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Clarification

In his June 4 “Front Lines” story about the H.G. Fenton Company’s opposition to the Quarry Falls development, David Rolland reported that Fenton had recently hired several PR and lobbying firms. One of them, MNA Consulting, would like to clarify that its work for Fenton has nothing to do with Quarry Falls; rather, the work involves a residential project in Scripps Ranch. We apologize for any confusion.

Sports and sportsmanship

Edwin Decker presents the two poles of the meaning of sportsmanship, adherence to the rules and acting kindly to your opponent and comes out in favor of the former [“Sordid Tales,” May 28]. It’s not that simple.

My sport is doubles tennis, which I usually play in the context of round robins, which is a group of men somewhat randomly playing against each other. What brings us back week after week in spite of bruised knees and more damaged egos is what only competitive sports has to offer: transportation out of one’s daily existence into a world delimited by lines on a court.

Competition is an essential ingredient, as it demands we focus on doing what it takes to win the point. If you think about your sick child, disintegrating marriage, financial mistakes or the collapse of the American enterprise, you will miss that serve, so you block it all from your mind.

While you want to win, there is also the realization that the game can only exist with the continued cooperation of everyone. Without the need for verbal disclosure, or even conversations, we get to know each other. We know that missing an easy shot for one man means reliving the castigation of his father, ridiculing him for being a loser. So, we give him his few seconds to show contrition.

None of us, and damn few of any who play sports, will make a dime on the endeavor. Yet, we would be lost without it. It is something that can turn a 70-year-old man into a kid at play. Essential to this magic is that elusive, and indefinable quality, made up of rules, competition and compassion—that we happen to call “sportsmanship.”

Al Rodbell,
Encinitas

Aguirre and Whitburn

Carl Luna asks who the city attorney works for in his piece, “An odd year” [“The Front Lines,” May 28], and admits that “a second Aguirre term resolves this question in favor of the people.” His defeat turns the office into a “lapdog to the city council.” I certainly agree. Yet CityBeat could not come up with an endorsement for the city attorney race!
You may not agree with all his tactics or choices, but Aguirre has done so much for us—saved us millions and turned his office into a watchdog that we desperately need.

This insult was coupled with CityBeat’s poor choice of Todd Gloria over Stephen Whitburn. Mark Conlan [“Letters,” May 28] correctly points out how Gloria is a Susan Davis stooge while Whitburn is supremely qualified for the job.

We have all made choices that we wish we could do again. I will continue to read CityBeat even though you chose Gloria. I hope you see past what you consider Aguirre’s mistakes to find what our city really needs: another four years of Mike Aguirre.

Alfred Hilderbrand,
North Park

Peru? Or Mexico?

Hi there. I have been living in San Diego for five years. I’m from Lima, Peru. I love your magazine. I think it’s the perfect magazine to have contact with concerts, shows and what’s going on in San Diego.

Well, this e-mail is just to say that I’m really disappointed with the new Indiana Jones movie [“Film,” May 21]—a nonsense and crappy film for me, with many historical mistakes, of course. One of them is that in Peru there is no Mayan pyramids style or whatever. Also, there are Mayan warriors who appear or something like that in this film, so who was the person who advised them on this issue? Another point is: Why is mariachi music playing in the background when they arrival in Cuzco? I think this is a lack of respect for a culture that has in many ways nothing in common with what Mexican culture is.

I know this is just a film, but they must focus in historical and music data. Maybe they could put Yma Sumac’s music or something that is more consistent with the culture or reality.

Martin Sagástegui,
Linda Vista

Spam on the farm

Excellent writing by D.A. Kolodenko on Spam [“Presently Tense,” June 4]. Although hating the cruelty to non-human animals by hunters and experimenters and the insensitivity of the carnivore, I must confess to eating Spam sometime in the late ’30s or early ’40s back in Nebraska.

My family were farmers whose animals all had names—cows, chickens, horses, pigs, dogs and cats. Coming out of the recession, we had no car, and the nearest town was eight miles away. We would separate the milk from the cream and collect our eggs for two weeks, hitch up our horse to the wagon and take the cream and eggs to town to sell for our groceries. Spam was always included at approximately 15 cents per can in large amounts. This reduced the requirement to kill one of our cows or pigs to get through the very tough winters in those days. My dad and mom and their children dreaded having to put a non-human animal down in the fall to make it until spring.

For more than 25 years, I have not eaten anything you have to kill to eat. Like Kolodenko, I am against the killing of non-human animals for food, clothing, experimentation or any other purpose other than to eliminate their suffering at the hands of the human animal.

Thank you for you publication. I read it weekly and then pass it on to Mike Alvaraz, who gobbles up the music sections.

Jimmie Sober,
Paradise Hills