The World Is Full of Problems: This One Is a Heartbreaker

From: lee de cesare [mailto:tdecesar@taMPAbay.rr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:11 PM
To: 'Margie and Claude-Yves Jean'; 'Beth McClain'
Cc: 'jharper25@earthlink.net'
Subject: FW: A story for Lee DeCesare

Read the hyperlink, girls. It's a heartbreaker.

Then both of you make an appointment with the new woman police chief and take the article as ammunition. Get something going in Tampa for these children. Remind the police chief that I filed the EEOC and Justice Department charges against TPD and the Sheriff's office that opened law enforcement in Tampa for women forty-five years ago.

Beth, name-drop Michael's being a state rep. This is not a time for subtlety.

Meanwhile, I will write the #2^%))!! Justice Dept. and my Congressman and Senator to urge the Justice Department to conduct the study cited in the article.

Kick that shit Dick Greco if you run into him downtown campaigning for mayor at the age of King Lear. He has spent his life chasing women and treating them like sex objects. Too many men like Dick think politics is a great way to pick up chicks, not do something in office to improve society.

love, mom

From: William Birdsall [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 6:12 AM
To: lee de cesare
Subject: Fwd: A story for Lee DeCesare

This is Jim Harper's email that he sent.

Bart

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Harper <jharper425@earthlink.net>

Date: October 27, 2009 1:26:08 AM EDT

To: Bart Birdsall <Montolino@aol.com>

Subject: A story for Lee DeCesare

Dear
Bart, Five or six years ago, Lee DeCesare wrote me a pungent, persuasive letter
objecting to the stylized image of a woman's lower leg that I'd put on the
cover of the Weekly Planet, to illustrate our lead article about some
issues in the Tampa mayor's race. The article was called, "Potholes and
Prostitutes."

If
you want to talk about prostition, Ms. DeCesare said bluntly, you ought to
focus on the johns and the pimps. She challenged me to put a picture of a
leering man in a luxury automobile on the cover, instead of a woman's leg.

I
printed her letter prominently in the next edition, wrote to thank her for her
cogent criticism, and then became her pen pal for a time, sort of.

Anyway,
this New York Times article, which documents how a similar approach has
helped underaged women escape the streets while putting their pimps in jail, is
further support for Lee's prescription:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27runaways.html?hp

I'd
be very pleased if you'd forward it to her.