Dear Editor:

Thank you for your recent Publishers Point regarding the sad state of affairs of our City Council and its role in the financial situation we are now in. Thank you for your pulpit that reaches the many San Diegans that are part of the silent majority without a mouthpiece stating our views. And above all thank you for not being one of the lemmings eager to jump off the cliff to protect a member of the City Council just because that councilperson is one of our own.

The tired old excuse of we just went by what our staff tells us falls far short on this pension issue. The pension problem has been larger than an elephant in the living room for years even to the casual taxpayer and nothing has been done to correct this staggering problem that will be around for generations.

Toni Atkins has stated many times that she has not favored closed door sessions at City Hall yet she obediently followed the herd in behind those doors rather than staying in the hallways perhaps denying council the needed votes to carry out these absurd measures.

Major Jerry Sanders has stated that it will take a minimum of 45 million dollars to get the city back in the secure bond market to move ahead. All this is to be done with no new taxes. Lookout for fee increases on everything within the city which in my opinion is a tax increase in itself.

Naturally every member of the City Council with the exception of Councilman Kevin Faulknor who was not elected at the time must face the voters to explain why they failed us so bad. Also included should be Casey Gwin, Dick Murphy and Susan Golden.

Toni Atkins should be given a pass on this? I think not!

Again thank you for your recent Publisher’s Point. You said it much more succinctly than most.

Jerry L. Boswell

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8014

Dear Editor:

I disagree with your Publisher’s editorial: “Toni Atkins: Our responsibility, your responsibility,” starting with the title. While it may be admirable for a publisher to embrace objectivity, as a private citizen and life-long activist I see my responsibilities differently. I’ll continue to cut some slack for people who have felt the lash of discrimination, including poor people, people of color, women and the entire LGBT community, including its politicians and supporters. Your editorial rhetorically asks isn’t “fair and equal treatment at the center of the gay rights movement?” Yes, but.... As long as fair and equal treatment is a goal, not a reality, then we should support our own.

It seems politically naïve to assume that acting as if discrimination were not there makes it go away. We may want a world without discrimination but it is political power that will get us there. Frederick Douglas’ observation made before the Civil War: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will,” is just as true today. As one example, the San Diego City Council would never have addressed important issues of discrimination were it not for Toni Atkins and Donna Frye.

It also seems naïve to assume that there is an equal degree of culpability for the pension mess. That deal was engineered by two smart lawyers who knew exactly what they were doing. If GLT wants to illuminate the city’s misdeeds then start with Council President, Scott Peters and former Mayor, Dick Murphy. Then cast more light on the axis between Peters and the current Mayor’s office and the developers. I intend to continue to support Mike Aguirre, Donna Frye and Toni Atkins just as long as they are fighting for me and the citizens of San Diego who demand reform. Go Toni!

Charlie Pratt

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=8014

Dear Editor:

On the evening of Saturday, July 29th, six citizens of were attending a public function in Balboa Park, and were walking home when they were brutally and viciously attacked. All six were injured, and one remains in the hospital to this day.

I wish to publically thank Councilwoman Toni Atkins, Mayor Sanders, and Police Chief Landsdowne for working around the clock to find the perpetrators of this unprovoked attack and for later assuring the community that under no circumstances is an attack of this manner to be considered “something we’ll just have to live with”. And to all of our elected officials who came to The Center to show solidarity, we deeply appreciate it, and we will hold you to your promises.

Where does such a deep and overwhelming hatred come from? How does one justify allowing such negativity to rule their life? What kind of mind thinks that it must hate in order to feel a sense of self-worth?

In a deeper sense, there is no difference between hate-mongers here than hate-mongers around the world. When one group finds a way to justify its hatreds, it can then ignore other teachings - such as “love thy neighbor” - and, since the victim “is not one of us”, violence against him is “what they deserve”.

Whether this means one religion against another, such as Muslim vs. Jew, Shi’ite vs. Sunn’i, or Tamil vs. Sinhalese, or personal hatreds based on race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation, hatred, violence, and bigotry in the name of the Lord is still hatred, violence, and bigotry.

To those who scream hysterically about “those people” - fill in any group there - or go so far as to commit acts of unspeakable violence for which you feel justified, do you really think your Maker will appreciate you committing these vile acts? What will you do when YOU are on the receiving end of such hatred?

Scott E. Grant

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=7893

Dear Editor:

In his column of August 10, 2006, writer Nicole Murray calls actress Jodie Foster “a disgrace for defending Mel Gibson.” He calls Gibson homophobic and cites the anti- semitic tirade Gibson uttered while drunk and disorderly for DUI. Murray calls Foster a “Closeted lesbian.” He infers that because of her being a lesbian, her defense of a man who has attacked the gay community is disgraceful. If so, then Murray should include himself in his attack on Foster.

Just what else do we call it when the Empress herself defended singer Elton John a few years ago for his outrageous defense of homophobic rap singer, Eminem? For rushing out to defend the notorious rapper who sang about killing gay men for being gay, John rightfully was attacked by GLAAD and other gay groups for his disgraceful embrace of the odious rapper. Many gays, I recall, went so far as to throw their collections of Sir Elton’s records into the trash bin. The Empress was not among them. In his wisdom, he stood with John and Eminem and against the gay community.

In his wisdom again today...he chastises a closted lesbian with no record of support for gays for doing exactly the same as he did for a so-called pro-gay singer!

I am no fan of Mel Gibson’s and never have been. It’s true, however, that his problem with Jews has less to do with his father’s politics or religion than it has with the temerity of some Jews who tried to get Gibson to alter the New Testament in the making of Gibson’s epic The Passion of the Christ movie.

Censorship is bad. Gibson and Foster know this. I know it, and Murray should ask his newly-found friend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger, about his own pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic Austrian father whom, like Gibson, the Gov refuses to censor.

John Primavera

See www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=7922