Letters to the Editor - April 19 2006

Mommy likes it!

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I read your article on YouTube.com, and I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you, I made “The Easter Bunny Hates You,” and I very much appreciate your words (Flicks, “Et tu, YouTube?” April 13).

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How much? So much so that I e-mailed my mother the article. My mom likes it when I succeed. Not so much when I fail. And frankly, after she saw the video, she couldn’t tell which it was.

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So thanks for writing that. It was very kind of you, and I’m glad you liked it so much.

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-- Neil Punsalan, Sunnyside, N.Y.

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Say you’re sorry

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I’m pictured on stage at the Dogwood Festival playing fiddle with Whoa Nelly in last week’s Creative Loafing (Scene & Herd, “Spectrum analysis,” April 13).

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The photo above me is of Janet Parks during her excerpted ballet performance, just after our performance, on the same stage. The caption reads, “JANET PARKS: Yet another unused pole.”

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I’m assuming the writer is drawing a parallel between ballet dancers and strippers. I’m also assuming that the writer should be writing for the National Enquirer instead of Creative Loafing.

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People don’t spend years or decades perfecting their craft only to have a callous and insensitive writer belittle the performer and the entire art form with a shortsighted and clearly unrefined reference. I’m certain you owe Ms. Parks a sincere apology for that misstep.

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­-- Bruce G. Lebovitz, Tucker

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Not quite right

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John Sugg: You surely know English language and literature better. Jimmy Carter may want to be perceived as Christlike, but that story about his talk with a girl in Sunday school is not a “parable” (Fishwrapper, “Listen up, Democrats,” April 6).

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It is a decidedly un-Christlike anecdote that reveals a very mean, obnoxiously self-righteous man. Calling that anecdote a parable is pandering of the worst sort.

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­-- Rob Gardier, Lake Oswego, Ore.

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Complete fool

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This letter is in response to Keith Watkins’ letter (Going Postal, “Y’all should be grateful,” April 6). Like most racists, Watkins began his letter complaining of racism against whites. Thereafter he spews racist remarks. To say that blacks would not have been “allowed” in America were it not for slavery is not only a statement only a true racist would make, but also one made by a complete fool.

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If the shores of America had been invaded by warriors from Africa, I doubt if those warriors would have been defeated.

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But that is neither here nor there, we are here and I’m sure your ancestral klan crossed fingers and toes with hopes that we would fall victim to genocide after the cotton was picked, the roads built and the final mint julep serviced.

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Unfortunately for your klan, we survived. Watkins spoke of slavery as if it were a stay at Club Med. He failed to mention the mass murders, mutilations, rapes and general forms of dehumanization practiced. He also wrote of the “logic” Southerners used in promoting slavery since the South was/is so hot and humid. I bet Keith Watkins prides himself on a South that was built by whites.

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Why were members of your klan so desperate for help? They should have been real men and women, braved the heat and built their own land instead of traveling across the globe to enslave others to build it for them.

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Keith, my man, surely you do not mean to say that God approved the inhumane treatment of your fellow men, women and children because your klan did not care to work in the sun.

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Finally, I’d like to ask Keith Watkins: Since you are so concerned about slavery that you say exists in Africa today, what are you doing to stop it? Since you seem to be a God-fearing, right-thinking man, Africa could use a crusader like yourself to disband this cruelty as soon as possible. In closing, by the tone of your letter, I’m sure your tolerance for blacks in America, black Americans and, yes, just plain old Americans is at a very low point.

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Sorry to disappoint, but as stated earlier, we are here to stay and you can thank your ancestral klan for that, or you can do as they did and blame it on the sun.

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­-- William Richardson, Norcross