I read Richard Meeker's column [Publisher's Notebook, WW, May 12, 2004] and decided to write back. His column, and those of many other thoughtful writers (men mostly), don't excuse what Neil Goldschmidt did in any way. And they footnote carefully and respectfully the damage to his victim.

But Goldschmidt gets the eulogy. His talents, his leadership, his courage, his vision, all the wonder that was Neil--that's the loss that's being mourned. "Oh, what might have been," you all say.

The girl's role in this great tragedy is approximately the same as that of the dead body found before the first commercial on every Law & Order.

Imagine for a moment that he'd been caught after the first encounter, and that she'd received psychological help, moral support and legal vindication. He would have been the footnote, gone forever from the political world after one year as the mayor of Portland. And what would have become of her? Would she have been the governor of Oregon? We'll never know what the world lost in her.

What does it mean to the world to lose one of our daughters? Countless girls will spend their entire lives grappling unsuccessfully with the scars of early sexual abuse. We lose them to shame, humiliation, drugs, alcohol, depression and sometimes suicide. When you ask, "What might have been?," you should ask it about them.

Katie Pool
Northeast 25th Avenue

AT MARY'S SIDE

As a member at Living Enrichment Center for over 14 years, I am writing to express my concern about the amount of this debt, but more to the point, the bias of your reporting on Mary Manin Morrissey and LEC ["The Prophet Margin," May 19, 2004]. This is the place where I met my husband. Mary performed our wedding, our daughter's christening, my mom's memorial service, and helped me through a cancer diagnosis seven years ago. And never asked me, individually, for a thing.

Because of all the ways her messages and LEC have touched my life, of course I admire her and feel a personal connection. But that does not make her a cult leader, as she is made to sound by the bias in this article. You quoted an "observer" saying, "People don't come to worship God. They come to worship Mary."

Her message every Sunday is that all paths to God are honored at LEC. In a fear-based culture, and for people who were raised with the fear of God's punishment, it is such a relief to come to a place to learn about the love of God and the message of forgiveness.

If she has done anything wrong, I believe she will accept full responsibility for it and ask for our forgiveness. In the meantime, I believe in her integrity and will go by "innocent until proven guilty."

Once the facts about this debt come out, I hope to see you write another article that offers a balanced view, the one I have come to expect from Willamette Week.

Anne Bryant
Southwest 62nd Drive