what about the children?

SLAM!

JOSH FEIT: Thank you for the article about Licata and the Sonics ["Key Amendments," Feb 23]. Personally, I think any future upgrades of KeyArena should be tied to the team's win–loss record. Otherwise, let's "give" the team and its problems to Bellevue.

Timothy Muck

HEY, STUPIDS!

TO ALL THE WALLINGFORD NIMBYS WHO OPPOSED THE SUMMER NIGHTS CONCERT SERIES: When libertarian individualism beats urban community, everyone loses. Without Summer Nights, hundreds of thousands of concertgoers are going to miss out on great live talent, Bumbershoot ticket prices will be higher, the city will lose revenue from the concert series, and countless Wallingford residents will miss out on the opportunity to hear national-level touring acts from their backyards.

Brahim Kollcap

MORE MONEY, BETTER THEATER

BRENDAN KILEY: The whole American theater scene looks devastating ["Play Money," March 2]. The scene is irrelevant for the American culture today compared to what happens in a small city like Copenhagen or a bigger one like Berlin and the impact plays have for the rest of the country and European culture. (I may sound like the arrogant European, but I am just stating what I saw when I lived in Seattle and traveled around the country.)

And do you know why that is? Because you (the concerned taxpayers and the state) ONLY give $13,000 to a bad theater company. Make it at least $50,000 and let them do their shit! Sooner or later they want to do better, want to have an audience, and want to be known. They hate to be booed; they want to see clapping hands, as many as possible. Give a million dollars to the bigger theater companies. Culture is a national good, as important as roads and the army.

State funding is needed for almost all art forms, including opera and classical music here in Europe. Does that mean we should abandon those art forms because they are not able to support themselves? I don't think so (and I don't think that you meant that).

Art, i.e., theater, is like a good wine—it needs time to breathe! Give it the time and the money to breathe. Then the U.S. may grow a theater scene that is worth mentioning.

Christian Westheide, Berlin

THANKS FOR 'PLAY MONEY'

BRENDAN: Now THAT's something worth reading. I was wondering if anybody noticed where all that money went. Great piece.

M. A.

TAKING ISSUE WITH THE COVER

I'm all for free speech, but I have to register my LOUD complaint about the R-rated cover of your latest issue [Feb 23], which I saw sitting in a tall stack outside our neighborhood library as I was escorting my 4- and 7-year-old daughters inside. Your distributor put the stack in an unfortunate place right under the book-return slot. We were there for several minutes, loading up our copious stack of overdue books. Thank God neither of them noticed the cover—I fully expected one of them to turn to me and ask, "Mommy, why does that lady have her face between that man's legs?" How would you answer your child?

Children need to learn sex education accurately and in ways that are age appropriate. Your newspaper is all over town in public places where children will see it: libraries, grocery stores, coffee shops, etc. Such unwarranted exposure—in a society where parents have to work overtime to shelter their kids from inappropriate violent and sexual images and innuendo—is wrong. Print those images and proclaim your First Amendment rights, fill your pages with sex-for-hire ads if you must, but please keep them hidden inside the front cover.

Katy Lloyd

YOUR ISSUES ARE SHOWING

DEAR EDITOR: Your cover photo this week is totally offensive. Are you a bunch of dumbass rednecks over there or do you just think misogynist pedophilia is way cool in a trailer-trash kind of way? Well, get a clue. I think you should apologize to the women and men of Seattle who would prefer not to contemplate what might be going on in that photo.

Maybe it's just yuppies lounging around, but it certainly looks like some sleazebag trapping his 13-year-old niece into giving him head. Some of your readers, as similarly prepubescent girls, have been through similarly sordid scenarios and some, unfortunately, may be lured into it in the future. How do you feel about encouraging such a situation?

Jennifer Hasty

FROM THE FORUMS

POSTED BY ELSWINGER ON FEB 24: [Re: the Feb 23 cover] I wish the covers were related to articles in the paper. I searched throughout the pages for an article on NAMBLA to no avail. Maybe it has something to do with the personals?