Kinky Friedman Letters to the Editor

Vote for Kinky! (Seriously)

Star-Telegram Letters to the Editor Monday May 22, 2006

I'd like to respond to Cathryn Sykes, who chastised her friend for supporting Kinky Friedman's run for governor. (See Thursday letter "Get serious!")
Sykes wrote that her friend should consider a "serious" candidate. Exactly this kind of thinking has Texans and Americans alike voting for self-serving windbags who are in bed with business and business interests. (I refer to both Republicans and Democrats.)
With representation like this, how can the true interests of the people be tended to?
To return the state and federal governments to the people, we need men and women with Friedman's spirit in our political leadership. We aren't all blue-blooded, groomed-from-birth, partisan politicians, and I don't believe that any law mandates that our elected officials have to be.
Maybe Sykes should look at Friedman's Web site and see that he not only has clear, solid stances on the important issues facing the state and nation but that his overwhelming base of support is proof that he's a "serious" candidate and will be a major contender in the November election.

Bobby Don Taylor, North Richland Hills
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Although Sykes' friend may not know Friedman's position on the issues, some people are serious about voting for him and do know his positions.
I have to admit that I wasn't 100 percent sure of Friedman's stances on some of the issues that Sykes raised. So I looked on his Web site and found answers.
Friedman says that he's for the people of Texas, not big donors or lobbyists. He wants to make Texas "a leader in renewable energy industries."
One of Friedman's ideas for border security entails working with the governors of New Mexico and Arizona to develop a border security plan that benefits all the states. His plans for education are too numerous to mention.
Perhaps Sykes should look at Friedman's Web site. Yes, there are one-liners, but also answers. I am serious, and I'm voting for Kinky Friedman for governor.

Diane Turner, Arlington
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Sykes' letter was exactly what Friedman's campaign is about.
It's about not being "serious" like the other candidates, the ones who take enormous amounts of cash from corporations and then take directions from professional lobbyists.
If Sykes would follow the money on the Texas Ethics Commission Web site and study the legislation, she would see how it has affected her life. Attending a few bill hearings in Austin would erase all doubt as to who controls our state.
Contrary to Sykes' statements, Friedman's Web site has position statements covering most issues. Apparently she relies mostly on corporate media outlets for information, rather than primary sources of information.
This is the type of voter whom "serious" politicians want -- ones who receive carefully packaged snips of information and then repeat it as truth and reality.
Friedman wants us to think and then work at taking our government back. It's not that hard. An organized people's lobby may someday challenge the hostile corporate takeover of our state government.
Maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to say one day that it was a Jewish provocateur (Kinky Friedman, not Jesus) who threw the money changers out of the Capitol.

Jim Bates, Watauga
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Sykes faulted her "intelligent" friend for supporting Friedman and suggested it would be a waste to vote for a "comedian" rather than "serious" candidates.
I submit that "intelligent" people are those who refuse to accept the status quo. What intelligence is involved in re-electing those who repeat the same mistakes over and over? That seems unintelligent to me.

Moksha Todd, Arlington
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As a longtime subscriber, I'd appreciate some balance to the anti-Kinky crowd epistles.
If they think that a professional comedian would automatically be less qualified for Texas governor, they haven't been paying attention to the devastation left by the last two amateur clowns who've held that office.
Let's give a populist nonpolitician a chance to find real solutions to carefully defined real problems instead of those who use backdoor legislation to line their fat-cat supporters' pockets.

Daniel R. Stoller, Fort Worth
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I disagree with a letter writer's disparagement of her "intelligent" friend for "throwing her vote away" on a mere comedian, Kinky Friedman.
Kinky isn't just a comedian. He's also an accomplished writer, musician and philosopher. Other candidates can claim no distinction other than being "mere" politicians.
I welcome the opportunity to put my trust in a comedian rather than a mere politician. This sort of opportunity comes only rarely.
We've endured a governor who's a joke. Now let's elect a professional !

George Staples, Hurst
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And now let us present Sykes’ Letter (below) that the above letters referenced.....

Get serious !
A person I normally think of as intelligent told me the other day that she was thinking of voting for Kinky Friedman for governor.
I resisted an impulse to call her an idiot. I just asked her what Friedman's position was on water conservation. On utility regulation? Taxes? Education? Government corruption and campaign reform? Border security? Health coverage? Agriculture? Energy?
Of course, she had no answers because Friedman has no answers -- only clever one-liners.
You don't address the serious issues affecting people's lives with one-liners. And you shouldn't waste your vote on someone whose governmental "skills" consist of cracking jokes and chomping on cigars!
Enjoy Kinky's "campaign." Laugh at his jokes. But for God's sake, don't hand the governorship of Texas to a comedian.
We have some serious candidates. Check their Web sites to learn their positions on the issues that will affect us all for the next four years. Watch their speeches on TV. Read what they say in the newspaper.
Then, for God's sake, get serious when you walk into that voters' booth in November.
Cathryn Sykes, Springtown
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No more joke than foes

Re: "Friedman is just a joke," by A.E. Douglas, Tuesday Letters.
Which of the other candidates are not jokes?
There's Rick Perry, who, after many years as governor, makes a poor attempt at an 11th-hour stay of execution of our public schools. Or the tough grandma, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who won't give any answers to Texas' problems, serious or comical.
And we have the token Democrat ... what's his name again?
Kinky has given plenty of good ideas to many of Texas' problems. And unlike most politicians, he admits not knowing everything and vows to consult others.
Yes, he's unconventional, but where has conventional gotten us?
Joey Grissaffi, Tyler

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