meeting that Sue and I conducted in a men's room at City Hall. (Sue wasn't there, the meeting wasn't secret and I wasn't in the men's room.) Now I see that somehow you have magically changed my name into Sue Lovell's in a recent interview about Police Chief Sam Nuchia ["Understanding Sam," by Steve McVicker, August 18].

Lovell and I are not now, nor have we ever been, the same person.
Seriously, aside from such minor annoyances, I really enjoy your paper. Keep trying to find the real story.

Annise D. Parker
Houston

Hateful Hotze
Your headline writer missed a rare opportunity in the August 4 issue. Instead of "Hotze in the Media Fun House" [by Jim Simmon, News], wouldn't "The Anti-Christ Reveals Himself" be more fitting?

The caption under the photo could also be improved to "At last, we have found Dr. Mengele," or "Steve Hotze: a hateful man for hateful times." I also like the following:

* "Local nut bamboozles credulous journalist, paints himself as victim."
I have a vision of Mr. Hotze casting himself as the Grand Inquisitor. The sinners of the country would be paraded before him, and the rack and the iron maiden would be employed to extract confessions. As "government should be operated according to biblical precepts," we could then dispense with that troublesome Constitution and Bill of Rights. After Mr. Hotze has disposed of gays, he could then move on to other offenders, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Animists and New Agers.

Let's all pray for Mr. Hotze, because his consummate hatred is "wrong and it's immoral and it has a deleterious effect on the entire moral fiber of the culture." Touche.

Dan Hersbach
Houston

Hold the Sympathy
Regarding your recent article on Steven Hotze [News, August 4]: if you were to ask me do I think it wrong for him to be misquoted, I would say yes. If you were to ask me do I think it appropriate for the Press to do an article about it, I would say no. Why?

Because the injustices perpetrated on Steven Hotze by three newspapers do not come remotely close to equaling the injustices heaped on the gay community by him and his Christo Nazi cohorts. By calling attention to his media mishaps you provided him (intentionally or not) with yet another opportunity to spout his bigotry and homophobia.

I don't know if you are aware of it, but the gay community in Houston provides quite a bit of both the distribution and readership of your paper. As far as I'm concerned crusading for the Steven Hotzes of the world is both disloyal and insulting to your patrons.

Jone Devlin
Katy

Jack Who?
Alas, I must once again write to defend my big-mouthed law partner, Steve Susman. Tim Fleck's article "Poison Pens" [News, August 11] says Steve wrote in a private letter that to "un-endorse" a particular judicial candidate might "cause a race war," and that Steve asked Fleck to stop "jacking" with him about the letter. Clearly, Steve was misquoted. Anyone who knows Steve knows that he never would have said "jacking." I am confident he told Fleck to stop "fucking" with him.

While this might seem like a minor quibble, Steve is very sensitive to being misunderstood or misquoted. Just last winter, Steve mentioned that his wife and daughter planned to do some serious damage at Tootsie's. Someone who overheard this thought that Steve had said "Tutsis," and within days the Hutus and Tutsis in Rawanda were embroiled in a ... race war. Ironically, when Steve later mentioned that he hadn't wanted to "start a race war," Richard "Racehorse" Haynes thought Steve had said "startle Racehorse." Although Haynes threatened to "un-endorse" Steve over this, the press never learned about the incident, so there was never any of that horrible jacking.

Neal S. Manne
Partner, Susman Godfrey
Houston

Bite This
In regard to Judge McSpadden's indefensible action of biting a coed's behind while doing the "alligator dance" some 30 years ago [News, "Taking a Bite Out of...," by Steve McVicker, August 11], McSpadden's November opponent, Lloyd Oliver, states, "By opening this castration door, I think [McSpadden] has left himself pretty vulnerable in that he is less than a moral authority." Oliver is comparing apples and kangaroos!

While no evidence exists that McSpadden is a serial ass-biter, volumes of research (and criminal files) prove that many sex offenders create hundreds of victims, resulting in severe physical, psychological and economic ramifications for both society and victims. Sexual predators have the highest recidivism rate of all U.S. criminals, with 50 to 60 percent being reincarcerated within three years of release.