BIG UPS TO COUNTERINTEL

JOSH FEIT: Thanks for the Giuliani assault-weapons piece [CounterIntel, Oct 12]. Giuliani was great in a crisis, but has always had a problem governing. I would hate, hate, hate to see him as prez, although having said that, anybody, even fucking King Kong, would be far and away better than the current regime.

Helena Summers

IN SUPPORT OF FRIZZELLE

CHRISTOPHER: I just I HAD to respond after reading the letter to the editor from the editors at Cranky [Letters, Oct 5].

I would take Cranky (and others of its ilk) a lot more seriously if they didn’t represent everything that’s wrong with the “po biz” these days. By which I mean, there is one core group of four or five “poets” who do nothing but endlessly circle each other. Each editor of each magazine does nothing but publish editors of the other magazine; each poetry “happening” seems to revolve around the same group of people, over and over and over and over and over again. How original is that? I thought before I read their letter that they were nothing but a bunch of drama geeks from high school who are enjoying their own pretense at power; their sad letter only confirmed it. Google any of their names, and you’ll see the same group of names pop up at every event, reading, or journal.

John Doe

A SIMILAR SENTIMENT

STRANGER: I am disappointed by Cranky’s recent letter to the editors of The Stranger. I suppose I’m guilty of the same stereotyping of which they accuse Christopher Frizzelle to assume the representatives of a literary journal (published and edited by women) would be sensitive enough to language to refrain from using a pejorative for a part of a woman’s body as an insult. Why not just call him a “cunt”? (Or a “bitch?”)

Or to hope that they would be self-aware enough to recognize when they’re demonstrating the very lack of critical judgment of which they’re accused. Instead of challenging Frizzelle’s criticisms, they respond with a personal attack. Doesn’t this just prove his assertion they’re not critical or judicious enough? First they complain that they’re stereotyped as pretentious, then turn around and stereotype themselves as weak, helpless victims of brainless brutes (nerds vs. jocks—haven’t we all moved beyond this by now?). (Their stereotype also perpetuates the “We’re smarter than you, nyah nyah nyah” school of poetry that is indeed ruining poetry, but that’s another letter.) They complain Frizzelle is too cynical for their delicate sensibilities, yet they attempt to affect the same wry, I’m-so-out-I’m-in, snotty sense of superiority.

Worst of all, saddest of all, is they’re clearly hurt that he doesn’t take them seriously. They feel so personally attacked, so deeply misunderstood. But their response is not to attack Frizzelle’s criticism (in the truest sense of the word) of their journal, but instead attack Frizzelle as a person, calling him a “twat” who writes “shit.” (Can’t editors of a literary journal find a better way of expressing themselves?) I also find it disingenuous at best to attack Frizzelle for promoting bookstores and authors who advertise in The Stranger, when Cranky itself publishes writers who, not so coincidentally, have ties with the editors of Cranky; every poetry “event” that involves one or more editors of Cranky seems to include the same group of people. How is Cranky any different, then?

I sincerely hope for their sakes they can finally get over whatever happened to them in high school (do they really want to be associated with high-school-level thinking?). I sincerely hope for their journal’s sake, and their contributors’ sakes, they stop reacting to every criticism with such a knee-jerk, how-dare-you sense of outrage. To demand praise as insistently, as shrilly, as they do indicates they suspect their journal hasn’t earned it either. Or perhaps the motives behind Cranky’s very existence aren’t “literary” at all.

Solange Bayard

HIS CLOSET WASN’T TO BLAME

DAN: I think you got something wrong [“Mark & Me,” Dan Savage, Oct 5]. Foley didn’t hit on pages because he was closeted, he hit on them because he chose/was driven to choose inappropriate recipients for his advances. His gayness makes him choose boys rather than girls, but his choosing underage people is not part of his gayness nor his closeted-ness. Mary Kay Letourneau was an out heterosexual, as was Debra Lefave, and their outness didn’t stop them from hitting on minors. Same with the legions of out hetero male teachers who went for underage girls.

BC

MIKE WAS IN IRAQ

EDITOR: Well this will be my first ever response to a news organization. I just read your article on the woman who enjoys the company of vets [“The Killer Inside Me,” Charles Mudede and Robinson Devor, Oct 12]. I am a vet of both Bosnia and Iraq.

As an Iraq vet, when I do go to parties it’s always “There’s Mike, he was in Iraq.” Iraq was just a dark period with some highs and lows. Look, I tried my best over there as a person and an American soldier to be as nice as I could. I went to Central in the early ‘90s, I smoked pot, I went to keggers at the Arb. How am I that different from anyone else walking down the street? Iraq fucked my head up and it did for a lot of my buddies too. We had shitty leadership from the top down and it sucked and a lot of people, Iraqis (good people) and our families, have been negatively affected by it. So what the fuck over? I am fucked up by this war but for me as a person who lives in the now cool neighborhood; how am I any different than anyone else? Just because I went to war and now can’t hold a job, how am I different than anyone else who switches jobs and just wants to go to school? Oh yeah, I went to Iraq and that makes me different.

Sgt. Michael Lawrence

DISAPPOINTED BY MIRK

SARAH MIRK: What happened at Cal Anderson Park was witnessed by 100-plus people [“Raising Flags,” Oct 21]. Knowing this, I find it absolutely heartbreaking that a well-known and respected alternative media source digressed from pursuing the real story of what happened to those who were arrested at the Word Can’t Wait rally.

Your article is blatantly misinformed. I don’t know whether it is more important to lay out the facts, or to describe how much your newspaper has failed at doing its job. This is one more media outlet that has wronged the public, that has manipulated us with a biased undertone and a sad paraphrasing of a bullshit police report.

The photo you took was close enough to see what was happening. The report that you gave could have not been reported by anyone who saw what happened. So what happened? How was it that your story so morphed into a complete fairy tale in comparison to the actual arrests?

We need The Stranger. We need all we can get. This war will engulf us sooner than later, and it’s hard not to give up hope when persons stop their daily lives, drive up to Seattle and participate in a demonstration against the administration that runs our country while simultaneously destroying others, only to be arrested on what I believe to be police-instigated charges, and when all is said and done, be slapped in the face by a source such as The Stranger.

From what I witnessed, there is not a bone in my body that believes those young men should have been arrested. From what I saw, they broke no laws. From what I saw, they were in the wrong place at the right time, carrying a flag that signified nothing that your article mentioned.

We don’t have time. There is no time left. The Stranger as a resource is vital. This war is happening now, in our name, killing thousands and thousands of people that we can’t see. We can’t hear them and now The Stranger is just one more media source that won’t give us a goddamn reason why we should hear them.

Wendy Tougas

URBAN FORAGING IN NY

DEAR EDITOR: A friend from Seattle visiting me here in Rochester, New York, brought me the copy of The Stranger with Brendan Kiley’s article The Urban Hunt [Sept 28]. I found the concept intriguing, and the piece written with an honesty that gives honor to “the hunt” even in the 21st century, even along the cracks in the sidewalk.

I have lived downtown for 12 years, heating partially with wood for several years, harvesting free firewood better than money can buy, year-round, from my neighbors’ discarded tree prunings. I will probably use the September 28 issue of The Stranger as kindling soon.

Rich Gardner