Letters

Healthy stuff

Thank you very much for your interest and coverage in the Dec. 8 issue concerning the activities and services of the Orange County Health Department `"Wash Your Hands," Dec. 8`. It was a terrific opportunity to educate and engage the public in essential public health services that affect our entire community. We look forward to a continued trend of building awareness surrounding the importance of preventative and public health messages as we work to lead the way to healthier communities.

We especially appreciate Billy `Manes'` sincere interest in public health and his diligence in delivering a positive and accurate reflection of the Orange County Health Department.

Kevin Sherin, director

Orange County Health Department

Watch your step, Don

Bob Whitby: Your recent comments that supporters of Jan Hall "ooze out of the slime" `"Cheap shots," Dec. 29` prompts this letter.

Your comments are typical of the '60s activists who like to claim the moral high ground while resorting to lies, distortion and character assassination. When faced with logic they resort to emotional hysterics.

Well, you and the other six stooges (and I thought there were only three) that attacked Jan's supporters probably thought your right to the moral high ground and superior intellect gave you the right to throw mud without being answered. Wrong! If you are the best the Orlando Weekly could hire for an editor, you folks are in big trouble. If I ever fall into a septic tank, I will be sure to look you and the other six stooges up.

Don Branch, Kissimmee

Just us jackasses

I'd like to respond to one of the pieces in your recent story "Cheap Shots" `Dec. 29` in which you in effect condemn former schoolteacher Jan Hall and her supporters for being racists.

You seem to forget something. That letter she wrote that got her into trouble was a private letter written to a number of public officials and never intended for publication. It only became so when some unnamed, unscrupulous, unaccountable bureaucrat got hold of the letter and without Mrs. Hall's knowledge or permission, evidently translated that letter from English into Spanish and passed it on to El Nuevo Dia, whose editorial board, in a stunning display of a total lack of journalistic integrity, went ahead and, once again without Mrs. Hall's knowledge or permission, published the letter.

Frankly, if entities really deserve to be pilloried in this matter, it's not Mrs. Hall. It was that aforementioned unnamed bureaucrat, the editorial board of El Nuevo Dia and all of you jackasses in the local media who were so upset by what Mrs. Hall said that you kept downplaying the real issue at hand, namely the lack of scruples and integrity shown by a bureaucrat and a newspaper's editorial board.

I mean, you're upset (and quite rightly so) at the recent revelations about President Bush spying on our fellow citizens without a warrant, but you don't have a problem with a nameless, faceless, unaccountable bureaucrat passing on a constituent's private letter to the press without her permission or knowledge?

Why is one OK and not the other?

Russell Mitchell, Orlando

Department of Corrections

Last week, Happytown™ erroneously reported that the local Democratic executive committee sent state Rep. Sheri McInvale's GOP opponent a $15,000 check before the 2004 general election. The money actually went to McInvale's Democratic opponent in the primary election.