Letters to the Editor

What You Say

In [Cover Story, "The Unbearable Plight of Wireless-less-ness," Katherine Silkaitis, Nov. 8, 2007], you missed a real problem. I called EarthLink WiFi's 800 number to sign up and asked the sales rep a few questions. One question was, "How much to cancel if I don't like it?" The answer was more than $100! I double-checked by calling the Mayor's Action Center. Eventually, someone called me and said it would be somewhere between zero and $60 depending on whether I bought or rented equipment. This took over a week. Needless to say, I did not subscribe to Wireless Philadelphia.

Marvin Lewis
Northeast Philadelphia

After months ofsporadically jumping on the wireless signals of neighbors, and a few times paying to access the Starbucks/Barnes & Noble network, I bit the bullet and signed up for EarthLink. I was psyched about thecheap monthly fee and looked forward to unlimited access all over town, even on a SEPTA bus. When my welcome box arrived, it held a wireless card which I never ordered, plus I had a nearly $100 fee on my credit card. Even worse, I had no signal in my house. Like the guy in your story, the technicianalleged that they did, indeed, have service in my area, but experience proved that getting service required sitting on my front stoop. Needless to say, I called to dispute the charge on my credit card and, with dismay, canceled my contract. EarthLink is unreliable, period, and Ihavespoken with two other people who've had similar problems. So much for Wireless Philly — it's more like Wireless-less Philly.

Name Withheld
Center City

I need to bring to your attention the fact that the use of the word "tranny" to describe a transgender person is both extremely derogatory and hurtful [CP Choice Awards, "Cutest Tranny-Friendly Gender-Specific Album Art," M.J. Fine, Nov. 1, 2007]. The use of the word "tranny" is equal to that of using the f-word to describe a gay person or the n-word to describe an African-American person. Surely you would print neither one of those terms in your paper. As a transgender person myself, I would like to request an apology and the immediate termination of the word in any future publication.

Jenna Ryan
Fishtown

[News, "Beating the PPA," John Davidson, Nov. 8, 2007] makes me wish I hadn't paid all my tickets!

Jamil Williams
Feltonville

I've been amazed and appalled at the sudden visibility of Ron Paul and his presidential candidacy [The Clog, "The Revolution Will Not Be Covered Live," Brian Hickey, Nov. 9, 2007]. It's a lesson to all activists in how to mobilize support and get attention to a relatively quiet cause, and it's frustrating that it's in support of a candidate as frightening as Paul. Part of the problem may be the superficiality of political exposure in this election season. Paul comes off terrifically well to liberals watching Republican debates — after all, he's anti-war — especially because these debates never give Paul the opportunity to talk about his fervent belief in the New World Order; his hatred for gay rights, the environment and the right to choose; or to repeat the statement which the Houston Chronicle reported in 1996: "If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be."

The criminal behavior of black men is a favorite [topic] of Paul, who wrote, "Our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists — and they can be identified by the color of their skin."

I can only hope this is a surprise to Paul's supporters; many of them, as far as I can tell, are good liberals who simply didn't take the time to research. Paul's opinions on a single issue have blinded lefty supporters to his actual politics. I understand the draw of a strong anti-war candidate, but I won't forgive every other position Paul's taken.

Matthew Sullivan
Via e-mail