I'm famous, well sort of.

The Miami Herald published my letter in response to their editorial about poverty in Miami today. Of course it was edited, which would be fine except they took out the part where I called them out for intentionally clouding the issue.

Here's what they published:

Poor in Miami

The Sept. 1 story Despite boom, high poverty rate persists describes Miami as ''third-worst in the nation among major cities in the level of poverty.'' This is only true about the city of Miami, not Miami-Dade County.

The real news is that the county's most famous municipality has become a stepping-stone community.

Miami long has been the first stop for recent arrivals from Latin America. When Miami residents prosper, they tend to move to other cities and villages or to unincorporated neighborhoods of the county.

HENRY LOUIS GOMEZ, Miami

And here's what I wrote:

Dear Editors,

I would caution The Herald to be more precise in its description of Miami as "third-worst in the nation among major cities in the level of poverty" ("Despite boom, high poverty rate persists", 9/1/2006). While the statistic is true, it is only true about the City of Miami, not the county. According to the Census Bureau The City of Miami's population of 386,417 accounts for only 16% of the county's 2.376 million residents. The real news is that Miami-Dade county's most famous municipality (the one with which it shares its name) has become a stepping stone community. The City of Miami has long been a first stop for recent arrivals from Latin America. When Miami residents prosper they tend to move out to the other cities and villages or to unincorporated parts of the county. Certainly The City of Miami's poverty needs to be taken seriously but mischaracterizing the statistics is not constructive.

Henry Louis Gomez
Unincorporated Miami-Dade County, FL

They didn't just edit for brevity, they changed the content of the letter to strip it of the obvious contempt I expressed for the editorial board that wrote the original editorial. Typical MSM bullshit. At least the Miami New Times allows readers to take shots at it.