NOI annoyed
Re: "Motown gunslingers" (Nov. 18), I'm writing to express my disgust in relation to your remarks about the Nation of Islam's Fruit of Islam. For you to talk about Andrew Spivey as though his looking like a member of the Nation of Islam is equal to looking like some thug on the street does a great disservice to all the law-abiding citizens who are members of the Nation of Islam. If you happen to be a hater of the NOI, then you should keep your personal views to yourself instead of letting your poison spread to the people of my city — when you probably aren't even a resident of Detroit. Your article was very juvenile, and absolutely too simple to believe it has any truth in it. But I see the agenda you are trying to get across: one of racist stupidity! Good day. —Robert L. Webster, Detroit
Class act
In response to Detroitblogger John's "Cass class" (Nov. 25), anaped44 posted:
I am inspired by the work of Dr. Walker. He truly is on a mission and willing to do the difficult things necessary to carry it out. One of those things is to provide the kind of instruction that should have been the purview of schools. So I share his disdain for a school community that adamantly refuses to modify practices that have failed children so profoundly and for so long. Attorneys have a word for this: they call it malpractice. (See leavingjohnnybehind.com)
Post Mortem
This week we received a string of responses to our look back at the Goose Lake International Music Festival, "Goose Lake memories" (July 2, 2008):
Paul.Dinsdale posted: Dick Songer was an extraordinary, visionary entrepreneur. Next to my dad, he is the man who influenced my life more than anyone I can think of. When he opened Greenwood Acres campground, on the site of the festival, my family was one of the first to lease a lot there. He hired me part time at age 15 to do general labor, but what impressed me is he usually worked right alongside us, and frankly worked harder than anyone else. Most of the locals never forgave him for staging the festival, fighting him every time he needed a permit for anything years and years later. He showed his movie of the Goose Lake International Music Festival several summers in a row, in the "rec" center that was once the revolving stage. He never wanted to release it because it would only "upset the neighbors" again. What a priceless slice of memorabilia! I would love to see it published sometime.
mtngal69 posted: I was recalling (as best I could) my experience of Goose Lake to a friend who wasn't there, who then e-mailed me this link. I had just finished my freshman year at Michigan State University, and it was my first experience with psychedelics. We made the mistake of taking mescaline on Friday night and spent the entire night tripping our brains out in a small tent that was set up with only a couple of feet on either side in a sea of tents. (My apologies to the guy who politely commanded us to "Please keep quiet!" — they were trying to sleep! — who we then designated as the voice of God and thought we would die laughing!) The next morning, after very little if any sleep, I was no doubt still tripping, just enjoying looking at all the people, when a guy (who no doubt thought he was performing a community service) came up behind me & clamped a gas mask over my face that was attached to a canister of pot! Startled, I sucked in the biggest toke of my life and felt my lungs catch fire as my eyes roll back in my head. I would've decked the guy if I hadn't been so incapacitated. In truth, my one regret of that weekend is that I remember virtually nothing of the music, since I was so stoned the entire time. But I do recall the guy who dove or fell off the scaffold, whom I believe they took away in an ambulance. Yikes. Also, I recall that acid and God knows what else they were selling was going for 5-10 cents a hit (due to the fact that people were being searched upon leaving the concert), whereas a bottle of Boone's Farm or Ripple went for a minimum of 10 bucks — an interesting twist on the law of supply and demand I had just learned in Econ 101! Thanks for the "trip" down Hippie Memory Lane!
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