Letters

That Mermaid Means War!
Robert Andrew Powell's article regarding Pow Wow ("Miami: See It Like a Pampered, Sheltered, Spoiled-Rotten Tour Operator from Munich," June 10) was enough to make me explode. As a Miami Beach resident I know I have rights, and that I should not be shut off from a major public road. It seems unconstitutional that these travel agents should come in and take over Lincoln Road (which for many of us is like our living room) as though we didn't exist.

My girlfriend and I were sitting at Score at 5:30 p.m. when a Miami Beach Police officer came over to escort us off public property. After repeating himself several times, I snarled, "We heard you already!"

I disagree with Pow Wow delegate Rosemary McCormick (from Napa, California) and her comment that tourism is an instrument of global peace. In this case tourism was not bringing people together; it was segregating them, replacing locals with Ken and Barbie clones. Shutting regular people off from our own city will not bring global peace, it'll bring war.

Tourism professionals want to make South Florida look like Disney World because of the previous attacks on tourists. But how can you mislead people by bringing them to a city that does not exist? I have yet to see a mermaid on Lincoln Road.

Jessie L. Malig
Miami Beach

That Fence Means Money!
I had to write and thank you for pointing out yet another absurd moment. As a resident of Miami Beach since 1986, I've enjoyed every minute of the circus. It is never boring. But for police to tell me I cannot use a public road because the city has once again sold out to somebody waving green under its nose -- that really pisses me off.

If Miami's tourism officials were so concerned about their fantasy version of Miami Beach, they should have kept their fake Pow Wow atmosphere inside the convention center, where they would have had plenty of room, and air conditioning, too!

This disregard for real people goes right along with attitudes like those of Michael Comras and his development plans for Lincoln Road. I've got a couple of suggestions along the lines of Jim Mullin's recent article ("Lincoln Road Miracle: From Scruffy Derelict to Enchanting Shoppers' Paradise," April 29). Let's get rid of all those bohemian places like Cafe Papillon, where local residents waste so much time, and put in a Checkers. I think we could attract a lot more tourists if we evicted that artsy New World Symphony and stuck in a Ripley's Believe It or Not like the one in Key West.

Maybe the whole fence thing was actually a good idea. We could charge admission to Lincoln Road, just like Disney World. Of course when I called the mayor's office and asked for an explanation, I got no reply. But then we little residents who keep Miami Beach going after the conventions leave town don't really count. Yes, I guess you could call me a muscle-boy kamikaze bike rider with a dog, but I live here.

By the way could you please tell me the difference between businessman and politician? I can't seem to tell them apart anymore.

Joe Burge
Miami Beach

Cuban Racist, Yes; White Supremacist, No
Alex Salinas kept using the term "white supremacist" in his article "A Mind in Exile" (June 10). How can a Cuban be a white supremacist?

Andres Orta and his Alianza Nacional group are racists, nothing less. This is a case of Hispanic aggression toward Americans that runs rampant in this town.

Ryan Snell
Miami

So It's a Jewish World After All
Alex Salinas's article shows only too well the emotive nature of the fascist mind, a mind filled with hate and void of rationality. First, Miguel Angel Aldana's comment that "Everyone is Jewish" should not be entirely written off. Jewish migrations out of ancient Mesopotamia, then Egypt, then Babylon (having probably mixed with and/or having been a mixture of other races), not to mention Hellenic-European, Ethiopian, and Spanish Jewry (I am part Jewish also), makes the term "Jewish" virtually universal. In fact Orta himself may have Jewish blood running through his veins.

But suppose for a moment that the Jews had been a peculiar race, standing out there on their own, all by themselves, ruining everything, as Orta vividly and conveniently imagines. Had it not been for our Jewish brethren, there would have been no search for the one god within, and hence no Renaissance. Likewise idealism, also a search within, would have been taken for granted, and hence no Kant, Nietzsche, and others. We wouldn't have needed them. And there would be no need to bridge the gap between good and evil, and thus no hope for a better world through a coming messiah.

I have one word of advice for Andres Orta and his virtuosos should they decide to write or say anything in the future: Think.

Manny Losada
Miami

The Swine Syndrome
I choose not to address Andres Orta's allegations because if you wrestle with a pig, you become just as dirty as the pig.