Thank you so much for the wonderful story on Al Goldstein ("Screwed," Bob Whitby, February 22). I am a transplanted New Yorker who loved Midnight Blue, and I really miss seeing it. I met one of his neighbors and have always wanted to meet Al; maybe once my husband and I move back to the east side from Coral Springs (a.k.a. the Everglades), we'll have the good fortune of meeting him. Then again, maybe someday I'll knock on his door and borrow a cup of sugar.
Thanks again for bringing back memories to someone who is bored to death with South Florida and retirement.
Ruth Puzo
Coral Springs
Hypocrisy R Them:
Regarding Bob Norman's February 22 article, "A Double Whammy," it makes sense that someone who believes in "family values" and has worked for the Christian Coalition would be working in the casino and gaming industries. Surely casino owners Donald Trump, Steve Wynn, and the late Arthur Goldberg are better to emulate than the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the Rev. Henry Lyons, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, or all the priests found guilty of grabbing altar boys.
The Southern Baptists even had their national convention in Las Vegas in 1989! The U.S. Congress' "National Gambling Impact Study" in 1999 found the casino industry doing just fine. As for the Rev. Tom Grey, the public still remembers the Church and all the pastors warning us about the evils of Galileo, science, Darwin, and of course all non-church music -- starting with the evil jazz!
Casinos have expanded gaming, and cruises-to-nowhere are not going away in Florida. In fact they are constantly branching out. So, if you want to hear shouts to heaven, you'll probably have to listen to grandma yelling "Oh, God!" after she's won at the slot machine on the day cruise, at the Seminole casino, or after she's grabbed the bingo jackpot at her local church!
Stan Wertheimer
Hollywood
Steve McGarrett, where's your Viagra?
"Street Life" by Emma Trelles (February 15) was down to earth, interesting, and full of life. Lt. Richy Allen's John Wayne¯esque picture and attitude, his saying "Hey Stephanie! Stay off the rock, willya?" says it all!!! He is well intentioned, has human qualities... but misses the point altogether and is basically clueless. Forgive my jumping from one idea to another. If people were routinely engaging in daily lynchings instead of selling/buying drugs and prostituting in these areas, I guarantee you that judges, cops, and other folks would suddenly feel a great boost in IQ. They'd come up with better ideas and better interpretations of laws and the Constitution. And the problem would stop quickly.
The entire law enforcement system suffers from feeblemindedness, apathy, bad ideas, bad rules and concepts, and poor understanding of addiction. Talking to addicts is pointless. They have to be arrested, detoxed for a month, THEN talked to in the right way, forcefully given no alternative except staying clean, and treated for addiction to the street and a hooker's lifestyle -- with former addicts helping. The only good police, the only judges with sense, are the ones on TV shows. In real life, math logic tests should be given to lawyers who want to be judges and to cops. Instead of stopping flagrant illegal activity, the law enforcement system plays musical chairs and sweeps stuff under the rug. Cops are also plain stupid and lazy. They like to pass time, eat and drive, kind of blind. How about Hawaii Five-0 surveillance vans and high intellect as also seen on Matlock, instead of myopic ideas? Cops on bicycles are cheap and very productive when given the right orders.
Today convicts can spend months in jail and get released using other cons' identities. Male-female teams of bright rookie cops are the best to fight street crime. Assigning hookers to detectives who sometimes sample the merchandise is asinine. Some cops join vice because they suffer psychological conflicts. Black and whites are told to just drive by hookers and dealers with eyes closed on the way to IHOP.
CrimeStoppers, supposedly anonymous and honest, has dumb rules. Rewards are rare. The cops use the info as if they did all the legwork and take all the credit. If someone calls to report a wanted drug dealer, detectives are sent out days later, then leave if told a false name. Thus dealers can freely sell like a drive-in grocery store, day in and day out. Maybe the dealer and/or hooker will get a warning to move to another area so that it becomes another police department's problem -- at least until they return (musical chairs, revolving doors). Some top detectives are the ones on the take or getting free sex.
The criminals, despite being stupid, high on something, or partly insane, are way smarter and slicker than the brightest law enforcers. Rehab centers, especially those that are coed, are full of horny addicts with pockets full of drugs, who press the girls for sex and drugs... and we pay for all this. Keeping addicts off drugs makes them superhorny.
As for hookers, we pay for their vacation stays in jails, for ineffective rehab centers, and for the food stamps sold for drugs. However, those centers that help addicts are important. Since we pay for the addicts who don't pay taxes on their $100,000-per-year incomes, we should force them into rehab and supply tight follow-up. We are supposed to be the number one country but are that only on fictional TV shows.
Ann Neymus
via the Internet
The green stuff rules:
I happened to read Emma Trelles' article about the so-called "Street Life" with a lot of interest, and I'll tell you why: because I was so curious what her point of view was going to be. And you know what? I still don't know. Maybe someone paid her to write the article, and that was more understandable since we all work for (pay attention now, because we're gonna return to this issue in a little bit) money.
But let me get to the point. First of all, whom did she write the article for? I know it was not Stephanie, or whatever her real name was; she'll ignore it. Trelles also did not write it for the johns, unless she was trying to give them a warning to be more careful. Or maybe she wrote it for someone like me who, after leaving a communist regime (22 years ago) in search of freedom, still wonders what this word really means. I still haven't gotten to the point. The point is that Stephanie and the others like her are working for money. Period. Everybody is. Stephanie, you see, did not go to college -- like Trelles did -- and she does not have any other talents. She does what she knows best and makes a living at it. Other girls like her have more "talent" or connections, and they land in porno movies. That's called acting and seems to be OK with everybody.
Look, I'm not trying to defend anybody here. All I'm trying to do is to ask you to write another article to explain that just because something is illegal doesn't necessarily mean it's that bad; the law could also be bad. (During Prohibition drinking was a crime, and lotto was long illegal in Florida.) I think this law should also be changed, because for sure it's not going to change the oldest job in the world. In the meantime, arresting these girls never produces any results; they're still doing it. Police actions are not going to clean up the streets. The money spent on the police force -- more every year -- should be aimed at educating children, who will become parents one day. That will eventually clean the streets. But then what do you think the cops will do? Become teachers? No! They like the situation they're in.
Peter Grigore
via the Internet
