News

Letters for December 20-26, 2007

A A A Comments (4) Thursday, Dec 20 2007

More Cubans, Fewer Haitians

Go back or stick around, that is the question: It is a stark contrast to read yet another horror story about Haitians treated like dogs by our racist government (Janine Zeitlin and Amy Guthrie, "Washed Up," November 29) and then hear Mitt Romney pander to the "Calle Ocho Warriors," saying that he would like for twice as many Cubans to come to America to live. Of course, like most Republicans, it must have slipped his mind that these people would all be illegal aliens — people his party finds lower than whale turd at the bottom of the deep blue sea! But never mind the law... Cubans are the only Hispanic group that votes overwhelmingly for the GOP, once they use their preferential treatment and become American citizens. No wonder Mittens wants more of them here! In the meantime, Haitians will continue to wash up on our shores or die trying — and will be sent back to Haiti.

Harvy Slavin

Hollywood

The Truth Factor

How we fight terrorism: After reading Bob Norman's article "Have Terror, Will Travel" (November 22), I was enlightened about the Liberty City Seven terrorism trial.

At the Miami Book Fair, I heard retired four-star Gen. Wesley Clark talk about how the whole operation of FBI/CIA/Homeland Security to combat terrorism by any means has put our country more at risk for a terrorist attack because of the incompetence of the Bush administration. If the American people knew what was going on behind the scenes of these agencies, they would create an outcry and a demand for answers to hard questions about the credibility of people in key positions who are running the country and the war.

Former FBI agent James Wedick said, "The single most important factor when evaluating an informant's suitability is truthfulness." That was obviously not used as a standard for evidence from Assad and Al-Saidi in the Liberty City Seven case.

Marua Lightbourne

Miami

Condo Misery

Long drive for the money: I am writing about Isaiah Thompson's November 22 article "Rent to Moan." I rented from Dadeland Place (after management assumed my lease) for about nine months, and it was a living hell. Everything written in the article is on point. Sadly, this has been the condition of the building — bare floors and all — since October of last year. I was a student and as such was essentially forced to live there. They assumed my lease and started being slumlords around October, and there was no way I could find an eight-month lease or afford another place. After I moved out, they kept my $3,300 deposit. It took nearly two months on the phone, threatening to sue them, and having to drive to Miami from North Carolina to get my deposit back.

Justin Moorefield

Via the Internet

Exclusive Group

Count me out: As an elected official in Dania Beach, I resent the article "Wish I Was in Dixie" (Ashley Harrell, November 15). There were many incorrect statements in the article. The one in particular I find to be ludicrous and ridiculous links me, of all people, a black man, to being part of the town's leadership that comes largely from "a small-entrenched group" in which many mayors and city commissioners have been elected four and five times.

For your information, my first time on the commission was 1993, serving until 1997. I wasn't elected again until March 2007, ten years later. Linking me with others is not only grossly erroneous but completely absurd. I am writing to set the record straight. My reputation and character are impeccable and above reproach. The great granddaddy of all elected officials in Dania Beach is John Bertino, who has served six terms (30 years) while I have had a measly one term (four years).

Albert C. Jones, Vice Mayor

Dania Beach

José, Can You See

Kaufman speaks for some of us: I listened to Joyce Kaufman years ago ("Talking Up a Storm," Amy Guthrie, October 25), back in the old Al Rantel/Steve Kane days, and wasn't all that big a fan. I found her again on WFTL just as she took up the fight against illegal immigration. Wow, talk about a talk-show host being born again! She has me listening most every day and calling in on occasion. Joyce says exactly what I and many Americans in South Florida feel about illegal aliens — the preservation of our language and our country's sovereignty. Though Joyce is of Hispanic descent, she doesn't pander to South Florida's Hispanic population. We Americans in South Florida have long been fed up with taking a back seat to those who have migrated here illegally and those here legally who don't care to speak the language of this country or assimilate.

Name withheld by request

Hollywood

Correction

In the November 22 "Wrappin' " section of New Times, the Margate shop Atlantic Bicycle was mistakenly identified as Atlantic Bikes.

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Dylan Lloyd 12/26/2007 6:35:00 PM

Stark Contrast Fort Lauderdale is a land of socio-economic polar opposites. You can observe this tragedy of poor city planning/darwinist segregation by doing the following: standing at the corner of SE 1st and Broward and simlpy walking two blocks west. As soon as you cross into the infamously downtrodden NW quadrant of the city, you instantly notice the difference from the plush office condo environment you observed at the beginning of your journey. Less then two blocks seperates a world of suit-and-tie Movado wrist watch-wearing amatuer golfers from a world of unwashed destitute panhandlers. Since I take public transportation, I notice this contrast every day I go to work. Only in a place like Fort Lauderdale can an area labeled as "undesireable" by realtors be so close to exclusive posh codominiumns; the likes of which those who work downtown can't even afford to live in. Perhaps I wasn't living here when the city secretly implanted microchips on both the NW residents and the SE residents to keep them on their side of the invisible fence that runs down Andrews Avenue. I say this because I had an unpleasant encounter this morning. After riding the Trirail from Miami, which can often be a mission within itself, I must take a connector shuttle to downtown Fort Lauderdale. So while on the shuttle I got a hankering for a Egg McMuffin, and remembered there was a Mc Donalds just two blocks from where I work. So the driver let me off at that stopped, wished me godspeed and I was on my way. I tried to avoid panhandlers, as I had no coins or paper money to give anyways. However before making it to the Mcdonalds, a scraggly young black man confronted me and asked me for change. I didn't cross his path, he got up from his perch and intercepted me on my way to the next entrance. When I told him politely that I didn't have change he turned militant and hollered something at me that probably can't be repeated in this family newspaper. I have been treated this way before at this particular McDonalds, one time by a person who asked me what the "F I was doing here" when I tried to let him pass in front of me. I think maybe they are curious as to why my microchip is not functioning.
Dylan Lloyd 12/26/2007 6:35:00 PM

Stark Contrast Fort Lauderdale is a land of socio-economic polar opposites. You can observe this tragedy of poor city planning/darwinist segregation by doing the following: standing at the corner of SE 1st and Broward and simlpy walking two blocks west. As soon as you cross into the infamously downtrodden NW quadrant of the city, you instantly notice the difference from the plush office condo environment you observed at the beginning of your journey. Less then two blocks seperates a world of suit-and-tie Movado wrist watch-wearing amatuer golfers from a world of unwashed destitute panhandlers. Since I take public transportation, I notice this contrast every day I go to work. Only in a place like Fort Lauderdale can an area labeled as "undesireable" by realtors be so close to exclusive posh codominiumns; the likes of which those who work downtown can't even afford to live in. Perhaps I wasn't living here when the city secretly implanted microchips on both the NW residents and the SE residents to keep them on their side of the invisible fence that runs down Andrews Avenue. I say this because I had an unpleasant encounter this morning. After riding the Trirail from Miami, which can often be a mission within itself, I must take a connector shuttle to downtown Fort Lauderdale. So while on the shuttle I got a hankering for a Egg McMuffin, and remembered there was a Mc Donalds just two blocks from where I work. So the driver let me off at that stopped, wished me godspeed and I was on my way. I tried to avoid panhandlers, as I had no coins or paper money to give anyways. However before making it to the Mcdonalds, a scraggly young black man confronted me and asked me for change. I didn't cross his path, he got up from his perch and intercepted me on my way to the next entrance. When I told him politely that I didn't have change he turned militant and hollered something at me that probably can't be repeated in this family newspaper. I have been treated this way before at this particular McDonalds, one time by a person who asked me what the "F I was doing here" when I tried to let him pass in front of me. I think maybe they are curious as to why my microchip is not functioning.
Dylan Lloyd 12/26/2007 6:34:00 PM

Stark Contrast Fort Lauderdale is a land of socio-economic polar opposites. You can observe this tragedy of poor city planning/darwinist segregation by doing the following: standing at the corner of SE 1st and Broward and simlpy walking two blocks west. As soon as you cross into the infamously downtrodden NW quadrant of the city, you instantly notice the difference from the plush office condo environment you observed at the beginning of your journey. Less then two blocks seperates a world of suit-and-tie Movado wrist watch-wearing amatuer golfers from a world of unwashed destitute panhandlers. Since I take public transportation, I notice this contrast every day I go to work. Only in a place like Fort Lauderdale can an area labeled as "undesireable" by realtors be so close to exclusive posh codominiumns; the likes of which those who work downtown can't even afford to live in. Perhaps I wasn't living here when the city secretly implanted microchips on both the NW residents and the SE residents to keep them on their side of the invisible fence that runs down Andrews Avenue. I say this because I had an unpleasant encounter this morning. After riding the Trirail from Miami, which can often be a mission within itself, I must take a connector shuttle to downtown Fort Lauderdale. So while on the shuttle I got a hankering for a Egg McMuffin, and remembered there was a Mc Donalds just two blocks from where I work. So the driver let me off at that stopped, wished me godspeed and I was on my way. I tried to avoid panhandlers, as I had no coins or paper money to give anyways. However before making it to the Mcdonalds, a scraggly young black man confronted me and asked me for change. I didn't cross his path, he got up from his perch and intercepted me on my way to the next entrance. When I told him politely that I didn't have change he turned militant and hollered something at me that probably can't be repeated in this family newspaper. I have been treated this way before at this particular McDonalds, one time by a person who asked me what the "F I was doing here" when I tried to let him pass in front of me. I think maybe they are curious as to why my microchip is not functioning.
Dylan Lloyd 12/26/2007 6:30:00 PM

Stark Contrast Fort Lauderdale is a land of socio-economic polar opposites. You can observe this tragedy of poor city planning/darwinist segregation by doing the following: standing at the corner of SE 1st and Broward and simlpy walking two blocks west. As soon as you cross into the infamously downtrodden NW quadrant of the city, you instantly notice the difference from the plush office condo environment you observed at the beginning of your journey. Less then two blocks seperates a world of suit-and-tie Movado wrist watch-wearing amatuer golfers from a world of unwashed destitute panhandlers. Since I take public transportation, I notice this contrast every day I go to work. Only in a place like Fort Lauderdale can an area labeled as "undesireable" by realtors be so close to exclusive posh codominiumns; the likes of which those who work downtown can't even afford to live in. Perhaps I wasn't living here when the city secretly implanted microchips on both the NW residents and the SE residents to keep them on their side of the invisible fence that runs down Andrews Avenue. I say this because I had an unpleasant encounter this morning. After riding the Trirail from Miami, which can often be a mission within itself, I must take a connector shuttle to downtown Fort Lauderdale. So while on the shuttle I got a hankering for a Egg McMuffin, and remembered there was a Mc Donalds just two blocks from where I work. So the driver let me off at that stopped, wished me godspeed and I was on my way. I tried to avoid panhandlers, as I had no coins or paper money to give anyways. However before making it to the Mcdonalds, a scraggly young black man confronted me and asked me for change. I didn't cross his path, he got up from his perch and intercepted me on my way to the next entrance. When I told him politely that I didn't have change he turned militant and hollered something at me that probably can't be repeated in this family newspaper. I have been treated this way before at this particular McDonalds, one time by a person who asked me what the "F I was doing here" when I tried to let him pass in front of me. I think maybe they are curious as to why my microchip is not functioning.