DTH changed the tone and context of letter by cutting

TO THE EDITOR:

Yes this is I the worst of all John Mundell. Wednesday a letter of mine was printed one whose text I would soon regret to claim with my signature at the bottom. Since then I have gotten e-mails from angry friends screaming phone calls from parents and messages from anonymous people saying that they were literally going to kill me and detailed how. I didn't go to class Wednesday for fear of my safety.

What seems to be the most important point to throw out there is that my letter was cut in half by The Daily Tar Heel. I came off as the most obstinate asinine human being at UNC for what was removed. Maybe I am? However the DTH failed to mention my praise of Dance Marathon as a successful and respectable charity event because this paper seems to value sensationalist" yellow journalism over the truth and true opinions of its readers. They even changed my title from ""Dance Marathon neither cohesive to Chapel Hill nor current economy"" to its present title ""Dance Marathon reflects faulty charitable priorities."" Did I say it was faulty? Of course not. Their hearts are in the right place.

I am just bitter that for something that hits so much closer to home" I find so much contempt from the UNC and Chapel Hill communities. Most homeless people are not there because it's their fault as many want to believe. Though only slightly comparable while traveling last summer I ran out of money and I had to sleep on the street and steal food and water to survive in Bolivia. I remember the cold the thirst and how my grumbling stomach would change even my strongest morals. I was never terminally ill as a child though many who have threatened me wish that I was. I am lucky. Yes very lucky. And I do feel for those children because as a future teacher I have been in the schools many many times.

For two years I volunteered teaching kindergarten at an all African-American and Latino rather poor school in south Durham. On one occasion one of my students' parents never came to pick her up. It ended up that her parent was trying to abandon her for lack of money. The police came and charged her mother for neglect. I do know some of the homeless on Franklin personally. I do give spare change" and I do listen when that's all they ever want — an ear. I did not mean to hurt anyone's feelings from what I ""wrote"" before; however" I ask that when you pass a homeless person here in Chapel Hill or wherever that you think twice before judging them or ignoring their existence.

Again my deepest apologies for upsetting anyone.



John Mundell 

Junior

Spanish Latin American Studies Afro-American Studies