Reader Comments

HOMELESSNESS HOPELESS
Response to “For a Woman on the 6 Train,” May 15:

Homelessness is up — dramatically — despite Mayor Bloomberg’s claim that he would reduce it by at least 30 percent. New York City’s Department of Homeless Services is hopelessly dysfunctional and wrong-headed in its plans to close homeless shelters, cut back hours at (or eliminate) drop-in centers and particularly in eliminating faith-based beds. The local, national and global economic crisis is almost certainly creating more homeless people and will continue to do so. And tragically, the political will to truly tackle the homeless situation is simply not there.
—REV. IAN ALTERMAN

SEXUAL CONDITIONING
Response to “The Uncelebrated Beauty of Men’s Sexuality,” May 15:

Men and women are conditioned to view sex in different ways. It wasn’t so long ago when women were not expected to enjoy sex at all. They were famously instructed to “lie back and think of England.” Society now allows women to be sexual beings, but only when it is integrated into our emotions. We are allowed to “make love.” In contrast, men are required to divorce sex from emotion and regarded as less masculine if they cannot. I would suggest that both men and women suffer as a result of these limited sex roles. I see the sex industry in its current form as a product of the damaging sex roles predominant in our broken society. The solution is a world in which both men and women can enjoy sex and pleasure in any way they freely choose, without the restrictive baggage.
—CATHERINE BROWN

THIRD TERM THEFT
Response to “Bill the Billionaire,” May 15:

If you’re talking about Bloomberg as a plutocrat, why didn’t you mention his third world nation theft of the electorate’s power by canceling term limits, a measure that was passed by public referendum? That self-anointing, authoritarian action was proof enough of what Bloomberg actually is. And he would only have tried that in the general atmosphere of dictatorship created by the Bush administration. Bloomberg knew that the public and the media had been conditioned to accept that when it came to abridging America’s democratic institutions, under Bush anything could be done. Cynical and self-serving like Bush, Cheney and their whole D.C. team, Bloomberg has turned New York City over to his chums, the real estate and Wall Street elite. His attitude? If you don’t like it, get out.
—JAY LEWIS

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