Letter: Story illuminates invisible world

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2006 | 8:27 a.m.

Timothy Pratt's Jan. 16 article, "Conditions worsen for tenants," was a masterpiece of local writing. His description of the living conditions at the soon-to-be boarded-up Peter Pan motel -- the squalor and the hopelessness -- was remarkable. He wrote the words, spare and restrained, and let the story tell itself.

He led the reader into a world that is often invisible. He showed us the poverty, isolation and human suffering of our own people, our own veterans. I was outraged at the plight of Richard Salyers, but what good, really, is that? When I reread the story, I wanted to reach out to Mr. Salyers, and offer my help to him in any way that I could.

I did.

And that is the power of elegant writing.

Kathleen Kaplan

Las Vegas

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