Not So Happy Holidays
This homemade card was sent to the Planet office from Richard Paey, who is currently serving a 25-year term in the Zephyrhills Correctional Institution for possessing too many pain pills. Senior writer Eric Snider wrote about Paey's plight in June. To read the story, go to www.weeklyplanet.com/2004-06-17/cover.html . Paey's lawyer expects to file an appeal in February.
PAC Counter-PAC
I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Harrell's characterizations of my efforts on behalf of Ybor PAC as "frightening and misguided."
Mr. Harrell is one of the most talented writers on your staff. He is, however, woefully unprepared to comment meaningfully on the rash of business failures that have plagued Ybor City these past years. That is a topic that anyone who pays rent or is seeking a job in order to do so should find "frightening." Mr. Harrell's opinion that the youth culture currently found in the bars should take precedence over the economic health of the historic district is astoundingly "misguided."
I now publicly challenge Mr. Harrell to a debate on this matter in the window of The World Famous Gaspar's Grotto at a time of his choosing. The head bar wench will supply the libations. We need more debate on this issue that has been preceded by THOUGHT and OBSERVATION and a little less emotional altruism. After all, what's the benefit of avant-garde pop culture if the beneficiaries of this culture can't find a job or pay the bills because storefront after storefront is vacant or soon to be vacant as a direct result of that culture? This is an interesting conundrum, is it not? As a new part of that pop culture scene, I will enjoy discussing these points publicly with Mr. Harrell.
Captain Eric Schiller
Proprietor, Gaspar's Grotto
Editor's reply: We accept your challenge. Readers, stay tuned to the Planet for details.
Take Us Out
I am the artistic director of Tampa's Jobsite Theater, the resident theater company in TBPAC's Shimberg Playhouse. We firmly believe that Tampa deserves an annual outdoor drama event and have been working with city officials to get a plan together as to how to make that a reality. The mayor appeared to be very encouraged by and supportive of what Jobsite is doing and we remain in contact with her office.
Do know that there are those of us poised to make an annual outdoor performance event a reality. We have the talent, the producing apparatus and the gumption to go full-bore. We're simply looking for a green light from someone in charge. Our needs are minimal at this point — we'd take just about anything we could get and make it work. Our first thought was to try to do something in the small amphitheater downtown, most commonly referred to as "Trip Park." Heck, we'd even offer to run the pressure washers to get the smell of urine out of there. We're hardly asking for the moon, and we're not above working for it. There are models for events like this, starting as humbly as can be imagined, all over the country.
When they are ready, we'll be waiting.
David M. Jenkins
Jobsite Theater
FLASHBACKS
Your article on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) brought back many memories for me. As an eyewitness to the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, I experienced many of the symptoms described: flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety and depression. So did many of my colleagues, but not everyone reached out for help. You want to believe that it will all just go away after time or that you are "tough" enough to get through it. That approach doesn't work because many of the symptoms begin weeks or months after the initial shock of the event has worn off.
Nearly every major corporation in NYC (mine included) set up group sessions in the weeks following 9/11 and offered free counseling to their employees. Experienced PTSD counselors were flown in from around the country to assist, and they stayed to help, especially those who were part of the clean-up effort. All of these companies recognized that they needed to support their employees.
It sounds like the VA is realizing what a big job they have ahead of them. Let's hope that they can at least do what the companies did post 9/11. After all, I only gave 50 hours-plus a week; these men and women are putting their lives on the line, and have experienced horrors most people can't comprehend. We can all help by being supportive of these vets as they try to return to their lives. You really NEVER FORGET but you can feel grateful that you are alive.
Carol Mohlenhoff
St. Petersburg
Your article on treating post-traumatic stress syndrome at the Tampa Vet Center was a revealing piece, but it left out an even bigger part of the picture. If a third of the troops coming home from the Iraq war face a lifetime of mental ailments and increased suicide risk, what about the 24 million people whose home is the war? They don't receive honorable discharges from living amid gunfire and explosions in a wrecked society. There are no VA centers to treat them. Not one American I've heard or read about has even mentioned PTSD when judging whether our invasion will ultimately be a good thing for the Iraqi people.
Is it wise to do things known to boost suicide rates to a society where the preferred suicide method (and to many, the only religiously allowed method) is by car bomb? During Vietnam there was a poster, "War is unhealthy for children and other living things." It's true. Have the hawks forgotten that unhealthy Islamic societies breed America's worst threats?
Alan M. MacRobert
Bedford, Mass.
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This article appears in Dec 29, 2004 – Jan 4, 2005.