ON THE HUNT FOR MISSING BLACK CHEFS
My family and I moved here from New Orleans following the storm. We are the owners of Bite Your Tongue Gourmet-To-Go & Catering. We are opening a business on Randolph Road. Needless to say, I am a foodie (Table Dancing: "Blackout!" by Timothy C. Davis, May 9)! I love to eat and cook! I watch the Food Network every day! I am always asking the same question: Where are the black folks? I absolutely love the Barefoot Contessa and Emeril. But, it would be great to see more people that look like me. The Food Network is not alone in a lack of black chefs, but all of the networks are guilty. The Food Network has been running the promo for the "Next Food Network Star," and I don't think any of those finalists are black either. What's up with that? We can cook, and we definitely have the personality to hold down a show. I don't get it! I am going to send your article to the Food Network. Thanks for recognizing and acknowledging this very real problem!
-- Martine Clark Johnson, Charlotte
DISTRUST IN A GOVERNMENTAL WAY
You raise some nice points with your recent column (Boomer With Attitude: "The guns of May" by John Grooms, May 9).
First, you point out the fallacy of the pro-gun crowd: "Give everyone a gun, and it'll be alright." Well, I don't believe that. I do believe, however, in the ownership of weapons by citizens, which I think is a matter of vital importance to our nation because I don't trust the cocksuckers on Capitol Hill. I don't trust them to act in the public interest, and I don't trust them farther than I can throw the sun, which ain't too far. An armed populace is capable of resisting coercion by government. Firearms were the impetus to spread democracy. Democracy needs guns.
One can argue that a sophisticated military with smartbombs, drones and all the fancy toys wouldn't be stopped by a few yokels with firearms, but the Vietnam war and our current Iraq affair demonstrate the capability of said yokels to effectively combat extremely sophisticated and powerful military machines.
The Second Amendment supports the right of the people (and not the National Guard, or army) to defend the Constitution and the ideals of peace and freedom. After peaceable assembly and protest, it is the right of any people to violently resist oppression.
Should every man, woman and child be armed? Probably not. There's a lot of crazy fucks out there who really don't need guns. But, the people should be armed. Government should fear its people, not the other way around.
This brings me to my second point: Would a revolutionary act of the scale you propose in the 1970s be so terrible? There would be loss of life, of that I am sure. Yet, no growth is without pain or loss. Would the United States today be a different communal being had this occurred? No doubt it would be. Would this be good? Who can tell?
But please understand that those of us who support the Second Amendment are not all "gun-nuts," who think everyone should be packin' heat. A lot of us simply don't trust the government and view the provision of arms to the people as the greatest means of preserving our precarious existence.
-- Tyler Durden, Charlotte