Mayor gets kudos for having ‘political friend’ work for free Re: “Gray and his political friends,” June 20
It seems hard to please Jonetta Rose Barras, who disparages Suzanne Peck as a “political friend” of Mayor Gray. Well, any friend of a politician could be classified as a “political friend.” Barras apparently sees politics as a dirty word, which is very unfortunate for someone who has made a career writing about it.
Barras has complained about the money Gray spent on his hires, and now she complains when he gets a world-recognized IT specialist who will work for free. How about a little consistency — and appreciation for something good that Mayor Gray is doing?
Peck is credited with turning the D.C. government from a nationally recognized failure in its use of technology in 1999 to an award-winning leader in technology in 2006. She has worked for Fortune 500 companies and for the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware, where she was highly praised by both governors.
I actually wish that Mayor Gray had more “political” friends like Peck, nationally recognized experts who would be willing to work for the people of the District on a pro bono basis.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington
D.C. never left the ‘bad old days’ behind
Re: “The bad old days of government corruption in D.C. have returned,”
June 17
Some memories are only jogged when people’s pocketbooks are tugged at. How can anyone even begin to compare the council’s behavior to some old-time corruption when we had terrible corruption under our last mayor?
One need only to look as far as the Disabilities Administration. The former mayor brought out-of-state residential school placements back into D.C., knowing that the city lacked the know-how to provide services for certain populations, such as the autistic.
Who’s complaining about the money D.C. put into the greedy hands of providers, who are preventing parents from making drop-in visits to catch abuse and neglect? What about severing
the relationship between parent and child in favor of a D.C. governmental facility that still does not know what it is doing?
When the present mayor also promises to bring out-of-state placements back to the District even though the same problems exist that sent them out of state in the first place, isn’t that ongoing corruption?
Louise Thundercloud
Washington
Capitalism offers alternative to wage slavery
Re: “Capitalism is all about living off another’s sweat,” Letters, June 16
Johnny Panic’s take on capitalism is all wrong. He decries it as “a financial system that requires the majority of us to toil for the bosses’ gain, or else starve.” But these are not the only two choices.
Capitalism’s third alternative is to start a business.
After you put up all your own money and borrow the rest to prop up your business, if you work really hard and beat the odds, you’ll succeed. Because you took the risk, you receive the rewards. You’re then able to offer jobs with pay and benefits to others.
However, most of us are unwilling to take such risks. We are content to work our 40 hours and collect our paychecks. If it weren’t for the entrepreneurs among us, there wouldn’t be any jobs for the rest of us.
Mark Weaver
Woodbridge
