HEY, STRANGERS: Are we supposed to believe that Kanada is a better place to live than the United States? ["Canada Comes Through," Kyle Shaw, July 1] If that is so, why are all those Kanadians coming HERE to live! And why aren't YOU moving there--as I hope all of you brain-dead leftists do. Here is a country that depends on the U.S. for protection, then bites us in the butt for it! Here is a country where you wait for essential hospital services, and sometimes DIE waiting! Here is a country whose per capita GDP is just over half of ours, and they whine about how unfair we are!
The writer is entitled to his opinion, since he lives in Kanada, but YOU people should know better. If you are all as ignorant as Kyle Shaw--which may be the case--then please go live in Kanada and take all your lemming liberal loser friends with you. Seattle will be a far better place for it!
Ken Weigel
WHATCOM COUNTY'S FAIR
TO THE EDITOR: As a Seattle-for-now queer, I have to say I loved this year's queer edition. ["Where We're Not Wanted," June 24] We all have migration stories. I do have one slightly critical comment. As a transsexual woman who grew up in Bellingham (and who knows Nooksack, Washington, mentioned in Dan Savage's piece, and Whatcom County, mentioned in Trisha Ready's article), I can't say that Bellinghamsters and their county kin are particularly good exemplars of backward ruraltude. Bellingham is a college and skiing town, albeit with only one queer bar (quaintly featuring a boy's half and a girl's half), but you can grow up there and hear people like Angela Davis and Tony Kushner, have relationships, and find coming-out support. There's even a gender protection law on the books.
If you print this feel free to make up something horrid for my name.
Nellie Nooksack
THAT CAN BE ARRANGED
TO THE EDITOR: Now I remember why I hated teen magazines, even when I was in the target age range of 9-12 years old. It was because of shit like The Stranger's new "Dating, Mating, and Hating" column. God, what horrible, pre-teen-focused schlock! Why would anyone writing for an adult (i.e., grownup) publication produce this shit? I'd rather have a hot fork slowly pressed through my forehead into my brain than read Tricunda Shiraz ever again.
Jenny Goodwin
IRANIANS AIN'T ARABS
TO THE EDITOR: In last week's letters section, Marianna Michael Ritchey states that The Terminal is based on the story of an Iranian man [June 24]. She later states that Tom Hanks should have portrayed an Arab, instead of an Eastern European. Iranians, however, are not Arabs. While I can't speak for every Iranian, almost every one I've talked to about this matter does not like being confused for an Arab. While Iranians share a common religion, region, and alphabet with Arabs, we have significantly different cultures, and we're just overall different people. Please do me and other local Iranians a favor by printing a little explanation or correction or whatever you need to do. It's really just a collective pet peeve that you can help end.
Saba Samakar
MISSING MISTRESS
Just wanted to say I will miss seeing Mistress Matisse in the printed version of The Stranger... sigh.
Erik Neumann
THE FINAL TRAFFIC SOLUTION
MR. EDITOR MAN: Those of us who live in the real world are often rendered speechless by the ignorant, ill-informed ideas excreted by those who do not. I am referring here to Erica C. Barnett and others of her clueless ilk who think that removing and not replacing the viaduct is a viable option ["Paved Over," July 1]. Their ideas should be extinguished and they themselves should be eradicated, and any trace of their existence erased. Please die.
The traffic volume that the viaduct carries every day is so huge that there is no way that it can be rerouted elsewhere without making an already dire traffic situation immeasurably worse. What should we do? Add more lanes to I-5? Add more buses? Bicycle lanes? WAKE UP!!!
All these people are selfish. The views (theirs) will be better. The noise will be abated. The synergy between waterfront and city will be enhanced. They are not those of us who must actually try to get from one place to another in this city. They couldn't be. Maybe they feel that worsening traffic will hasten the day when we can all abandon our evil cars.
Mark Pedersen
ERICA C. BARNETT RESPONDS: Nowhere does my story suggest that we simply reroute the 110,000 cars that currently travel on the viaduct through downtown every day. Quite the contrary: The Central City Access Strategy--cooked up, by the way, by the Seattle Department of Transportation, not some selfish group of wealthy waterfront dwellers--proposes improving access to downtown, expanding the city's transit system, and, yes, tearing down the viaduct. These strategies, combined with the monorail and light rail, would remove thousands of cars from the viaduct corridor. In other cities that have torn down major waterfront roadways, people have adapted to their circumstances, and found better ways to get around. When driving is the easiest option, people drive; when it isn't, they find alternatives.
