Toll road doesn’t help the working class
I worked the polls this past week and as an election worker I was amazed to see how many people said they were just voting on the Trinity River and leaving the rest of their ballots blank.
Then I saw the full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News and the last piece of propaganda delivered to voters homes by the Vote NO team.
In the ad, we were informed to “skip to the end of your ballot and vote NO by voting AGAINST.”
I was appalled to see that people who want folks to exercise their right to vote were basically telling everyone to ignore the rest of the ballot and vote on this issue when in fact the other propositions affected us or they wouldn’t have been put on the ballot.
The other thing I found funny was that there were only four car lanes in their drawing and no toll booths in the picture on their flier either.
When you have companies like the Hyatt Reunion pushing a NO vote in their employee newsletter and the Methodist Hospital holding captive audience meetings for their employees telling them to vote NO on the Trinity, we wonder why we only have less than a 12 percent turnout for these elections.
Why don’t the Hyatt, Methodist Hospital and other corporations get involved and stand behind their employees to say let’s unite and work on changing things like the astronomical health care costs in this country and the loss of good paying jobs that affect the business and the employees?
While the Methodist Hospital was pushing their employees to vote NO they were turning around and cutting employees’ hours because of the cost of doing business, which is directly related to things like insurance costs, the uninsured and profits. Cutting hours had nothing to do with the Trinity.
When issues arise like health care costs, well-paying jobs and lower property taxes that affect the majority of us the working class and working poor the corporations and guys at the top then decide to back off and not force their opinions.
They don’t unite with employees to make life easier for the working class; they’re only worried about taking profits higher than they already are.
I know we have traffic problems but maybe we should have thought about it before ripping down single-family homes and replacing them with outrageously priced condos that add thousands of cars to our roads every day.
Once the working class is gone from the city because we can’t afford to live here anymore these same groups won’t care about us.
Wake up Dallas. Get a grip.
Mike Lo Vuolo
Dallas
Rare Reporter rarely right
I am writing to express my dislike of David Webb’s Rare Reporter column.
I’ve read Dallas Voice for close to 12 years now and have generally respected the paper and its columnists.
I have found from the last several months of Webb’s opinion writing that perhaps Dallas’ gay community is better off without his opinions. His conjecture, assumption and distortion of current events seems to serve no other purpose than to increase circulation.
Although I am sure that a mainstream paper would appreciate such expos?s to liven up their lifestyle pages, our community is in need of reporters/columnists that take the time to research their information and print what is known to be helpful and true in our small town.
I suppose the neighborhood tattler will always have a voice and opinions will always be written.
But in this time of advancement where our community needs leadership, guidance and hope, the town gossip will hopefully be left behind in the dust.
Tony Stevens
Dallas
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This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 9, 2007