Letters

Give It Arrest
Tony Ortega's diatribe about Sheriff Joe Arpaio ("Mutiny at the County," April 25) is a first-class rendition of yellow journalism. Very typical of New Times: "El Flasho" took his pot shots (Flashes, April 18) and now it's Ortega.

Page after page of innuendoes, half-truths and outright lies. Without tent city, where would New Times suggest the inmates be housed? Since the article implies that Arpaio isn't doing his job, how come the jails are full? Frankly, who cares if some misguided retired person made an ass of himself in public and exposed himself?

The posse is one of the greatest deterrents to crime in our shopping malls. Since the posse has been patrolling the malls, there has not been one case of carjacking! The merchants along Van Buren are grateful that the whores and pimps are being harassed and forced to leave--something the Phoenix police have not succeeded in doing.

Joe Arpaio has put together an energetic team of real professionals, not political hacks. New Times maligned Tom Bearup, who is a very dedicated, hardworking professional and, yes, underpaid. I know each and every one of these men. I volunteer thousands of hours to the jail system; I know what it was like before and I like it better now. New Times owes Joe Arpaio and Tom Bearup an apology, but it won't--it takes real guts to do that!

John E. Ryon
Scottsdale

With sadistic glee, in the name of deterrence, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has announced a new indignity or deprivation for the inmates of the county jails almost every week since he became sheriff ("Grave Misgivings, Paul Rubin, April 4). A few of these--such as the ban on tobacco--have some justification. Others, like the grave-digging duties and the ban on soft-core porn, have long standing, even though they are announced as "new" policies. The pink underwear is simply inane. Nevertheless, the overall effect of these policies has been horrific as the inmates have been systematically deprived of adequate medical care, decent housing, wholesome food and basic hygiene.

The silence of the leaders of the religious community has been frightening. Now they are protesting the sheriff's policies: Inmates are conducting funerals for the indigent. Pardon the cynicism, but could it be that inmates are trespassing on their lucrative turf? It is difficult to believe that they are motivated by respect for the dead since their callousness to the evils perpetrated on the living is so evident.

One ponders how easily the Nazis bought the cooperation of the Christian establishment with the institution of the church tax. They might have saved themselves the effort if they had only allowed the churches a share of the funerary concession from their mechanized death camps.

Terry Tryon
Glendale

Missed His Cue
I realize that New Times considers every word Marshall W. Mason writes to be sacrosanct, but someone should point out the silly blunder he made in his review of A Raisin in the Sun ("Basic Black," April 18). Mason stated that the 1959 Broadway production "introduced" Sidney Poitier.

In truth, Poitier first appeared on Broadway in 1946; played a leading role in his first film in 1950; and, in 1958, starred in one of his best-known films, The Defiant Ones, for which he received an Academy Award nomination as best actor. The nomination was, in fact, announced less than three weeks before A Raisin in the Sun opened.

Christopher Hawthorne
Phoenix

Shui, It Isn't So
I have been studying feng shui and its principles, and I am associated with Master Pun Yin of New York City ("Qi Whiz--Feng Shui," Terry Greene, April 11). Her lineage, passed down from her father, Master Tin Sun, is respected and revered by many of the top executives and business owners in this country and internationally.

Based on my many conversations with Master Pun Yin, I think that a point needs to be made. Feng shui is not a superstition, religion or cult. It is a true, natural science steeped in tradition and ancient Chinese history. The only true way to perform feng shui is through the use of the lo-pan--an instrument no master could function without. Using the lo-pan takes a minimum of eight years to master.

Because of its popularity and rise to conform with the Western ideal, much has been diluted and misinterpreted by the legions of self-proclaimed feng shui masters. It is true that many of the elements that are present in feng shui analysis are practical, logical and universal, but much more goes into an analysis. It is also true that many of us have the innate ability to feel qi whenever we enter a space. Some of us are more "tuned in" than others.

Just because one has studied the principles of feng shui and is intuitive does not make one a master. I would no more consider consulting with a client for feng shui than performing surgery. We must realize that feng shui is a discipline whose roots are embedded in the Chinese culture, and years of dedication and practice are the key elements to a project's success.

Nancy Frick
Phoenix

Waiting to Inhale
Once again we read about the dangerous emissions expected from Sumitomo-Sitix (Flashes, April 11). Why should we worry about inhaling a little hydrofluoric acid, silver nitrate or lead? Lighten up! Have we not been assured by our politicos and selected scientific "experts" that 99 percent of the maladies afflicting humanity are caused by secondhand smoke?