Wicked Indeed
Toil and trouble: Thank you to Francisco Alvarado for keeping an eye on Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas and her dirty campaign tactics in "The Witch's Way" (Riptide, July 10). Her history of "investigating" and intimidating anyone who dares to cross her is a page out of Castro's Cuba. Seijas and her emissary are on weak ground in threatening opposition candidate Lourdes Aguirre with charges that Aguirre was unwise to involve a nonprofit in her political activity.
Seijas is a veteran of blurring the lines between county business and her personal campaigns. Through her no-show job at the YMCA ("Wicked, Part 2," February 1, 2007), she rakes in donations for her campaigns and for the YMCA from her big developer buddies. In return, these donors are honored by the YMCA ("Y? Because We Like You!" Riptide 2.0, November 10, 2006), and Seijas makes sure the organization and the developers get favorable votes from the county.
Aguirre, on the other hand, has done none of this, but Seijas felt compelled to threaten the nonprofit that Aguirre chairs, Miami Bethany Community Services, with the elimination of county funding. It is no secret that Seijas has amassed great power by calling in Katherine Fernandez-Rundle to "investigate." The money and man-hours spent on the two-year investigation of the people involved in the recall of Seijas is obscene. Seijas will issue her usual threats to Hialeah's elderly voters that they will lose their benefits if she is not in power, and she will run buses for free breakfast before going to the polls.
The sad part is, if Seijas were a decent person voting in the best interest of all of Miami-Dade, she would not have to stoop to such trickery.
Alas, trickery seems to work with her district's voters.
L. Curry
Miami
Shades of Gay
Not that there's anything wrong with that: Regarding the story about mixed martial arts, "Gaytastic!" (Elyse Wanshel, July 10): Great article! Loved it. I actually used to go to a gym where they had jujitsu classes. I'm a gay guy and, let me tell you, I used to get so turned on by watching those guys. It's so homoerotic, really. And the worst part is that they were all ripped like hell, hot, tall, lean, muscular, and beautiful. I wanted to join the class just to do that grab where you sit behind your opponent and hug him. My cousin, who's straight, used to go with me to the gym and he liked the lessons, too — that is, until one day, when we were watching a class from the window and I told him: "I would die to be in that position with that cutie." He started laughing and said I was gross and that all I thought of was sex. But then I told him to look again and tell me if that position wasn't a little bit gay, and he said, "You know what? I think you're right, and now I can't get that image out of my head, so I'll never join that class just because of that." Maybe my cousin was truly one of those with a "preference for the females of the species."
Camilo Gomez
Miami Beach
That's just what it takes: Congratulations on your cover story. I want to let you know what I think: If you wanna kick ass in UFC, you can't be scared to squish your genitalia (nice and close) up against another man. If you can't get over that little speed bump, you'll lose. It's a butt-ugly fact of human battle that to be the manly man, you gotta be a little gay. It's not pink-thong-glitter-body gay, but it's slick-flesh-on-slick-flesh-in-between-legs gay. If you are secure in your sexuality, it's fine to be a little gay in order to kick ass, if that's what you want to do. You're not pookin' the guy.
Joe Eknaian
Jacksonville
Photophobia
Handled better elsewhere: Apropos your article "Put That Camera Down!" (Carlos Miller, July 10): I thought you might be interested in a similar experience I had with Palmetto Bay police in March. To the unit's credit, a sergeant phoned me after receiving my complaint and asked if he could come to my house for a chat. The sergeant was quite affable and apologized sincerely for the actions taken by one of his officers. I just wanted to let you know this kind of photophobia might be occurring more often than you or I had thought.
Richard Freedland
Palmetto Bay
