June 7, 2018 500 AM
Editor: Bravo, Amit Rangra! I’m with him in his recommendation (in a letter to editors) that truck traffic to and from Presidio be routed west of Marfa going north to the IH-10 corridor near Van Horn. I provided written comments with that recommendation at the recent presentation of Hwy 67 planning. It is very important for that truck traffic to bypass Marfa, Alpine, Ft Davis and the Big Bend/Davis Mountains tourism areas entirely. These are areas served by primarily two-lane roads that rise to higher elevations, have many sharp and slow curves and stops in all the towns along the way. It’s not uncommon to encounter cyclists and motorcycle groups, runners and walkers as well as slow-moving RVs on these roads. Our dark skies are a critical asset for McDonald Observatory that must be preserved. Truck traffic is a danger to us and interferes with our tourism economy and quality of life. At Presidio, the elevation is about 2,600 feet. A bypass would rise just west of Marfa to about 4,900 feet then go on straight, open roads downhill to meet the interstate at about 4,000 feet elevation. The point where it meets IH-10 is just west of its split into IH-10 and IH-20, thus maximizing truck access to all points east and west to El Paso. This provides the fastest and safest alternative for commercial trucking and protects the Big Bend/Davis Mountains area as well. Once again, as we did with the La Entrada proposal, the people of Marfa, Alpine, Fort Davis and points between need to join together to make this point very clear to TxDOT: No truck routes through our valleys and communities! PS: I can hear some of you chuckle to read of another Lockhart again advocating road or rail bypasses. Cheers!
Mary Bell Lockhart Alpine
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Editor:
The Lady Weeps
Ripping terrified children from immigrant parents, left without means of contacting the other for months and more on end, ranks with elements of the worst of the Third Reich. It is inexcusable, yet here we are! Our nation has committed terrible injustices against its own citizens and people elsewhere before. Some stem from complete ignorance, others with an intentionality belying our principles and values. This most recent is more demonic than could have been imagined at the height of our moral suasion following Democracy’s triumph in WWII. Words fail! Exaggeration? Hyperbole? Consider; in an easy exercise of an empathetic conscience, our sense of things should any of us be in their shoes! Things can only get worse from here. Failing to halt madness makes other even more devolved, inhuman acts likely, quickly desensitized as we become. Once a certain line has been crossed there is no agonizing like before killing someone that first time. The “Final Solution” wasn’t the first plan on the table to deal with “The Jewish Problem”. Those demented individuals; not blinking when conceiving, announcing, justifying or implementing policies whose template comes from the pages of Evil’s past, must be brought to account! Then, we need contrite national introspection demonstrating that the heart and soul of the American nation is NOT that way now, nor ever again! Each of us has a responsibility for crimes committed in our name to see it for what it is and condemn it. Otherwise, consequences fall upon the innocents when a government doesn’t act in its people’s best interests. Right now, the Lady with the torch in New York Harbor weeps.
Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah Alpine
