Health care coverage
Re: “Ill begotten” (Metro Times, March 31), I’m impressed at the depth of your coverage. At the same time, your analysis reveals how sick this health care system really is. The amount of money going into insurance companies, administrative costs and litigation does not begin to fix the problem of 44 million Americans without (or with inadequate) health coverage. Can we admit it costs too much and covers too little? We need a national health care plan now. —Pat Cason-Merenda, Detroit
Missed the point
Re: “Haddad breaks his silence” (Metro Times, March 17), I guess I missed the point. He is not an Imam in exile. Give me a break. He was sent home. He was a visitor in this country and his visa was up. And it was time for him to go back home. What does the word “exile” mean to you? His visa allowed him to visit here, not live here. I wish they would enforce the visa issue with the others that have overstayed their visit. When it’s time to go it’s time to go. I used to like to read Metro Times, but now I’ll just walk on by. —Judi Cornfoot, Westland
A shocking story
Thank you for your story about Rabih Haddad. It’s high time people like Mr. Haddad be allowed to speak for themselves. I am shocked at what he and his family went through. —Zaynab Ansari, Atlanta, Ga.
Censorship censure
I read Jack Lessenberry’s column every week and I agree with much of what he writes. Last week’s column (“Free speech and shock jocks,” Metro Times, March 31) was different. I thought Lessenberry would be a fighter for free speech in print or on the radio. Can’t we just turn the dial or are Americans too lazy for that now? Did someone at the FCC just get a radio? Maybe Lessenberry and his conservative friends can hop in a time machine and go back to the 1950s, but we live in 2004, and America is different.
I hope one day Bush starts to censor the newspapers so Lessenberry will see why some radio disc jockeys are crying foul. —Jon Busdeker, Woodhaven, [email protected]
Stern comments
Usually, I find myself in general agreement with Jack Lessenberry. This time, he got it wrong.
True, the airwaves belong to the people, but there are quite a few radio stations crammed into that limited spectrum. Enough so that years ago the FCC decided that equal-time requirements were no longer necessary and suspended them. Virtually every musical taste and political point of view, from the far conservative religious right to the slightly left of center, is represented. No one is forced to listen to any one of them. Remember the tuning knob does exist. While not so in Detroit, Howard Stern is often the No. 1 program, so how does he fail to meet community standards?
I, for one, do not want the FCC or any government institution determining what is moral or decent. And as for the store with a station you don’t care for, either complain to the management or go somewhere else. I, for one, would do that if I heard a religious station, as for me that represents the truly obscene. —Randle Samuels, Hartland, Mich.
ASS hits the door
You’re abandoning the ASS squad? That’s terrible! The ASS team did a marvelous job highlighting some of Detroit’s less-than-finest examples of urban architecture. Plus some of the background stories were fascinating. Please bring the ASS back. It filled a void of some kind. I’m not sure what kind, but some kind. —Greg Kowalski, Hamtramck, [email protected]
Errata
News Hits incorrectly reported last week (“Sex and violence at Detroit City Hall,” Metro Times, March 31) that Council President Maryann Mahaffey had opposed an adult entertainment ordinance. Mahaffey says she supported the ordinance, but did not vote because she was home sick the day the vote took place. Also, in our review of The Trees Don’t Bleed In Tuskegee (“Blood on the tracks,” Metro Times, March 31), director Debra Carter was misidentified with a masculine pronoun due to a typographical error.
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