All the Facts
Re: "Spin Doctorates" by Rochelle Renford (Oct. 11-17)
Your newspaper and other news outlets poorly serve the community by failing to report one simple fact: Some years ago, in a speech to a Middle Eastern group, University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian said, "Death to Israel." Al-Arian does not deny this now, and did not deny it in his interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor.
He told O'Reilly that it needed to be placed "in context." He claimed that he did not mean death to any person, but rather meant it in the same sense that one might say "death to apartheid." Is that credible? Not to me. But it raises a question that goes to the heart of how your newspaper and other organs have chosen to deal with this issue:
Why won't you tell your readers that Al-Arian said, "Death to Israel"? Why do you conceal this truth? As of this writing, your reporter Rochelle Renford has published two articles about what she seems to believe is USF's persecution of Al-Arian.
On Thursday, WMNF-88.5 FM interviewed John Sugg on this issue, and he did not address that fact either (at least not while I was listening). I did call WMNF and spoke to a producer; when I tried to point out that Al-Arian had called for "Death to Israel," he hung up on me.
Mary Jo Melone also ran a column about Al-Arian in the St. Petersburg Times and criticized O'Reilly but again either did not know or concealed from her readers the fact that Al-Arian called for "Death to Israel." The Times editorial a few days later did acknowledge that fact, to its credit.
By all means, give us your opinion, but don't hide the facts. In the best tradition of our democracy, let's have a debate about whether we are overreacting with respect to Al-Arian.
Peter J. Grilli
Via e-mail
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I have read several articles, heard different reports on TV and radio, but no one quotes him, only talks of unpopular speech. I didn't see the interview, but I have to think, what is wrong with a Palestinian state? Don't they have every right to exist as Israel does? Though his leave is for his safety, no one has mentioned that Genshaft is Jewish; how does that come to influence her position? And after the many years and presidents that have dealt with this issue, what else can America do? How much more are we going to spend? These people can't even agree on how to meet. It's time to back away and let another country or the UN try to mediate a peace accord. Would love to read a follow up article on this situation after a couple of weeks. Thanks for all the great coverage.
Aaron Dixon
Tampa
Love Us, Love Us Not
Re: Weekly Planet's coverage of the war on terrorism
Your and others' suggestions that we shouldn't retaliate for what happened is ludicrous, and also very delusional. That's saying we should take our medicine and not do a goddamned thing about it!
I am not a warmonger! In fact, I've had very strong opinions about us getting involved in wars we shouldn't have been involved in the first place (Vietnam, The Gulf War, etc.).
But, this is one I'm not going to protest! If you really think that this country was not going to do something about this in a military fashion, you, and others like you are mistaken.
Yes, I'm scared as hell, that we're going to be living the rest of our lives in fear, but I think we shouldn't take what happened last month lying down.
Lowell C. Johnson
Via e-mail
Battling Big Bro
Re: "Best of the Bay" (Sept. 20-26)
Your "Best of the Bay" issue noted that Video Mayhem was the only independent video store left in Tampa Bay. Oh, contraire. Ewing Video in St. Pete is still standing after 16 years of battling big brother Blockbuster and Hollywood. This video store is awesome with movie memorabilia all over, great old movies and a back porno room; but don't take my word for it; you gotta check it out! Hard times are here for them and I thought you might like to give the little guy a hand with a short article or even a mention.
Jenny Bieger
Dedicated Ewing Video clerk
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2001.