Flabbergasted is the only word I can invoke to describe my reaction to CanalSide. Then, I remembered had it not been for The Columbia Star , the city hotel would have been the third financial disaster in 10 years.

Please keep up the good work.

Reed Swearingen

Thanks for OPUS

Thank you for OPUS. I don’t know why it was not good enough for the Other Paper , but that is their loss. Keep up the good work. I love The Star .

Rose C. Robinson

Bad parenting is due to the economy

Re: February 4, 2005 editorial, Money is not the problem, parents are by Mike Maddock

Your business premise in this article is correct, but you didn’t follow through with your thinking.

Why are parents less involved? It’s because the low–to–middle classes are having to work at 2—4 jobs per couple to survive. IT’s The Economy, STUPID!

I live in a neighborhood of blue–collar homes. In the 1950s Daddy worked, Mama stayed home, the kids were supervised, and the neighborhood was unified in raising them. Nowadays, there is NOBODY home for blocks and blocks around me except a few retirees. Middle–class parents (and lower) are tired and frustrated just keeping things together. They are one car-wreck or one hospitalization away from bankruptcy. They are stressed out and overworked.

Get a sociology—text and read Maslow’s Hierarchy . Learn what happens to other priorities when someone is struggling for the basics. Better yet, go talk to people who live in $40,000 homes or apartments.

E.G. McElhaney