Wake Up, Wakefield. Saban Is Not the Pussy

In Wakefield’s diatribe about the Miami Dolphins [“Trading Up: So Nick Saban Pussied Out and Took His Show to Tuscaloosa. Time to Bring Back the Shula Shine,” published Jan. 4], she’s pointed out that we need to “get back to the old days...” when this is exactly the problem. Miami, that tropical, mosquito-infested, Spanish/Creole-speaking, backwater out-island to both Cuba and Haiti, needs to move forward, not revel in the past (look at Dan Marino now, instead of calling a double-cross pass pattern, he’d double-cross his own mother to sell a used car for those sleazoids at Maroone). It’s the famous “blame-game,” which Wakefield fell for, hook, line and FUMBLE. There is no one to blame, but everyone, except Nick Saban.

Ms. Wakefield’s initial summary of Nick Saban, excoriating and vilifying him for moving on, charging him with lying, being a pussy, and taking the coward’s way out, just goes to show that Ms. Wakefield has a good imagination (she’s obviously never spoken to him). The truth is Miami doesn’t deserve a quality coach like Nick Saban because he is a FOOTBALL coach — inspiration to a collective of men with the same agenda — to play football, the sport, the game, and the gratification of doing it right. His job is NOT to babysit a group of overpaid “B” actor-athletes who can’t even tie their shoes, let alone the game; catch a nap, let alone a pass; or hold onto the ball since they are still fumbling with their zippers at the urinal. That’s when they are not out smoking pot, getting shot, or being arrested for the thug life.

The Miami Dolphins suck. They are not a football team rather an ensemble of bad sports-like theater. Everyone involved has his own agenda. There is nothing cohesive about them. This is typical of things in American culture — the APPEARANCE of being a “team” — when the reality is it’s every man for himself and it shows.

As far as being a liar, Mr. Saban is the one Miami lied to. He happens to be a gentleman, another foreign character trait lost in Florida. Not to mention all the other excellent coaches who have since departed. It’s pretty easy to sum up Nick Saban’s departing emotion: “Some rats were abandoning the sinking ship while other rats were jumping on the bandwagon, but in the momentary brightness of the rocket flare, one could not tell which rat was which.”

Mr. Saban is back where he belongs — the REAL world of football — the SEC.

Mike Rosen
Miami

Art Deco Weekend No Longer Honors the Past

I look forward to Art Deco Weekend each year. In recent times, I have been disappointed. Quality vintage and antique dealers have vanished and been replaced by food, drink and booths showing nothing but merchandise that is current, and not even in good taste. The event always ran from Friday to Monday. Now the show ends on Sunday. Shorter length and increased prices have kept interest very low.

I do worry that the pockets of quality and character that have long defined this show will dry up and disappear. It’s time to make adjustments, replace the current management, and bring in those who better represent the original goals of the founders, which always was to never forget our culture from the past, and how it made us appreciate those who came before us.
 
Allan Greene
Sunny Isles Beach

Is Miami Really ‘Third World’?

The real question is, why are so many folks like the mayor of Miami-Dade County, the mayor of the City of Miami, the president of the Beacon Council, and others fighting mad about Miami being called a “Third World Country?”

After all, Miami is not a country. It is a great city, with history, culture, art, commerce, tourism, quality restaurants, pretty good service, and great weather most of the year. Miami is a wonderful place to live because of its location near Biscayne Bay and its subtropical temperatures that are a result of our particular geographic latitude.

Miami has missed becoming a great city because of its mostly inept governments, glut of condo units as a result of uncontrolled overdevelopment, political corruption and scandals, high crime and murder rate, exorbitant property taxes, ever increasing property insurance rates, traffic congestion, poor urban planning, lack of adequate mass transportation system, inadequate potable water supply, vulnerable electric power grid, and flood drainage problems.

I have visited my sister’s family in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for about 38 years. I recall when I first set foot on the island I sort of snickered at how “Third World” it appeared to me.

I recall seeing street vendors all over the place, kids would offer to wash your car window when stopped at a traffic light and beggars would come up to your window and ask for change. I was shocked to see so many homes with security bars on their windows, I saw soldiers at the airport with assault weapons.

I was glad to be visiting my family, but I was nevertheless a little worried for them. I even felt a little superior because I was from Miami, where we did not live in those “Third World” conditions. But now, every year that passes seems to have my city of Miami catching up a bit with Santo Domingo.

Look around at all the many homes with security bars on their window, notice how many poor souls are standing on street corners asking for change, and notice that there are many more police and even soldiers at our airport.

Is Miami “First, Second or Third World?”

First World: Major industrialized non-Communist nations, including those in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Second World: World’s industrialized nations other than the U.S. and the U.S.S.R (Communist and socialist nations of the world).

Third World: Underdeveloped nations of the world, especially those with widespread poverty, a group of developing nations, especially of Asia and Africa, that do not align themselves with the policies of either the U.S. or the former Soviet Union.

I guess each of us will have to determine that on our own. I’m just glad I speak some Spanish, play dominos and enjoy pork sandwiches, mango milkshakes, “El Rey de las Fritas” on SW Eighth Street, Spanish music, my Latino friends, and hope that you do as well.

Harry Emilio Gottlieb
Coconut Grove