Letters to the Editor

Ultimate Schmultimate

What a co-inky-dink: I find it really “coincidental” that the Houston Chronicle issued its Ultimate Houston list just two weeks before your annual Best of Houston issue. I’m sure you guys are really impressed, too.

However, it’s good to know they realize that you are indeed serious competition for them.

Not to fear, though, your issue is always a treat and much better than their two-minute effort. Keep up the good work.

John Sommer
Houston

Baptist Takeover

Volunteering an opinion: Thank you for running the story on how the Baptists “took over” the convention center and turned away volunteers [“Volunteer Thyself,” Hair Balls, September 15]. However, your reporter left out a couple of issues I mentioned to him:

1. When I went to the George R. Brown on the day in question, I was wearing my orange “volunteer” armband, which I’d acquired days before. I was not a “walk-up volunteer” but had been working at Reliant Center, Brown and the Astrodome since the evacuees arrived.

2. Therefore, I’d already gone through an orientation or I wouldn’t have had an armband. I was arriving for the 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift.

3. No one mentioned food service — neither I nor the self-identified “Baptist” yellow-shirted man who rudely turned all of us away, saying, “Unless you go through our orientation, we don’t want you.”

4. When I arrived back home, Channel 2 was interviewing a woman at the Dome/Reliant Center who was saying, “We only had a few volunteers today.” She was wondering what had happened to everyone. Perhaps the Baptists hadn’t “taken over” her facility yet.

5. The Southern Baptist Convention and I are diametrically opposed on almost every political issue of the day. They have tremendous amounts of money and, apparently, huge numbers of people to turn out, if belatedly. Thus I wasn’t interested in providing my time and talents to the SBC. But the real question is this: Where were they in the early days of the evacuation to Houston?

Looks like the Bush “faith-based initiatives” may be as well organized as FEMA when trouble hits. In any case, thanks to the Press for covering what the other media wouldn’t.

Kit van Cleave
Houston

Montrose Madness

Nice addition: Maybe your friend Big John or one of the other street people you described is the one who walked off with my sandals and then cleaned out all the money in my van after it was hit by someone speeding down lower Westheimer a few weeks back [“Battle Scars,” by Keith Plocek, September 15].

Nice addition to the neighborhood, those street people.

Julie A. Young
Montrose resident for 17 years

A pleasant surprise: As a gay Houstonian (not a hustler), I found it encouraging to read an enlightening, fact-based story that revolved around the gay culture. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that, with the exception of a couple of (forgivable) minor comments, we as a gay community were not ridiculed, belittled, mocked or stereotyped. In this day and age (in Texas), this type of journalism is rarely, if ever, published, especially as a cover story.

Thanks for the press, and please remember there are numerous other “subcultures” within the gay/lesbian/bi/trans community, not just hustlers. I, for one, am glad we have each and every one of them. I wanted to clear that up for every self-righteous, hyper-religious bigot with his head buried in his ass who’s going to send the Houston Press a letter calling for even more vigilant strides to revoke and/or eliminate the rights of gay American citizens, or condemning you for publishing such “filthy trash” or condoning such “immoral behavior.”

Andy
Houston

Greedy for seedy: I very much enjoyed the article “Battle Scars.” The stories you publish about local crimes and the seedy underbelly of Houston are what makes your paper so great. This was not your first story on prostitution, but one of your best.

I love your paper and look forward to it every week. It’s so good, I still can’t believe it’s free!

Nancy Null-Reyes
Houston

Disgusting: I’m amazed at your ideas about what a good article is. You put on your front page a disgusting article about a gay man with pictures of men kissing, and you think that’s an article decent people want to read. You need to re-evaluate your standards. We the public understand that these types of people with no morals exist, but we prefer not to read about them.

Glen Smith
Houston

Exodus

Chauncey’s charm: My friends and I loved Michael Patrick Welch’s article about his and his girlfriend’s goat, Chauncey, and their unfortunate exodus from their beloved New Orleans [“Between Is and Was,” September 22]. This was writing at its best. A great read. Please do let us hear more from him!

Carol L. Healy
Ojai, California