Letters

Finally, if a teacher hates it that much down here, he or she should leave. There are plenty of teachers here who give it all we’ve got, every day. We don’t have time to hate.

—John Santos Teacher, Manual Arts High School

DEAR EDITOR:

Thank you for your courageous article about Manual Arts High School.

—Jeanne Lamb Teacher, Manual Arts High School

APOCALYPSE THEN

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Ludwig’s Rhinoceros” [A Lot of Night Music, August 3–9]. Alan Rich displays ignorance in describing as an “absurd proscription” the state of Israel’s reluctance to sponsor Wagner’s music. Wagner, whose anti-Semitic writings inspired Hitler, composed the music in which the Nazi regime draped itself. This music, forcibly witnessed daily by millions dying in the camps, remains a central symbol and visceral memory for Holocaust survivors. Israel exists as a nation state founded by Holocaust survivors. Does Rich likewise insist that Israel publicly embrace the swastika because its cultural heritage precedes the Nazis? Neither a symbol nor a work of genius floats free of history.

—Dina Fisher Los Angeles

UNSEEN VOICES

DEAR EDITOR:

Thank you so much for printing Celeste Fremon’s incredible article on the Pico-Aliso projects and Roman Gonzalez [“Life and Death in Pico-Aliso,” July 27–August 2]. It reflects the lives of those whose voices are not often heard, let alone put on the cover. Please continue to delve into this part of Los Angeles.

—Joe Hernandez-Kolski Los Angeles

METAL, HEAVY AND NOT-SO-HEAVY

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: Greg Burk’s “Children of the Grave” [July 13–19]. Over the years I’ve read many articles about heavy metal/hard rock and can honestly say I’ve never stumbled over any paragraph half as incisive, profound even, as this one, from Greg Burk’s Black Sabbath article: “Jaded media watchers tend to call [rock history] a sequence of entertainment: shock trumping shock. Strange how few perceive it as art: human beings feeling worse and worse, and trying to express that condition.” Thanks for having the brains and empathy required to see deeper into the music.

—Chris Hocking Ann Arbor

DEAR EDITOR:

Whoooo-eeee! Laying on the bullshit really thick. Mentioning Black Sabbath and jazz in the same sentence? Come on! These dorks are the original Spinal Tap, and this article was right out of “Break Like the Wind.” And Black Sabbath and Kiss were about as scary and wild as a Saturday-morning cartoon! Get real.

—R. Duncan Bond Seattle