Letters

Letter of The Week
Back to the nasty
OK, Dan Savage, we get it, you’re pissed that the assholecrats in Albany and Washington won’t give you the same ability to marry your partner that straight people enjoy. I’m sure it’s frustrating but that doesn’t excuse you from the responsibility you have to your readers to deliver frank, honest sex advice. It appears, from your latest column, that you have lost sight of this in your responses. Will this be the pattern going forward until they change the law? Someone asks a legitimate question that they can’t bring to anyone else, and you jump down their throat and decry the fact that you can’t marry your boyfriend while they can do whatever they want? Enough of the pity party, man; you've made your feelings known. Now how about some sex advice?

Scott M.
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Positive imprints

Cynthia Carr's piece on the Atlantic Yards Development ["Life in the Footprint," August 2–8] completely ignored the larger context. This development is about finding solutions to New York's affordable-housing crisis. In 2005, Brooklyn's vacancy rate was 2.8 percent, and this city's population is expected to jump 16 percent over the next 25 years. Real median incomes fell 6.3 percent between 2002 and 2005, while rents jumped 8 percent. We need to build more housing and it must be affordable. ACORN has worked with Forest City Ratner to guarantee that 50 percent of the 4,500 new units planned for Atlantic Yards will be rent stabilized and affordable to low, moderate, and middle-income families. We need to get serious about building more housing and Atlantic Yards is a step in the right direction.

Bertha Lewis
Executive director, NY ACORN Brooklyn

Truth gone wild

I have an even scarier idea than the ones proposed in Ed Halter's "Fakes on a Plane" [August 9–15]. What if the towers really were knocked down by Osama bin Laden? Wouldn't that be a blow to the idea of white supremacy? But nah, I'll go with you guys. It had to be an inside job. It just had to be.

R.K. Byers
Manhattan

Labels like conspiracy theorists, fringe groups, and conspiracy hounds serve to automatically discredit anyone who dares think outside the box about 9-11, and shut off debate about the questions involved. We can now add to this list the Voice's daring dismissal—based on poor production values—of 9-11 conspiracy movies. Ebert and Roeper, eat your hearts out; The Village Voicehas the scoop of the decade: Two thumbs down for 9-11 conspiracies. Like millions of other silent Americans, all I'm seeking is a glimmer of the truth about 9-11. We are forced into silence, because to come out in public is to invite ridicule and worse: consignment to the fringe.

Fred Baumgarten
Sharon, Connecticut

Perhaps Halter should have done some actual background work, as this tragedy affected millions of us who live in the Big Apple. The Voice is supposed to be our voice, so why doesn't it conduct a serious investigation of the issue? Thousands of us suffered from post-traumatic stress after 9-11; if we've been lied to, maybe a "free" newspaper can help explain what the misconceptions are in depth.

Kelly Penford
Manhattan

Sneak attack

Tom Robbins's "Burn Job" [August 2–8] was disturbing. While it is important to report on Nat Schlesinger's criminal acts and the support he received from Ehud Olmert, it seems that the article was most concerned with demonizing Olmert.

I say this because the picture that accompanies the article is of Olmert attending what was viewed by many as a positive event: the Israel Bonds Conference. If Robbins is anti–Israel/ Israeli policy, he should just write an article specifically about that. I don't understand why one would try to subtly portray Israel's actions in a negative light by attacking Olmert's independent actions.

Eliana Kissner
South Orange, New Jersey

True to his word

Nat Hentoff's article about Nick Minucci's sentence [" 'Hate Crimes' Trap," Liberty Beat, August 2–8] was very interesting. Hentoff expressed shock and dismay that the intent of a criminal, as expressed through his words during his crime, should be considered when the criminal is sentenced. Criminal intent is a basic legal concept that has been part of our laws for centuries. The law treats a fight differently if it is in self-defense as opposed to it being an unprovoked attack. Intentionally hitting someone with a vehicle is different than having a car accident, even if the impact is the same. Minucci's words expressed his intent, and the 15-year sentence seems justified given what he did. The First Amendment protects Hentoff's writings, and mine, but no reasonable person believes that it protects violent behavior.

Evan Katzman
Manhattan

The Do(w)nfall

Re Kristen Lombardi's "Stump the Trump" [August 9–15]: Donald Trump is a fat-ass parasite who has leeched off of New York for the last 30 years free of charge. He has cut so many side deals with the devil that he can't even decipher a higher power. He uses his evil charm (disguised as ambition) just to manipulate and eat off the city some more. It's a wonder there is any heart left in New York. Universal karma needs to kick in and Trump deserves to fail for the next 33 years. Someone needs to painfully pluck all the hair from his big-ass head with tweezers. He's had enough, too much.