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Feedback from our readers
By Our readers
A case for the draft
Tony Phillips' passionate plea for his daughter's protection ["Because I Said So," April 25] is exactly why we need a draft. Add his voice to millions of parents who feel the same way, and unfounded wars won't be fought again.
Make those drivers of SUVs plastered with "Support our Troops" stickers sacrifice their daughters, their sons, their wives or husbands to the cause and see how willing they are to support Bush's fiasco. Bring the war home and see how many people soon echo evil Dick Cheney's claim that they "have other priorities."
Jack Murtha doesn't want more bodies for this war. He wants more minds against it.
Karl Kline,
Between Heights (Normal and University)
Unwanted invasion
Thank you for your April 25 editorial condemning the Supreme Court's decision on the federal abortion ban. As a physician, I am appalled that the court has allowed Congress to invade doctors' offices and dictate how we practice medicine. Until recently, we physicians could practice in accordance with our training and experience and do what was in the best interests of a woman's health. Now it is politicians who get to decide when a woman's health will be protected, or when we can be sent to a federal prison for doing what is best for our patients.
By overriding the health exception, this ruling has destroyed one of the cornerstones of Roe v. Wade and opened the door for further restrictions on abortion. For the moment, most second-trimester abortions remain legal in the United States, but a method many doctors considered best and safest in some circumstances is now proscribed. While other procedures exist, it is possible that the court has opened the door to banning them, too. If even one woman suffers injury or dies because she could not have the safest abortion procedure, that would be unconscionable.
David B. Preskill,
Downtown
Enjoy while intoxicated
While visiting San Diego, I followed Troy Johnson's advice in "If I Were U" [April 11] and was sorely disappointed-not that he guaranteed me a good time. I went to the Friday show of Toots & the Maytals based on the accolade: "Absolute ska and reggae legends...." Sure, the backing band were "hardly slouches," but the act is a dry husk of what it once was-many decades ago, that is.
I like reggae, ever since I detoxed from the "top-40 hit parade" in the Oregon woods more than 30 years ago. But this adoration of the old-timers is based on nostalgia alone. Toots, like all of his peers, is resting, literally, on his laurels, and I could feel the dullness in his set. The entire show consisted of pandering to the audience and soliciting love, so you know what that makes him. I couldn't understand his lyrics (as if he had anything to say), and the tunes were nondescript.
Current reggae, at least the headliners, is a triumph of marketing over quality. Their promoters know that reggae listeners are indiscriminate and will believe what they are told about their legends-that they are still the cream of the genre, no matter what they sound like. Well, that's easy to understand: Everything is groovy when one is stoned and/or drunk, and the agency machine knows this.
Perhaps I was suffering from emotional letdown after hearing the unknown opening band blow the doors off of the headliner and then enduring the creeping recovery of the Maytals-with covers, of all things. And I was straight for this. Ah, that's the problem.
Lee Sullivan,
Jacksonville, Ore.
Erroneous lumping
With all due respect, Jed Gottlieb should learn more about jazz before he writes articles about it ["Music," May 2]. Lumping Kenny G and Michael Buble with Pat Metheny is as absurd as lumping them in with John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. A lazy listener might peg Metheny as smooth jazz but they'd be dead wrong.
Oh well, at least you guys actually ran a music story about something other than indie-rock. Let's hope that continues.
Zam Falasma,
South Park
Enabling animal torture
Shame on you for running an advertisement for the Tijuana bullfights. I understand that advertising is the lifeblood of any paper, but as the only significant outlet for progressive media in San Diego, you should be willing to back up your positions with your actions-meaning, don't take money from scumbags who torture animals in the name of entertainment!
Unless, of course, your position actually supports such torture, and then, sure, go ahead and take as much money as they are willing to give you. Just don't expect me to read your paper anymore.
Jason Stuart,
Kensington
The Wandering Jew
Re: "The mystery of the shrinking headstone" [Cover Story, April 25]. Professor Mallios says, "The wandering Jew's a very meaningful story in the Bible."
The story is indeed meaningful, but it is not in the Bible.
Mary Krimmel,
La Jolla
Editor's note: The legend of the Wandering Jew was not specifically written in the Bible, but it appears to be biblically based.
Shutter-bugged
As an amateur but enthusiastic photographer, I was not prepared for your recent photo contest, but if before the next one I find that I have accumulated any bland, meaningless, trivial, pointless pictures, I will certainly enter them.
Lyle Davidson,
Downtown
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Published: 05/30/2007
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