"Contract Killing," November 14
These guys can't pull their own trigger: This is disgusting. I would like to put all of these men (who are not really men at all) into a fenced-in area and hunt them. And I can't believe they teach their children to slaughter animals. Then the idiots go home, mount the deer head on the wall, and act macho. Oh, I'm so impressed.
These men are obviously suffering from small-penis syndrome. The bigger the deer, the smaller the penis. Only an inadequate man with a minuscule penis would shoot a farm-raised animal in a fenced-in area.
Lisa Maresh
Streetsboro
"Pragmatic Racism," November 28
Tower City Turkey
Dumb-cluck policy gobbles up the crowds: Just wanted to comment on your article concerning the blockage of our youth at Tower City and to tell the youth that, luckily, all malls are not like this.
Tower City hired more security to keep the young people out. Why couldn't they have hired the security to keep the few who were actually causing the problems out? Punish 95 percent because five percent are acting out? What a joke. I came through Tower City on the day after Thanksgiving, and guess what? The crowds were not there.
Val Tucker
East Cleveland
"Epistled Off," Letters, November 14
Dirty Hand of God
Good Catholics purge pedophiles: Michael Luczak, who sympathizes with pedophile defender and protector Bishop Richard Lennon, epitomizes an enormous weakness among conservative Catholics — a predilection for blind obedience and loyalty, and an aversion to questioning authority. This is not good or healthy for the Catholic Church.
Such conservatives, though likely good-hearted and well-meaning, continue to cling tightly to the propaganda that Catholic priests are the closest thing to God on this earth. As a consequence of believing such nonsense, they are more than willing to look the other way and give criminal priests a pass when they are found guilty of sexually abusing vulnerable, naïve, compliant, and obedient children.
As Scene noted in its January 31 edition about Hand of God, a PBS documentary focusing on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, a brief appearance in the film by Lennon when he was bishop in Boston reveals the prelate's cavalier, insulting attitude toward one of the victims, Paul Cultrera, whose brother, Joe, is the filmmaker of the documentary.
After the documentary aired, several Catholics in the Cleveland diocese sent e-mails to the victim, now an adult, expressing their feelings of shame over Lennon's behavior in the documentary. If Luczak has an open mind — which likely is a stretch — he may want to check out the documentary at pbs.com/frontline.
Responsible Catholics correctly strive to hold their leaders accountable in this sordid sexual scandal that their clergy has perpetrated for decades, if not centuries. It is the right thing to do, after all, as Christ himself would have sided with those who are victimized by people in positions of power.
Louis H. Pumphrey
Shaker Heights
"And the Losers Are . . .," November 21
Magi-Straight Arrows
Honest judges rule in C-Town: Your newspaper's recent article rating eight of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court's 34 trial judges deserves a response, based upon my 25 years of court experience.
Your survey of only 300 lawyers out of approximately 9,000 area lawyers is statistically far from being an accurate survey. All of the judges receive far more in-depth, accurate evaluations and ratings by approximately nine different organizations before each series of judicial elections. These hardworking judges all carry an enormous caseload. To select some disgruntled attorneys' complaints about only a few cases presents a biased and inaccurate portrayal.
The Cuyahoga County judges you bashed are current on their dockets, have never been accused of unethical improprieties, and generally do a great job. Cuyahoga County judges are far superior to, for example, Chicago's judges, who in recent years have been rocked by scandals and court delays of many years before cases are even scheduled for trial. Your negative pandering based upon a small sampling of anonymous, disgruntled attorneys' comments is a disservice to this community.
Carl G. McMahon
Cleveland
When it comes to comedy, enough 'snuff: If Scene is truly concerned about the quality of judges, it chose the wrong way to show it. Many of your comments were unfair and unwarranted, with examples taken out of context. In addition, your article utterly failed to consider the complete record of each judge.
Ridicule may be good for a laugh, but it is beyond the right of free speech to suggest an elected judge should be subject to death threats. Your comments are shocking and deserving of public censure.
So, is there a place for voters to turn for information about candidates for judge? Judge4yourself.com is a program of the Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition, made up of five local bar associations.
Every year we consider the competence, diligence, integrity, temperament, and fairness of every incumbent and challenger. Each bar association then reports its rating using uniform terms — "Excellent," "Good," "Adequate," or "Not Recommended." The ratings themselves show that we do not simply protect the judges, but rate them fairly, and are available at judge4yourself.com.
The best way to get bad judges out of the courts and good ones on the bench is with education and the ballot box, not with articles that treat death threats as comedy.
Deborah Coleman and Jim Robenalt, Co-Chairs
Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition
Cleveland
