I May Be A Racist, Too
I have read Cathy Salustri's piece ("A Conversation with a 'Racist,'" by Alex Pickett, June 13-19) and have come to the realization that I may be a racist as well. I live in South Tampa, and the only thing whiter than my neighbors' skin is the powder they put up their nose. The ridiculousness I see night in and night out is usually because my melanin-deficient brethren are doing something remarkably stupid. Whether it's a cocaine-laden lass throwing a glass at an innocent bystander or a Jäger-bombed-out frat boy throwing punches at someone who was "checking out his girl," I have had it with these J Crew-wearin', Fall Out Boy-listenin', cellphone-totin'‚ Hummer-drivin' asinine crackers.
It pains me to say it. Oh sure, I know my share of sanity-havin' honkies, but in my area they are few and far between. It takes every nerve ending in my body not to issue a Nat Turner-styled beat-down to the next person that calls me dude.
Cathy, I am with you, sister. I am your star-crossed brother of hate. Perhaps we should hook up and, I don't know, exchange racial slurs. Jesse Jackson always said we need to find common ground.
All jokes aside, because there is nothing funnier and/ or more pathetic than a journalist who lives in a blighted community — where jobs are scarce, the educational system is pathetic and [the] incarceration compound is larger than most of the schools in Pinellas County — who attributes it to race.
I can hem and haw about one's journalistic integrity — hell, I can get all Edward R. Murrow on your ass. How far away is the Poynter Institute from your house, anyway?
Another journalist might have used the situation of getting her motor scooter stolen as an avenue to discuss the horrendous public transportation in her community. Another journalist might have seen the plethora of drug activity in said neighborhood and wondered how many drug treatment facilities are in said area. There is a reason why people like Christiane Amanpour cover international conflicts and you are paid to discuss the horrors of getting your lawnmower stolen. (Don't hold your breath on that Peabody, girlfriend.)
Look, I have read my fair share of British literature. If I were in Great Britain in the early 1800s and thought like you, I would see every pasty-faced 12-year-old white boy as a threat to my property and society and write about my hatred for them. Thank God Charles Dickens decided to write about the institutional classism that put them there in the first place. Chances are he wouldn't be a literary hero if he did it the other way around.
Jerry Nixon, via e-mail
No A/C? Then R.I.P., CL
I read with interest your cover story ("Give Me Some Air," by Stan Cox, June 20-26), the essence of which is that air conditioning should be abandoned because it "is a poster child for the inevitable decay that … is a defining characteristic of economic growth." Since we agree that economic growth is the enemy of all life on earth, I would like to thank Creative Loafing for providing at least a partial solution to this problem: The paper itself will soon cease to exist.
All the computers at the publishing office obviously require A/C to function properly. Also, unless they are hand-cranked in the dark, the printing presses and lights must consume huge amounts of electricity. And most telling, a grand total of about 55 of this issue's 80 pages (yes, that's OVER HALF, readers) are devoted solely to advertising. Think of all that extra wasted paper, ink and energy. But far worse yet, advertising certainly stimulates economic growth, which decays our world. So ads will have to be stopped altogether. But wait — without all the ads, the public would have to PAY for this paper, using money earned in the economy, or else you folks couldn't get paid to produce it. So economic growth is suddenly OK after all?
Of course not. In other words, the paper has, in its earnest anti-business stance and in this cover story, succinctly defined itself out of existence. If you mean what you say, that is.
Nice knowin' ya.
Henri Pregaldin, Treasure Island, via e-mail
Clarification
Re "Snapshot," June 20-26: Interview subject Dederick Woodard asked that the following clarification be added to his quote about the anger he felt prior to joining the Marines: "I destroyed that anger when I went into the Marines," said Woodard. "I learned how to deal with that violence."
Correction
In "Add It Up "(June 20-26), an item describing the number of uninsured children who could be covered by a proposed bill was inadvertently listed as a dollar amount. The number is 5.5 million.
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2007.