Letters

As a mom, I can assure Dougherty, my son would never be "duping" me out of a fortune. I would be arranging for him to have what he needed, legally. I would be ensuring that I could give him what he needed when he needed it. And, I'd make damn sure I lived past the six-months-after-bankruptcy deadline.

Quit bashing the governor for having a good mom. No wonder John Dougherty got bopped. He was trying to irritate. He is on a vendetta. How's his mom?

Brenda Savage
via Internet

No Kidding
Thanks for the article titled "Nice Land" (Tony Ortega, July 10). I would like to clarify one important point if I may. The paragraph stating that "The Haneses had battled with [Kelly] Helton for custody of Zenith for years" is misleading. The Haneses were not involved in a custody case. The consent form that Zenith's mother, Kelly Helton, signed (pictured on the Haneses' Web site) was a consent to adoption.

As adoptive parents, the Haneses had custody of their grandchild until the adoption was dismissed without a hearing more than two years later. There are some links on the Haneses' Web site pointing to articles which discuss the differences between "custody" and "adoption." As a layperson in these matters, I found this information to be very educational and useful in understanding a case such as this one.

Laura Valentino
via Internet

Grandparents frequently find themselves raising children again because their grown children do not put the interests of their children first. Most parents do, but there is a large number that gets involved with drugs, puts "significant" others first or simply doesn't want to be bothered raising children.

The children live with the grandparents and bond with them. The grandparents fully support the children, often on a limited income because they are retired. Some have health problems. Some don't have their grandchildren legally. By that I mean they don't have guardianship. So they go into hiding because they don't want the system to take the child/children.

I am neither defending or condemning what the Haneses did relative to their granddaughter, Zenith Helton, but there is a human side to this story that goes beyond the legal side.

Janelle Osborn
via Internet

I appreciate New Times' coverage of the Hanes-Helton case, but would like to point out another perspective. Many were outraged with the Baby Richard case when that child was forced to return to his natural parents. What is so different about the Hanes case? Was the baby not given up voluntarily for adoption? Didn't the mother change her mind two years later? What about Zenith Helton's rights to live with those she has known as "mom and dad"?

Grandparents who take in and raise their children's children are often treated as criminals when the natural parents want the children back. But when the case involves a child adopted by strangers, many side with the adoptive parents.

This is not a matter of deciding to whom Zenith Helton belongs, but, rather, a matter of who was there for her and who loved, bonded with and cared for her in those crucial early stages. It is a matter of uprooting a child once again and taking her from those who have loved her and those whom she loves.

Terry Hubbard
via Internet

Cut and Print
I'm used to seeing an incredible amount of garbage passing as news in New Times' Flashes section, but this time it has gone too far (July 10). How dare The Flash criticize our beloved film critic, Bob Fenster? Doesn't he know genius when he sees it?

What Brooks Atkinson was to Broadway, what Edmund Wilson was to literature, Bob Fenster is to the cinema of our day. Only he has the acumen to detect the true classics, the masterpieces that will live through the ages: Showgirls, Hudson Hawk, Mars Attacks!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fenster calls them as he sees them, and he sees them right.

I speak for many when I say that I support Fenster 100 percent in his dislike of the downbeat dramatic films most critics praise. Valley audiences know what they're doing when they rely on his magnificently written critiques. Lots of laughs and none of this depressing serious stuff--that's the Valley, a place of our time, and Bob Fenster is the critic of our time. Long may he reign!

Phil I. Stine
Phoenix

Bias Fear
My cousin, an employee of Motorola Space and Systems Technology Group, tells me that Motorola has a group of white women and men that dresses like Aunt Jemima and pickaninnies every Halloween at Motorola ("Is Motorola Harboring Diversity or Disrespect?", Amy Silverman, June 19). To date, I was told there have been three racial incidents of this kind! To read that Motorola, the largest federal government contractor in Arizona, is mocking the ancestry of African Americans is very painful.

Unless CEO Christopher Galvin exercises true leadership, Motorola in the Valley will be unable to attract the best and brightest employees. What responsible American would subject himself to the atmosphere of intolerance and ignorance Galvin and others have condoned at Motorola?

It is time for African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Jews and whites to send a strong message to Motorola that we will not tolerate racism in the workplace. We invite Galvin to join us in condemning the racism at Motorola and be a catalyst for change, or see the public support for Motorola and its products dwindle.

I am expressing my support for Doris and Maceo Gray, who are being victimized by Motorola until this matter is settled.

Rodney Tucker
Phoenix

It is puzzling to read Amy Silverman's rant about a black Motorola employee who believes that it was a sign of racism that a supervisor spoke down to her. Supervisors talk down to employees of all races. Join the real world.

Perhaps it would be better to force such black people to go through racial-sensitivity training, because white people will resist (at least the normal, red-blooded ones will) treating co-workers as sacred cows and walk on eggshells around them. It was wrong to make blacks scapegoats and project evil onto them, yet it is equally wrong to protect them from the vicissitudes of life.

Amy Silverman presumes that the people at Motorola mistreated the protagonists of her simple-minded fiction because of the color of their skin. Yet, academic and professional achievements notwithstanding, black people need to get along with co-workers. How many white people are denied raises and promotions they believe they deserve? Tons. There's only so much room at the top, and contentious troublemakers with unrealistic expectations are not going to be on anybody's fast track.

When a black person joins a company, he slits his own throat by naming himself as a black person rather than an individual, asking co-workers to bear the burden of guilt for everything any white person ever did to a black one, whenever he feels slighted. The hostility and mistrust blacks feel toward bosses and co-workers bear little relation, oftentimes, to the actual slight.

People are sick of the self-serving "you owe me" mentality that blacks take with them from colleges and universities, and they are sick of journalists and government officials who refuse to look at both sides of a dispute, and overlook bad character in blacks.

Robert Barber Jr.
Phoenix

Unfortunately, it is not only African Americans who experience disrespect and basement ceilings in this society. Hispanics have had the same. Motorola is not the only "large" company who uses reductions in force and similar tactics. American Express has for many years discriminated, disrespected, created "Diversity" programs to look good and as a bandage to cover up what really goes on here.

Quotas are filled and so-called reviews are used to the company's advantage. In this "right-to-work state," it seems that discrimination based on race, age, etc., anything, can be labeled a business decision, and the companies can get away with anything they want.

When is someone going to be willing to investigate without worrying about his pocketbook, and protect the rights of people who just want a good job, and an opportunity for growth just like anyone else? I, for one, won't hold my breath.

Name withheld

Amy Silverman's article about discrimination at Motorola is discriminatory in itself. I have worked at Motorola for 10 years and have never seen any race discrimination toward blacks. Just the opposite: I have seen blacks being catered to, getting promotions, getting away with wrongdoings that whites, Hispanics and Indians would get fired for, and having more leeway in bad attendance and write-ups.

Where does Silverman get off writing what goes on inside Motorola? Does she work here? The plant referred to is known to have a lot of layoffs because of the government. Would Silverman be happy if she ran Motorola out of the Valley? It's a good place to work: Ask the blacks, the Hispanics, the Indians and the Asians and everyone else who works here. We are one big, happy family, and we get along well with the other races.

All Silverman is doing is creating hate and causing blacks to turn against the rest of the world. Why just blacks, anyway? Why not Hispanics, Indians, Asians or whatever we may happen to be? Look at people for what they are inside. A lot of us don't even think about the color of another's skin until we read something like Amy Silverman's article. All New Times is doing is starting trouble.

Name withheld

Hit the Road
I've lived in all 50 states, and I've seen all types of "transit" problems ("Trainplotting," Howard Stansfield, July 3). Quit talking! Do something, people! Action is more meaningful than words or broken promises. Wake up! Reality is: We want clean air, transit services and to please the people. But we spend too much money planning and wasting time. Concentrate on one project and make it better. Let's not create another project (train) to worry about.

When I moved here, I kept hearing about smog tests. I thought I was in Seattle again, because for some time that city did the same thing as we are doing: running tests, talking, planning. One thing there stood out: Buses run seven days a week, 23 hours a day. If the city offers the service, we will ride!

Jim Bates
Glendale

How Do You Spell UFO?
New Times printed several letters to the editor (July 10) trashing Frances Emma Barwood because she asked for an investigation into a UFO appearance in the Valley on March 13. There is an establishment effort to discredit Barwood, and the press is only too ready to jump on the bandwagon. The establishment fears Barwood because she is an honest person who will not sell out her integrity and her own beliefs.

Those maintaining the status quo are fools and imbeciles without integrity. Yes, sir, the establishment and controlled media do fear Barwood, or anyone else who stands up with truth and integrity, for that exposes the idiots, fools and imbeciles who have set in place the present status quo and who are destroying our country and society as fast as they can. The media and press in the old days used to give some semblance of the truth, but, since the 1960s, we only get the canned, brainwash stories the status quo uses to brainwash the public with. The problem with that is none shall survive the coming total extinction of all life on Earth if it continues any longer.

Carl L. McBrayer
Phoenix

Tony Ortega's story about Mitch Stanley is essentially correct ("The Great UFO Cover-up," June 26). I disagree that what was seen was airplanes; however, there is a good probability that these were Stealth helicopters. While returning from Puerto Penasco one evening months ago, some of these helicopters flew over my car. They are painted black, and although they were probably less than 100 feet above me, I could not hear them through the open window of my car.

I think the March 13 incident was staged by the U.S. military to demonstrate to other militaries the technology that has been developed. The lights were standard battlefield floodlights typically mounted to helicopters. That five to seven aircraft could run silently and have no radar signature proves the technology. I believe that an overflight of a populated area was chosen to reinforce the point to foreign militaries.

Brian Boles
via Internet

Cannon Brawl
Max Cannon's comic strip, Red Meat, totally reeks! It absolutely makes no sense whatsoever. I want to know how much he gets paid, because if it's anything decent, I'm going to his boss and I am going to get his job. Just because he can draw (which I question if he is really doing) does not make him a funny person.

If Cannon's crap work doesn't show a noticeable improvement, I will be sending a complaint to the editor asking that he be fired. I'm not saying this to be cruel, and I can't possibly be the first to say this. Get with the program, Max Cannon, or start looking for another job. Copy somebody or read the newspapers and look for something funny and coincidental.

JHP
via Internet