It would be nice to believe that former governor Goldschmidt's public expressions of contrition were genuine, but they are hard to swallow ["The 30-Year Secret," WW, May 12, 2004]. That is not because his decision to provide his victim with a settlement came only in response to a visit from her lawyers, nor is it because his decision to make his public admission was occasioned by a pending article in WW, confidentiality having been a key term of the settlement agreement.

Instead, what makes acceptance of Goldschmidt's apology impossible is his recent public opposition to the establishment of a public utility district, together with his neglect to mention that he had a significant financial interest in an unannounced plan to buy PGE which had been hatched by some robber barons in Texas.

So in 1975, Goldschmidt exploited his personal cachet to seduce and betray a 14-year-old girl. Last year he did it again, but this time the entire community was victimized.

Nothing has changed.

D. Lawrence Olstad
Northeast Ainsworth Street

NO LEGACY FOR GOLDSCHMIDT

I'm glad WW finally helped bring the Neil Goldschmidt sex-abuse story to light, but Richard Meeker's fawning Goldschmidt editorial [Publisher's Notebook, May 12, 2004] makes me sick to my stomach.

My family moved to Portland in 1974 when I was 10, a year when Goldschmidt was mayor and a year before he started raping a girl not much older than I was at the time. I grew up with Goldschmidt, so to speak. I have never met him, but especially since his departure as governor I haven't cared much for him. Undeniably brilliant, he has also come off as a manipulative bully eager to use his reputation and contacts to line his own pocket.

Now we find out he sexually abused a young girl and then scrambled to cover it up for almost 30 years while he built his public "legacy."

Since this story broke, it has occurred to me that I would rather have the Mount Hood Freeway gashing through east Portland--rather have no downtown transit mall or SMART reading program--than have had Goldschmidt destroy that child's life.

I know the equation is not that simple. But unlike Meeker, I cannot see Goldschmidt as an "incredible shining light" or a "remarkable person." He raped a child, then covered it up so he could advance his own public agenda. In so doing, he betrayed her trust. And he betrayed all of us who have known him from a distance for so long. As far as I'm concerned, Neil Goldschmidt's "legacy" has been obliterated. His public accomplishments have been erased by the devastating choice he made when nobody was looking.

Henry Sessions
Southwest Boundary Street