Monday, September 20, 2010

Woodard's Words

As our readers know, we have always been a fan of Mr. Don Woodard, this man is Mr. Fort Worth.  He has done more for the citizens for Fort Worth than most of your elected leaders.  He is an intelligent, kind, compassionate man who donates his time and knowledge to making Fort Worth a better place for ALL of the PEOPLE, regardless of color, status, or party affiliation. 

He is also in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Fort Worth Business Press today.  He didn't write either, they were written about him.  And about the way Mayor Moncrief treated him last week.  Too bad we can't convince Woodard to run, what a wonderful city we'd have if our Mayor was intelligent, kind, and compassionate.

Bad form, mayor

Mayor Mike Moncrief should be ashamed of himself. His passive-aggressive behavior at the Tuesday City Council meeting was appalling.

He treated all the citizen speakers in a kindly fashion until Don Woodard spoke. The mayor claimed a 50-year friendship with Woodard, but had I been treated in the manner he treated Woodard -- and in a public forum no less -- our friendship would not see 51 years. His reply to Woodard's question about how much the city will be paying for the Trinity River Vision was rude, flippant, sarcastic and disrespectful. Woodard asked a legitimate question that deserved an answer that neither the mayor nor any of the nine council members saw fit to give.

As a taxpayer, homeowner and citizen of Fort Worth, I'm entitled to an answer. So is every person at the meeting and all Fort Worth residents. The mayor allowed almost everyone to run over their speaking time with nary a word of dissent until Woodard's bell rang signaling his time was up. Perhaps the mayor did not appreciate the valuable input from Woodard.

-- Shirley Heller, Fort Worth

Letters: The Don

Don Woodard surely deserves to be designated letter writer of the decade, if not the last half century.

His words are incisive, penetrating, provocative, humorous, needling, courageous, timely, targeted, challenging, intelligent, reasoned, probing, lucid, educational, rewarding, firm, inspiring, measured, poetic, influential, illuminating.

Which, in a word, makes them a delight to see in the paper.

Write on, Don Woodard, write on.

– Roger Summers

(Roger Summers worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for MANY years).

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