Letters 3/23/06

Internet restrictions: 
a cool way to go
Kudos to Rick Coates and Northern Express for researching, writing, and publishing the article “Teens & Internet Predators.” As the mother of a teenage daughter and a soon-to-be teenage son, it was wonderful to have my restrictions on Internet usage upheld. 
As any parent has heard: “But Mom (or Dad), all of my friends IM. Why can’t I?” My response has and will continue to be NO—and Rick explained why in black and white.
You bet I shared the information in the article with my children. I love them. I know it’s difficult to have restrictions on children that might make them seem “uncool,” especially with their friends and fellow classmates—but imagine if more parents said no—it could be the cool way to go.

Mary Jo Zazueta • TC

Disgraced article
When I initially saw the cover of the Northern Express I was excited to see that someone was taking notice of the sick world of the Internet and what it could and does do to families.  Then, I opened up the article, and saw that you printed pictures of a butt in a g-string and you also added pictures of girls, teenage girls at that, prancing around in their underwear.   
Let‘s just say I shut the paper, and threw it out. I started thinking about why you would want to educate people on this very subject, and then subject people to it by putting those exact pictures in people’s faces?   
Did you ever even consider, that someone recovering from a pornography addiction may be interested in reading this article, but then you put a big fat trigger for an addict in the article? Or how about trying to teach young teenage boys and girls about the dangers of the Internet. Do you think its appropriate to put these pictures in front of them to look at?  You took a perfectly good article and disgraced it with exactly what we don’t want our children looking at. Is this ignorance? Or just stupidity on your part?  

 Jennifer Edson • via email

Trouble in downtown TC
I am writing in support of Susan Ruoff’s letter concerning the Whiting Hotel. What IS that place doing right smack in the middle of our shopping district? Who’s bright idea is this anyway?
My daughter and I avoid going into the shops when Whiting residents are loitering outside of them, gawking at passers-by. How many merchants are losing money because other shoppers feel this way as well?   
We’ve seen Whiting residents urinate on the sidewalk and vomit in the shop doorways, and we’re constantly asked for money when we’re putting change in parking meters. One afternoon a few months ago we watched in horror as the Fire Department loaded some poor soul’s body into an ambulance after he hung himself in a room at the Whiting.
The Whiting Hotel’s guests cause downtown shoppers and merchants to feel uncomfortable.  Obviously these folks need a place to stay, but must we display our unfortunates right smack in the midst of downtown TC?  This hotel occupies a prime piece of real estate.  Why not move the Goodwill situation to the State Hospital Grounds, or some other location where these folks can puke and urinate in private.     
The Whiting Hotel could be converted into something that will attract folks rather than repel them.   At the very least, perhaps the Express can do an article explaining why this half-way house-hotel is located in Traverse City’s central business district.  Then we residents can give tourists an answer when they ask, “What in the world is that place doing in downtown Traverse City?”

 Vita K. Morse • TC

Unfair sex offenders list
RE: “Downtown Sex Offenders,“ March, 9 issue. I think the public should know that not all sex offenders on the list are a threat. I am on that list.
I was a senior in high school and only 17 years old. I was dating a sophomore aged 15 years old. This is really common these days. When I graduated, I moved on to leave for the Navy. Her mother got real mad that I was leaving and pressed charges on me. I was charged with attempted Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 4th degree. 
If you look at the sex offender list it shows that I was charged with 4th degree CSC, but it doesn‘t show when. I have been registering for 10 years now. I have people coming up to me saying, “You sleep with girls 12-14 years younger than you.”  NOT TRUE! There is no date of conviction on the offenders list. I was 17, she was 15. 
I am NOT a sexual predator. I have been with my current wife for nine years. I just wanted you to know that not all offenders are a threat, and please help me to bring this up to the public. 
You ask the public to say what comes to mind when the word sex offender is said;  90% of the public say something like baby raper, pervert, disgusting, gross, child molester. No one ever says, well, what‘s the circumstance? High school students at a prom or 10-25 years different in age? 
I hope the public knows to not frown on all sex offenders. I am currently trying to get the state to post the date of conviction on that list so people know.

Sex Offender • Indian River
Get help
Neighbors, in-laws, and police could learn another ‘cautionary’ outcome  from Anne Stanton’s tales of “Rough Justice” (NE, March 2-9).  
Before family feuds or neighboring property issues escalate to the level of police intervention, all the parties in conflict could have turned to the Community Reconciliation Service (Formerly Conflict Resolution Service - CRS) that provides mediation services to seven area counties, including Benzie.
CRS trained mediators  provide a structured, totally confidential service based on an ability to pay or not. Mediation has been described as, “helping people have difficult conversations.“  The mediators offer a way in which participants can negotiate their own desired outcomes. It may be about behaviors, money settlements, property lines, noise, unruly pets. You name it, they do it.
Generally 60% to 70% of people who use mediation come to some kind of resolution of their dispute. It’s the people that know about these family or neighborhood conflicts who can best help the disputing parties by reminding them about CRS.  All levels of law enforcement get ‘nuisance calls’ where often there’s no law being broken. That’s when police and others are in an excellent position to make a referral to CRS.  (231) 941-5835  or 1-800-837-7658.

         Tom Shea 
CRS Volunteer Mediator

The Bush plan
The recent video showing Bush minimizing the possibility of the New Orleans’s levy failure is no surprise.  He was appointed as President by his corporate friends for a specific task: weakening federal agencies. That’s why he fights wars with poorly armored soldiers, implements a Medicare drug program with obvious flaws, and mandates agencies (like FEMA) with tasks that go underfunded. 
Bush understands that a broke and poorly managed government will be slow to prosecute him and his friends for their thievery. He does not want government to work, because an inept administrative branch can’t stop Enron, Halliburton, and the oil companies from stealing from us. 
And what about poor New Orleans, in need of rebuilding? Bush’s friends will be there to rebuild it, all right, using uncontracted, underpaid labor, employing a bidding process that’s clearly unfair to local builders, and passing the cost onto us without protection against budget overruns.    
Why do I know all this? Because those are protections that require vigilant government oversight, the type of protections that Bush is dismantling before our very eyes. 

Bill M. Carlisle • via email


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