Building Bridges
While I read Mr. Bramer's article about the emerging contemporary peace movement with interest and even agreed with some of what he had to say, I found his characterization of the controversy between United Voices for Peace (UVP) and the Florida Alliance for Peace and Social Justice (FAPSJ), the two principal local peace coalitions, to be a less than balanced account.
I was a member of the UVP team that organized the recent MacDill rally/gathering, and yet my own picture of the conflict between the FAPSJ and us does not necessarily reflect the views of others in UVP.
Bramer's description of UVP as pacifistic and mostly mainstream is essentially accurate, but his description of FAPSJ as "bellicose" and "Uhuru-affiliated" is not entirely correct. I noted with interest that while Bramer quoted our facilitator Christine O'Brien (a close friend and mentor whom I hold in enormous esteem), as well as our media spokesperson Mark Kamleiter, he did not appear to have spoken to anyone from FAPSJ. Had he done so, he might have discovered that while the initial impetus for creating FAPSJ may have begun with Omali Yeshitela and the Uhurus, the composition of the alliance as it presently exists includes several local activists who are as avowedly pacifist as anyone connected with UVP.
It is a caricature of the facts to assume that FAPSJ remains a mere extension of Yeshitelism. Some of these people in the alliance are friends of mine and while I do not entirely endorse their decidedly militant tone, I feel strongly that neither coalition really entertains an accurate perception of what the other really is.
Misrepresentations serve only to exacerbate tensions within the movement, and ultimately these divisions benefit only the pro-war establishment.
—John Feeney, Spokesman & Co-Convener, Episcopal Peace Fellowship SW Florida Diocese
A Valentine
Every Thursday, before I get on the treadmill at my gym (Southside), I grab a copy of the Weekly Planet. Inevitably I exclaim to whoever's next to me, or to myself if I'm alone, "This paper is the BEST!" I thought I'd share my opinion with you this week.
I like your articles. Your movie reviews are more reliable than the Herald-Trib's. And your restaurant reviews are MUCH more reliable and tell-it-like-it-is. (The Trib's are so kiss-ass and self-serving — a waste of space, in my opinion.) I also liked the column on Italian wines that I read today.
Keep up the good — no, GREAT work. And thanks.
—Helen Spindler, SarasotaOld News
I was greatly distressed when I read in the St. Petersburg Times, of all places, that Francis X. Gilpin, Trevor Aaronson and Rochelle Renford have all been fired as part of a shift away from politics in the Weekly Planet's focus. I expect that this will leave much more room for the sort of innocuous, prechewed pap (in the guise of "cultural" articles) that has been slowly creeping into the Planet over the past several years, displacing the more confrontational articles on the less-than-squeaky-clean doings of the local politicos.
Presumably, this will result in greater circulation amongst the see-no-evil-hear-no-evil bubble-dwelling yuppies for whom Centro Ybor, International Plaza and Channelside were constructed, and from whom said politicos garner tremendous tax revenues. With that circulation comes much higher advertising rates for pseudo-hip Hyde Park boutiques that sell $600 end tables. Congratulations, you all should be getting nice raises soon, and we'll have another Tampa Tribune, but printed on slightly smaller-sized paper. Oh well. That's one less thing I'll have to read every week.
—Paul Legato, via e-mail
Editor's Note: We hope you haven't stopped reading yet. You may find that other papers' predictions of our plans were not entirely accurate.
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2003.