LETTERS

Chinatown south

The city pension story is unraveling the perfect screenplay. I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't latched onto it. It has “Chinatown II” written all over it with the San Diego ballpark bonds replacing the L.A. water-works issue.

Mike Aguirre is the perfect Jack Nicholson character-he's about to get his nose slit any second. Faye Dunaway could play a bad-girl character this time around, heading up the Pension Board or playing Lori Chapin, the retirement system's general counsel. Diann Shipione would have to be played by Julia Roberts-she's so Erin Brockovich. Just about anyone could play Dick Murphy; he's such a cardboard cutout.

The ending would have to be really crazy and climatic, just like Chinatown I-like having it turn out that Faye Dunaway's character is really Dick Murphy's mother and together they had a baby given up for adoption named Terri Webster. I'm calling my agent.

Dan Vaci,
Normal Heights

Get used to it

To Edwin Decker: I just read your article in CityBeat [“Sordid Tales,” Jan. 26] and almost choked on my pizza as you told the story of your puss-filled ear pain. I can relate. I too am a victim of ear drama. In fact, I am enduring a minor ear infection as I write this. So seeing your headline in the paper got my attention.

I don't know if you've had them before, but once exposed, you can look forward to many more in the future, usually during a cold or illness of some sort.

I was first introduced to the hell of infectionism whilst in Brazil the summer before last. I had just recovered from one of the worst bouts with the flu ever, the South American head explosion virus, and decided I was well enough to jump into the bacteria-infested ocean. During a heavy shore-pounding bodysurfing session, I was subjected to gallons of Brazilian salt sewage injected directly into my brain through the ear hole. The next morning I felt as if I still had water stuck in my head and began the “watch the stupid gringo guy hop up and down on one foot all day while screaming obscenities in his foreign tongue” dance.

Although the city was equipped with a pharmacy on every corner, no one could help me, let alone understand me. “I need some fucking swimmer's ear juice, or some garlic mullen, or a fucking screwdriver please!” Finally after seeing a specialist, I was awarded with some antibiotics, some eardrops and an order to rest up for two weeks.

I was particularly perturbed because I was hired to record an album for a friend of mine, and guess what, I needed to use my fucking ears for that job. As you know, I could hear nothing but the inside of my own head, and I stayed that way for more than two weeks.

If this is your first one, look forward to many more, my friend. Don't let it get to you, Ed. Enjoy the sweet sounds of your innards and know soon you'll be back to normal.

Chad Farran,
Ocean Beach

They're gonna do time

Let's get this straight: The chair of the Mayor Murphy-appointed volunteer citizens Blue Ribbon Committee charged with investigating the city's financial health was also chair of the city's Public Facility Financing Authority, which issues bonds, including those for the Padres stadium! Talk about the fox guarding the hen house.

And Blue Ribbon Committee members now claim they did not know their committee chair, Joe Craver, also oversaw Padres stadium bonds! It is very difficult to believe that no one on the Blue Ribbon committee asked Mr. Craver what else he did for the city and/or that he did not reveal this essential fact to them. Ethically, he had no business even attending the meetings, let alone chairing them! It was as if a person seeking a loan was also the loan officer investigating his own credit worthiness and granting the loan!

CityBeat merits an award for breaking this part of the story [“The Front Lines,” Feb. 2]. It appears almost certain that the rush to issue Padres stadium bonds motivated a huge city cover-up of the real, paltry condition of city finances, and the so-called Blue Ribbon Committee was a front for the city telling the public and Padres stadium bond investors that city finances were rosy when this was known to be false. It appears that some very high-ranking city officials will be doing prison time for securities fraud.

Randy Berkman,
Ocean Beach

Bring freedom here

In the “Front Lines” section of your Jan. 26 issue, I was impressed with the list of 49 countries (2.4 billion people) listed by Freedom House as “not free” and thus worthy of President Bush's invade-and-conquer plan. I suppose it is a worthy goal to thus spread the wonders of freedom.

However, I have a different approach. Let us petition the truly free societies of Western Europe and Canada to export some freedoms that they possess, and that we do not enjoy, to the citizens of the United States.

Let us start by importing the freedom to listen to the radio, watch television and attend a movie without government censorship. The media of our country are being intimidated by the Federal Communications Commission to restrict our right of choice by the power of the radical religious right.

Let us bring the freedom to those of the radical religious right to change stations or turn off their radio or television, or not purchase a ticket to a movie. Apparently, they are being forced to witness scenes that, although greatly titillating their prurient urges, demand that they be denied to others. They really need to be freed from the psychological fear that someone somewhere is enjoying himself.

Let us buttress the freedom of a woman to make medical decisions without the interference of Big Brother government. Senator Frist, the majority leader of the Senate, is a doctor, but he should not be given the right to override decisions made by a woman in consultation with her personal physician.

Let us import the idea that freedom to marry is a right available to all people, and not a special right restricted to straights. Of course, radical right Christian churches should be guaranteed the right to discriminate, as they believe the teachings of Jesus demand.

Religions should continue to have the freedom to hold whatever cockamamie ideas they wish and they should be guaranteed the right to proclaim them as they see fit. Scientists should have the freedom to present their theorems and proofs in public schools without compromising their integrity by being forced to include spurious nonsensical ideas.

There are many more freedoms I would like to see established in our country. But, I think you get the drift of my thoughts. I would urge you to add your own freedoms to this list.

Theodore V. Cook,
Mission Hills

Letters policy

We welcome-nay, encourage-letters to the editor about material in CityBeat and other matters of public interest. They will be published as space allows and may be edited for clarity or length. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. Please include your full name, community of residence and phone number (for verification purposes only). Send letters to editor@SDcitybeat.com.