When Local Ain’t Yokel
Many thanks for the review of local bands. I hope to see more such articles in the Planet in the near future. I do buy local music and attend shows.
—Tom Slaughter, Via e-mail
News That’s Not Fit to Print
When will African Americans be free to take a stand against the remnants of slavery without being publicly castrated by the media? Your coverage on Darryll Rouson could have easily been construed as a front pager of the National Enquirer. It was one thing to point out Mr. Rouson's record with the Florida Bar; one could certainly see the relevance of his recent appointment to the new Attorney General's transition team. However, it was quite another to talk about his personal misfortunes, for which I'm sure you don't have all the intricate details. Then to add insult to injury you dragged others into the story such as Sgt. Lindell Bright who have nothing to do with Mr. Rouson's appointment to Mr. Crist's transition team. Was the angle of the story a two-for-one deal?
—Maria Scruggs Weston, St. Petersburg
Better Living Through Chemistry
The other evening I was reading Forbes (self-proclaimed capitalist tool) and afterward picked up the Weekly Planet (somewhat to the left of Ho Chi Minh), and surprisingly both issues had articles about how Rachel Carson (mother of the environmental movement) was mistaken and that banning DDT has caused more human deaths than it saved. It's nice to know that the truth eventually prevails and that the left will admit when they've been hoodwinked. Now if Straight Dope will just explain the fallacy of global warming and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we can all join hands and sing "Kumbaya" together!
—Mark Warda, Belleair
Missing the Irony
Whether I live in America, Africa, Timbuktu or wherever, I do not like being treated like a second-class citizen in this world because I am a man. I suppose that if a MAN got "raped, mutilated, murdered and injusticed in a horrific aftermath of genocide," that would be perfectly OK. It is only terrible if the women and children are involved. I do not like the idea that women and children are more valuable than and above men.
If I were on a sinking ship, I would run to a lifeboat, and if I were the only adult male on that lifeboat, I would not feel one bit ashamed of myself. I will not die on a sinking ship for a bunch of women and children because I feel men are just as valuable. If it is against the law for a man to get into a lifeboat ahead of women and children, I will be an outlaw and proud of it.
This is not the only area where men are unjustly discriminated against. Nightclubs have a ladies night, where women can get free drinks but they do not have a men's night. Men pay higher premiums for life, health and auto insurance and that definitely needs to change. In a divorce, men have to give up their homes, vehicles and 70 percent of their incomes to their ex-wives and that also needs to change. Men get more jail time for hitting women than women get for hitting men.
If some people think that this discrimination against men is justified because men are stronger than women, that is a crock. There are a lot of female athletes out there, like Dorothy Hammill and Nancy Kerrigan. If a woman wants to be strong physically, she is perfectly capable of going to the gym and working out just like men do. There are also people who claim that the discrimination is justified because women are more emotional than men. It is time these people realized that men have feelings too. Men have goals, dreams, hopes and aspirations, just like women.
We have already had our feminist movement. What this universe needs now is a masculinist movement. You should change the title of your article to "People First."
—Greg Bates, Ellenton
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This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2003.