Try Living Outside Your Comfort Zone Lisa Falkenberg

Regarding "Offering up a bit of thanks — with more spice, less sappiness" (Sunday City & State), Lisa Falkenberg offered up a laundry list of talking points heavy on pointing out the flaws of conservatives and Christians, pretty much devoid of anything critical of liberals.

She summed up the article by declaring that she was "thankful that.....there are still people who pay money to be exposed daily to diverse facts and perspectives, which may provoke surprise and discomfort."

On behalf of those surprised and discomforted readers - who are overwhelmingly conservative and Christian - let me just say "you're welcome".  And as a reward for our loyalty, we have a simple request in the new year: more diversity of facts and perspectives, and definitely more surprises and discomfort for your liberal readers. 

Oh, and one other thing: we could do with a little less gratuitous snark.  Six weeks after the story died, the only people flogging the red Starbucks coffee cup for deeper meaning are liberals intent on using it to demean Christians at Christmas.

Behave.

Pete Smith

Cypress, TX 

Embrace Stupid Politics At Your Own Risk

Regarding "Before the next vote, pro-HERO folks need their own slogan" (Sunday City & State), a sure sign that you've lost the argument is to explain away the defeat of the HERO ordinance by rationalizing, and columnist Lisa Falkenberg's article is a textbook example.  According to Falkenberg, Mayor Parker's initiative to codify civil rights protections for various groups failed - in part - because only 27 percent of registered Houston voters cast ballots. It failed because social conservatives waged a campaign of lies about men being allowed into women's restrooms.  It failed because pro-HERO group Houston Unites didn’t have enough time to rally its base. 

The problem is that when you're done blaming opponents, proponents and the electorate, you've pretty much run out of people to blame, and you still haven't explained the colossal margins by which HERO was defeated.  HERO failed because it was badly written and way too ambitious, but rather than change anything, HERO proponents tried to bully it past Houston voters and got their hats handed to them.

If proponents of HERO want to understand why it was defeated, they should take a look in the mirror.  And if they want civil rights legislation to pass, they need to offer sensible, well written legislation.  They also need to engage voters and the opposition rather than lecture and demonize them.  

Pete Smith 

Cypress, TX 

Don't Let The Door Hit You In Your Dangerously Large Ass

Regarding "Why so down? Reasons abound for 2-5 Texans" (Sunday Front Page), the primary reason the defense is under-performing is clear: for every play involving nose tackle Vince Wilfork, the Texans have only ten men on the field.  Former All-Pro safety Rodney Harrison was charitable when he said that Wilfork "has no impact".  In point of fact, his presence on the field actually benefits the opposing team.

Not only is the off-season acquisition from the Patriots routinely moved out of the running lane by but a single offensive lineman, opposing team running backs are actually using his large body as a "pick" to obstruct Texan linebackers.  "Wilfork Left" and "Wilfork Right" are the two bread and butter plays for every team that plays the Texans.

This should come as no surprise.  Wilfork came to Houston extremely overweight and out of shape, and then proceeded to do nothing about it.  As an ostensibly "elite" NFL player, he barely broke a sweat in training camp, and played in no preseason games.  In fact, his most memorable moment on the HBO series "Hard Knocks" was to talk about how much barbecue he could eat at one sitting.  That mindset and his lack of conditioning shows on the field.

Wilfork disrespected the Texans and their fans by making no effort to get into football shape, but he disrespected himself too.  He should retire, save himself and the Texan's any further embarrassment, and allow the Texans to check in with the standard eleven players on every play.

Pete Smith
Cypress, TX