Failed tactics
Thank you for running Frank Bures' "Why Fair Wisconsin Lost" column (11/17/06). He hit the nail on the head. We're tired of hearing folks look for a silver lining from the passage of the marriage amendment. There isn't one! After all that money and volunteer power, the end result was the same as polls indicated two years ago.
The fact that Arizona and South Dakota did better than Wisconsin is shameful. Fair Wisconsin's tactics clearly failed us ' they didn't impassion our supporters or challenge the beliefs of our opponents. We're as angry at Fair Wisconsin as we are at the ignorant citizens who voted to desecrate our constitution.
Chad LaFlash, Dale Decker
Big city? No!
Regarding the letter to the editor from Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz (10/13/06): I moved to Madison from Chicago in 1975. Since then I have been disabused of a number of misconceptions about the city and the university, but I could not have imagined a time when we would have a mayor who wanted this town to be a big city.
Unfortunately, it is true that we are stuck with getting bigger ' in good part because politicians like Mayor Dave encourage massive legal and illegal immigration as they enshrine diversity as a value. This growth itself underlies the majority of the problems we face ' traffic congestion, sprawl, a declining water table, crowded schools, unaffordable housing ' you name it.
In Mayor Dave's vision, he provides ever more costly and complex solutions for these problems as they pile up. He and we should face up to the fact that we are forced to spend most of our effort just managing and ameliorating the results of population growth and not creating some ideal big city.
Chuck Litweiler
Queen Anne's birth control
Dear Cecil Adams: The wild carrot or Queen Anne's lace that one finds along the roadside growing wild every summer is absolutely beautiful ("Birth Control, Roman-Style," 10/13/06). People have eaten wild carrot from the time the settlers brought it over to have it handy whenever the need for an abortion arose. Oh, yes. It almost became extinct in England, since so many resorted to it. That is also the reason it was brought to the U.S.
Why do we not hear anything about it? Why isn't it made common knowledge? Perhaps if there is something wrong in using Queen Anne's lace to induce an abortion, people should be warned about it. Remember, your job is to keep the college crowds informed. Do your duty!
Inez M. Stewart, West Baraboo
Safe Haven's work
Your article "A Sex Offender Catch-22" raised valid questions about both homelessness and criminal corrections, but it contained a small error (Watchdog, 11/17/00). Safe Haven is neither UW-affiliated nor is it a psychiatric facility. Safe Haven is a 14-bed homeless shelter on the north side of Madison that that works exclusively with adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
Our shelter is operated by Porchlight Inc. and has been in this community for 11 years. Our goals are to provide emergency shelter and help people obtain transitional or permanent housing as well as provide general services that ease the difficulties of homelessness.
Charles Laskey-Castle, shelter coordinator
Letters we don't run: Isthmus only prints letters that pertain to subjects raised in our pages. We do not print open letters to the community, letters sent to other publications, or unsigned letters. The name of a letter writer may be withheld, but only if a compelling reason is given. For verification purposes, all letters must include the writer's address and phone number.
