Letters

Re: “Union Triage”
[September 26–October 2]. Tamar Lando’s sharp writing brings to life the
challenges faced by hospital workers and the daily struggles they courageously
take to improve their conditions and the quality of care they provide. In the
wake of labor’s myriad failures over the past decades, it’s heartening to see
that unions such as the SEIU are employing innovative strategies — and winning.
It’s about time that labor figured out it needs new approaches and fresh ideas
to take on the corporations of today, blending novel campaign strategies with
the industrial-unionism vision of the early CIO. Lando’s quotation of Lichtenstein,
“Once people get organized, amazing things start happening beneath the radar
screen,” sounds almost prescient: It’s easy to imagine that if labor can take
on the Tenets of the world and win, plenty will begin to happen above
the radar screen. Bravo!

—Brian Olney
Los Angeles

As an R.N., I am heartened to know that our local media have an interest in
informing the public about current organizing activities in local hospitals.
So often, health issues are covered in a superficial manner and do not address
the issues that affect our ability to care for patients. Tamar Lando’s in-depth
article was quite informative even to nurses, who are often as confused as anyone
else about the issue of union organizing. I found the article hopeful, fair
and excellently written. Hats off to Lando!

—Mary Tinker
Los Angeles

In these days of overblown corporate power, “size matters” when it comes to
building worker power, and the strategy for organizing at Tenet described by
Lando in her article is a quick way to build that power. Ultimately, the agreement
with Tenet and the SEIU will raise the standards not only for health-care workers,
but also for the thousands of patients who receive care at Tenet facilties.
When health-care workers have a voice on the job, they are better patient advocates.

—Aly Young
San Francisco

Tamar Lando did a good job of capturing the challenges facing the labor movement.
Just as in the 1930s, industrial unionism is as threatening to craft unions
as it is to big business. Corporate executives must be laughing out loud over
the California Nurses’ Association’s attacks on the Service Employees International
Union.

—Irving Kagan
Los Angeles

YOUNG: NO RIEFENSTAHL

Did Judith Lewis go to the Neil Young show in Irvine [“Don’t
You Get It?,” A Considerable Town, September 26–October 2] to enjoy a rock
show or to play leftier-than-thou with one of the few artists who’s managed
to say anything about our current situation? It’s true that Verizon Wireless
Amphitheater is a big corporate shack with overpriced concessions and tons of
ad space for sale. So is every other place where I’ve seen a gig with more than
6,000 people. And sure, there’s some irony in the act of promoting Hummers at
a show with a green message, just as there was in 1988 when Neil took his This
Note’s for You tour to the Budweiser Summer Concert Series of the World. We
the fans are able to make the distinction between sponsorship of a building
and sponsorship of an artist. We also recognize that you gotta play somewhere.
At least VWA has great sound, even in the cheap seats. As to Clear Channel,
there’s just not a lot of options. Considering Clear Channel has a lock on the
Greek, the Universal Amphitheater, Blockbuster Pavillion, Staples Center, the
Forum, the Wiltern and even the Palace [now the Avalon], where exactly would
Lewis recommend Young perform? An open field with the Hog Farm cooking up pots
of barley?

I won’t argue the artistic merits of Greendale with Lewis (I loved
it, as did everyone I brought out to the shows), though it must be said, if
she’s expecting complex chord changes from Crazy Horse she hasn’t been paying
attention. But I do take issue with the idea that in order to say anything positive,
an artist either has to operate in a politically correct, vacuum-sealed environment,
free of shills and overpriced beers, or be accused of being a Leni Riefenstahl
for our times. I definitely do not get that.

—Bob Lee

Burbank

COOPER VS. DEMS

Re: Marc Cooper’s Dissonance column. I’ve listened and
read patiently for the last couple of years or so while Cooper has bashed everything
Democratic that he could get his hands on. Not only has he devoted countless
lines to tearing Gray Davis a new one, he has gone out of his way to attack
President Clinton long after he’s been out of office. Now Cooper sees fit to
defend the recall. It all leads me to ask, just what part of the progressive
movement does Cooper claim to represent? Could the GOP have a better spokesperson
(or mole) than Cooper? Suggestion for his next column: a simple sentence declaring
“Marc Cooper hates Democrats.” With his position finally made plain and readers
left in no doubt as to his future position on anything any Democrat says, he
can take the rest of the year off and relax. (Heaven knows, it ‰ must be tiring
being so bitter, mean-spirited and defeatist.) In the meantime, we Democrats,
of which I am proud to be one, will spend our time trying to save the country
from W.

—Christopher Barnes
Studio City

GARAGE BANDS AND THEIR DADS

In “The Kids
Aren’t Alright” [September 19–25], Jay Babcock talks about punk as if it
were out of one’s reach and so below the radar. Cool. I guess it was, but only
to keep out the scared and uninformed conformed like Babcock. He lived in Upland?
Then he lived 18 minutes away from Toxic Shock, which, located in Pomona, was
the best punk rock record distributor in all of the United States. They
carried everything from early releases by Dischord Records to costume punk like
the Sex Pistols. The store was open until 1988. By then, punk was available
everywhere — or at least at Rhino Records in Claremont.

—Josh Dugan
Los Angeles

Thank you, Jay Babcock, for another insightful article. There’s another component
that I’d like to add. I may have turned Dan on to Delta and Chicago Blues (Robert
Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, etc.), but Dan turned me on to Hound Dog Taylor,
Cedell Davis and Junior Kimbrough. My life has been greatly enhanced by Dan’s
reciprocation. I consider myself one pretty lucky father.

—Chuck Auerbach
Los Angeles

XXXL

Jay Babcock’s [September
26–October 2] Live in L.A. reference to the size of the fans of the Allman
Brothers Band was hurtful and unnecessary. I don’t believe weight has anything
to do with one’s ability to appreciate beautiful music. And Warren Haynes is
proof enough that extra weight does not impede the creation of beautiful music,
either.

—Angela Christofides
Brooklyn

CORRECTION

A passage was mistakenly omitted from Randy Tveidt’s
letter to the editor [“A
Break From Politics,” September 19–25]. Tveidt’s description of Boze Hadleigh’s
two books should have read as follows: “While one of his two new books, Holy
Matrimony, is fun and inclusive of all love relationships, as writer Dawn
Dumpert points out, Celebrity Lies! is entertaining and informative,
with the valuable message of looking beyond media babble, stereotypes and now-acceptable
hyperbole — be it about celebrities, love, lifestyle, politics or pop culture
— and learning to question and to think for oneself.”