Letters

Letters may be edited for clarity and length. E-mail to letters@ocweekly.com, or send to Letters to the Editor, c/o OC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Or fax to (714) 550-5908.

I MUST NOT THINK BAD THOUGHTS
The following letters address Kate Carraway's April 26 article on Avril Lavigne, "The Worst Damn Thing."

"Exene Cervenka is an amazing 'babe' who fronted the storied LA punk band X. She also married and divorced Viggo Mortensen and eventually dropped out of the scene to read poetry or something." The acrimony of this article, coupled with this stilted and ignominious statement, tells me you need to employ persons with less verbal witlessness and more artistic acumen and intelligence who uses just plain facts if you ever want to be taken seriously. Whatever happened to actual intelligence in writing? Background information of the subject? You reduce yourselves to the blogs of housewives with a useless degree in art or literature when you write such cleverly worded nothingness. Fuck you.
Janet Davis
via e-mail

First of all, Shania ain't a Top 40 country belle, as you called her; she is a music icon and one of the biggest acts in pop and country worldwide. Shania has been singing and performing and writing songs since the age of 8 in run-down bars. She can sing any genre and any style, and that's why she is the biggest crossover artist of all time. Her music is known worldwide, and she calls all the shots on when and what she does. Before you bash Shania, you better do your research on how positive and upbeat her music is and how she has helped tens of millions of people around the world with her music and her charities.
Kevin
via e-mail

WE'RE ALSO A WEBSITE!
This next letter is in regard to Gustavo Arellano's April 26 ¡Ask a Mexican! column, in which he previewed his new book, which was released May 1.

Shameless self-promotion. To wait all week for the website to post, and then just get some kind of teaser. On the other hand, I will probably find someone who did buy the book and steal it from them. Having grown up in SoCal, I really do love this website.
John Marsau
via e-mail

PISS(ED) OFF
The following letter pertains to Gustavo Arellano's April 12 story, "Doheny Dumps," which reports on complaints that Mexican day laborers in Dana Point defecate on public streets.

I'm glad you are writing about this public defecating. I see the day laborers off El Toro and Jeronimo by Pizza Bites liquor store urinating on the property of the liquor store frequently! They have no shame! So what, one of "them" says they would never do it. They are lying. I've seen it. They do't care what they do to our neighborhood any more than they care about our immigration laws! Now, THAT is the TRUTH.
Tracy Stahl
via e-mail

MIND GAMES
This next letter is in regard to Nick Schou's March 25, 2004, story, "Bitter Harvest," on a mysterious, rare disease that has killed four Huntington Beach children.

I was born in H.B. in 1950. My dad worked in the petroleum industry, and I still remember going into the oil fields with him and eating cherry tomatoes planted by the drilling crews. Years later, I moved north to go to school in Santa Barbara, then finally to Seattle. I forgot all about those cherry tomatoes and playing in sand that smelled like crude oil until 14 years ago, when I was diagnosed with a malignant glioma (brain tumor). I know at least one other former Huntington Beach resident who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Though there's no definitive cause for brain tumors, researchers have been zeroing in on oil and gasoline exposure. If I was a parent in Huntington now, I'd scream loudly until somebody looked closely at the contaminated soil.
Charlie Golder
via e-mail

CATHOLIC BLOCK
The following letters pertain to Gustavo Arellano's April 24 story concerning Bishop Tod Brown's undisclosed molestation accusation, "Nailed?"

Great article—I wish I had written it. They should all be imprisoned! Top to bottom. If they didn't wear those ancient mythological outfits that the world mistakenly identifies as holy, they would be!
Tim C. Leedom
via e-mail

I've finally figured out your purpose in life: what you do is try (as best you can) to assassinate the character of the Catholic bishops of California or, more specifically, Orange County. Well, go ahead. I'll still keep sending Bishop Brown money for his cathedral, his schools and parishes, and any other projects he has in mind. The more you dig up fanciful or made-up stories, the more resolute I become in my Catholicism. Keep up the good work!
Michael Sorrell
via e-mail

Your story about Bishops Brown and John Steinbock was great. Steinbock is as dirty as they come. He seems to protect the openly gay priests and treats traditional-minded priests like dogs. There are several priests in the Fresno diocese who, though not sexual abusers, are the type to come into a parish and destroy it, cutting the congregation at least in half.
Steve Loftus
Bakersfield