Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy

When I read [Slant, "Street Savvy," Nancy French, May 26, 2005], I paused briefly to wonder "why?" as I read, "we learned not to make eye contact on the street." I paused longer after I read, "I exhaled deeply and weighed the pros and cons of handgun ownership." I excitedly imagined the interesting paragraphs that I thought would follow: French is figuring out what no one seems to realize — guns are like fireworks, appropriate in low-density areas but just too dangerous in places with warm soft bodies behind every wall and around every corner. Stray bullets lodging in trees: Who cares? Stray bullets crashing through windows and apartment walls: Tragic.

Instead, French returned to the mysterious earlier theme of "we live within inches of each other yet we are terrified to know our neighbors." Who is she talking about? In every place I've lived in Philadelphia — Germantown, Southwark and Poplar — I've known my neighbors, sometimes too well. I usually can't avoid greeting people on my street or overhearing their personal joys or arguments. French lives in a semi-residential area but I can't imagine her walls are more soundproof than most, or her neighbors less visible.

That crap about city people building "layers of indifference" and being "street savvy" is perpetuated mostly by New Yorkers and believed by gullible suburbanites. If French wants to overcome her feelings of "isolation and vulnerability," she should start looking people on the street in the eye and saying hi. Most people will be friendly and talkative, although some will scowl or look annoyed. French's "protective emotional distance" is self-constructed. She can bridge it as soon as she decides she wants to.
Sonja Trauss
Center City

After reading letters in the "Mailbag" commenting on Nancy French's articles in recent issues, I am sorry I missed it. As an atheist, conservative and one who occasionally picks up your paper despite its distasteful sexual advertisements and its all too often juvenile, liberal and holier-and-cooler-than-thou slant, I was delighted to read Duane Swierczynski's response to Nancy's critics [WTF, "Gag Reflex," May 26, 2005]. Unlike J.B. Todsttoe [Mailbag, June 2, 2005], I was delighted to see that you were not "cowed by negative feedback" and published another Slant article by Nancy. I don't know if I will ever understand how anyone who advocates "tolerance" can be intolerant. It does not help sell the concept of tolerance to those who disagree with them and from whom they expect tolerance. How can one who complains about others who judge them by "inappropriate standards" know that their standards are appropriate? Who thinks tolerance is easy?

I need no stinking New or Old Testament to tell me what is obviously natural and healthy. I have homosexual friends. I don't try to change them, but at the same time I am not happy to see them change society so they can better sell their way of life to my daughter as being a healthy choice. To tolerate the aggressive expansion of gay culture is counter to the future I wish for her to inherit.

Similar to Nancy, I want a society where people look each other in the eye, are respectful, intelligent, helpful and share an advocacy for being and doing good. Tolerance is not easy or clear-cut but requires communication, thought and strength. A good concept, tolerance should not be a blank check.
James Conner
Philadelphia

I am disappointed that in this day and age, one has to feel guilty about expressing herself openly. I would like to know where this J.B. character gets his nerve? He sounds like he relishes the opportunity to degrade or look down upon those he considers to be less than himself. I did rather enjoy his flowery prose but while his retort was well written, it was completely over the top. It was so clear that he, like most your readers, completely missed the intent of her column and instead opted to focus on the fact that she offered a prayer, or some humane semblance of care or concern, at either the sad state of affairs in our world or for the person who lost her life.

J.B. isn't the only person in this "free society" entitled to his own opinion. This is a major problem in our society; instead of being who we are and accepting others for who they are, we are so quick to label them and attempt to force them to convert to our way of life, or God forbid they will be ostracized. Frankly, I think that it is because of unrelenting, unforgiving people such as J.B. that I far too often feel dejected or disenfranchised. Nancy has the right to her opinion, as we all do.
Heather Poole
Via e-mail

French has already voiced beliefs regarding the wrongness of homosexuals and people who go against her interpretation of Christ's teachings. Are these some of the people she then expects to stand shoulder to shoulder with her when she invokes our "strength in numbers" and bemoans the loss of community in contemporary urban life? If she's so concerned about how urban living distances us from others, to paraphrase another of her laments, why does she cocoon herself in a faith that excludes so many individuals on the basis of whom they choose to love?

The recent backlash against French and City Paper's decision to air her views again and again may, in some cases, border on First Amendment infringement, as Duane Swierczynski complains. Yet it can no longer be ignored that CP has created, with French's regular missives, a virtual forum for a rigidly moralistic, deeply contradictory and conflicted point of view.

Just as it is anything but "cute" that children who know no better should be turned into Pavlov's dogs, drooling prayers every time they hear a siren, so a voice that calls for community while excluding so many is conducive to nothing that can be remotely conceived of as "discourse."

I was genuinely moved by French's expressions of fear and paranoia. I doubt, however, that the perils of urban living are the true source of that terror.
Andrew Bradley
Bella Vista

Isn't it Ironic?

There's true irony in Corey Kemp's words concerning NTI money and the fact that his and others' actions result in less money in the city's budget to do things that could make life better for those less fortunate [News, "His Story," Morris Bracy IV, May 19, 2005]. The Corey Kemps and Ron Whites of the world are some of the biggest reasons why city governments are constantly having budget cutbacks in the areas most needed by the very people they claim to want to lift up with some perverse logic.

Inflated contracts and kickbacks are a major drain on taxpayer funds and this city rarely, if ever, gets its money's worth for taxpayers' money. As long as we accept this behavior, and have attorneys making statements like those of Will Spade when he calls Kemp's crimes "victimless," we are doomed to a repeat of the same with different faces and names.
Mark Cramer
Chinatown

Not Past the Blunt

I couldn't help but laugh after reading Kevin Bennert's love letter and testimonial to Phil Poczik [Mailbag, "Phil's Fan," June 2, 2005], written by a City Paper intern/Drexel student. Who else would jump to the defense of that foul-mouthed, racist Eminem impersonator who tried to promote his career as a rapper by bashing white teachers, counselors and Jews in his "motivational" speech at Dobbins High School?

Drexel should have apologized to the staff and assured us that Poczik would not be permitted to speak in a public school again [News, "Sex, Drugs and Hip-Hop," Dan Keashen, May 26, 2005]. That would have nipped it in the bud. Instead, in a weak but hardly surprising attempt at damage control, they defended Poczik by insisting that he spoke to the students in "their language" and that the faculty "misinterpreted" his words. I fail to see how statements like "the white teachers don't give a fuck about you" or "the fucking ass guidance counselors" or "the rich Jews and their money" or "lick my dick" can be interpreted in any other way.

Let me assure you that parents do not send their children to school to be spoken to in "their language" or to be given CDs containing profanity, racist statements and vulgar sexual references. Had my child received this CD in school, I would be angrily knocking on [district CEO Paul] Vallas' door. However, it's no secret that the CEOs of Drexel and the Philadelphia school district are close and scratch each other's backs. Or, as in this case, cover each other's backs. After listening to the CD, it is clear why Poczik had to give them away for free.

Kudos to Elwood Corbin who, in his June 9 letter to the editor, told it like it is. Many teachers at Dobbins were outraged by both Poczik's speech and Drexel's support of it. Teachers are afraid to speak their minds for fear of repercussions from the powers that be. One can only hope that Poczik received the tongue-lashing he deserves behind closed doors, although judging by Drexel's PR response, that is doubtful.

Suffice it to say that Drexel won't be receiving many college applications from the children of the Dobbins faculty.
Name Withheld
Philadelphia

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