Great article! ("Tale Of Two Cities," May 17-23) Bed Stuy is a great community that continues to foster family values in spite of the media's often glaring image of it being a crime infested neighborhood riddled with neglect.
- Urban I.D.
Brooklyn, NY
Jim, you ignorant slut. Jack Kerouac's On The Road is the greatest American novel. It's about a guy named Dean Moriarty and another guy named Sal Paradise that travel all over the country for three years sharing adventures in California, Colorado, Louisiana, New York and even outside of the United States in Mexico. They're very literary!
- Richard
State College, PA
In Mugger's latest column he admits defeat ("Dime Store History," May 17-23), not openly, he's not the type, but like Nixon did when he stated that he "was not a crook." Mugger contends with the notion that Dubya is possibly one of the US's worst presidents. By simply addressing the notion Mugger admits that he has to face it, because it feels, looks and sounds so true. He makes himself feel better because he takes on a Princeton professor but he admits, yet again, the truth (that continues to hide even to himself) by contradicting himself; at one point he calls Wilentz's piece a "critical artifact" and then later sees Wilentz as just another "partisan Democrat." Which one is it, Mugger? If he's just a partisan Democrat, then why take him seriously? It is what he is saying and not who he is that gets up Mugger's nose: the ugly truth that the man you consider a great President has done true damage to the American people, to the country and to all that it stands for.
Then again, should we expect anything different from this monied pundit? Mugger voted with his feet. He high-tailed it out of downtown New York and currently hides in a white enclave of Baltimore in a McMansion. We New Yorkers know exactly what that is: a wuss and worse, a wuss with money. Those of us who work, live and continue to raise children in this great City face the truth about Bush through the scars left by 9/11. His war was badly planned, and is built on lies. No one can stop us from getting hit again, and we'll deal with that too because we are the brave and the strong and we do represent, in our souls, democracy and liberty. Mugger, you ran, you fled after the fact. As you put it, yours is a "Dime Story History," as defunct as Woolworths.
- Peter C