FEAR FACTOR

Re:
Paul Ciotti’s “If
It Happened Here” [February 21–27]. Wow, L.A. Weekly, thanks for
adding to the already omnipresent hysteria surrounding events which may or may
not happen. What was Ciotti’s point in writing this article? He certainly doesn’t
tell me what I can do to help protect myself — though he does provide a nicely
detailed plan for any loony who might want to drop a bio/chem/ nerve agent on
the city of Los Angeles. The only thing he accomplished with this article was
to further terrorize an already frightened populace.

I won’t be reading the Weekly any longer. Nor will I patronize those
who advertise in it.

—Valerie Malone
Los Angeles

 

I’ve always thought it a good thing that Americans enjoy freedom of the press.
However, your publication of Paul Ciotti’s unconscionable and irresponsible
article is a perfect example of the abuse of that freedom. That you wasted so
much space on a purely fictional story, that you developed it in such detail
for the purpose of preying on public fear, and that you unjustly maligned general
aviation — all serve to underscore an intention not to report the news but to
create it, solely in order to sell your worthless rag. Reckless and obscene
behavior under the protective guise of journalism serves only to degrade your
profession and increase the public’s disrespect for and distrust of your industry.
You should be ashamed that you printed such vacuous trash.

—Cyndia Haggard
Overland Park, Kansas

 

Your paper has sunk to the “scare the crap out of you” tactics normally reserved
for the director of Homeland Security and every major news network in America.
What are we supposed to do? Move to Nebraska? No, we must continue to live our
lives, but now with that much more worry, irrational thought, panic and depression.
Right now the national news sources have a responsibility to provide accurate
and informative news to its audience, not make a bad situation worse with dramatization
and rash reporting.

—Jeffrey Baldinger
Los Angeles

 

Paul Ciotti’s article does nothing but harm the aviation industry. The same
story could hold true for a car, boat or other methods of transportation. General
aviation always seems to take the hit. I am truly disappointed by this story.

—Jeff Cattrell
Knoxville, Tennessee

SHARKS

Thanks so much to Erin Aubry Kaplan, in “Shark
Patrol” [Cakewalk, February 14–20], for finally admitting what I have long
suspected but heretofore could only accuse without evidence: L.A. Weekly
writers live almost exclusively in an insular world of far-left media and influence,
which makes your paper the moral and political polar equivalent of the radical
religious right-wing media. You should now be able to understand why the majority
of Americans tend to be in knee-jerk opposition to even reasonable proposals
from the left, just as they are to the minor blurring of the lines between church
and state that the right is always pushing. They see the anarchic agenda of
liberal extremists to be remarkably similar to that of the religious right,
who simply couch their ultimate desire in biblical terminology: Armageddon.
Sane, reasonable and, yes, moderate discourse is the only thing that can save
this country. Hand the reins over to you, Ms. Kaplan? No more than we’d hand
them over to Pat Robertson.

—Tony Blass
Winnetka

SHEEP

The irony of your “Don’t
Be a Nation of Sheep” cover [February 21–27] is actually pretty cool. To
me, the “sheep” label fits anyone following the prescribed, politically safe,
least-resistance position, the proper thing to espouse at parties, i.e., no
military confrontation of Iraq under any circumstances.

—James Rounds
South Pasadena

FROM OUR
CLEVELAND BUREAU

Re: Doug Ireland’s “Who’s
the Real Peace Candidate?” [February 21–27]. Excuse me, but Dennis Kucinich
as a presidential hopeful? How outrageous a notion! This is the man, the mayor,
who brought Cleveland to its knees financially. Under his “leadership,” the
city went into default. We were broke by the time George Voinovich took over.
The city had no money. Standard & Poors downgraded Cleveland’s bond rating
during Kucinich’s outgoing year.

I can’t believe Kucinich’s constituents have been so gullible as to elect
him for four terms as a congressman. What has he done for them — in Congress
or as mayor?

—Laura Carrabine
Cleveland, Ohio

PLAYING WITH FIRE

In “Green Carpets and Ancient
Elves” [February 14–20], John Payne makes a couple of false assumptions
about the Rolling Stones concert to “Turn Up the Heat on Global Warming,” held
at Staples Center on February 6. First, he guesses that the Stones “hardly ä
donated their services” for the show; in fact, they didn’t receive a dime for
performing the concert. (However, the expenses involved in putting on an event
of this magnitude are considerable, and for that we have Steve Bing to thank.)
John also implies that few of the stars in the crowd worry about global warming.
On the contrary, many of the high-profile folks who attended are long-standing
environmental advocates who donate their time, money and energy to a number
of causes. Leonardo DiCaprio, Pierce Brosnan, Rob Reiner, Lisa Kudrow, Larry
David — these are all people who care deeply that human behavior is causing
global climate change and leading us towards imminent catastrophe.

Payne might at least have got the host’s name right. We are the Natural Resources
Defense Council. Calling us the National Resource Defense Council makes us sound
like a federal agency when the truth is that we work our asses off fighting
the Bush administration’s assault on the environment.

—Jason Garman
Communications/IT, NRDC
Los Angeles

OOOH, GROSSE!

In “A Cut Above” [A
Lot of Night Music, February 21–27], Alan Rich writes that Beethoven’s Great
Fugue is “so ‘liberating’ that we still cannot grasp the extent of the space
it demands.” Exactly! No one has followed along the trail Beethoven marked only
by this one great blaze.

—James Boyk
Los Angeles

CREDIT WHERE DUE

In her review of the play Blake
. . . Da Musical
[New Theater Reviews, February 21–27], Miriam Jacobson kindly states that
“The uncredited set and Mike Teele’s props are very inspired.” If Ms. Jacobson
was referring to the backdrops, the creators of the backdrops would like to
point out that, listed in the credits next to “Backdrop Paintings,” you will
find the names Christi McAva and Steve Escandon.

—Christi McAva
Pasadena

CORRECTION

Arty Nelson writes, in his piece on Aaron Rose [“Prodigal
Son,” February 28–March 6], “[Barry] McGee’s wife, the artist Margaret Kilgallen,
died of cancer in 2001 during . . . pregnancy.” Actually, their child was born
on June 7. She died on June 26. Also, he goes on about a “mural [that] contains
. . . ‘Eat shit George W’ scrawled lovingly . . .” As far as I can see, it says,
“George W is a wanker.”

—Rob Kelley
Portland

 

THE EDITOR REPLIES: Look underneath.

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