We greatly appreciate the fine article by John Ferri entitled "Keeping the Faith" in your February 26 edition.
It was a real pleasure to visit with Mr. Ferri while he was writing his story, and we especially appreciate the way he captured and portrayed our son's personality, philosophy, and ministry.
Mr. Ferri's story helped to make Pastor Ed's appearance Thursday evening, February 26, a great success. The illustration by J.F. Lambert was also great!
Dr. Michael Hugh Lord
Hollywood
Enough About Ballyhoo and You, What About Me?
After reading your piece on a ballyhoo fisherman struggling under new and restrictive regulations ("Bait and Shackle," Michael Freedman, February 26), my only reaction was "so what?"
I was a fisherman through much of the '70s in New England. Those were the boom times. The fleet of 40- to 50-foot wooden hull trawlers was, in the space of five or six years, replaced by a new high-tech fleet of fishing boats. These new models were 80 to 90 feet long, equipped with the latest sophisticated navigation and fish finding gadgetry. Prices ran up from $200,000 to $300,000 per vessel. Once these investments were made, fishermen had to double their catch just to pay off their bank loans and make any kind of profit.
And the government was in on the act too, designing improved nets, assuring the new fleet filled their holds with lots of cod, yellowtail, and whiting. Now, of course, there are restrictions to try and save what remains of the resources, and this reality extends from Eastport, Maine, to Key West.
As for the one-mile line established for net fishing in Florida and the court cases that have resulted, it does not matter much if fifteen lawyers staring at a nautical chart can't figure out where the land ends and the water begins. Unless caught in a dense fog, any New England fisherman with experience on deck is going to know when he is a mile from shore.
Why the judges in Florida believe the fishermen here don't have that same acquired skill is beyond me. As for the fishermen who claim they can't tell how far they are from shore when they set their nets, I think they are a little smarter than they let on. Like their counterparts in New England, they pretty much know what they're doing, or they would not have lasted in the business as long as they have.
Larry Davey
Boynton Beach
Marching to the Beat of the Buddha of Badda-Boom
Thanks for featuring percussion provocateur Jim Seidel, the Buddha of Badda-Boom, in your newspaper (Night & Day, "Let's Get Physical," John Ferri, January 29). This past summer I saw Jim guide a group of drummers and reluctant observers in a park (on one of the worst Broward weather days I have ever seen) into a democratic jam that left everyone there feeling like no one was leading -- the sign of a gifted leader. It also impressed me that the heavy rain and hail falling everywhere else in Broward didn't touch us. Divine intervention or synchronicity? You be the judge.
Richard Ryal
Coral Springs
