Write Off, Gorman

To the Editor:

Is it just me or does anyone really care what retired NYPD Lieutenant and attorney Michael J. Gorman thinks? Am I the only one who wonders why this man makes it his weekly obligation to pontificate and spew pointless diatribes upon us readers each week here in the letters column?

Unless I missed something, The Chief has always been a civil service employees' weekly news forum that provides its readers with information and the background behind political goings on in New York City and State. Suddenly, it appears to be Michael J. Gorman's personal bully pulpit, with his latest psychotic rambling about President George W. Bush being immoral, and embarrassing, to Mr. Gorman.

Please spare us from further Michael J. Gorman ramblings, and keep the focus of Letters to the Editor submissions on civil service information relevant to your paper's readers. In fact, in the spirit of practicing what one preaches, you don't have to publish this submission, either.

Of course, I realize that everyone has the right and entitlement to express an opinion. Those are the freedoms afforded everyone, even Michael J. Gorman. I just wish that if Michael has something important to say to us readers, that he keeps his agenda focused on civil service issues and not his own personal weekly bemoaning.

KEVIN D. HASSETT, Retired Lieutenant, Port Authority P.D.

We are surprised, however, that Mr. Hassett believes the actions of a President fall outside the scope of a newspaper aimed at government employees. Whether it is his policies regarding the Iraq War, Homeland Security funding, changes in civil service and union protections for large groups of Federal workers (whom we also cover) or the contracting-out of work that has traditionally been performed by government, Mr. Bush's actions very much fit within the framework of our paper and the issues it deals with. As such, we will consider publishing letters from Mr. Gorman or anyone else who wants to weigh in.

That's what a letters page is about. Mr. Hassett has the freedom to write us taking issue with anything Mr. Gorman writes, or to simply skip over his letters upon spotting his name at the bottom.