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GOOD OLD BOYS AND INDIANS
Dinesh D'Souza uses cultural ignorance and personal malice to keep his honorary-white-card and smarmy-insider status current (R. Scott Moxley's “The Insider,” Nov. 10). He's more of a “race broker” (his phrase) than Jesse Jackson ever was. An intellectual pimp, he follows the path taken by many immigrant and homegrown yahoos and thinks he's a trailblazer: throw enough mud, he hopes, and you might cover your own way-outside status. His simplistic and sophomoric fears of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” simply mean this: the “best” people aren't as easily and automatically entitled to the best as they once were.
Horace Coleman
Long Beach
I do not find it surprising that D'Souza would feel that “discrimination is a good thing.” In India, where he comes from, it has been going on for thousands of years. I gather he is a Brahman and that he would describe anyone who doesn't live in Newport Beach as an “untouchable.”
Phil Rubin
Santa Ana
It's no wonder D'Souza likes discrimination: he comes from a country where it has reached its highest form.
Mary C. Thoma
Garden Grove
DAVE MATTHEWS is A GENIUS!
Re: the brief on the Neil Young benefit at which Dave Matthews performed (LowBall AssChatter, Nov. 10). Your informer wouldn't know good music if it bit him on the nose! Matthews and his band play their hearts out at every show. They sell out nearly every performance, including most of their stadium shows (with sometimes three stops at one venue). They inspire the hearts and souls of their fans and even the hearts of some nonfans. The last thing Matthews needs is some slack-jawed yokel trucker complaining about a concert he paid money to attend. And then to call a duet with Matthews blasphemous?
I admit, I was not in attendance at the concert; in fact, I don't live anywhere near the West Coast. And I know that sometimes performances don't sound as masterful as we'd like; however, singing the only duet of the evening with the one and only Matthews was a very wise choice for Young and was in no way blasphemous! If anything is nauseating it's Allen Trautloff's article and spy-boy's taste!
Robert Michael
via e-mail
FURRINER
Though I am probably one of the most distant readers of the OC Weekly (I spent some time in OC and got addicted to it), I would like to thank you for the wonderful article by Jim Washburn (“Indecision 2000!” Nov. 3). He expressed an awareness of a lot of things, the lack of which made me almost lose my faith in Americans (especially Californians): concern and awareness of traffic, environment, media, oligarchy and lacking democracy, and the existence of a class of extremely poor people. I congratulate the author for his effort to reconcile the people.
Judith Ebert
Heidelberg, Germany
COURTROOM ATROCITIES
My husband and I moved from California six years ago and vowed never to return as residents. I have stopped watching the news and do not even glance at the papers while standing in line at the supermarket. I am constantly asking if anything great ever happens to anyone anymore.
This afternoon, we came across your website and the story of Shantae Molina (“Shantae Molina Is Innocent” by R. Scott Moxley, Aug. 25). While reading the reporter's account of the events leading to this complete travesty of justice, I had to brush away the tears.
I have one question for prosecutor Robin Park, Judge William R. Froeberg and the state of California: Why? Was it that slow on the dockets for felony cases?
I am elated the jury was able to see through this apparent farce, but the not-guilty verdict did not alleviate the anger inside me over how the “officials” in this case seemingly made it their personal crusade to tear this woman down. California should be ashamed of Park and Froeberg.
I left law school after three years because I could not subject my heart and soul anymore to the amazing atrocities going on in the courtrooms. And we continue to “take it” today. I choose to live my life by doing what's right. I have come to realize justice, along with ethics, should be on the endangered species list.
Congratulations to Ms. Molina and her team of attorneys. Her story is one that should be used in school—to demonstrate how the abuse of power cost the residents of California thousands of dollars and caused suffering for a young woman and her family. And to Park, Froeberg and the state of California: your efforts reconfirmed that I did make the correct decision in altering my career path from law.
Leslee Adams
via e-mail R. Scott Moxley responds: Four months have passed since the trial's conclusion and Judge Froeberg has yet to hold the prosecution team accountable for numerous unconscionable tactics employed in hopes of sending an innocent girl to prison. That's not surprising: Froeberg—whose wife works for the district attorney—has been chastised in the past by appellate courts for mindlessly siding with prosecutors. Deputy DA Park may not escape, however. The state bar has launched a probe into what Molina's attorneys say was “blatant prosecutorial misconduct.” Her attorneys have also filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the county. Though the ordeal was horrific, Molina has resumed a normal life in Laguna Niguel. Several Hollywood movie producers have expressed interest in her story.
