Perfect park-ing
Mr. Bohy, thank you for your fabulous editorial on your trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the proposed rewrite of the National Park Service’s management policies (“Scorpions & Snakes,” Metro Times, Aug. 31). As an advocacy group for the national parks, our organization has been intently monitoring this issue and I certainly enjoyed reading your reflections. —Kelli Holsendolph, National Parks Conservation Association, Washington, D.C., www.npca.org/media_center
Don’t forget them
Do we have to die, or be close to it, to be recognized in our own hometown? I would just like to say thank you so much for finally giving two of our great entertainers front-page spots in our beloved paper, the Metro Times: Lottie “The Body” and Alberta Adams (“Paradise Regained,” Aug. 3, and “Ladies Sing the Blues,” Aug. 17).
How many times have we as the mainstay entertainers that live here in our great city Detroit gone unnoticed, unwanted and underpaid? There are so many of us that have done great things on a national level, only to come back home and nobody knows anything about the event, or even worse, they really don’t care. Sometimes that hurts the most.
Please don’t forget: Harold McKinney, Teddy Harris Jr., Rudy Robinson, Eli Fountain, Earl VanDyke, Donald Townes, Reginald Fields (a.k.a., Shoo-Bee-Doo), Wild Bill Moore, Little John, Choker Campbell, Earl Van Riper, J.C. Heard. Please give the rest of us that are still here something to be proud of where we live and what we’ve done with most of our lives, while we are still here, to reap some benefits. —Robert Lowe, Detroit, [email protected]
Myth in the making
So Snowhite just sent off a demo to Atlantic and they liked it so much that they signed the band (“Teenarama,” Metro Times, Aug. 31)? Sounds like a little bit of myth-making to me; major labels return unsolicited demos unopened. There has to be more to the story, just like the supposedly indie (as in “do-it-yourself”) White Stripes, which was going nowhere until it hired corporate publicists.—Joel Peterson, Detroit, [email protected]
Nothing more than feelings
Keith Owens, congratulations. Ten years ago you went to the Million Man March and felt the strength of solidarity (“Marching again with Farrakhan,” Metro Times, Aug. 24). You felt powerful. You felt, you felt, you felt.
This time, plan.
Create a firm vision of what you want the country to be in 2015, a vision that allows all people to succeed. Then plan a thousand routes to get to that vision. And last, identify the obstacles and how they’ll be overcome or evaded. Go to the movement not as a consumer, but as an engineer.
You speak of his past troubling speech. Very young children cannot distinguish a picture of a butterfly from the live insect. So, too, all thinking people — including Mr. Farrakhan — see clearer now than we did 10 years ago. We are proud of our growth, of our clearer vision. Grow, Mr. Owens, into a doer.
All the people who ignorantly feared the Million Man March in 1995 would be justly terrified by a half million people, each with a thousand different plans, especially if the planners are willing to link their ideas and resources. To become functioning parts of one body (1 Corinthians 12:14-26). It takes more than good feelings to move a mountain. Good feelings and 53 cents will get you a cup of coffee at White Castle. —Connie Lamka, Detroit
Cartoon wasn’t racist
We strongly disagree with your assessment of the recent cartoon in the Dearborn Press & Guide (“Not so funny,” Metro Times, Aug. 10). Do a bit of research – illegal immigration has a negative financial benefit for the United States and especially for the working citizens of the United States. The National Research Council has estimated that the net fiscal cost of immigration ranges from $11 billion to $22 billion per year, with most government expenditures on immigrants coming from state and local coffers, while most taxes paid by immigrants go to the federal treasury.
We are amazed at how the left-leaning journalists like yourself are so willing to abandon the needs of working-class Americans for the “benefits” of multiculturalism. Why was the cartoon “racist”? You make a point that the “Mexican” was speaking to a white. Would it not have been racist if the “Mexican” had been speaking to some other race? Political cartoons use images (like Bush’s ears) to explain the characters – the sombrero is associated with Mexico – deal with it.
We do, however, appreciate your taking the time to report on this topic. We need the left-leaning press and ethnic groups to make such outlandish accusations and demands for the general American public to realize our way of life is under attack from our “neighbors” south of the border. —Fred Nielsen, Sterling Heights
Keeping balance
Re: Kelly McDowell’s review of Leo Braudy’s book, From Chivalry to Terrorism (“Aries Rising,” Metro Times, Aug. 10): Great review; interesting topic. Congrats, Metro Times, on maintaining balanced and thoughtful coverage of current events and politics in an era of manufactured alliances and for-profit information manipulation. Keep it up. Nice work, Ms. McDowell. —Jack Lupo, Farmington
Erratum: In our story on the airline mechanics’ strike (“Solidarity forsaken,” Metro Times, Aug. 31), we misspelled the name of the labor history professor at Macalester College in Minnesota. His name is Peter Rachleff.
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