Perfect timing to read Larry Gross' Living Out Loud column this week ("Love Will Keep Us Together," issue of Oct. 24). My 17-year-old son moved in with me about two years ago, and in reading about Gross' battles with his son I found some of the same with my boy — a bit headstrong at times, but he's a good kid really.
There is light at the end of the tunnel — that's what I took away from this column. Gross is giving me a little hope it will all turn out alright.
— Tony Grammer, Delhi
Getting Fathers and Sons Together
I enjoyed Larry Gross' column about his son ("Love Will Keep Us Together," issue of Oct. 24) and read it a couple times, then went back to the CityBeat rack and got another copy. I put it in the mail to my ex-husband, who hasn't seen his 14-year-old son in just about a year now.
My ex-husband says he doesn't know how to talk to his son and therefore isn't going to be around him. Maybe if I can get him to read what Gross wrote he'll get through his head that not everything in life is easy and having a relationship with his son is important.
— Janet Howard, Over-the-Rhine
Ohio Law As Bad As Hitler
With regard to the news article "Lawsuit Challenges Sex Offender Law" (issue of Oct. 17), Ohio lawmakers continue to seek re-election by employing the same "smoke and mirrors" tactics as did their predecessors.
Ohio Senate Bill 10 and similar bills and laws have the same acidic taste as past recipes.
Jim Crow laws are no longer permissible, although they were certainly fashionable at the time. The Nuremberg and Reich Citizenship Laws, all the rage in their time, seemed to have waned in popularity as well. In 1942, safety being of the utmost importance, United States Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt to protect America from its most dangerous enemy — its own citizens.
Senate Bill 10? Pretty much the same deal.
Hate is hate. Formulate a negative perception of a group, beat a drum and ask others who hate to join the mob. Hitler did it with finesse. He was a politician who sought upward mobility in his career. Fortunately for him, those loathsome Jews and Gypsies were handy.
The same methodology used to keep Southern Negroes swingin' in the trees and to stoke the ovens with Jews at Auschwitz can be found throughout Senate Bill 10.
If the old laws were morally repugnant, why would they now be socially acceptable for sex offenders? Better yet, ex-offenders. Human Rights Watch, an international organization, says these types of laws are wrong. SoClear.Org, a national organization holding an advocacy event at the Ohio Statehouse on Dec. 1, says the laws are inhumane.
Dozens of countries around the world concur. Various courts are now saying the laws are wrong, unconstitutional and likely create the dangers they were intended to prevent. Prosecutors, parole and probation officers, mental health workers and attorneys realize these laws are irresponsible and dangerous.
Yet why do Ohio lawmakers continue to ignore all of these groups while wrecking lives, destroying families and endangering children? To sway votes. Can trial by ordeal, dunking, caning or stoning be far off?
— John Brown, Dayton, Ohio
Don't Make Me Laugh
I love this town. It's always good for a laugh.
Designers agree on The Banks: Give it a distinct personality. So let's get a Hard Rock Café, an ESPN Zone, a Wal-Mart, a Red Lobster, a McDonalds and a Wendy's. We can fill in the spaces between with a pseudo streetscape like the ones that they have at Easton in Columbus or the Promenade in Cleveland.
After we survive the ride through Over-the-Rhine on our new streetcars, we can get off at The Banks and pretend that we're in one of those other stylish, fun and open locations in trendy Ohio. In fact, if we squint a little it will look like every other homogenized development anywhere in the U.S.
Heck, who says we're 20 years behind the times?
— Ward Plona, Loveland
Correction
The "Who's Endorsing Whom" chart in the issue of Oct. 31 contained several incorrect endorsements by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. The chart was corrected on the Web site.
