The Chainsaw Massacre Team

I was appalled and sickened by the photo and article on the Chainsaw Massacre Team “reving up to be naughty at the Doo Dah Parade” (Nov. 29). Don Coursey, the leader and founder of this team of pseudo-sadists, claims that because he is a “do-gooder all the time” (i.e., as a Boy Scout leader), he “deserves” a chance to be “bad and naughty” now and then and that he’s “not going after anything but laughs.”

I, for one, do not appreciate Coursey’s sense of humor, nor, do I suspect, would the victims (primarily women, I may add) and the surviving family members of those who have been dismembered, tortured, terrorized, raped and killed on the streets and in the homes of America today.

As a former domestic violence counselor at a shelter for battered women and children, I have seen much too much anguish, sadism and bloodshed and have witnessed firsthand how children, impressionable as they are, learn to emulate adults--adults who sometimes say by their actions that violence is not to be taken seriously and is something to be laughed at.

The Boy Scouts of America would do well to consider whether Coursey provides the kind of role model that is needed for our young males who will one day take on leadership positions and act as role models themselves.

If Coursey is truly as much of a “do-gooder” as he says, he would look for every opportunity to denounce violence--beginning with changing his act on his so-called “drool team.”

MICHELLE A. RYAN

Orange