Letters

Station in Life
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the colorful characterization of Montrose Radio, including the historic one-paragraph resume on Kevin Jackson ["Silence on the Dial," by Shaila Dewan, May 13]. As one of the most prolific workhorses behind the scenes of Houston's underground art world, Jackson certainly deserves a little credit for a change without blowing his cover too much.

I have long suspected that his whimsical behavior is but a cheap ploy to ward off the endless demands on him. He is truly one of Houston's unsung heroes. Kevin began the research for the alternative station years before the group at Allen Parkway Village ever met.

Full credit for the anarchy and insanity involved in this project should also be extended to the federal government for contradicting its own laws on free speech, and to law enforcement. If even half the budget spent on policing citizens were spent on artistic programming to deter criminal violence, we would solve problems with overcrowded prisons and underfunded arts. I will gladly join with the chief of police in recommending these as community projects to be considered by the Anti-Gang Task Force.

Emily T. Nghiem
Community Coalition for
Criminal Justice Reform
via Internet

Pirates' Surrender
Congrats to Shaila Dewan for making readable the convoluted story of Montrose Radio. I would like to say the e-mail message purportedly sent by Lenwood Johnson -- as well as Harry Skelter's response -- occurred before the inaugural meeting of the interim board.

Johnson demanded Skelter's expulsion, the first evidence of an irrational and vindictive nature to which Shaila's article does insufficient justice. For many months, Johnson has viciously and unnecessarily attacked people I love and respect.

Montrose Radio is in the process of reorganizing as an Internet-based radio station. We lose the allure of being pirates, but we won't have to replace equipment as frequently. Our non-audio-equipped Web site is at www.montroseradio.org. Stay tuned for further developments.

M. Martin
Member, Montrose Radio
via Internet

Move 'Em Out
Let's see -- public intoxication, knife fights, urinating and defecating on the street, prostitution. And we're the bad guys for wanting them gone ["Hire Calling," by Kimberly Reeves, May 13]? I am an 18-year resident of Magnolia Grove who rehabbed a house but never solicited the "immigrant labor." I challenge anyone to say we're anti-immigrant.

We are anticrime and anti things any neighborhood would object to. I invite the diversity we enjoy, having moved here from West University because Magnolia Grove displayed a certain energy not offered there. The workers gather in this neighborhood, but they go where the work is: Montrose, the Memorial Park area, River Oaks. If we're such bad guys and the laborers are all saints, there should be no objection to relocating the labor hall to the corner of, say, Inwood and Lazy Lane.

Michael Young
Houston

Central Houston Cleansing
Who will be next to be pushed off their home turf? First it was downtown/Neartown, then Montrose, now the Heights. As the plastic people move in droves to be "close to downtown," the real people who have been calling these areas home for years (property owners, tenants and street dwellers alike) are being pressured out quietly but firmly, by means both economic and political.

Police presence and traffic stops in Montrose have increased dramatically, but not to protect gay citizens. Now the police are targeting the Heights, so that all the doctors and lawyers and judges and secretaries moving into their new deco lofts will not have to wade through the "trash."

Most of the paying johns who patronized the Montrose male hustlers were decent suburbanite yuppie types, anyway.

As to the illegality of flagging down traffic for the purpose of doing business, the next time I see one of those stupid kids standing on the median -- waving and screaming for me to buy their $5 car wash so they can attend My Bod for God Squad camp -- I'm callin' the fuzz. And I'll do the same for paper sellers, flower sellers and the Houston Fire Department when they commit said heinous crime.

Roger Wright
via Internet

Pleasing Points
In regard to the letter from Julie A. Young [Letters, May 13], she laments that Pastor Meeker-Williams uses her own agenda and doesn't answer to outside pressure ["Left Standing at the Church Door," by Margaret Downing, April 29]. When one's "silence" is criticized, it just confirms what has been since the beginning of time -- you can't please everyone. Should Meeker-Williams decide to start performing gay weddings, the criticism will just start coming from a different direction.

Charles Westmoreland
via Internet

Big Bend
About the growing impact of current social issues on the traditional church, Ms. Young says in her letter to the editor, "You can't pick and choose and bend the rules to suit your whims." I suggest that hundreds of millions of people pick and choose everyday.

And I would say that a large portion of these same people bend the rules to suit their whims as a way of life. People are discriminating, people are prejudiced, people run red lights.

K. Whitley
via Internet