The Vanishing Those kids at The Video Underground work hard; they deserve some good press (“The Video Store’s Last Stand,” August 16). But I’d like to take a moment to remember the late Dennis Arruda, who ran possibly the best independent video store north of NYC, the now closed Video Oasis in East Cambridge. Back when I was freelancing articles for The Boston Globe, Oasis was a lifeline -- all sorts of obscure films were warehoused there. Wesley Morris’s article brought back fond memories of my explorations through the area’s vanishing video-store scene.
John L. Galligan / Arlington
Morris really conveyed just what makes The Video Underground so special and loved by its customers. We’re in a critical time regarding social places where people can interact and exchange ideas. Those who shop more and more online don’t realize how much they are undermining some of the things they value -- like brick-and-mortar bookstores, for example. Exchanging ideas online (via e-mail, Facebook, etc.) is not necessarily a bad thing, but if we lose the sound of the voice and the presence of actual human beings, where will we be?
Linda Given / Somerville
Speaking Up In the August 16 Miss Conduct, a woman shared her concern about “staying silent,” as her soon-to-be husband was advocating, instead of freely voicing her feelings. Miss Conduct responded that, in general, it was not good for one’s mental health to suppress emotional expression. Moreover, it is not good for one’s physical health: In a study on marital strain, women who “self-silenced” during a conflict with their spouse had a four times greater risk of dying early than women who expressed their feelings. Clearly, open communication has both a physical and a mental benefit.
Maggie Kelly-Hayes / Milton
On the Home Front In her essay “My Personal Mortgage Crisis,” Donovan Slack understandably vents about the difficulties she has experienced with the Making Home Affordable Program (Perspective, August 23). It sounds as though her bank is giving her a real runaround. However, it bothers me that she brought health care into the discussion. A public option is so important to real health care reform (to small business owners and people of meager means), and existing public health programs (i.e. Medicare and Medicaid) have strong track records. Mentioning the two issues in the same article is unnecessarily prejudicial.
Richard Jervey / Newburyport
So . . . wait a minute. Slack spends hours being bounced around by employees of
Susan Keeley / Woburn
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the government says Slack is eligible for help, and the bank says she is not, why is it the government’s fault? Sounds as if private enterprise is dropping the ball here.
Carolyn Galambos / Hanson
Just last week my mortgage company informed me it was denying the offer made on my home for a short sale because I had not been delinquent on my payments. Even though my husband and I have had to accept positions in two different states, neither of which is where the house is located, in order to make the mortgage payments (that I guess we should have not been making). Thank you for explaining the plight of the person trying to follow the rules. I at least now know I’m not alone.
Chrystal Porter / Peabody
I fail to understand Slack’s blaming Uncle Sam for her problem. Her bank, still a private-sector concern, deserves her scorn. And she also deserves some self-scorning for indulging in that too-good-to-be-true loan at a bank that a brief chat with a co-worker in the Globe business section would have revealed was already in trouble in 2005. A little mea culpa, please.
Frank Avella / Atkinson, New Hampshire
Slack reports that government efforts were positive and helpful at every step. And at every step, private industry’s responses were negative, obstructionist, and dilatory. The lesson is not that government is incompetent at providing help. The lesson is that private industry looks only to its own immediate interests and should have no role in financing a service as essential as health care. It will use whatever role it is given to thwart the public goal and bend it to its own needs.
Wayne Zafft / Westwood
I was in the same boat as Slack. The key word in President Obama’s plan is “modification.” Call Bank of America and ask for the loan modification department, then ask if you qualify for Obama’s loan modification plan. That’s what I did, and it worked, but you must show hardship. That’s not difficult these days, though.
Davidson O. Calfee / Falmouth
Slack’s article extends a line of faulty thinking that many Americans have. It was not Uncle Sam that got her into the original loan. Rather, as she acknowledges, it was a combination of greed and misplaced optimism, compounded by a minimally regulated private sector. So long as Americans insist on hobbling government in favor of private enterprise, we will continue to see people and situations exploited for private benefit. I’m not advocating our lives be run by government, but I do feel we need government to balance the excesses of the private sector.
Charles Hopkins / Amherst
An educated, sentient person bought a home with no money down from a bank that was more than willing to write a risky loan, but she has the gall to say it is a failure of the government that the bank will not modify the loan she willingly entered into? I’d call it a failure of capitalism, coupled with the colossal greed and irresponsibility of the borrower.
Julie Forgo / Acton
Slack’s article very clearly summed up a lot of Americans’ feelings. We are fed up with the hypocrisy of politicians. There are already enough reasons to reject this health care plan, i.e., cost and lack of freedom and oversight, because the government continually proves to be unable to oversee anything correctly. As Slack wrote, “If this is the result of a sweeping national program to ease the mortgage crisis, I hate to think what will happen with health care.” We can prepare for the usual total government breakdown of commitment.
Tom McInerney / Billerica
Boohoohoo, Slack. Let me see if I got this: You take out a bogus, nothing-down, interest-only-for-seven-years loan, and when it blows up on you, it’s all Obama’s fault? Shakes your faith in government? Seems to me you went into this with your eyes wide open, and now you’re looking to blame anyone else. “Hate to think what will happen with health care”? Yeah, I’d hate to think that the gouging, no-preexisting-condition, denial-of-claims, ever-rising premiums/copayment types at the insurance companies wouldn’t remain in charge of our health care, because it, you know, is so cheap and works so well for us all right now. Get a clue.
Domenic A Feroce / Windham, New Hampshire
Apparently Slack had it all figured out in buying a condo with a no-money-down, interest-only mortgage -- except for the possibility that house prices could drop. In other words, she gambled on that not happening, but now wants to be made whole. That’s not the way it works with money owed. Indeed, many homeowners who used conventional mortgages are in trouble because of job losses, a much different circumstance than taking a chance on a rather risky mortgage product.
Fred Plemenos / Lexington
Many years ago, when I asked an insurance company why it was denying me further physical therapy to help with my multiple sclerosis so I could keep working and stay productive, its answer was that if I could no longer work, then I was somebody else’s problem, presumably the government’s. The greed of private industry and the foolishness of the public are contributing to the health care crisis and are working to derail health care reform. Don’t just blame the government.
James Beagan / Methuen
I was in the same situation as Slack, great credit, never late -- stuck in a five-year, interest-only mortgage with Countrywide. After all the phone calls, I was offered a new loan as part of the bailout. The only catch was $13,000 in additional fees to Countrywide for the privilege of getting this loan. They also stated that there would not be any other offers available to me ever to refinance. It was take it or leave it. I left it. I thought this program was to benefit us, not the lenders!
Kathryn Riegottie / Hyde Park
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