Letters to the Editor

Female Football
Thanks for your adorable letter: The cover of your Jan. 23 issue referred to "the chaotic, unsuccessful, and utterly charming first year of the San Francisco Tsunami." The cover story ("Unsportsmanlike Conduct") makes it pretty clear that the team was chaotic and unsuccessful, but charming? I don't think so. These are strong, tough players who (perhaps to their detriment) don't take any guff from anyone. This is hardly the usual definition of "charming."

Would an equally disorganized football team be described as "charming" if the players were male? Why did the editors feel the need to use "charming" when the adjective had nothing to do with the story? Is it really necessary to slap on such a condescending label just because the people being talked about happen to have vaginas?

Kirsten Chevalier
Berkeley

A pep talk from the coach: Thank you for the honest and true story about our team.

Mark Dorton
Offensive Line Coach
San Francisco Tsunami
Oakland

Shooing Horses
A horse of a different color: For the record, I had no intention of euthanizing my horse on the steps of City Hall to make a political statement ("Horse Senseless," Matt Smith, Jan. 23, on owners who are refusing to remove their horses from the Golden Gate Park stables to allow for renovations). That statement was made in anger. I told Matt Smith that I would never do anything like that. You have portrayed me as a cold, cruel, inhumane person. That is simply not true. I love my horse very much. We have a special bond, the kind that Mr. Smith or your paper for that matter would not understand.

We [the remaining boarders] are not staking our claim or being selfish. We for the most part have boarded horses at the park for 25 years or more. I have been a boarder for 31 years. We are not looking for exclusive rights to the barn. If the barn closes, it will never reopen. The barn was successfully run for over 51 years, prior to the management from hell.

We want to see the barn returned to the public. There should be affordable programs, at-risk-youth programs, after-school programs, PE classes in horseback riding, handicapped riding programs. The present operators catered to the wealthy, mostly white population.

As for the statement about our not looking for another facility, that is totally untrue. We have all been looking for other facilities that could accommodate our horses. My horse JoJo has several physical problems that need to be monitored closely. I have not been able to find a facility that could accommodate his needs. If I could not see JoJo on a regular basis, he would lose his will to live. There is no way I could see him daily if I had to move him to Marin or Woodside. The most humane thing to do would be to euthanize him.

If you are going to print a story, get the facts -- all the facts.

Kathy Mroz
Outer Sunset

Sermon on their mounts: I found your article disingenuous and misleading. It is untrue that the stables are a "subsidized" gift to a privileged few. The stables were built by the WPA as part of a program that constructed many public amenities as an economic stimulus package during the Great Depression. No operator of the stables could have afforded to build them, and it is not possible for any operator to afford the half-million dollars to repair them. [That] would require an increase in rents, which would truly put the keeping of a horse out of range of all but the most affluent.

The stables are a Rec and Park facility, just as are the fly-casting pools, the Anglers Lodge, the boathouse, and the Polo Fields. They are rented to clubs, event sponsors, and operators for revenue. To demand that an operator invest half a million dollars in restoring the facility while demanding that rents and fees be kept low is riding one's horse in two directions -- it just cannot be done. The result will be the permanent closure of the stables and their eventual demolition as "structural hazards." Another loss of quality of life for the residents of San Francisco!

Jerry Klein
Shingle Springs

The Only Way Out
Prisoners who are killersand victims: May God truly bless you for what you are doing for these battered women in prison ("The Last Hope," Bay View, Jan. 23, on a law that gives a new avenue of appeal to women imprisoned for killing their abusers). My daughter was in prison and has told me many stories about the women in there because of the men in their life abusing them, afraid to leave and afraid to stay. I live in Arkansas, but it is the same here if not worse.

Bonnie Wilks
Mountain Home, Ark.

Shoring Up Aquatic Park
Friscans. Is that a religious order?: Regarding Matt Smith's Aquatic Park conundrum ("Balkans by the Bay," Jan. 16, on disjointed efforts to revive the park): I wonder what his opinion is of the hulking, aesthetically overpowering Fontana Towers that jut from the north end of Van Ness. He does not mention them, but to my eye they have always been far more offensive than any parking lot [on park land] could ever be (and I loathe parking lots).