STRANGER: Please stop all the commentary and leave us alone to heal. I am the "girlfriend" in the Matt Nichols (Garman) "scandal" and I think more than enough damage has already been done. I will not deny the events depicted in Mr. Feit's article ["Unhappy Birthday," July 15] are true, they are, but that doesn't mean they should have been exposed and exploited.
I begged The Stranger not to print this article but my request was obviously not heeded. I do not feel public humiliation is the key to empowering someone to take responsibility for their actions and get the help they need... in fact, I think it may do quite the opposite. Matt is a wonderful person with many great qualities; I'll attest to that along with countless others, I am sure. This is why I continued to stay and support him each time this sort of thing happened, not because I am some idiot who didn't know any better or liked being abused. He would apologize and promise to get the help he knew he needed and I believed in him.
Unfortunately, he crossed the line and I felt I had to call for help, never knowing my one phone call would hurl this traumatic and private event into the public arena. I do not believe anything good has come of this exposure; it has only served to hurt both of us and complicate the situation even more. How could this possibly inspire anyone to stand up for themselves, come forward, or get help after seeing what has transpired in the past few weeks? If I'd had any idea of how we were going to be exploited and scrutinized in this public forum, I would have preferred to remain silent.
Kathryn ("The Girlfriend")
LIBERALS ABUSE TOO
JOSH FEIT: I just wanted to say, as a former victim of domestic violence myself, that I'm glad that you printed that article. Sure, the woman and her friends might feel ashamed. BUT IT'S NOT HER FAULT! That's why it needs to get out in print. It's not just rednecks who beat up their girlfriends; it's cool, arty liberal guys too.
Becky
PARTING, AS THEY SAY...
KATHLEEN WILSON: You don't know me, but I have been a religious reader of yours since the It's My Party days, and I was saddened to see that you will no longer be writing for The Stranger ["Last Words," July 22].
I somehow found a column on the web where you said nice things about a band I felt needed more nice things said about them, and upon further investigation was roped in by your scathing wit and ability to tell it like you saw it. My Thursdays will not be the same with out a column by you, and I would like to wish you all the luck in your future pursuits.
Sean
FABULOUS AND MYSTERIOUS
KATHLEEN WILSON: A note from a fan of your column. I've been reading your stuff for a few years now and I have always found it entertaining. Music is a fabulous and mysterious thing in the way it divides and joins us all, and your enthusiasm for many of its manifestations was always a high point of The Stranger. I hit a Pretty Girls Make Graves show here in Santa Barbara because of your writing, and I was not disappointed. Take care and good luck in all things.
Chris
FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE
HANNAH LEVIN: I've been following the WM3 case since I lived in Arkansas, almost 10 years ago now. Thank you for the interview with Damien ["Ever Feel Cheated?" July 22]. It's fascinating to see the picture of him now, because I remember what he looked like in the Paradise Lost films, and how young he seemed in the interviews back then. What a sad 10 years for him and for his family, and the other boys who've grown into men in the time they've spent locked up for something they didn't do.
Those of us who support this cause keep hoping for the day we'll see headlines saying "The West Memphis Three Are Free." Good to hear that Damien hasn't lost his hope, either.
Lorena Anderson
AGAIN: FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS 3
HANNAH LEVIN: I am writing to say thank you for your interview and article regarding Arkansas death-row inmate Damien Echols. I am a supporter of the West Memphis Three, and have been for over seven years now. Articles like yours really help to bring awareness to Damien's plight, and get the word out to people who are unfamiliar with his case. I fully believe Damien will one day be freed from the prison system and will be able to fulfill his dream of "walking at night and breathing the fresh air."
Again, thank you so much for taking the time to write this article, and for considering it important enough to have published.
Tricia Mills
YOU SAY RED, I SAY BLUE
STRANGER: In regards to Ms. Nielsen's misguided letter yearning for a more balanced approach to reporting in The Stranger [July 29], she'd do better to look for another newspaper and here's why: An alternative newspaper, if it's worth its weight in shit, will always be more interested in public need than it will be in self-interest, which the Republican Party has been brewed and steeped in for the past 25 years.
And I think it's the highest of ironies that she says, "It sure would be nice to see a less hateful stance toward my views and beliefs." You want to see hate? Just wait for the Republican Convention in New York. The hate and intolerance will be so thick you'll be able to cut it with a knife. I'm not sure that I'm even going to be able to watch it because of the poison.
My suggestion to her is to move to the Eastside (if she isn't already there), buy a Mercedes (because I know she's dying to have one), and start her own fucking newspaper.
Edwin Roberts
BRING BACK THE PATHETIC CRIES INTO THE COSMOS
STRANGER: I know that there are a precious few out there who, like me, have always had a hidden agenda when picking up your publication each week outside their neighborhood pizza or coffee shop. I speak for these quiet romantics. Yes, I read the I Saw U ads religiously. Imagine, if you will, my complete disappointment when upon sifting through The Stranger's pages, I found that my beloved escape from monotony had mysteriously vanished. In denial, I waited for its return, only to be met with an abbreviated and far inferior version that proclaims: "And Many More Online!" Now, I think it's entirely reasonable to expect a person that is cruising the personal ads in a newspaper would also be apt to cruise them online, but for the love of Tom Hanks, why take away our I Saw U's? My suggestion would be to confine the other personals to your website, where readers can search to their heart's content and use the space to publish more of these wonderfully pathetic cries into the cosmos. There is very little romance, not to mention very little dignity, in searching an online database every week, hoping to read that you've been noticed. I refuse to do it and have thus sacrificed a large part of my Thursday-morning excitement when attaining The Stranger. Please, for the sake of the idealistic, hopeless romantic that has very little to cling to these days, give back the I Saw U to the world.
Lindsay Bull
LES AMOURS DE CLAUDETTE
STRANGER: I just recently moved to San Diego, and it's not that I don't like it here, but I miss you so much! I just got the chance to write and wanted the entire staff to know that you really, truly helped raise me and were awesome in informing me, getting me passionate about politics, and getting me out and loving the culture that Seattle has to offer. To tell truth, I hate it down here. Who would think it would be so conservative? And it's really friggin' hot--I miss layering my clothes on the Fourth of July. I'll be coming home soon, and I will never take you all for granted. I'm crazy in love with you. See you soon.
Claudette Smith
LETTERS TO OTHER EDITORS
TO THE EDITORS AND CORRESPONDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: This letter is to address your deplorable coverage of the recent Democratic National Convention. My complaint has less to do with the actual news you reported--although, frankly, the pretense that you were reporting news at all is a major part of the problem--than with the manner in which you reported it. More to the point, I take exception to your grammar.
From Nedra Pickler's article, "Kerry to Say Strength More Than Words," posted to the AP wire around 1:00 p.m. Thursday, six full hours before the speech it describes was given:
"John Kerry was to promise Thursday he would fight for Americans at home and if necessary abroad as he sought to convince voters he could replace President Bush as commander in chief. 'Strength is more than tough words,' he was to say in a speech for the Democratic National Convention."
Can you--and by you, I mean anyone reading this letter--identify or defend the grammatical tense being employed in the above passage? Future conditional perfect? Past progressive? Days of future passed? Pickler's article was hardly an isolated case. All through the convention, AP reporters offered chronolinguistically mangled reports of events and speeches that "were to" occur later that day or week. I realize this is a niggling pedantic concern, but it bears some relevance to the culture of cynicism that makes our current political climate so fraught with pity and fear. If the convention is so choreographed that the news can be reported before it even happens, why should any of us engage in the charade of watching the events unfold, pretending they are anything but plot points in a narrative which, as Joan Didion reminds us, has no relation whatsoever to the people it pretends to represent. Kerry gave a rousing speech, I thought, which this article all but robbed of its passionate reason. It's a small thing, I know--but small things matter. It's an easy out to blame the media for our cynical times, but if the shoe was to fit....
