That's where you come in

Behind that badge

Thank you for the very informative article regarding Ramel Henderson's death. It is refreshing to read an article that tells the actual facts. It's terrible, the things that the police department get away with, including murder, behind that little tin badge.

Maybe if more people in the media would not be afraid to print truthful articles like yours, the police would not be so apt to kill and treat human beings like animals. Maybe then they would concentrate on what they are really supposed to be there for: protect and serve the people and not destroy the people.

Frances Martin,

Merced

Christ songs, Christ's love

I must admit that I agree with your assessment ["Presently Tense," Aug. 29] of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). I think CCM is, with a few exceptions, boring and uninspiring, with forgettable melodies and lame lyrics-and this is from a Christian! To my ear (and spirit), there's no comparison between CCM and the old gospel hymns of the 17th to 19th centuries.

These old hymns, in addition to having beautiful melodies, also contain a powerful gospel message-a mini-sermon-in the lyrics. I sometimes find myself moved to tears while listening to one of them. Perhaps they are not sung in church much anymore because of the archaic English. Or maybe today's church leadership is concerned that these songs might offend the visitor with their message of sin, repentance and Christ's blood. But I must offer a caveat: If you listen to these hymns long enough, you just might find yourself getting saved.

But, of course, I don't agree with everything you said in your piece:

"These bands are yelling about a make-believe, bearded zombie whom you have to believe in or else you get burned up forever in a big lake of fire. They are deluded."

What is the basis for your beliefs about Jesus? How much research have you done on the person of Jesus Christ? Have you ever read the New Testament, or any of the Messianic prophesies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ? Do you expect the reader to accept your opinion "on faith"?

You said of Jesus "I hate his guts." Whether you were serious or not, there are certainly many people who do hate his guts. In the 20th century alone, 45 million Christians were put to death. Jesus is the most mocked, ridiculed, derided and hated religious leader in history. And Jesus is the only spiritual leader I know of whose name is also a cuss word. But the name of Jesus is still transforming lives. And he still loves even those who mock and ridicule him.

By the way, "It's nearest cousin is that syrupy Korean pop..." doesn't need the apostrophe in "It's." How did that one get past your proofreader?

David Schmiedeberg,

Mira Mesa

Where is that?

Your Sept. 12 "Locals Only" page includes a note about Twiggs moving from Park Boulevard to a new location at "2814 Adams Ave. in Kensington." When I was growing up a few blocks from there in the '50s and '60s, 28th and Adams was in Normal Heights, and Kensington started several miles further east, on the other side of the bridge over Highway 15. When did that change?

David Matt Green,

Allied Gardens

‘Misfire' in the hole!

Hold on a second! Am I reading this correctly?

In a country where our current administration misleads us into a war, taps into our e-mail and phone calls and imposes its religious beliefs on us at every opportunity, I am sitting here reading an opinion ["The Front Lines," Sept. 12] that actually criticizes Donna Frye for wanting to gauge the pulse of the constituents in her district before casting a vote on their behalf? Last time I checked, that was exactly what she and all council members were supposed to be doing!

She's not saying she doesn't believe gay people shouldn't be allowed to marry; she's saying she is being objective and neutral and wants to fully understand how the majority of people in her district feel about the issue. I call that a great council member.

If she couldn't have the impact she envisioned on overseeing the city's financial practices, she instead chose not to be a part of "business as usual" politics. Other council members have claimed they did not understand finances enough to realize that when you decrease contributions to a fund and increase benefits, you will land in the red. These same people are now "overseeing" the finances.

Instead of questioning her abilities as a council member, we should be looking for more people like Donna Frye to get involved. By the way, I totally support equal rights, and I am not in Donna Frye's district.

I think your paper is great; it inspires me to pay attention to important issues, but this article was a misfire.

Rick Valenzuela,

Sherman Heights

What about the incitee?

Re: Your story about the Rod Coronado trial ["Editor's Note," Sept. 19]. Whatever happened in this country to the notion that we are responsible for our own actions? If someone "incited" me to jump off a cliff, would I? Well, certainly not without deliberating very carefully about the attendant risks and likely consequences!

And even if the "incitement" argument is legally valid, wouldn't the prosecution have to show that a listener was so "incited" and an action so occurred as a direct result of and according to the exact parameters outlined?

It seems that-at least with regard to political dissenters-two key elements have evaporated from the American system of jurisprudence: the concept that normal people with competent cognitive faculties make their own choices and are in control of their own actions and the burden on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged harm for which it seeks punishment of the defendant actually occurred.

"The ‘devil' made me do it" and "could have" didn't used to be enough to convict and jail citizens-especially on First Amendment issues. But what can we expect with a president who refers to the Constitution as "a GD piece of paper" and flouts it (and our international covenants) with regularity and impunity? Soiling a pristine blue dress was an impeachable offense, but genocide and torture are not. And activism will always be the most grievous offense one can commit in a police state.

When government succeeds in legislating away conscience, its singular and mindless pursuit of ever more money and power will be much facilitated. In the interim, unconstitutional charges and bogus sentences must suffice.

Lindy Greene,

Valley Village, Calif.

A ‘extraordinary' word

Thank you for covering the anti-eco-terrorism campaign by the government, a coverage notably absent and, if present, unbalanced in the news media. Usually, these kinds of campaigns (Brown Scare, 1930s-'40s; Red Scare, 1950s) are given more coverage at the time, particularly when trials result.

You gave an indirect quote regarding the definition of terrorism applied in domestic cases. This is also useful, as there are multiple definitions of terrorism in scholarly and government fields, including that of international law. Using one definition provided by the people who prosecute the statutes made to conform to that one definition is a logical tautology and constitutes bias in the statutes against alleged "eco-terrorism." I have long argued that "terrorism" is a word-like "holocaust" or "genocide"-that should not be manipulated, diluted or hyphenated. Terrorism, otherwise, is only in the eye of the beholder, which does no one a service.

Terrorism is, basically, violence that exceeds the ordinary rules of engagement in conflict situations or the ordinary rules of punishment in legal systems, and in being extraordinary, terrorism produces a degree of trauma with predictable outcomes far out of proportion to the actually statistical damage it does. It is, in a phrase provided by terrorism scholar David C. Rapoport, "extralegal or extra-normative violence." It is relative, therefore, to cultures, since norms are culturally established.

In America, one can argue that property has attained the worth and value of human life when terrorism is defined by major damage done to property. By any statistical account, the damage done to property by Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front is excessive. The outcome of their attacks has not been out of proportion to the statistical damages, except-and this is critical-to the blowback by the U.S. government and legal system, which now applies "terrorism" to crimes of arson for the purpose of enhanced sentencing and the breaking of a movement it regards as a threat to government. This is the background story to the Coronado prosecution. Coronado, like other leaders of the radical ecology movement, is a strategic target in a government campaign to break an "ideology" that engages in a ritual dubbed "direct action."

ALF has recently crossed the actual (not government-defined) line into terrorism by the attempted bombing of medical researchers in Los Angeles. However, the arson cases you discuss and the Coronado case-which is a classic political prosecution that has a significant impact on First Amendment law-do not meet the definition of terrorism in any objective sense of the word.

The case has been tried and resulted in a mistrial, which is also being underreported by the press. Whether or not the case wends its way on appeal toward the Supreme Court remains to be seen. One hopes not, as the public's tolerance for laws that suspend the Bill of Rights (notably the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments) appears to be waning. The courts generally follow majority views among the populace and/or the states, and if the current climate of disillusionment with indefinite detention, suspension of habeas corpus, and excessive secrecy increases, it would be a waste of taxpayer money and the courts' time to prosecute a case that could not win a majority of the jury in a conservative venue with a conservative judge.

Jean E. Rosenfeld,

Academic researcher of religion,

violence and terrorism,

UCLA

What really matters

Your interview with Mayor Sanders and the subsequent personal look at his shuffling over mistakes printed in the Sept. 19 edition of CityBeat ["The Front Lines"] reflects the herd-driven, flavor-of-the-week mentality of local media.

Squabbles with the city attorney, gay civil unions and regurgitated water are all interesting issues, but why do you folks in the media consistently fail to take this city's administration to task over the important issues facing our environment and our lives as working providers for our families?

The gentrification of our neighborhoods and the disappearing stock of affordable housing, the need for rent control, caps on public-transportation costs and a living wage are what most San Diegans care about-not to mention the lack of vision or programs that fail to put our city in the forefront of greenhouse-gas-emission mitigation efforts.

Our children, and their children, will care less about whether Sanders had a bumpy ride or whether he can cry over a difficult decision. They will have to deal with the mess that our energy addictions and artificial ambiance creates.

One candidate for mayor, Rocky Neptun, has so far been ignored because he threatens the status quo and is not afraid to ask the difficult questions. His website at www.Rocky4SanDiegoMayor.org reflects a vision for San Diego that is so sadly lacking today. Check him out.

Dustin D. Delon,

North Park