This disgusts me not only as a born-and-raised New Yorker with many relatives and friends still living in NYC, but also as a thinking and feeling human being.
Jeff Katz, Seattle
DAN SAVAGE RESPONDS: The picture on the Movie Times page and the caption was about revenge: "Don't think we won't match this." We were not making light of the tragedy; we were making threats. The Stranger has always mixed serious content and commentary into unexpected locations of the paper, including Last Days, Movie Times, Savage Love, and other seemingly unlikely places.
For a full measure of the seriousness with which we view these horrifying events, I would direct Stranger readers' attention to last week's cover. Our original cover art, a comic, had already gone to the printer on Tuesday morning. We pulled that cover, commissioned a new piece of art for our cover, and removed all cover text.
The Stranger goes to press on Tuesday afternoon. When we learned of the events on the East Coast, we rushed to work and started pulling stories, rewriting text (a joking reference to terrorists was removed from an item about Salman Rushdie), changed our cover, and wrote new pieces for the news section. We only had about three hours to get all of this work done.
And while we worked, the writers, editors, and production team at The Stranger were experiencing the same feelings of panic and horror that gripped everyone in the United States on Tuesday, September 11. If one element in last week's paper struck a sour note, we apologize. But we would also ask for your understanding: It's difficult to be pitch-perfect while pulling together a newspaper under duress. Everyone at The Stranger was and remains horrified by the events that unfolded last week in New York City, Washington, and outside Pittsburgh. Many of us have friends in New York, some of us are from New York, and dozens of writers and artists who regularly contribute to The Stranger live in New York City.
EDITORS: I was disgusted at Dan Savage's cynical article about Starbucks' decision to close their stores and send their employees home on September 11. ["The Coffee Connection," Dan Savage, Sept 13] This is a company with stores and employees in lower Manhattan, a company that sacrificed [revenue] to give their employees a break on a day of national tragedy. Savage criticizes Starbucks for issuing the press release "practically before the... twin towers hit the ground"--and yet, judging from your paper's publication date, Savage himself was busy researching and writing a hatchet job on Starbucks while people were still dying from the terrorist attack.
David Campbell, via e-mail
DAN SAVAGE: I had the same thoughts. I was in lower Manhattan during the attacks and witnessed everything, including the support and resilience of New Yorkers making their way, by foot, uptown. We were hot, scared, and underinformed. We didn't know whether to keep walking or hide inside a building; police officers driving by gave mixed messages. Many of us had to walk several miles before the trains were running.
Some small stores and restaurants stayed open, letting people use their bathrooms, serving food and drinks, and even letting people stand inside and make phone calls. I was very disappointed in a number of the larger chains [that closed], especially Starbucks. We needed their bathrooms, chairs, air conditioning, and cold drinks.
Anonymous, via e-mail
DEAR MR. SAVAGE: All of us at Victrola Coffee & Art are deeply saddened by the alarming and barbaric events in the past week at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. While we realize that, as [business] owners, we are ultimately responsible for what our employees say, it is not always the case that what our baristas say reflects the philosophies or general feeling of our cafe. We felt it was important to keep Victrola open on Tuesday; Victrola is a place where people can get together with others in the community to grieve and share ideas in a time of crisis. To close the cafe would have been like telling our neighbors (especially those with families not in the immediate area), "Deal with this on your own."
Chris Sharp & Jen Strongin, Owners Victrola Coffee & Art, Capitol HillTO THE EDITOR: I'm shaking my head at your inability to set aside your usual snide, sardonic editorial voice when faced with news of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday. David Schmader's Last Days column looks to have been edited last-minute, with comments that sound inappropriately irreverent [Sept 13]. The crisis our country faced requires careful tact and a somber concern. Instead, he includes flip statements like: "Apparently, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to our country.... Still, you can't be a bully forever." And: "But, then, you know, there was that national tragedy." And, yet again: "I know you're all still freaked out by the national tragedy, but starting this Friday...." Why couldn't he have shown some dignity and expressed condolences to the families who have lost loved ones? Or is that just too sincere for the likes of The Stranger?
Leslie Smith-Duss, Seattle
My dear beloved David Schmader: Don't ever wonder whether writing Last Days is worth your time, even when the world is falling to pieces! Knowing that your column was going to be there was just one of those things that brought me back to feeling all right--ready to see what is to be done now that we are living in a new and much scarier world.
Ulysses Hillard, Berkeley, CA
EDITORS: I just read the "New York State of Mind" article in The Stranger [Pat Kearney, Sept 13], and while the article is astonishingly timely and an interesting eyewitness account... Alaska Airlines does not fly to JFK. Just a friendly FYI.
Brian Harrison, via e-mail
"HI, I WAS JUST READING the article 'New York State of Mind' by Pat Kearney [Sept 13]. What kind of bullshit is this? It says, 'My flight was Alaska Airlines Flight 226.' Alaska Airlines doesn't even fly into New York! So what does that say for the rest of the article? I think it's all made up. WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT!"
Anonymous, via voice mail
Pat Kearney was on vacation in New York City on Tuesday, September 11. His story, "New York State of Mind," was phoned and e-mailed in to Stranger news editor Josh Feit. Kearney's plane to New York on Monday, September 10 belonged to American Airlines--not Alaska Airlines, as stated in his story--and we regret the error. The story was written and edited under enormous strain and severe time constraints; we did not have time to fact-check unimportant details. And no, we did not make the whole thing up. --Eds.
EDITORS: Please congratulate Sean Tejaratchi for his elegant cover art on today's issue [Sept 13]. He has captured perfectly the violence and the void of Tuesday's events. It is one of The Stranger's finest pieces.
Irene Piekarski, Seattle
"I'M CALLING TO JUST congratulate you and say what an impressive and moving cover your new cover is. I think it's an image that deserves awards. When I laid this week's Stranger next to this week's Weekly and saw reality on the Weekly and art on The Stranger, I was very moved. With all the reality that's been hitting us so boldly over this past week, we need art for healing."
Brian, via voice mail
DEAR STRANGER: Kudos to your team--and especially to the illustrator--for a very sensitive and unique cover design depicting the horror of the World Trade Center attack. The stark image of the buildings brilliantly expressed the anguish, the emptiness, and the love that all of us are feeling during this time of shock and grief.
Anonymous, via e-mail
EDITORS: Whoever the dumbfuck that designed this week's cover should be fired. Your paper is just like school in the summertime.
