—Michael Goldstein
Sherman Oaks
SQUARE ONE
Re: “Cramming in Ramallah” [August 8–14]. Next time Nancy Updike visits with her friend Dr. Mohammed Dajani, who is conducting “the first American Studies graduate program in the occupied territories,” she might consider telling him that the only way to influence American policy is to educate his students so that they rid themselves and other Palestinians of their commitment to Israel’s destruction, and affirmatively accept the reality of two independent states living side by side in peace and harmony.
DON’T DAHLING ME
Re: “It’s the Governor, Dahling” [Dissonance, August 1–7], the Green Party’s Peter Camejo has worked for years to build broad support of an agenda consisting of the very issues that Marc Cooper credits to Arianna Huffington. It is appalling that you would call upon Mr. Camejo to do “the right thing” and step down in favor of this self-proclaimed ringmaster of the Brentwood political circuit. (Or would that be “circus”?)
Furthermore, while Mr. Camejo is willing to embrace the issues of marijuana legalization and instant runoff voting, they absolutely do not occupy the top one, three or even five of his personal issues, as Mr. Cooper so erroneously states. A brief visit to votecamejo.org will set the record straight.
—Michael Carr
Los Angeles
TAPS
It was a blast to read Howard Blume’s tribute to my friend Gregory Hines [“A Great Soul of Tap,” August 15–21], especially the part about his working at a guitar shop during his transitional period. He was performing with his cool band Severance at night and sat around my shop, Guitar Workshop, on Main and Hill, taking guitars down from the wall and practicing his latest riff. Gregory didn’t have two nickels to rub together, and, quite honestly, if my bookkeeper, Helaine, hadn’t bought him soup from the Boulangerie, I don’t think Gregory would have eaten that day. When things got slow, Gregory and I would pass around a football. He’d play at being an NFL wide receiver and outrun the Hill Street bus to make his patented “highlight film” catches. I remember the day he told me that his brother Maurice wanted Gregory to join him in the successful Broadway show Eubie. It was a life-changing opportunity, and Gregory and I talked about whether or not he should take it as we passed the ball around. Although Gregory Hines was a terrible guitar salesman, I truly loved the guy. He was a world-class performer, world-class human being and a damn good wide receiver to boot.
CORRECTION
Last week, the photograph of farmer Ken Arno on Page 14 (Considerable People, August 22–28) was miscredited. The image was shot by Slobodan Dimitrov.
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