2002 LETTERS
December
November
October
September
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January

Little Notes

Confessions
Talk About Movies
Roamin' Catholic
Follow Me




Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
October 2002

---

I was led to believe that your newspaper was "liberal" and picked up a copy to see for myself what San Diego calls liberal. Front page (September issue) lambasted Bob Baker for advertising in a gay and lesbian newspaper -- that's liberal [see "Not That Nice"]? My next car most assuredly will come from Bob Baker, as he seems to have an open mind. God made us all. That's inclusive -- all of us -- whether our sexual orientation or our religious orientation or our place of birth , etc. God loves us all no matter what. Yes, I am a "cradle" Catholic, but there are just so many bigots in this "liberal" San Diego area that it's frightening. What are you gonna do? All wear white sheets like the KKK brethren and light crosses at his (Bob's) car lots? Please open your hearts and minds to everybody.

Karen Sage
Via email


OUT OF LINE

A prominent member of the local Catholic community forwarded to me a copy of an article that appear in your publication, the San Diego News Notes [see "Not That Nice"].

In that article you quote me twice via a Pastor Gary Cass. From a pure journalistic standpoint would it have been prudent to verify that a supposed two-year-old quote from me was indeed what I said? Your source hasn't even come close to spelling my last name correctly.

To attack a person like Bob Baker is totally out of line. Bob has done more good for the San Diego community than most. Just because he doesn't discriminate doesn't make him bad. Didn't we drive a group out of Afghanistan because of their discriminatory behavior towards those that they deemed "bad"?

By the way, I too am a life-long Catholic and your group does not represent me.

Dave Ezratty
Bob Baker Auto Group

The article's author, Allyson Smith, resoponds: The quote from Dave Ezratty was taken from a message he left on Pastor Gary Cass' answering machine on July 25, 2000 and transcribed by Cass' wife, Sandy. I apologize for the name spelling error. I tried to call Bob Baker twice for comment, as well as the El Cajon Subaru dealership, but my calls were never returned.


WHAT NICE IS ALL ABOUT

Bob Baker has got it right. It is nice to be nice.

That is why he does not discriminate against others.

That is what nice is all about. Clearly you think discrimination is a good idea. Is that nice?

Earl Trowbridge
Via email


BOB BAKER, EVANGELIST

I am a local Catholic businessman and am not sure I completely understand your article regarding Bob Baker Auto and its homosexual dealings. Let me first say I do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle. I feel it is against God's laws. Having said that, I also don't agree with adultery, stealing, lying, killing, and a host of other mortal sins. If it's not right for me to do business with homosexuals because they may be practicing homosexual acts, in fact committing serious sin, how can I do business with the rest of the population who, I may be wrong about this but even News Notes employees may have committed a few grievous sins from time to time, may be sinning just as grievously.

Is your article implying it is morally wrong to do business with homosexuals and therefore morally wrong to do business with any sinners? Is the homosexual sin somehow worse than other sins? We can take this a step further because some Catholics believe if you are not Catholic you are going to hell. That puts all those non-Catholics in the same boat as homosexuals according to your reasoning.

With whom should a businessman do business with? Is it morally wrong to do business at all given the likely risk we will be doing business with sinners. Especially since Christ declared no one is worthy of heaven but except for the grace of God. I have always done my best to abide by the teachings of the Catholic church in all my dealing, both personal and business. If you believe my reasoning is incorrect please explain it to me.

I admire Bob Baker for his community outreach. Outreach to the entire San Diego community. Christ didn't just hang out with the righteous, neither is Bob Baker. He should be commended for being open about his Catholic faith. By doing that he proclaims his allegiance to a church that openly calls the homosexual lifestyle wrong. I think it's called evangelization.

John Sawaya
Via email

Editor: The point is not who you do business with. All of us do business with sinners; all of us are sinners. The difference in Baker's case is that he promotes the sin by seeking profit through a publication that justifies the sin and advocates its spread. Same thing with his sponsorship of the Gay Pride Parade.

I would hold Baker or anyone responsible if he or anyone advertised in swinger magazines, which also promote intrinsic moral evil, or in papers that pushed lying, stealing, cheating, or killing.


UNIQUE ANGLE

I recently browsed through your back articles on the website www.sdnewsnotes.com and was caught by the title: "Hellish Purity" (May, 2000). I enjoyed reading that unusual piece.

The author's unique angle -- a first-hand investigation into today's youth subculture -- was a refreshing alternative to the usual things you read about youth culture. Usually the pop culture is either glorified or castigated; there's little sympathetic objectivity either way, unlike the approach by McCoy.

Congratulations.

P.S. As a native San Diegan living in the diaspora on the East Coast, I've enjoyed reading SDNN.

Thomas Bates
Center Harbor, NH


THOMAS MORE SPINS IN GRAVE

My husband and I have been receiving the News Notes for quite some time now (though for the life of me, I have no clue as to how we got on your mailing list).

It's gratifying to know that some of the observations we've made over the last three decades are being validated by those in this paper -- gratifying but discouraging because there seems to be no rectification of the downward spiral the Church here in San Diego continues to take. The information in this last issue (September) got me so "steamed" (to put it mildly) I couldn't calm down for the rest of the day. I believe my blood pressure must have jumped up forty points!

In particular the following articles "hit a nerve": "Who Watches the Watchdogs," "Not That Nice," "Confessions," and "Pro-Abortion State Assemblyman Juan Vargas." About the only article that held out some hope was "Follow Me."

"Who Watches the Watchdogs" especially angered me since my daughter currently is a third-year law student there. During the open-house tour that I took with her two years ago, the first-year law student that was our guide mentioned that while USD is a Catholic university, religion has nothing to do with the law school. (You can say that again!) His demeanor almost conveyed the message that he was apologetic that it even had the (apparently) nominal Catholic connection. To add to that my daughter requested that I not speak so loudly when I made the observation that one of the professors seemed to act like a homosexual. She stated, "I might want to go to school here." She again cautioned me to silence when another professor matter-of-factly stated that law is not about right and wrong, justice, etc. It's about providing the best argument. Now I've heard that morally bankrupt stance quoted by obviously worldly academics, but I never thought I'd hear it sanctioned in a "Catholic" school of law! Upon leaving the law school lobby I looked at St. Thomas More's bust and thought that he must be turning over in his grave at today's status of his legal profession -- especially as taught in "Catholic" institutions.

To top off my day I had to listen to the priest saying First Friday Mass at the Mission go on in glowing terms about the new Los Angeles cathedral he recently toured. The more he described it, the angrier I felt myself becoming. It sounded like Cardinal Mahony built something that is a cross between a shopping mall and a city community center with the outside appearance and "charm" of a prison (if pictures are any indication). The priest actually seemed positive about the fact that this building is not only for Catholic use. All sorts of religions and groups (the nature of which I can only imagine at this point) will be utilizing its meeting rooms and cafeteria. "Of course" the Blessed Sacrament is housed in some side room, hidden like some crazy relative locked in the basement or attic. Another "selling point" was that the Catholic people didn't have to pay a cent for this monstrosity. All kinds of big businesses gave all the money for its construction. To discover who they were one could read the wall on which the donors were listed. (Who says the Church is not for sale?) Finally the priest mentioned how Cardinal Mahony was signing his autograph on the programs people were presenting to him. How "perfect" a touch is that?

Please keep up the good work in exposing and holding accountable the behavior of those in the Church entrusted with the care and guidance of the flock.

Does the Vatican know about this? Does it receive a copy of News Notes? If not, send me an extra copy, and I'll gladly send it to Rome .

Nancy
North Park

Editor: Copies of News Notes are sent each month to the major Vatican offices and to the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C.


BISHOPS SHOULD PICK LETTUCE

I wrote the following letter to these publications in the last three weeks: Time Magazine, San Diego Union-Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and the Southern Cross.

It would be a noble gesture for the bishops and cardinals who covered up their priests' abuses to do 100 hours of community service -- picking lettuce in the fields, painting houses in depressed areas, work in soup kitchens.

It would be a good penance for them and great for their humility. Also it would be a terrific morale boost for us scandalized Catholics.

Raymond A. Alan

TOP