‘Mr. X Agonistes’

I enjoyed, and empathized with, Mr. X’s experiences as a closeted Republican [“Mr. X Agonistes,” Opinion, April 27, 2005]. When I moved to San Francisco during the Carter administration, I equated voting Republican with throwing babies into a furnace. Over time, two things changed my mind. First, Ronald Reagan became president. I kept noticing that my liberal Democrats haughtily dismissed all his ideas, even the ones that worked. When, in a national election, your party loses 49 of 50 states to a “moron,” isn’t it time to ask yourself, “So, what does that make us?”

Second, and equally important, San Francisco afforded me an opportunity to live in an asylum run by the inmates. I did the unthinkable. I registered as a Republican.

People here are aghast when I tell them I voted for George W. Bush. A “dazed and amazed” look comes over their faces as they struggle to mentally process how a person not chewing tobacco and still in possession of his front teeth could do such a thing.

Take heart, Mr. X. If I can keep my powder dry in San Francisco, you can do the same in the Big Apple.

KURT WILSON
Lafayette, Calif.

‘Behind Illicit Relationships’

I am writing in regard to your article about sexual relationships between teachers and their students [“Behind Illicit Relationships, Murky Motives,” Julia Levy, Page 1, April 29, 2005].

The article certainly raised many important insights. But the focus was primarily on psychological analysis of abusers, “bright line” rules, and policies for screening and training teachers. In reality, the true solution to this problem goes beyond procedures and rules. Ultimately, the answer to abusive and exploitive sexual relationships is to foster in both adults and children a healthy, positive, and good sexuality. This is a fundamental truth – you can’t have a safe environment for children unless the adults around them are living lives of virtue.

In the Archdiocese of New York, we have been working to ensure such a safe environment for all children entrusted to our care. We have instituted policies for screening, training, and supervising all those who are in regular contact with children, and procedures for responding to allegations. But more important, we are integrating these into our overall mission of inculcating our positive and beautiful Catholic beliefs about sexuality in both children and adults.

The foundation for this is Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body,” which may prove to be his greatest legacy to us. This teaching helps us not only to understand our sexuality better, but also to live good and joy-filled lives, and to enjoy healthy and positive relationships with those we love and serve.

No system of protecting children will ever be perfect. But no approach to this problem has any hope of being effective unless it aims at the right target – genuine safety for children rests on virtue.

EDWARD T. MECHMANN
Director Safe Environment Program
Archdiocese of New York
Manhattan

‘Pedestrian Mall Obsessions’

Re: “The Midcult of Pedestrian Mall Obsessions,” James Gardner, Arts & Letters, April 25, 2005. The notion that the vitality of cities and Manhattan’s 42nd Street, in particular, depends upon the presence of cars coursing through it was ironically refuted by the motor mayhem that occurred there on Monday, April 25, when a taxi collided with eight other vehicles, leaving three victims on the critical list.

Pedestrian malls can be as interesting as their designers make them, and New York’s community of talented architects and designers would certainly rise to the challenge of producing an outstanding pedestrian environment, with cafes, fountains, and landscaping.

The vision42 initiative was not born out of a “reflexive assumption that pedestrian malls are al ways an unmixed blessing …” On the contrary, this plan is very specific to 42nd Street – where there is a flood of at least half a million pedestrians arriving every weekday at this heart of our region’s transit network, where the sidewalks at Times Square are totally inadequate for the need, and where travel to the extremities of the street (i.e., the Jacob K. Javits Center) can be a frustrating ordeal.

The vision42 plan doubles the space for pedestrians, and the river-to-river trip by low-floor light rail will take only 21 minutes, with 3- to 4-minute intervals between vehicles, as compared with today’s slower-than-walking buses.

Ms. Gardner links vision42 with nostalgia for “girlie things like people and fresh air and ambulation,” which are actually basic human needs. On the contrary, this plan represents the future, rather than the past – a future of increasing world population, in which humanity must learn how to live more harmoniously together within its cities. Cars are not indispensable to sustainable urban living.

ROXANNE WARREN AIA
Chairman

GEORGE HAIKALIS ASCE
Co-Chairman

vision42
Manhattan

---

Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007.Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.