Letters 

To The Editors:

I want to commend Sam Boykin on his Tourette's Syndrome cover story ("Twitch and Shout," October 10). I'm 23 years old and was diagnosed with TS in the sixth grade. I'm now a senior at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. I don't know that many people with TS so I enjoy reading about others that have struggled with it, knowing that my family and I have dealt with the same struggles. It was difficult for me too growing up with TS. I was made fun of constantly all through high school. Even though my family and I had grown to understand and manage it, TS was still a huge hindrance for me socially. Now I speak about it on occasion and have been able to joke about it with friends. Most people think I'm joking when I tell them because they have seen those talk shows and they think that those kinds of tics are what all TS patients have.

The two young girls you talked about in your article are very courageous. I know that it was so hard for me because no one knew what TS was and it was really rare in girls.

Thanks again for doing this article and especially for making it a cover story. I think it will bring much needed attention to TS so that others who don't know about it, or those who don't understand it, or even for those who have just been diagnosed with it and those who are having a hard time coping with it, can see that there are so many of us out there in the world doing well.

Leigh Cheatham
Rock Hill, SC

Hated Tourette's Story

To The Editors:

I am completely appalled by your story on people with Tourette's Syndrome. I am especially mad about your opening sentence, saying that people with Tourette's used to be hanged as witches but now they're doing better because people only think they're really weird. Where is the compassion needed in a story like that? The rest of the story was very informative and well-researched, but the beginning of it just put me off because it's so mean-spirited. My son has TS and I didn't even want him to see the story, as he is made fun of at school and he doesn't need anymore of your abuse. You should be ashamed.

Name withheld by request

Who Cares What Liberals Think?

To The Editors:

I understand that I have won an honor from CL as one of Charlotte's top 10 scariest people, (October 24). Glad to hear it. I note in reading the article that it said:

"Never one to refrain from sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, he was one of the first and most outspoken critics of Bill Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He promptly drafted a resolution to condemn Clinton, ostensibly to set some kind of moral example. Other county commissioners saw it as James seizing a political opportunity and pushing them into a debate that had no bearing on their roles as commissioners."

You failed to mention that the County Commission passed the resolution condemning Clinton. I not only authored it but the Commission endorsed, and a majority of members supported it with their votes. A copy hangs on my wall. Whether "other" commissioners saw this as a "political" opportunity or not, a majority passed it and no future commission had rescinded it (though it would be fun if they tried). You should have said that "Democrats viewed it as political." Of course they did. I could care less. I was never one to be concerned with what Democratic pols (or liberals in general) particularly think.

You also failed to note that I not only took on Scher, I was instrumental in helping Parks Helms remove him from office. An interesting "bi-partisan" coalition of sorts. My work to expose Bill Culp is something that I also enjoyed.

All of this "scary stuff" is to make Charlotte a "better place to live" and to rid it of the Democratic hobgoblins who wish to turn our southern city into the San Francisco of the South.

County Commissioner Bill James

Mint Hill
Return Trip

To The Editors:

Re: David Walters' "The Pen and the Sword" (CL, October 24): Now, now David! Don't be paranoid. I have never said that you shouldn't be in the US or that I didn't want you here. Because your articles are, for the most part, critical of the US, Mecklenburg and Charlotte, unfavorably comparing us to your English paradise, I asked a very simple question, "Why do you always come back?" What's the answer?

Don Reid
Charlotte

Tara the Bully

To the Editors:

In her article, "Renaissance by Concrete" (CL, October 24), Tara Servatius revealed to me something I never suspected of her before: she's a bully. Not a bully in intent, but in consequences. For ideas have consequences, often unintended, and always postponed. In this case, she accepted short-term benefits, without regard for the unintended consequence of government force.

Tara said, "When you live next to folks who think living room furniture belongs on the porch. . .it makes little sense to pour money into fixing up your own house." I am saddened to learn that Tara's homelife is so delicate that she cannot do anything for her home unless her neighbor does it first. Further, I am appalled at the sense of superiority expressed in that statement. Apparently, she is so assured of her own good taste that she feels justified in forcing it upon her neighbors as well.

Tara continued, "After months of ignored calls to the city to have abandoned cars removed. . .the men in tow trucks were finally forced to come and cart them away. . ." So, Tara is suggesting that impoverishment justifies the confiscation of private property. I guess some people are too poor to qualify for constitutional rights.

When we treat the property of other people as subject to our own needs or whims, then we have lowered them to the status of cattle. That is the implication of Tara's use of government force against her neighbors.

Here are some man-honoring ways to have dealt with the problems: the community could have offered to have the cars repaired, sharing the expense. Perhaps the people in a local church would have loved a work-day, coming to renovate the yards of needy residents. Can we not use volunteerism and cooperation in the place of coercion?

Rev. Christopher S. Cole
Press Secretary
Libertarian Party of Mecklenburg County

Nuevo Discordancia

To The Editors:

This letter is in response to Tricia Childress' article in the October 10 issue ("Nuevos Amigos"). I was extremely upset to read Ms. Childress' comment that "Charlotte doesn't have any Nuevo Latino restaurants." Has she forgotten about Latorre's Neuvo Latin Cuisine in uptown Charlotte? I have been reading your periodical for years now, and I have always respected your spotlights on local restaurants and restaurant trends. In fact, I remember reading the restaurant review in Creative Loafing sometime last spring on Latorre's Nuevo Latin Cuisine, authored by Ms. Childress. Does she not remember the restaurants she has reviewed once her reviews have left the warmth of the printing press? Or is that as far as she values her work?

I clearly remember how she described in detail the "Nuevo Latino" food of Latorre's. How can she now write that Charlotte has no Nuevo Latino restaurants? In her recent article, she interviewed Mr. Luis Matta of La Noticia, who told her that Latorre's was one of his favorite restaurants and the food was not typical Latin. Of course not! It's Nuevo Latino! Mr. Latorre created the menu using traditional Latino ingredients with a European presentation as well as an imaginative, contemporary flare.

In addition, Ms. Childress obviously did not even bother to flip through the pages of your periodical. If she did so, she would no doubt stumble across the advertisement for Latorre's Nuevo Latin Cuisine, which has been in Creative Loafing for at least a year.

Christina Carlan
Charlotte

Tricia Childress Responds:

In the article in question, I wrote "Even though Charlotte does not have any nuevo Latino restaurants in the wings" which means I know of no imminent plans for anyone to open a Nuevo Latino restaurant in Charlotte in the future. I did not write nor did I intend to write that there are no Nuevo Latino restaurants in Charlotte. I, too, enjoy Latorre's; in fact, I had just had lunch there before reading Ms. Carlan's letter. Indeed, I wrote "At Latorre's you will find a unique palette of flavors," which I still find to be true even though that review was published in April 2000, not "last spring" as Ms. Carlan wrote.