The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 207, Ed. 1 Tuesday, June 6, 2006 Page: 4 of 10
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OPINION
4
THE BAYTOWN SUN
Tuesday, June 6,2006
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Texas Views
Hurricane
k B J
evacuation
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&
However, reasonable people must debate
1HE GCNERNOK KNEW THCT CT W
VER/ LEAST, HECOULV SNAKE.
ILLEGALS WITH W5IZ ASPIRCTONS
‘ ADVERTISING
, Angie Pagel, Advertising Director
angie.pagel@baytownsun.com
PRODUCTION
Wayne Oxedine, Production Mgr.
wayne.oxedine@baytownsun.com
HOW TO REACH US
Wanda Garner Cash, Publisher
wgcash@baytownsun.com
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
David Bloom, Managing Editor
david.bloom@baytownsun.com
Doyle Barlow, Sports Editor
doyle.barlow@baytownsun.com
Danielle Lynch, News Editor
danielle.lynch@baytownsun.com
KATHRYN
LOPEZ
202-224-2934
713-572-3337
Fax: 202-228-2856
Fax: 713-572-3777
cornyn.senate.gov/co
ntact/index.html
Ted Poe,
Dist. 2 Rep.
866-425-6565
866-447-0242
www.house.gov/
poe
Ron Paul,
Dist. 14 Rep.
202-225-2831
979-230-0000
www.house.gov/
paul
Gene Green,
Dist. 29 Rep.
202-225-1688
713-330-0761
www.house.gov/
green
David Bloom
Managing Editor
Jane Howard Lee
retired Reporter
Danielle lynch
News Editor
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1950-1974
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Federal
George W. Bush,
President
202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2326"
president®
whitehouse.gov
Dick Cheney,
Vice President
202-456-2324
Fax: 202-456-2461
vice-president®
whitehouse.gov
Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
. 202-224-5922
713-653-3456
Fax: 202-224-0776
Fax:713-209-3459
hutchison.senate.
gov/e-mail.htm
' John Cornyn,
Senator
• •
. e?:'. ? W /x
Where do we stand on Iran?
w
Government officials
State
Rick (Jerry,
Governor
1-800-843-5789
David Dewhurst,
Lt. Governor
1-800-441-0373
Greg Abbott,
Attorney General
1-800-252-8011
Carole Strayhorn,
Comptroller
1-800-252-5555
Jerry Patterson,
Land Com.
512-463-5001
Susan Combs,
Agriculture Com.
1-800-835-5832
Tommy Williams,
Dist. 4 Sen.
281-296-0023
Mario Gallegos,
Dist. 6 Sen.
713-678-8600
John Whitmire,
Dist. 15 Sen.
713-864-8701
Craig Eiland,
Dist. 23 Rep.
1-800-252-5555
281-534-4492
Wayne Smith, Dist.
128 Rep.
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Charles Matthews
Victor Carillo
* Michael Williams
Railroad Com.
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To find out who repre-
sents you, visit
www.capitol.state.tx.u
s/fyi/tyi.htm
WRITE TO US
The Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of
up to 500 words. Guest columns
should include a photo of the
writer. We publish only original
material addressed to The Baytown
Sun bearing the writer’s signature.
An address and phone number not
for publication should be included1.
All letters and guest columns are
subject to editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse to pub-
lish any submission.
Send signed letters to: Wanda
Garner Cash or David Bloom, The
Baytown Sun, P.O. Box 90,
Baytown, 77522; fax them to (281)
t 427-1880 or e-mail sunnews@bay-
townsun.com.
Items featured on this page are
the views of the persons identified
with each submission and do not
necessarily reflect the views of The
Baytown Sun or its advertisers.
a letter by an imprisoned lawyer who
unwisely spoke out on behalf of families of
journalists and others killed in a 1998 crack-
down by the Iranian regime.
For folks like Tavancheh and his family,
the offer from Washington had to sound like
the rhetorical and moral equivalent of a
punch in the gut, considering the lack of
condemnation typically associated with
U.S/Iranian relations. And this is a crushing
blow to our eyes and ears on the inside.
Tavancheh and other democracy activists
may be our best hope in Iran and the region,
so crucial to fighting the war on terror. Like
Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland before
the fall of the Soviet Union, many experts
point to Iranian labor unions and largely
pro-Western students — in a country where
about 70 percent of the population is under
30 — as the soldiers of a democratic revolu-
tion. They’re the Iranians we want to be
negotiating with, lending a hand to.
It’s not just Iranian dissidents who got
punched in the gut by Secretary Rice’s
announcement. In Egypt, blogger Alaa Seif
al-Islam sits in jail for criticizing the gov-
ernment there. What does America’s agree-
ment to negotiate with a regime that clearly
does not stand with us say to voices for
freedom like him? Our words and policies
EDITORIAL BOARD
Wanda Gamer Cash
Editor/Publisher
Jim Finley
retired Managing Editor
Doyle Barlow
Sports Editor
we could be doing, however, is lending
more support, rhetorical and otherwise to
our real friends. The continued mixed sig-
nals, however, that negotiation offers to a
regime of terror masters, is not the way to
contribute to any freedom project.
Kathryn Lopez is the editor of National
Review Online (www.nationalreview.com). She
can be contacted at
klopez@nationalreview.com.
Computer guru helpful
I’d like to compliment the Baytown
Sun on their computer column that
appears on Saturday.
I always enjoy the computer
columns the Houston Chronicle has.
The man from the Houston Chronicle
has responded to my questions by
email, which was nice, But often
emails cannot answer problems that
arise with my computer. Aaron
Barbee who writes a weekly column
for the Baytown Sun does one better
... he comes to my house and fixes
whatever mess somehow has mysteri-
ously comes over my computer. So,
thanks for the computer column!
Margie O’Neill
Baytown
“| First grade teachers
i EDITOR’S NOTE; This letter is being
rerun because the author was |
misidentified Monday.
In the recent letters concerning
memories of a first grade teacher, I
cast my vote for Janelie Harvey, for-
mer BHISD kindergarten teacher
(May 6, 2006). Her memories of
Miss Syrnrns were so poignant and
identifiable — scotch tape, sashes
and paste.
Continuing with memories of a dif-
ferent type, on May 2, a long time
organization became a memory. The
East Harris County Medical Society
Alliance (formerly East Harris
County Medical Society Auxiliary-
composed of the wives of medical
doctors) quietly disbanded after 55
years of service to medicine in
Baytown, Texas.
One of the ESC MSA’s objectives
was “to interact with the community
in order to enhance the perception of
the medical profession as well as to
contribute to the health awareness
and education of the people of East
Harris County.” The EHCMSA ful-
filled those objectives by grants and
donations to the nursing program and
other worthy organizations.
It is with sadness and a loss to the
community that the East Harris
County Medical Society Alliance
becomes a memory.
' ■ tisi->
Reba Eichelberger
Baytown
everyone along the Texas .coast is concerned.
They should be. Forecasters predict 17
named storms this season, nine of them hur-
ricanes and five of those with” winds over 110
miles per hour.
Planning for a coastal evacuation has
improved, and the governor’s task force on
emergency preparation has produced a new
blueprint. But state and local officials are
bickering over who should order an evacua-
tion. Perry argues that the state should coor-
dinate any evacuation because storms don’t
strike a single city or county. City and county
officials say their emergency professionals
are better equipped and more knowledgeable
about a specific situation than bureaucrats in
Austin.
It seems obvious that the state’s emergency
management division and local emergency
professionals should coordinate efforts to
respond quickly to a ijiajor storm. Neither
can be as effective working alone as they can
acting in concert.
Despite theTiaggling, an improved hurri-
cane emergency plan has been fashioned. It
includes opening inbound highway lanes to
outgoing traffic, having service stations
remain open to sell gasoline and supplies,
and providing gas generators to emergency
facilities such as hospitals.
All of that is welcome, and it should help
avoid the catastrophe that befell Texans try-
ing to flee Hurricane Rita. More than 3 mil-
lion people tried to leave the Texas coast,
causing an incredible traffic jam that lasted
for nearly 24 hours. More than 100 people
died during that exodus, most of them from
heat stress and heart attacks.
Efforts to craft a better response that is, to
save lives ought not be tied up by bickering
oyer who is in charge. Hurricane season
began last week, so a command-and-coordi-
nate agreement among state and local offi-
cials is imperative. No one wishes to repeat
the experience of last September.
But even the best plan won’t make evacua-
tion easy or pleasant. When millions of peo-
ple leave the same place going the same way,
it will be a mess no matter who is in charge.
Everyone along the Texas coast should be
prepared for another hurricane season with
flashlights, batteries, radios, water and food
on hand. And if the Hurricane Rita experi-
ence left one lesson, it is to stay put if you
aren’t in imminent danger. Most of those who
died from Hurricane Rita died on the road.
Be prepared.
For evacuation maps, preparation tips and
to view the report from the governor’s task
force on emergency preparation go to
www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/pages/index.htm
— Austin American-Statesman
On May 31, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice announced that the
United States would negotiate with Iran if
they agreed to stop uranium enrichment. If
Iran did not agree to the sit-down on those
conditions, there would be sanctions from
' the likes of Europe, Russia (who adamantly
have not been fans of sanctions against Iran)
— and the United Nations. President Bush
seemed hopeful, confident that “this prob-
lem can be solved diplomatically.”
We really have no business negotiating
i A clarification
First of all, thank you for your arti-
cle about the Veteran’s History pro-
ject held at the LDS Church in
Baytown. I know the youth and the
veteran’s appreciate this opportunity.
I am, though, sensitive about one
small comment. I am pictured and
identified as a Vietnam veteran.
Though I served 6.5 years on active
duty from August 1968 until January
1975,1 did not serve in Vietnam, as
did many of my friends and associ-
ates, some of whom did not come
back alive.
I know this was totally unintention-
al but felt I needed to clarify as I
have many friends here in Baytown
who are aware of my military service,
I etc.
Again, thank you for your efforts.
It is greatly appreciated.
Michael Milligan
Baytown
your oppression, or excuse your oppressors.
When you stand for your liberty, we will
stand with you. Democratic reformers fac-
-'oression, prison, or exile can know:
(immediately available in Persian translation America sees you for who you are: the
future leaders of your free country.” But
with America’s policy concerning negotia-
tions with Iran in constant flux, some
ov. Rick Perry’s emergency response
■ .—.plan, developed to avoid a disaster
like last year’s evacuation as
Hurricane Rita bore down on the Texas coast,
has brewed up a minor storm of its own.
° After the most destructive hurricane year
on record, forecasters are predicting another
active Atlantic hurricane season. No one
expects the Gulf of Mexico to chum up
another Katrina or Rita, but after the horror
wreaked by those two storms last summer,
I
i f
kt
The Bush administration
hasted a somewhat con-
sistently confusing policy
regarding Iran — in the
first term, one senior State
Department official inex-
plicably publicly referred
to the oppressive regime
as a “democracy ”-—
Which it is most definitely
not. But with the high-on-
freedom talk the president
with the leader of a nation who considers us used to ring in hjs second term, and the
an enemy and wants one of our dearest occasional messages and commitments to
allies in the Middle East wiped off the map. dissidents, there was reason for Iranian peo-
However, reasonable people must debate pie to believe they had a friend in America,
these proposed diplomatic tactics. There Just last year, President Bush proclaimed,
really are no easy answers when it comes to “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness
Iran. But one cannot help but wonder: How can know; the United States will not ignore
was Rice’s announcement received by the
oppressed of Iran?
Most likely as confusion.
As our new Iranian policy was announced ing repi
<( J-—-1- — n—— •
on the State Department’s Web site,
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/67103.ht
. m) the human rights group Reporters
Without Borders released an alert that it was oppressed future leaders must wonder what
“very worried” about the well-being ofone exactly friends are for. -------------
particular student blogger in Tehran. Abed
Tavancheh had been unreachable by his
family and friends after pro-democracy
demonstrations on his campus. On his blog,
translated as “in the name of man, justice,
and truth,” Tavancheh often posts photos
from these daring protests. The last post
before Reporters Without Borders _______________________,__________r„._____
announced their concern included the text of can have a chilling effect on world events —
and on the hearts of true freedom fighters,
the type of person who is willing to put his
life at risk to blog or otherwise tell some
truth about the regime he suffers'under, giv-
ing support to his fellow dissidents, and <
clueing the rest of us in.
In the days after his second inaugural
address, even conservative supporters of
President Bush criticized him for being a bit
too pie-eyed in his freedom talk. The least
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 207, Ed. 1 Tuesday, June 6, 2006, newspaper, June 6, 2006; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1191644/m1/4/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.