Demonized Unions

With reference to the December 19 cover story, “We’re Constantly in Fear,” I am fully aware of the disparity in the treatment of adjunct and tenured faculty. You see, I was a tenured professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. My daughter-in-law, on the other hand, has been an adjunct faculty member in the California school system for many years.

Tenured faculty are de facto unionized. Pure snobbism, and a massive media campaign to demonize unions, has prevented adjunct faculty from taking this route.

For this reason, adjunct faculty have only themselves to blame, since they are not unionized. As a result, they are indentured servants, and academic administrations will keep using them this way. This is a direct consequence of our capitalist system.

• Emeritus Professor Sorab K. Ghandhi
• Escondido

To Entice and Challenge

There goes Matt Potter again with his blunderbuss firing off at anything connected with San Diego State (Under the Radar: “Double Tracking It at SDSU,” December 26).

What’s wrong with hiring an assistant for $60,000 or so for a University Honors program for high-achieving students? It certainly makes more sense than spending several million dollars each on a basketball and football coach to recruit athletes who otherwise would never make it into the university on their academic records.

Kudos to SDSU for doing what Cal State Long Beach and several other CSUs began several years ago: setting up programs to entice and challenge the best and brightest of California’s high school graduates.

• Jon Komatsu
• San Diego

Incoming

I’m wondering if you people are complete idiots. I’ve read the Reader for years. I’ve seen you have misprints, but I’ve never in my life seen such an idiotic headline as December 26: “9/11 Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Baja Cuisine.”

Are you people stupid or something? Are you referring to the 9/11 where 5000 people died? If you are, you are some of the most ignorant editors I’ve ever heard of in my life.

Don’t bother to take my name because I’ll be coming into your office to show you my face!

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

North County Diversity

I hate a bitcher, so this is not a bitch. Just a gentle request.

I enjoy reading your weekly restaurant reviews. The San Diego Reader has published tons of reviews from all over San Diego proper, the South Bay, and even Tijuana.

Although enjoyable, it is not very likely that I’m going to hop in my car very often for dinner in Tijuana or the South Bay.

Would you consider reviewing some eateries in North County on a regular basis? Believe it or not, you do have readers in such diverse places as San Marcos and Escondido. How about it, guys? Can we have maybe one North County review per week?

Also, on a topic that has been beaten to death with no appreciable results, can Ian Pike and Ian Anderson include an address with their reviews? A lot of us farmers up here are not familiar with their personal haunts.

• David Dietrich
• San Marcos

Accessibility Exemptions

I’m writing to support the wheelchair users who want to shut down Torrey Pines Gliderport (News Ticker: “Lawsuit Over Wheelchair Access at Torrey Pines Gliderport,” December 13). ADA has been the law since 1972. Get on it already! Why are my tax dollars going to support things that I — and other disabled people — cannot use?

The bicycle riders cry about bike access and safety, but where is our access and safety? Bike riders don’t have to ride a bike.

I can’t even take a mobility device on many city sidewalks because they’re so bad, and some places don’t even have sidewalks (eastern Balboa Avenue, Nestor), much less cut curbs. How about exempting us from taxes until we can use what everyone else can? If you think the woefully few disabled parking spots make up for this, you are hugely mistaken.

By the way, how about more parking spots in the Gaslamp? Bring on the lawsuits! We are sick of this shit!

• Name Withheld
• Clairemont

Passionless Marks

Scott Marks wrote a depressing column, “The Ten Worst Films of 2013.” Yes, I admit, I loved Frances Ha. Marks did not understand being a girl, being passionate about dance, working in New York as a young female artist, and never being the lead. The movie made me laugh forever.

Lucky for me, Marks is not a director, is not a screen writer, does not determine which movies are seen in theaters, and basically is just a sarcastic average writer without passion.

• Name Withheld
• via email

Compelled to Write

First off, I never send letters in for anything, but your January 2 issue compelled me to write this. As an avid Reader follower, I have to say this is the worst issue I’ve seen in 15 years. You have removed the heart and soul of the paper. By removing the best-of-the-week music tips (Club Crawler) and shortening the movie section, you managed to destroy the only reason people pick up your paper.

If you hired a new editor who decided, Let’s just sell advertising space only and try to turn a profit, then fire that person. Not knowing what your readers want is pathetic and lame. Greed begets greed, and I honestly can’t think of another excuse for this crappy change. I see that the issue has less pages than before, but maybe you should cut out your garbage stories that nobody gives a fuck about rather than ruin the Reader.

Also, Scott Marks is a total dipshit who should take his sarcastic shitty attitude to another country. Rating crap movies with high scores is not funny at all. It’s not all about him, and he should get over himself. If he wants to create controversy than do it with a fucking clue. The useless drivel in his reviews provides the reader with nothing. Empty-headed bullshit is everywhere, and your paper is worse off as a result of his self-promoting chest thumping bile.

• Andy Sheldon
• Carlsbad