Letters

Mucho gracias, Sharman

Sharman:

I want to thank you for your January 15, 2008 column regarding the downtown merchants because it let me know that both my marketing team and myself need to do a better job of keeping downtown merchants in the loop with respect to my condominium project.

For the record, St. Louis Lofts was substantially complete in October 2007. Punch list work was completed in November and we started closing sales in December. We actually have residents living in the project!

The folks at Dauphin Realty are planning some sort of event at St. Louis Lofts for the downtown merchants to introduce them to the development. I do not know yet when that event will be scheduled.

In the interim, if you have not had a chance to tour the project, I would like to invite you to do so.

Steven Barr

More flag flap

To the editor:

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your article in the Jan. 30 issue of Lagniappe. I was born and raised in Mobile and recently moved to Washington DC. A few of my friends from other cities and states have gotten wind of the flags in Mobile and it is embarrassing, to say the least.

This only helps to further promote the stereotypes of racism and ignorance in our great city. Mobile has the potential to be a leading city in the southeast, but it doesn’t help for things like this to occur. I am glad to see that there are indeed some proactive people speaking out.

Benjamin Bernson

Washington, DC

To the editor:

To Mrs. Stuart and Mr. Kearns’ response to the article by Mr. Holbert on the flying of the confederate battle flag next to I-10. It is hard to comprehend the fact there are people in the 21st century who still feel or wish to feel that the War Between the States is still going on. It is this kind of inane thinking that reinforces the belief (with just cause?) of many that most if not all Southerners are nothing more than a bunch of inbred (brother/sister, father/daughter, mother/son) redneck hillbilly racist bigots. If that’s the image you want to send, then fly your silly flag. Me, I’m ashamed to be lumped into that group.

You say many brave and honorable men fought and died for that flag, well if you want to play that game fine, the same could be said for the men who fought and died for Germany in WWII. What is the difference? Not all of those men were Nazis, just as not all the men who fought for the South were slave owners, but the fact remains that they both fought for evil regimes. The South started the war by firing on Ft. Sumter not the other way around. The South lost the war they started because their cause was evil, nothing more nothing less.

It is time that a certain segment of the south growup (sic) and get a life, the war is over, deal with it, we are all Americans not northerners and southerners just Americans, nothing more nothing less.

If Dr. George wants to fly the battle flag fine, fly it in a confederate cemetery not out on I-10. The south doesn’t need any more black eyes. Mobile is on the move and is moving in the right direction, let’s not spoil it with moronic stunts like the I-10 battle flag. If you want to fly a flag at that spot I suggest the Alabama state flag or the City of Mobile flag or both. Let’s show some pride in ourselves and move forward and not try to live a shameful part of the South’s past.

Bobbi Ann Johnson

A progressive Southern girl

Mobile

To the editor:

My name is Kacey Barrett. I’m 13 years old and I’m from Selma Alabama. Your article is a disgrace to me, my family, and every southern person who believes in everything the rebel flag stands for! Since you apparently have NO idea what the rebel flag stands for, let me give you a history lesson.

The rebel flag stands for the civil war veterans that fought for our half of this beautiful country and the southern heritage that has ran through our veins for centuries! If your going to come along and write an article like that about the rebel flag, I just have one thing to say to you. Get out of our neck of the woods!!! No one appreciates that article. I don’t know what you were trying to do when you pulled that ’’stunt’’.

We southerners aren’t any less smart than you are. The rebel flag is NOT a sign of racism and that is what you’re trying you say. You don’t know anything about southern people, so don’t write about anything southern! I don’t see anybody writing articles about the black panthers!

If you don’t know who they are, let me explain it to you. The black panthers were the Negro version of the KKK. Also, you wrote an article on one rebel flag on the side of the road. Why didn’t you address something more important? Like the millions of people (males) that are walking around with their pants around their knees! We don’t wont to see their butts!!!!

Just because someone wants to support their family heritage, an idiot like you who doesn’t even know what the rebel flag stands for, has to write a bogus article about a bunch of crap!! Were you trying to impress you’re boss on how bad of a job you can make up something you know nothing about? If that was the case, than you did a terrific job!! Just to give you a little heads up, all of our clothes fit! Also I’m glad you don’t want to park your vehicle near someone who has a rebel flag on their vehicle, because they probably don’t want a yella belly city slicker next to them anyway!!!!!!!

Don’t you even dare try to say the rebel flag has no ’’historical importance’’, and then you have the nerve to put blah, blah, blah behind that ignorant statement. To add to that, you have the boldness to say that the flag is ridiculous (and not the good kind of boldness that smart brave southern people have, its the kind of boldness that ignorant city slickers that are afraid to get their hands dirty have).

Have you ever heard the term southern hospitality? I have southern hospitality. Actually 99.9999999% southern people have it, until someone criticizes their family, church or heritage. Guess what Mr. Holbert, you criticized almost every southern person in the United States. I hope you’re happy with turning every person who supports the rebel flag against you. By the way, that’s half the country. So if you don’t like the rebel flag, get in your car and go up north. I hope you don’t run out of gas, because no southern person is going to help you because you criticized or heritage!

Have a nice day Mr.Holbert. Yall write back “Ya-Here!!!!”

Editor’s note: I weep for the future.

ESho encapsulation correct

To the editor:

Your Jubilee columnist got at least one thing right: it’s too dangerous to walk/bike on the Eastern Shore! It’s easier to put a man on the moon than to get red-state drivers to slow down a little, actually stop at stop signs and hang up the phone. Politicians here in NASCAR country don’t get re-elected promising to give out more tickets either.

So called “connectivity” between neighborhoods is dying of the NIMBY syndrome: folks want to be able to speed through someone else’s neighborhood, but not allow it in their own.

James Watkins

Fairhope

‘Extremely’ upset

To the editor:

While I do not read the Lagniappe religiously, I have read it enough to respect the articles that make it up. However, after reading the article about the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition “madness,” I could not help but feel angry.

I served as a volunteer for four of the days that the Extreme Makeover team constructed a new home for the Gaudet family. Being that I was a volunteer, I felt that your “social butterfly” depicted a negative image of the cast and crew of this wonderful show. While she mentioned all of the terrible things that resulted from the team being in Mobile, she did not think to tell your readers about the remarkable things that resulted from the experience.

For example, designers Ed Sanders, Didiayer Snyder, Johnny Littlefield, and Michael Moloney were all incredibly generous to all of the volunteers and to the spectators who showed up every day. The main task was to complete a house for the Gaudet family, but the crew did so much more than that. Ed Sanders and Michael Moloney took time on the day of the reveal to visit with the campers from Camp Smile, taking pictures and signing numerous autographs. Didiayer “Didi” Snyder and Johnny Littlefield went above and beyond for the fans and volunteers; they were ALWAYS signing autographs and posing for pictures. These are just some of the examples of their kindness.

Your writer also mentioned that Ty Pennington was seen leaving Veet’s “with some girl,” and implied that she might have gotten some love from Pennington. I think that it is a bit unprofessional to recognize this and say that you are not skeptical of it. Ty Pennington does, in fact, have a serious girlfriend, Andrea Bock, who also happens to be his manager.

Your writer portrayed the security guards as extremely rude. Once again, as a volunteer, I cannot say that I ever saw a security guard acting unkind to any of the people working at the site. As a matter of fact, most of the people I ran into were MORE than nice; I had an incredibly positive experience. Overall, I have to say that I was unbelievably disappointed by the image the Lagniappe painted of the entire Extreme Makeover experience. Because of your article, the crew and the designers came across as terrible human beings, and that is not acceptable. The good that came out of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s visit to Mobile far outweighed the bad, and I hope that people will see that when the episode airs on the twenty-third of March.

Sarah Lubitz

Mobile

Freshman at the University of South Alabama

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