SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

This letter is in response to the article "Payback Time" (Jan. 16, 2008) by Charu Gupta.

Until recently I was an underwriter for a subprime mortgage company that is about to close. It seems that most media outlets and government officials feign ignorance about the real underlying cause of the problem. There is either a tendency to blame the borrower or act as though no one in the industry (or outside of it) saw this coming. They fail to mention that those who gained the most financially got off scot-free while leaving the mess behind for everyone else to clean up.

In my former company, the sales managers and loan officers "held the keys to the safe" while deciding which guidelines to ignore, sometimes going so far as to bribe fellow underwriters to "look the other way." Sales managers often overrode an underwriter's decision they did not agree with. Other times fellow underwriters would be threatened with their job for "impeding company growth and progress" just because they refused to go along with the flagrant disregard of guidelines. I complained to the sales managers about the bribing but all I got was a formal write-up for making "inappropriate comments."

There was absolutely no support from the owner of the company all the way to the human resources representative. This company is as corrupt as they come. I can't tell you the number of sexual affairs that occurred between married and unmarried people, primarily among the management staff (at the workplace itself). Promotions were strictly political, thus moving people "up the ladder" who never proved themselves worthy or were on a final written warning to be terminated (for poor performance).

As a result of the corrupt management of this company, I and several hundred others were laid off. I believe the federal government needs to investigate this company and bring to trial those corrupt individuals who broke the law. This would set an example for the rest of the mortgage industry that absolute corruption corrupts absolutely.

Joe Bialek

Cleveland

THE GOD PROBLEM

I had to smile in agreement with Kaarli S. Makela's observation "that all religion should be insulted" ("Thou Shalt Learn to Taketh a Joke," Letters, Jan. 9, 2008).

I am constantly moving toward the uncomfortable conclusion that organized religion has been the bane of human existence for centuries, with examples ranging from the Inquisition orchestrated by the Roman Catholic Church ("convert or die") to today's Muslim extremist suicide bombers.

To be sure, there are many Catholic-sponsored social service and social justice organizations run by the laity that do a lot of good in the community, but it is some of those in positions of power - priests, bishops and cardinals - who often abused their power and the trust that people in the pews placed in them, as we have seen so many times in the Catholic Church's relatively recent sexual abuse scandal.

Makela's comments remind me of a conversation I had with the late world-renowned architect, futurist, philosopher, author and inventor R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller during an elegant dinner at the storybook Tudor home of architect Thomas T.K. Zung, set deep in a Gates Mills woods in October 1982. A voluble, opinionated man, Fuller, sitting next to me at the dinner, told me the second greatest danger in the world, after nuclear weapons, is organized religion. A bit taken aback, I asked why he said that and

he replied, "Because they tell you what to think. They don't let you think for yourself."

Toward the end of our conversation, Fuller asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a reporter for a small local paper. He pressed me for details, but I skirted the question, saying, "Just a small local paper. Nothing you've heard of."

I didn't want to tell him I was a reporter for The Catholic Universe Bulletin, official newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

Louis H. Pumphrey

Shaker Heights

WELL, WE HAVE A NEW NAME FOR OUR SOFTBALL TEAM

Audio Eagle Records issues boycott of Cleveland Free Times; Free Times Music Awards called a "sham" by top brass.

AKRON - Audio Eagle Records Chief Operating Officer Theodore Mallison issued a press release Wednesday morning stating that the record label and its bands were boycotting the Cleveland Free Times due to a lack of Akron representation on the ballot for the Free Times Music Awards, particularly by bands signed to Audio Eagle.

"This is more than just a slap in the face," Mallison told reporters. "This is politicking of an insidious nature. To not nominate Houseguest, Beaten Awake, Gil Mantera's Party Dream, or any of their respective members for these shameful "awards" is proof positive that we have a veritable culture war on our hands. This election is a sham, plain and simple."

Mallison went on to call Free Times Publisher Matt Fabyan a "rampaging right-wing fat-cat" and the editorial staff "bourgeois sociopaths" who "couldn't tell the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground."

Audio Eagle Chief Executive Patrick Carney could not be reached for comment. It is rumored that he is still vacationing in the Adriatic.

Theodore Mallison

Audio Eagle Records, Akron