Regarding Tristram Korten's "A Brotherly Imbroglio" (March 4), I am glad to see that someone is finally trying to take the dictator and his sons to task. Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolanos, Sr., has ruled with an iron hand, along with the other dictator who sits across town in the ivory tower.
If state investigators dig deep enough, they'll find that what has been detailed in this article is really only the tip of the iceberg. Bolanos has caused a lot of really good officers to leave his department, and the ones who have stayed are put down unless they vow to become part of his dog-and-pony show.
Susan Nunez
Ohatchee, Alabama
Editor's note: Two photographs in "A Brotherly Imbroglio" inadvertently did not receive proper credit. The pictures of Daniel Bolanos and Rolando Bolanos, Jr., were provided courtesy of WPLG-TV (Channel 10).
Friend, Coach, Mentor, Merchant: Mitchell
I am writing in response to Robert Andrew Powell's article about bookseller Mitchell Kaplan ("Et Tu, Julius?" February 25). Kaplan has done a tremendous amount of hands-on promoting by having world-famous authors speak at his two Books & Books outlets, giving us locals an opportunity to meet these writers and to provide a forum where interested readers can ask questions of the authors they admire.
He has tried his best as an individual bookseller to encourage reading and literature in general, and he has to face intense competition from the huge national chain bookstores that are elbowing their way into his territory. He should continue what he is doing. I hope his independent bookstore will survive the tough times ahead.
Mitchell Kaplan has become a personal friend of mine, a coach and mentor. In addition I have met many famous authors at Books & Books, great actor Charlton Heston, former Senator Bill Bradley, O.J. Simpson's dream-team lawyer Robert Shapiro, Passages author Gail Sheehy, and TV actress Delta Burke of Designing Women. (I have also recited a few original poems at the open poetry readings.)
Mr. Kaplan has done all the hard work all by himself, establishing a solid foundation as an independent bookseller and eventually becoming one of the best in the nation. Once the dust settles in the legal dispute with his uncle, and Mr. Kaplan becomes the owner of the building on Aragon Avenue, his income will increase and he will make a lucrative profit, which he truly deserves.
Barnes & Noble, around the corner on Miracle Mile in downtown Coral Gables, may have the corporate advantage, but Books & Books exemplifies the American dream of a flourishing small business. Mitchell Kaplan's bookstores provide readers a viable alternative.
Robert Stewart Denchfield
Miami Beach
Free Weekly Busted by Professional Journalist
As a transplant to Miami Beach from the mainland, I started reading New Times out of curiosity. As a journalist I am wondering if you are presenting yourselves as a newspaper or as a complete edition of opinionated people trying to pass yourselves off as professional journalists.
Your work is the most blatant muckraking and yellow journalism I have seen in my twenty years of professional journalism. Your smattering of sexual innuendo or straight-out expletives designed at drawing in your readership lends itself to the conception that sex sells.
As for your blatant prejudice, I am surprised. Cuba is 90 miles away, a direct nuclear threat to this country, Miami in particular. As an ex-veteran of the U.S. Navy, I am appalled. I spent years of my life defending the rights of others. The only right I can defend of yours is that of free speech, and it burns me to do so.
Have Jewish Americans, as well as Poles, Russians, Gypsies, et cetera, forgotten that had it not been for the fight for democracy involving many different countries during World War II, they probably would have been obliterated from the face of the Earth? I lost most of my family in that war.
Have most Americans forgotten that the only true American is the native American Indian, whom our ancestors stole this land from? We all come from some other place. It is our responsibility to defend democracy in all countries instead of trying to live the lives of isolationists. Remember this: We are not perfect, and we depend upon others to make this world a better place. Stop defrauding your readership into believing that your obviously slanted opinions are news. They are not. They are just opinions. Please state so.
Marla A. Hoyos
Miami Beach
