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Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.
False Narrative
RECEIVED Fri., June 24, 2016
Dear Editor,
While I admire Louis Black's persistence in defending his "lesser of two evils" argument, both in his original editorial ["Page Two: All or Nothing Is No Way Forward," June 17], then in his response to Brett Thompson's rebuttal [“American Nightmare,” June 24] – respectfully, Black started off his argument by ignoring a fact that made his subsequent argument wrong. That is, the Electoral College ensures that Texas is going to wind up casting all of its electoral college votes for Trump, no matter what progressives in Austin might do in the voting booth. Once you acknowledge that, holding one's nose and voting for Clinton, even if you disagree with most of her agenda, makes no sense – even if you, as I do, find Trump appalling.
You're free to vote your conscience here, and do something that doesn't make you urgently want to shower after voting. You can vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. You can vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. You can cast a de facto NOTA (None of the Above) vote by leaving the presidential election part of the ballot blank. Or you can do what I'm going to do and boycott the whole affair and do something fun and life-affirming on Election Day.
If you really like Clinton, then fine, vote for her. But if you don't – if you find her warmongering and drug warring and whatnot offensive – don't cave to a false narrative that you have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Because you have actual choices that don't boil down to terrible vs. slightly less terrible.
This is not remotely a swing state. So take the high road. You'll feel better.
While I admire Louis Black's persistence in defending his "lesser of two evils" argument, both in his original editorial ["Page Two: All or Nothing Is No Way Forward," June 17], then in his response to Brett Thompson's rebuttal [“American Nightmare,” June 24] – respectfully, Black started off his argument by ignoring a fact that made his subsequent argument wrong. That is, the Electoral College ensures that Texas is going to wind up casting all of its electoral college votes for Trump, no matter what progressives in Austin might do in the voting booth. Once you acknowledge that, holding one's nose and voting for Clinton, even if you disagree with most of her agenda, makes no sense – even if you, as I do, find Trump appalling.
You're free to vote your conscience here, and do something that doesn't make you urgently want to shower after voting. You can vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. You can vote for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. You can cast a de facto NOTA (None of the Above) vote by leaving the presidential election part of the ballot blank. Or you can do what I'm going to do and boycott the whole affair and do something fun and life-affirming on Election Day.
If you really like Clinton, then fine, vote for her. But if you don't – if you find her warmongering and drug warring and whatnot offensive – don't cave to a false narrative that you have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Because you have actual choices that don't boil down to terrible vs. slightly less terrible.
This is not remotely a swing state. So take the high road. You'll feel better.
Jim Henshaw
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More of the Same
RECEIVED Thu., June 23, 2016
Dear Editor,
I really enjoyed Wayne Alan Brenner's piece on Salvage Vanguard's trouble with hanging on to a home base [“Only the Fourth Wall Is Forever,” Arts & Culture, June 24]. I met WAB in the early Nineties, when all the hip alt theatre and dance was being done in an abandoned cinema complex on Ben White. But this latest whinging correspondence is the very definition of "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Gentrification. Abusive banks. Institutional racism, sexism, whateverism. It's a simple fact of life, artistic or otherwise: Some people cause change, and others get changed. Put down roots, or get washed away. SVT's work certainly justifies the group's existence. Losing their home base reflects what they need to come to grips with: a fundamental irresponsibility and lack of foresight.
I really enjoyed Wayne Alan Brenner's piece on Salvage Vanguard's trouble with hanging on to a home base [“Only the Fourth Wall Is Forever,” Arts & Culture, June 24]. I met WAB in the early Nineties, when all the hip alt theatre and dance was being done in an abandoned cinema complex on Ben White. But this latest whinging correspondence is the very definition of "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Gentrification. Abusive banks. Institutional racism, sexism, whateverism. It's a simple fact of life, artistic or otherwise: Some people cause change, and others get changed. Put down roots, or get washed away. SVT's work certainly justifies the group's existence. Losing their home base reflects what they need to come to grips with: a fundamental irresponsibility and lack of foresight.
John Job
