HI PHIL: I loved your article in this week's edition on bullying ["Shooting Off Their Mouths," Phil Campbell, March 15]. I was bullied at the school I grew up in, in England. I think the kids you interviewed had great attitudes and showed a lot of maturity. Maybe if there were more kids like that, there wouldn't be such a problem!
I happen to think a lot of it is caused by parents and other family members' attitudes, as kids are just innocently absorbing beliefs and judgments from them, as well as from other students. Kids don't naturally hate other kids unless told to do so. I think some sort of education for the parents might not be a bad idea. I'm no psychologist, but I'd also say a lot of it is a more outward expression of the pressure kids feel from parents and teachers, at having to achieve, and it has little to do with who's in their class. The kids being bullied are just "lightning conductors" for all that pressure. You can see the opposite in countries like Japan and China, where there is a high suicide rate; the kids taking a more inner-directed route for their anger and fear.
Being English, and raised in a whole different mentality and social structure, I can see how America is always on the push for success at any cost. It is scary. I'm currently looking for work and I find it daunting, so I can imagine how a high-school kid must feel. Scared of failure, constantly expected to perform, expected to always look and act "right," take the "right" subjects, wear the "right" clothes, etc. No wonder they lose it! I do get great satisfaction from the fact that the kids who bullied me and a friend of mine are living a life in small-town England, married and divorced from their high-school sweethearts, the English equivalent of "trailer trash," while I'm here, living a good life as a very happy wife, writer, tarot reader, and therapist in Seattle. So be consoled: There is divine justice in the world....
Chandira Hensey, via e-mail
JOSH: Dead-fucking-on article about Mardi Gras and race ["Blackout," Josh Feit, March 22]. In fact, I think that the Urban League's attempt to ignore race may even amplify the eventual feelings of Seattle's citizens. Not to overstate it, but someone who was shocked by the whole thing may feel even more that African American youths targeted white people just because there was such a vehement denial by the city's African American leadership. For example, I think the [Seattle Post-Intelligencer's] 48-point headline showing that three-fourths of the arrests were in fact African American would never have happened if not for the early denials by community leaders.
Marco, via e-mail
JOSH FEIT: Being that I often get outraged with some of the commentary found in The Stranger, I was extremely delighted to see that you didn't get caught in the usual leftist dribble. I myself am about one of the least racist people around, but I was down there that night, and that was a race riot. Period! If it had been white on black instead, we would still have Reverend Jackson and Al Sharpton in our city inciting even more racism. Racism is racism, no matter what color perpetrates it. I normally tend to not involve race in an issue, but I am sick of the hypocrisy. If every time a white hits a black it is racially motivated, then the reverse must be true, too. Once again, I am glad to see The Stranger be the only newspaper with the balls to call it like it is. Way to go.
Brent Miller, Seattle
EDITORS: I'm gonna have to take issue with Joe Newton's response [Letters, March 22] to the letter writer who objected to the Feb 22 cover, Bride Undone, by Amy Died (really?). While offering the right of the viewer's interpretation of the cover "art," he proceeds to take it away. The decision to run a clearly provocative sequence of images on the cover of The Stranger cannot be justified by an explanation of the "artist's" intentions. The decision to put a photojournalistic piece on a cover does not automatically denote it as art. If the photographer's intention is that important and not understood, then perhaps the photographer failed and not the viewer. I only "got it" after seeing the title. And even then, "undone" by who? If Ms. Died's story, as per Mr. Newton's explanation, was about a "recent divorce and the painful process of ending a long-term relationship" and not just another exhibitionist Stranger ploy--maybe it needed a caption. Like, "Bride Undone by Fucking Emotionally Abusive Asshole Husband...."
A couple of "Image Interpretation 101" quotes may help to clarify my point: "Whatever the representation, viewers project back onto and into the image their own sets of interests, desires, investments, phobias and the like. We see differently from each other because our lives are never identical. Seeing helps make us what we are, whether we choose to confirm, to deny, or to mediate the 'reality' we construct. Yet neither the misogynic nor the feminist image leads us toward any necessary or specific response. Either may strengthen or weaken our beliefs, whether they are regressive or progressive."--Richard Leppert. Or, "It's the viewers who make the pictures."--Marcel Duchamp
Mark Sullo, Seattle
EDITORS: By virtue of the fact that the article ["Is Outrage Outdated?" Traci Vogel, March 29] identified basic problems that still impinge on every ordinary woman's life (lack of both equal wages and full reproductive rights), it is apparent that feminism cannot be dead. It is difficult to be ironic if you need an abortion, have no money, and live in a rural county without a provider. Daycare for two kids costs $1,900 a month, but women still only make 72 cents for a man's dollar. We need to confront these issues head-on. The problems of women are the problems of the men they live around and with. Outrage at the current political climate (pushing women back to the days of back-alley abortions and supporting the corporate old-boy structure that hands out welfare only to business) will be very evident at a march and rally sponsored by the Coalition to Mobilize for Women's Lives on Saturday, April 7 at noon at Westlake Center in Seattle. Everyone who supports women's rights in the areas of economic justice, reproductive rights, and safety from domestic violence should turn out to build the fight back against Bush and his cohorts. Information is available from Lika Smith at 679-6108 or K. L. Shannon at klorganizer@yahoo.com. Earnest feminism is making a comeback.
Linda Jansen, Volunteer, Feminist Women's Health Centers
HI DAN: Hey, I just read your article "Memo to Jeff, Howard, and Bill" [March 29] and was wondering why all the hoopla about wanting the large corporations to leave? It seems to me that if all these large companies do move from the Puget Sound area, we will have this huge vacuum in our local economy with nothing to fill it. If the large companies go, doesn't that mean the smaller businesses will go under as a result of there being less people with money to buy all their stuff? And keeping with that train of thought, if the smaller businesses go away, won't free papers like The Stranger, which rely on advertising money to put out a paper every week, have to shut down, too? The writers will have to get other, less interesting jobs; our music, theater, and art scenes won't be covered and will fizzle into dust, making the Northwest in general nothing more than a very large cow town. Whether you like it or not, we need these large companies to put deep roots down in our community, creating products and jobs. Otherwise the staff of The Stranger better start practicing lines like this: "Would you like to super-size your order today?" And we all don't want to experience that.
Mike Enyeart, via e-mail
EDITORS: Thank you so much for running this story ["Cops Ignore Gay Bashing," In Other News, Melissa Ross, March 29]. I didn't even know 911 call tapes were public information. I spoke to the sergeant who's handling the case. He said he will also track down the call record. Sincere thanks to you all.
Alejundro Sanchez, via e-mail
EDITORS: Regarding Barry Edward Wright's "Guided by Youth" [March 29], I feel I must come to the defense of some of my young friends. Not all 10- and 11-year-olds have such a dim view of modern music. For the record, I know one female, age 10, who will be taking the train to Portland this very weekend (accompanied by an adult and with earplugs in tow) to see Quasi at an all-ages venue. When you start bitching about kids these days and their music, you know you're getting old, and more importantly, irrelevant. In an issue of your paper with a story on feminism as its lead, it's good to remember that the little girls understand.
P.S. She'll be wearing an Elliott Smith T-shirt, not a Hawaiian one.
