Dear Editor:

I was impressed that the GLT honored Mayor Sanders and Chief Landsdowne for apprehending perpetrators involved in the Pride festival beatings.

However, the real honors should go to the actual police involved.

The police are subjected to incredible hardships: knowing they are not liked, not cheered like the hero firemen, putting their life on the line so people can have an orderly, safe society. Working hours are not ideal, affecting their personal life.

In consideration for their hard work, the pension they paid into is in jeopardy. Where did the money go? It was used for ballpark, Republican convention, etc. Now there are lawsuits claiming the pension deal should be voided because the politicians since 1996 to present were engaging in illegal negotiations.

Police also had a 7% paycut, causing MANY officers to leave the City for greener pastures: Chula Vista, Escondido, Temecula, Carlsbad, etc. The Mayor was so vexed by the departure of his police that he ordered an expensive study to determine what officers knew for free.

To reward the remaining officers, the City took away comp time. That last bit of benefit is denied. That will really make the police stay. Someone else can be hired, however, it costs $100,000 to train a new officer. Since the City is not rolling in expendable income, it’s probably best to keep their already trained police somehow.

A councilman suggested offering a 1% home loan, making it affordable for police to live in America’s Finest and Most Expensive City. That was thinking outside the box. It might even cause some of those who left to return. The Mayor decided it was not in the City’s best interest.

I really can’t fault the officers for not being behind their Mayor and Chief. Whom can the police turn to when they are victims? Police should be commended. Their patience is continually tested, under tremendous pressure.

Perhaps a few bad apples vented on a message board inappropriately. Not having read the posts, I’m sure frustration was expressed.

It is no secret that many police are displeased with what is happening, hence, the exodus. Probably the GLT had their hearts in the right place, but if they were thorough in understanding the dynamics behind the scene at the police department, they may have reconsidered whom to honor.

The GLT are outraged, complaining about derogatory comments made on a message board, but something tells me others were equally outraged that even the liberals are honoring the Mayor and Chief. I’m sure their voices were heard on the Internet.

We people had to “sacrifice” some liberties in recent years, but we still are entitled to some remaining fundamental rights. Unfortunately, there are some narrow-minded, traditional, homophobic people in the world. They are, however, entitled to opinions, even if we don’t agree with their conservative mentality. Aren’t we much more superior and tolerant than the uneducated few who are not forward thinking? Since when does the GLT have a problem with free speech?

Josephine Piarulli

Dear Editor:

I enjoyed reading the piece “Aren’t you too old for that?” by Michael Kimmel from issue 989. Age is only one of many problems that plague the visibly white male middle class gay community. This has a lot to do with silence. There is rarely any discussion of age, racial, gender, or class inequality in the community. Over priced real estate prevents or pushes most people of color and working class queers from or out of queer communities. The queer world is presented in both straight and gay media as a 20 year old beefy ‘all American’ (code word for white) gay boy that is up to date on the ‘latest fashions,’

driving a gas guzzler, and on his way to somewhere seemingly important. Gay Liberation has been and continues to be something you can buy at your local GAP from the cheap labor of extremely exploited nations (what we demeaningly call the ‘Third World’). Meanwhile, back at Washington, homophobic senators write anti-gay legislation that rollback the few rights we have. While these problems move beyond the scope of the article, it made me think of the many social inequalities that divide queer people. We need a renewed and long overdue discussion on the divisions that plague this thing called “gay community.” My question is, will these problems ever be critically discussed and debated by the people and publications that supposedly speak for us?

Rick Braatz

Dear Editor:

The San Diego City Council’s stand against big boxes was a good vote. These retail monsters have proven destructive to small businesses like the ones we enjoy in San Diego’s Uptown neighborhoods. While they may offer shoppers lower prices, they do so at a great price to the community. Those who work in these stores are generally extremely poorly paid and lack affordable health insurance, forcing them to rely on already overburdened public health programs and sorely overtasked emergency rooms.

Wal-Mart, in particular, because of its huge size, drives market wages down for all workers, already a problem in high-cost but not-so-high-wage San Diego. In its drive to force its suppliers to sell to it at ever lower prices, it forces them to drive their wages down, often to slave wage levels. WalMart’s unethical employment practices include forcing its hourly employees to work off the clock and systematically discriminating against women in hiring and promotion for management positions.

Wal-Mart has successfully stopped its American workers from unionizing to improve their wages, benefits, and working conditions, though workers in at least one German WalMart succeeded. Ultimately, labor must organize these workers to improve their work lives and the social problems WalMart’s current exploitative labor and procurement practices create.

As members of a social group who has experienced first-hand the effects of discrimination and exploitation, we should support the City Council’s vote because an injury to one truly is an injury to all. Banning big boxes in our city protects our choices to shop in the wide variety of retail outlets we have. It helps preserve our city’s beauty, and it helps protect working families’ wages and our community’s social safety net.

Brian Polejes

Vice President of Organizing

Pride At Work

Dear Editor:

Loved Jackie Beat’s “Letter to the Editor,” hated Rev. Keith’s.

If the G&L Times is going to insist the gay community is still interested in reading low-brow gossip columns 30-plus years into our gay liberation, it should consider clever talents such as Jackie Beat and/or Babette Schwartz.

It’s not too early for the publisher and editor to make a New Year’s resolution to pitch the sour, old man-hag who takes itself so seriously, to the curb. That trite, tired-ass shit went the way of Update, Gayzette and San Diego Son eons ago.

God Bless Rev. Keith, he made his point about Urban Mo’s letters ago. Everyone in the community knows that Chris Shaw is a class act and this is not a case of self-loathing homos. But if Chris had hired me as his publicist, like back in the day, I would have suggested simply dropping “Hamburger” from the name because this town is certainly full of Marys. Of course, we could have renamed the place Nancy’s Boys, and that would have really stirred the pot.

Although I’ve never met “her,” I’ll blame Jackie Beat as the instigator for the last two name-change suggestions and your readers and duke it out in print with her if you’re clever enough to give the crowned political-action-committee-of-one the old heave-ho and bring on the prized younger ham – Ms. Beat.

Lee A. Schoenbart