Letters

The Border Trilogy wakes up one reader; farmers' market prices come into question.

WAKEUP CALL

Just when I had a feeling my San Diego Magazine was getting a bit on the fluffy side, I dig into your latest issue and find you’re still doing what you do best — and what nobody else in town is doing. Your first story about the Mexico drug wars [“Blood of Their Brothers” by s.d. liddick, April] is a great service. Every San Diegan should read it. For many months, we’ve been getting the story about drug violence across the border in cold statistics on the number of people gunned down, tortured and decapitated. As that story finally breaks into the national headlines and network TV reports, your reporter gives us the story in human terms: Who are these people, and what are they doing to each other? Yes, the insatiable demand for drugs in the United States helps drive the violence of the Mexican drug cartels, but so does the Mexico government’s inability or unwillingness to govern. If the police were paid a decent wage and protected by their own government, they would be far less inclined to take bribes and turn their heads to the violence. And they would more likely to protect their own citizens. Thank you for reminding San Diegans of the challenges we face across our border and here at home. While it’s nice to check out the “hotties” once in a while, we’re all better off when we’re informed. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

K. MAYNARD
CLAIREMONT

 

HOT & HOTTER

I am sitting at my desk (I teach at Sweetwater High School in National City), and I just had a very pleasant surprise (from your Web site). I noticed you wrote a lovely review of my book, Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature’s Most Intriguing Dedications [Bookshelf by Eilene Zimmerman, Agenda, February]. I am definitely going to buy myself a copy of the magazine. And the fact that it includes “Hot Husbands” has nothing to do with my decision, of course.

MARLENE WAGMAN
NATIONAL CITY

 

PRODUCE CHIC?

While I find the farmers’ markets in San Diego offer high-quality, fresh produce, they are pricing themselves out of the running in this economy [“To Market, to Market” by Adam Elder and Julia Beeson Polloreno, April]. Formerly a Boston resident, I constantly frequented the farmers’ markets there. The produce was equally as fresh as San Diego’s and of high quality, but the farmers kept their prices at or below the local market prices. In San Diego, the prices are often double what the local stores charge, making one ask, “Do I want designer produce or not?”

WINSTON REED
SAN DIEGO

 

50 PLUS TWO

While I think it’s great that young people like Gabrielle Wimer, Ryan Lindley and Hannah Kim were featured in your “50 People to Watch” story [January], there are some major gaps that need to be filled on the work youth is doing in this region. For this member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, two come to mind. Allan Acevedo, just 20, is studying political science at San Diego State University. He’s starting his second term as president of Stonewall Young Democrats of San Diego and is the youngest member to sit on the San Diego Democratic Club executive board. In January, he was elected as the youngest delegate to the Democratic Party state convention. Last year, he was deputy field director for newly elected Assemblyman Marty Block and field organizer for the No on 8 Campaign. He’s also a leading candidate for south state regional director of California Young Democrats and, in 2007, was named one of the 100 Men and Women of the Year by Out magazine. Carlos Marquez is a 23-year-old graduate of SDSU. He’s the government and community affairs director for Service Employees International Union, Local 22. He’s the cochair of Pride at Work and is the political vice president of Stonewall Young Democrats and co-coordinator of Guerilla Queer Bar  —a grassroots organization that brings gays to straight bars as a way of bridging the gap between the two communities. Both of these young people show immense promise; we should be expecting great things from them.

ERIC SANTOS
SAN DIEGO

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