Sound: Experiments in Sound
Pee / poop not acceptable
Regarding your Jan. 16 editorial about the proposed Homeless Bill of Rights: Public urination / defecation is totally unacceptable! Many of the agencies that deal with the homeless actively encourage and enable feral behavior by their modus operandi. I will suggest that the author rewrite this bill.
Charles Peterson, Madison, Wisc.
Misguided gun editorial
There seems to be a basic misunderstanding of the purpose of the Second Amendment on your part [“Editorial,” Jan. 23]. It has absolutely nothing to do with street crime or home defense, although the latter is a beneficial side effect. It was meant to protect we, the people, from our own government.
There are three explicit functions of the Second Amendment. Militias and bearing arms are now gone. There remains one out of three. We are left with the right to “keep” arms. In your second paragraph, you speak of the “hysterical message” of Sen. Mitch McConnell, yet in the very next paragraph you wish that Obama and Congress were coming for our guns. It becomes not so hysterical in the time it takes to read down one paragraph.
Immediately after, you speak of the right cynically trying anything to instill fear of the other side. Then, you insinuate that Second Amendment supporters want grenade launchers, bazookas and howitzers. You’re doing a bang-up job of breaking down your own arguments and employing the very tactics you decry.
Guess who else banned guns? Not just on paper, they came for the guns just like you wish for. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Qaddafi and myriad other murderous dictators. Your shortsighted wishes and blindness to history is truly frightening and misguided.
America is not only a great nation, but also unique. Let us not lose sight of how we became who we are. Newtown was heartbreaking, as was every other shooting that has occurred. However, we need to resist the urge for these knee-jerk reactions and keep in sight the true intent of our Constitution.
Justin McGlynn, La Mesa
Pal-ing around with Laing
Regarding your Jan. 30 editorial: I would suggest that CityBeat’s pal-ing around with Jerry’s Sanders’ amusing and comely press representative Rachel Laing—now a private consultant in a public relations firm—is not the same thing as “open government.”
You are dealing with a much more informed and hands-on strong mayor in Bob Filner, and, yes, you will find him at events and meetings in the neighborhoods around town. Maybe less tweeting and more shoe leather is in order.
Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, La Jolla
Thompson’s life and times
It was a real pleasure to read D.A. Kolodenko’s feature story on Jim Thompson’s work and the biography, Savage Art [“Art & Culture,” Jan. 30].
Kolodenko clearly devoted considerable time and intelligence to the task of researching Thompson’s life, the context in which he wrote and the literary melieu he inhabited. One seldom encounters that degree of effort on behalf of an author who hasn’t published in 50 years and was considered a “pulp” writer in his day.
It made me reflect on the title of Roberto Bolano’s novel, The Savage Detectives: Might Bolano have been influenced by Thompson?
Thank you, CityBeat, and thank you, Mr. Kolodenko.
Laurie Macrae, Golden Hill
Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.
