LETTERS

Just Ten Off

Really enjoyed this article (“The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press,” Cover Story, February 28). It was well-researched.

One minor edit. In the reference to the 1978 PSA air crash, which resulted in a Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper, the author refers to the PSA plane as a Boeing 737. It was actually a Boeing 727.

Henry Romero

via email

Daily Destruction

Re Matt Potter’s “The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press” (Cover Story, February 28).

Informative and amazing — the more things change, the more they stay the same — this history of San Diego’s only daily paper, the Union-Tribune, and the sad town it has run into the ground. I’ve lived here for 38 years but even now have learned new things from this story. I am glad to see Matt Potter has returned to writing cover articles. Thank you. I would cavil with Potter’s equating Mike Aguirre, our incumbent city attorney, who is as honest as the day is long, with fallen former mayor Roger Hedgecock, who was in cahoots with a Ponzi schemer. Also, I think the U-T's persecution of Aguirre on its editorial pages deserved a mention, not just U-T sportswriter Nick Canepa’s unseemly anti-Aguirre campaign.

Name Withheld

by Request

Under The Rocks

Enjoyed your article on the Copley Press drama (“The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press,” Cover Story, February 28). However, I believe there are a number of factual errors therein, to wit: (1) United States National Bank was “shut down” by the FDIC on October 17, 1973, versus as stated in the article as June 1973, (2) Cunningham was sentenced to eight years, four months in the slammer versus six years as stated, and (3) the PSA plane which crashed in North Park in 1978 was a Boeing 727 versus a 737 as stated.

Any reason why there is no mention of David Copley’s enormous yacht? Were those Illinois newspapers sold to also pay for this toy? Bill Kolender’s stint at Copley Press was overlooked — why? Ditto for Victor Krulak’s journey through the executive suite? Keep up the good work and keep turning over the rocks to report on what is not being reported elsewhere.

Lou Cumming

via email

From ABC To F

The cover story in the February 28 edition of the Reader, “The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press,” is very discouraging for those of us who still believe in a free press. I am a graduate of a journalism school that taught the ABCs of good journalism to include:

1. Accuracy. 2. Brevity. 3. Clearness. Matt Potter’s cover story suggests that our only San Diego daily, the San Diego Union-Tribune, flunks on all levels. When a newspaper has a monopoly in a large city like San Diego and then proceeds to use its power to establish its own private agenda (propaganda), we the public are the losers.

As Americans we pride ourselves in having a free press, freedom of religion, democratic elections, and equality for everyone. In San Diego, at least, free press is a sham. As for democratic elections, here is what Rosemary Radford Ruether, a speaker at UCSD’s Burke Lecture series, had to say last Monday evening in her talk, “American Empire and the War Against Evil”:

“The American Empire has been operated predominantly by the military-industrial complex almost continually since the days of Teddy Roosevelt; thus voting results that provide changes in Washington have very little impact on the power of the empire.”

What she is saying is that it doesn’t matter who we elect to Congress or the White House because the country (empire) is run by other forces. Election campaigns become a farce because “they dare not deal with the deeper issues underlying the most powerful empire in human history.”

How powerful is the U.S.? The military budget exceeds the military budgets of all the other nations in the world combined. The U.S. has military bases in most of the nations of the world, including dozens in Iraq alone. In a recent poll conducted among European nations, the question was asked, “Which nations of the world represent the greatest threats to world peace?” The unanimous answer — Israel and the U.S.

If we cannot count on a free press or free elections, how about freedom of religion? As some have answered, America is the most churched nation in the world, yet it has the highest incarceration rate, highest divorce rate, very high poverty rate (for a rich nation), etc.

Thanks again for the Copley Press article — it’s the reality that hurts the most.

Laurel Gray

El Cajon

Old Swine Better Than New Swine

In his otherwise perceptive review of that overrated fraud, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, the usually astute Duncan Shepherd correctly attacks Daniel Day-Lewis’s “John Huston rollercoaster cadences,” but then goes on to ask, “Why would this depraved money-grubber, we keep asking ourselves, be impersonating the director of The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, whatever?”

Shepherd’s rhetorical question has a very easy answer for those of us who remember John Huston’s definitively evil portrayal of that far more depraved money-grubber Noah Cross in Roman Polanski’s magnificent Chinatown (which also boasts a far greater script by Robert Towne than Anderson’s psychologically one-dimensional adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s Oil!).

Brilliantly acted by Huston (surely one of the greatest, creepiest performances ever committed to celluloid), the Towne/Polanski capitalist robber baron is greedy even in his secret erotic life, ruthlessly impregnating his own daughter, whose husband he murders. After having this daughter gunned down by the Los Angeles Police Department, he is last seen whisking the adolescent granddaughter he has sired with his daughter off to meet the same fate: to be violently raped by this maniacally possessive, incestuous old bastard. Noah Cross, in short, makes the current film’s capitalist swine seem a dithering amateur.

Gerald Dugan

Pacific Beach

Blatant Power Grab

Don Bauder’s “City Light” (“Brash Cash,” February 21) refers to the threat of an initiative by the developers to give the mayor absolute power. Yesterday I was approached outside Ralphs and asked to sign an initiative to “audit the mayor.” It sounded good until I read it. The petition will give the mayor the power to choose the auditor who audits the mayor’s departments, which is virtually the whole city. A blatant power grab buttressed by signature solicitors who are trained to lie to the public.

Melvin Shapiro

Hillcrest

Universal Disgrace

You are an absolute disgrace to journalism the world over! How stupid of you to give attention to irresponsible, violent gangs by plastering their names on the front of the Reader (“To Live and Die in Oceanside,” Cover Story, February 21).

Why did you give them undeserved attention? That is just what those lowlifes seek. By giving them this spotlighted attention, you and Bouvier are just as irresponsible as the gangs whose names you printed.

If I/we subscribed to the Reader, our subscription would be permanently canceled by us!

Also, the tattooed picture of a gang member is revolting. What status you have given to this person! Perhaps the “status” he has procured through his picture on the cover of your paper will help him turn his life around to a positive way. That won’t be your fault because that is probably not what you had in mind.

Carlos, Maria, and Trent

Now, Say You’re Sorry

I find it wonderful that the good Lord is working to change the lives of so many of the miscreants featured in your story (“To Live and Die in Oceanside,” Cover Story, February 21). I’m a bit disheartened, though, that even after their being saved, these same cowards fail to give any hint of remorse for their crimes or compassion for their victims in their dialogue. I guess they’ve learned from their newfound savior, who could have intervened before their murders and rapes and shown compassion to the victim, that Christian compassion is reserved only for the criminal. Crime victims and their families are left to take solace in knowing that the forgiveness granted these animals comes from a spiritual partner in crime.

S. Walsh

San Diego

Past The Pier

We are livid after reading Geoff Bouvier’s article “To Live and Die in Oceanside” (Cover Story, February 21). What an unfair depiction of the people and the neighborhoods here. Your article really directly states that once one leaves the pier/harbor areas, the area descends into a hovel, a slum. And that cover is (putting it mildly) in the worst of taste. We moved here ten years ago from the East Coast into a lovely home. The neighbors all take pride in their homes; it is safe; there is no crime. Again, we are deeply offended. This is absolutely the worst, irresponsible article that I have read. What an injustice to the people of Oceanside! Is this sensationalism in journalism?

Patricia and Bob Tilli

Oceanside

From The Law’s Side

Regarding the negative response letters about the Oceanside story (“To Live and Die in Oceanside,” Cover Story, February 21), I don’t feel that the article was meant in any way to disrespect the city of Oceanside. Two people in my immediate family are in law enforcement in Oceanside and have been for at least ten years. I think that this story was informative and well researched. Sorry if you don’t feel your city was well represented. My law-enforcement siblings make a point every day to better this city. Dogs are involved, guns are involved, pride is involved. You try being law enforcement in Oceanside.

Krista Bruce

La Mesa

List Complete?

“To Live and Die in Oceanside” (Cover Story, February 21) was an interesting and sad, but not new, commentary on gangs. We know these gangs are in many, many cities. What was your purpose in doing a feature article on them? These heartless, misfit, sad souls need attention as well as a need for belonging. So they steal, attack, murder, and are murdered, often to get attention. And you, in your infinite wisdom and stupidity, add to their need for attention by actually placing their gang names on the front cover of the Reader. I can’t believe you did this! Boy, I sure hope you didn’t leave out the name of any gangs there in Oceanside. Did you get all of them on the cover? I sure hope so, because any left out might feel they need to do “something” to achieve such notoriety. Perhaps you should have put them in ABC order. The list could show “partiality,” and who knows what that reaction could bring.

In short, placing the gang names on the cover of the Reader shows irresponsibility and poor, disturbing thinking on your part. I was shocked and disgusted that you made such a decision!

Name Withheld

Visited Lately?

I’m calling about the article dated February 21, “To Live and Die in Oceanside” (Cover Story). In the article, it talks about the streets in the back of Camp Pendleton. I happen to live on one of the back streets of Camp Pendleton, and there are positive neighborhoods more than negative neighborhoods in this area. So it really was a killer to read in headlines “to live and die in Oceanside.” And you know, the North County Times, our newspaper, was just building our area up, and then we get slam-dunk with the Reader. So I think someone needs to come out and look at the area that they’re talking about and put a positive side to this article, if possible.

Marlene

Oceanside

Good Stuff!

Time to cover some good news and not concentrate on negative journalism (“To Live and Die in Oceanside,” Cover Story, February 21). Why not start with the newest weekly tradition bringing some positive influences to downtown Oceanside. The Sunset Market is a great start! Every Thursday night, downtown Oceanside transforms itself, with four city blocks closed for this entertainment venue. We feature fresh foods from around the world, artisans and crafters, certified farmers, and a whole lotta fun! It is time to check out the good we are inviting to our community! What you focus on grows — go to the positive!!!

Lisa Hamel

Sunset Market Manager

Obnoxious Population

Don Bauder’s excellent February 14 article, “Dust Bowl Coming?” (“City Lights”), quotes solid authorities and conditions regarding Southern California’s drought. No politician or conservation measures will alter its severity, as outlined in Max Evans’s November 15, 2007 letter, “God-Haters Miss the Point,” whereby the problem is not climatic or geophysical but rather spiritual, for God owns and controls the weather (Psalm 147).

Early America honored God’s precepts for living and governing and found itself blessed beyond imagination over any combination of backsliding and pagan nations, precepts today mostly ignored and paralleled with an increasingly obnoxious population and declining standard of living resulting from a new idol worship of things created, and not the Creator, including environmental material objects and vain, arrogant celebrities.

Biblically, and ultimately, legalized sacrifice of the young (abortion) and legalized perverse sex, unless reversed, will bring military defeat and the remaining population spewed (driven) out of their land (ref. Lev. Ch. 18, 20, 26; Deut. 18 and 28).

Mr. Evans mentioned a simultaneous severe drought and destruction of a latter-day “daughter of Babylon” (Jer. 50:38). Likely the U.S. for transgressions, currently manifesting erratic and vicious weather and economic dislocation.

Our industrial base has left, agriculture faces heavy foreign competition and endless new and foreign pathogens, potential depression and possible dollar collapse, all representing loss of blessings and new curses due to our unbiblical lifestyle.

To reverse the above for prosperity and good rains, the U.S. must repent (II Chron. ch. 7:14) and ask God for forgiveness through His son Jesus Christ and for eternal life. Sam Adams said, “You will be ruled by God or by tyrants.” The current one has a good start on us.

Ken Howard

Escondido