I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciated the recent cover story on Richard Strunck ("Sins of the Father," issue of July 20-26). It was, of course, shocking and horrible. I was glad to see Gregory Flannery's comment right at the start that he wasn't going to provide a "happy-crap moral."
My heart still breaks for all of the people — classmates and friends — who were so abused. To tell a story like Richard's "straight up" is the only way to do this justice.
Like so many others, I still want answers and accountability. How is it that Father Earl Bierman could work for those years at Covington Latin School "teaching" us, of all things, sex education? Weren't there complaints from students and parents? Weren't there any qualms by his bishop, headmaster or other faculty? How many of us, who came so close to abusing ourselves, carry the scars of those years when Bierman was — God help us — our "guidance counselor?"
Like the other victims, I'm not looking for retribution but for justice and for a rebirth of the wounded, broken Body of Christ. The church, inasmuch as it remains unaccountable, will continue to be incredible, and so its mission, the spreading of the real light of the gospel, will remain unnecessarily hampered.
The Diocese of Covington can pay out as many millions as it will but, if it doesn't come clean on its past and make real reform for its future, it might well continue its abuse.
I just want to say thanks for the article. I pray that it will do some good and help in the healing and reform that's so much needed.
— William Lonneman,Winton Place
Enjoy Gentle Breeze of Change
I can feel the winds of change. They give me solace despite the hot and humid days of August in Cincinnati, but not because they keep me cool.
Ohio's Congressional District 2 has become a weather bell for the Bushies and their brain-stem followers. We Dems are, and have always been, sick of their assinine policies, but now we have a whole lot of moderates that are pissed off, too.
If nothing else, the Aug. 2 election taught the country one thing: Even in a congressional district that was as stacked against the Democrats as District 2 was, with Bush winning 64 percent of the vote in the 2004 election according to one reporter, the margin has narrowed tremendously. This trend can only mean one thing: The sensible people of the moderate right have realized they made a terrible mistake in 2004.
They backed a tyrant, a simpleton, a fool. In other words, the flag-waving, bible-thumping right is losing its grip, and the moderates might simply decide to step on their fingers.
And while I sit back and enjoy the gentle breeze of change — or perhaps it's simply the hot air emanating from a temporarily triumphant Jean Schmidt — I dream of the not-too-distant day when she and other neo-cons will be packing their Prada bags and leaving Capitol Hill.
— Alex Ramirez, Kenwood
No More Compromises With Liberals
If politics were a court of law, President Bush would have an airtight winning case with his nomination of the impeccably qualified Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard — earning his degree in just three years — Roberts enjoyed a distinguished career as a private-practice attorney and government lawyer before being confirmed to a federal appeals court in 2003. He has intimate knowledge of the workings of the Supreme Court, too, having appeared before its justices nearly 40 times.
But not everyone equates this kind of professional excellence and personal integrity with suitability for the federal bench. Liberals have already begun their war of inflammatory words, accusing Roberts of being too radical to serve. That's just code for their disappointment that his judicial philosophy leads him to interpret the Constitution, not use it as a springboard to create law.
Those who refuse to recognize Judge Roberts' fitness for the high court, such as letter-writer Jenni Padgett ("Probe Roberts' Positions," issue of Aug. 3-9), are the ones whose qualifications ought to be called into question. We need to make sure that when it comes time for re-election we remember the role our senators have played in this "game" of politics. I have had enough of so-called compromises!
— Leah Helbling, Amelia
