Letters

Toss greens and cook thoroughly

I just
wanted to thank the Weekly for Seven McDonald’s article “Baby
Greens” [January 17–23]. I am 19 years old and have always leaned toward
the Green Party, although I didn’t have very much knowledge about it until this
past year. Since then I have been trying to spread the word and educate more
people about it. Well done!

—Alanna Wong
Alhambra

Thank you for the “Baby Greens” article and for your coverage of the peace
movement. Well done! I look forward to more such coverage, and to more stories
about the political parties and their candidates. When I read about the people
in office today, I laugh and cry at the same time — except when I read about
Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Then I smile. I know there is hope and that I am
not lost.

—Madelon Rose Logue
Los Angeles

BABY REDS

Re: Judith Lewis’ “March
on Melrose” [February 7–13]. Young Sam Hixon is the product of hippie radical
parents, who are responsible for teaching him that rioting is a method to get
your point across. Hixon should have been arrested and charged with crimes under
the Patriot Act, and should be awaiting trial at the Federal Detention Center
downtown. Instead, the Weekly makes him out a hero.

—Brian Chandler
Pasadena

Steven Kotler’s article on stem cells [“The
Final Frontier,” January 31–February 6] was brilliant. I know many of the
principals in the story, and he captured them perfectly.

—Larry Kedes
Los Angeles

Steven Kotler’s cover article was informative but, sadly, flawed. He quotes
bioethicist R. Alta Charo’s comment that “The stem-cell debate is a debate about
everything but what it’s about,” then proceeds to fall into the trap of braying
about abortion, George Bush’s nefarious agenda, and the poor getting screwed
— anything but stem cells. The fact is, the Supreme Court should return us to
the pre-Roe status, where states, not the feds, have the right to make
or not make abortion law. Likewise for ill-informed laws regarding research.
Even Kotler reports that if such anti-research laws get passed here, the industry
will simply move to Malaysia or Bimini or Europe. The hoped-for results will
materialize in the marketplace anyway, so what’s the big deal? I’d prefer a
piece heavier on the science and much lighter on the hackneyed views of poorly
informed paranoid politicos.

—Paul Bonnette
Los Angeles

WOE TO THE
THUNDERING MASSES

Thank you very much for Ian Williams’ excellent
“Missing Evidence”
[January 31–February 6]. All empires must fall, and the way events are developing,
it looks like the fall of the American empire is coming. Thanks to journalists
like Williams, the flame of integrity and truth is kept alive, while left and
right the ignorant masses stampede to their certain extinction.

—Chris D. Nebe
Los Angeles

Re: “Missing Evidence” by Ian Williams. Anyone interested in the reasons for
the lack of U.S. diplomacy by our current administration needs to research the
Project for the New American Century and the letters on its Web site from 1998
and 1999, signed largely by current administration officials. There is no question
what the Bush White House is about, and it isn’t diplomacy. It’s domination.

—Yana Hytlon
Bellingham, Washington

In “Missing Evidence,” Ian Williams certainly makes good points. But as is
the case in media coverage in general as regards war in Iraq, there is failure
to mention the most compelling reason of all for dismantling this regime. Rogue
states with billions of dollars and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
can support and assist terrorist Islamic extremist networks in attacking the
U.S. and the rest of the West. By eliminating these sources of assistance and
proving that liberating oppressed populations is best, the world will be a more
peaceful, safer place to live . . . period.

—Terry Mulvany
Pasadena

SPACE CAMP, INDEED

Re: “My Own
Private Spaceship” [Deadline Hollywood, February 7–13]. I enjoyed Nikki
Finke’s article remembering that amazing day in 1981 when the Columbia lifted
off, and also the sad one in 1986 when the Challenger exploded. I’m surprised
Ms. Finke didn’t mention the eerie similarity betweenThe Core,
scheduled for release in 2003, and Space Camp, the mediocre shuttle movie
of 1986 with similar bad timing. NASA may need to check with Hollywood before
sending its shuttles up. There seems to be a correlation.

—Marc Norman
New York

Re: “Coming Back
to Earth” [On, February 7–13], I have to admit that this week’s installment
of ludicrous nonsense from John Powers packs a lot into one easy portion of
tit-for-tat bullhockey. Yes, John, how dare some obscure college professor suggest
there’s some symbolic sting in the space shuttle’s being strewn across Texas.
Why, he doesn’t even have the decency to tie his metaphor into a movie in current
release, like you or Mo Dowd would. And I’m glad such fans of democracy as Chris
“Bush won Florida” Hitchens have convinced you there is a solid, progressive
case for taking over Iraq. How is the government we installed in Afghanistan
doing, by the way? Well, that was last year, and I guess that one is ready for
Blockbuster.

—Greg Wall
Los Angeles

THE REAL RODD KEITH

Re: “Vinyl
Fetish [February 7–13]. I wanted to thank the Weekly, and especially
Kate Sullivan, for that fabulous article about my father, Rodd Keith. I am his
daughter, and I have never read anything about Rodd that captured him so succinctly
as this story. Ms. Sullivan (may I call her Kate? It is my daughter’s name)
has almost eerily distilled the power and perversion and, yes, the perversion
of power that was my father’s legacy. I feel vindicated somehow. Understood.
Along with that is a curious sense of appeasement in knowing that my father
achieved, as Kate so eloquently put it, the godlike status he had sought in
life.

—Stacey Keith
Los Angeles

GONE BUT NOT UNCHRONICLED

Christopher Lisotta’s article on the death of
Morris Kight [“The
Passing of a Gay Generation,” January 24–30] does a great job crediting
Kight and Harry Hay with all they did for everyone as pioneers of gay sexuality.
You might want to think about publishing an article about the several Southern
California gay/lesbian libraries and archives, which will preserve the work
of these pioneers and make the record available to future historians, researchers,
and young men and women who simply want to know about their heritage. ONE Institute
at USC, the Homosexual Information Center at CSUN, the June Mazer collection
in West Hollywood and the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Archives all come to mind.

—Billy Glover
Los Angeles

That weller feller

In the article “Britannia
Waives the Rules” [February 7–13], Paul Rogers quotes Paul Weller as saying,
“As long as I’ve got an audience, that makes it worthwhile enough to come out
and play,” then adds, “(Apparently that wasn’t the case when Weller’s 2000 U.S.
tour was pulled at the 11th hour.)” While the parenthetical aside reads as catty
fun, a fact check would have proved it highly inappropriate. The 2000 tour (for
which I had tickets) was canceled at the 11th hour due to criminal allegations
against Mr. Weller, which were later dropped but, due to their serious nature,
prevented him from leaving the U.K. at the time.

—Tim Milius
Los Angeles

CORRECTION

Contrary to statements in last week’s article, by Ernest
Hardy, about the Pan African Film & Arts Festival, the directors and producers
of the documentary Unprecedented:
The 2000 Presidential Election are Richard Perez and Joan Sekler,
not Richard Perez alone.

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