Please do better

What’s happened to my Den­ton Record-Chronicle? Since Belo Corp. bought the paper, I’ve seen a few improvements in your keeping us informed about club, municipal and county meetings. The editorial page is always en­tertaining, and we get a nice feature story now and then.

But when it comes to reporting the news, the newspaper has taken a significant downturn. It seems the paper defers to the parent Dallas Morning News, where I find stories a day or two earlier about what’s going on in Denton County, especially criminal trials. Oh, the stories eventually turn up in the DRC, attributed to DMN reporters.

Fifty-odd years ago, I learned to read. The Record-Chronicle was an important part of that pro­cess as I scanned each page to learn about the world and more importantly, Denton County.

Now, I’m wondering if we’ll see the ultimate demise of the Denton Record-Chronicle as DMN/Belo withholds reporting re­sources in deference to the parent paper. That would be a shame.

Dallas is OK to pass through on the way to someplace else. My simple wish is to get local news in a timely manner without having to read its paper.

The Record-Chronicle should and must do better.

DJ Taylor,

Sanger    

Burroughs for mayor

Mark Burroughs is a kind-hearted man who can make the tough decisions when necessary. He is involved in most every civic and humanistic program in Den­ton and through his volunteerism has proven his dedication to the people of Denton.

He wants to be our mayor be­cause he wants to make a difference.

He has the idealism of the youth and the wisdom and experience of a middle-aged person who has faced adversity.

He is a private business owner and can stand up for those struggling to make it in the private world. At the same time, he un­derstands the need for nonprofit organizations to serve those who don’t have the resources necessary to receive health care or maintain adequate shelter.

I have watched Mr. Burroughs over the years and have found him not to be self-serving but people-serving. That is want we want in a mayor, and Mark Burroughs is the clear choice!

Mary Gotcher,

Denton

Mulroy’s gifts

Thank you, Mr. Keith [Letters, April 10], for being so uninformed, allowing me this opportunity to share some of what Councilman Joe Mulroy has done to take up the slack in our community:

Clear Creek Education Cen­ter (DISD project) — gave $100,000 to start project.

Greater Denton Arts Council — donated $20,000 for sculpture and landscaping.

United Way — donated $29,000 in 2001; donates yearly.

Denton Afro-American Scholarship — provides annual scholarship.

Cumberland Children’s Home — gave major donation to build cottages for the kids; do­nates yearly.

Denton School Foundation — donates yearly.

Denton Benefit League — major underwriter yearly.

Denton Animal Shelter Foun­dation Inc. — donated $1,000. 

Children’s Advocacy Center — donates yearly.

Denton City County Day School — installed air conditioning.

Children’s Metroplex Choir — donates yearly.

Denton Community Theatre — sent cast of Crowns to Ger­many; donates yearly; covers low-income children for “Break­fast With Santa.”

UNT — history symposium sponsor.

Friends of the Family — gave money for new trailer; donates regularly.

Salvation Army — provided repairs to homeless shelter; gave several thousand dollars to replace stolen Christmas gifts; donated warehouse for Angel Tree.

American Cancer Society — gave more than $10,000 to help support local patient services.

As income development chairman for the American Cancer Society, I have known Joe Mulroy to be the most generous of don­ors, never seeking acknowledgment or praise for any gifts.

Joe has done his share to take up the slack.

In fact, he has taken up the slack of many others.

Sue Hundt,

Denton

Bush’s legacy

Until recently, George W. Bush was fond of saying that history would write his legacy, that history would determine whether or not his presidency was successful.

I think he is correct. There is little doubt that history will remember George W. Bush as the worst American president ever.

His job approval numbers are now lower than any president since World War II, even matching Richard Nixon’s numbers.

No doubt history will judge George W. Bush harshly. But I think history will judge the American people even more harshly.

Even though he was not elected in 2000 (he didn’t win the popular vote; he didn’t win the electoral vote; he was installed by the Supreme Court), he did actually win re-election in 2004.

Therefore the American electorate is complicit in the atrocities (lies, torture, illegal eavesdropping, destroying the value of our currency and bankrupting the country, the death of over 4,000 Americans in a pointless war, etc.) of the Bush administration and their corrupt Repub­lican cronies.

History will not view us kindly.

Most wrongs can be righted. I tell my children that mistakes are only mistakes if you don’t learn a lesson, and the most important lessons that life has for us sometimes start with our own mistakes.

There’s not enough time (nor the desire) for George Bush to learn from his mistakes, but there is time for America to learn its lesson from the mistakes of the Bush years.

History will judge us.

David Johnson,

Denton

Critiquing the critique

Brock Ostrander [Letters, April 15] scolded David John­son’s letter on several key points.

Please allow me the opportunity to do the same for Mr. Os­trander’s letter.

“When other countries torture their enemies, it makes our use of torture look like a cakewalk.” With this style of reasoning we can line political dissenters up against a wall and shoot them as long as we stay one under the number the Chinese shoot every year.

Next is, “Would you rather Bush not do anything and pretend 9-11 didn’t happen?”

What a wonderfully easy world we would live in if every problem only had two answers to choose from. What would you rather do, Mr. Ostrander, not torture our enemies, or beat up Mother Teresa?

I’ll group his next four paragraphs under the summation, “Don’t criticize if you can’t perform the task any better.”

We will assume that you have never criticized food served to you, jobs done for you (like mechanics work or plumbing or A/C repair), or music.

Let me offer instead the following: That others’ wrongs do not justify our wrongs, that there are more than two choices to solve most problems, and that criticism is healthy and necessary to the working of our form of government and society.

Feel free to express your ideas Mr. Ostrander, but please take the time to consider the long-term implications of your arguments, rather than just using them to accomplish the short-term goal of criticizing someone else’s positions.

Travis Sample,