And now, from Sunny George. . .
I think we all agree that Charlotte has about as much soul as Pee Wee Herman dancing on the bar at Bar Charlotte (“In Search of the Soul of Charlotte,” Oct. 5). Your point, it seems, is that you have to search for the soul to find it here. That is what makes Charlotte so soulless. I guess there’s no real harm in soul searching, but let’s be frank. To have soul you need some black people. Soul is born from suffering and no one has suffered more than black people over the centuries. That’s what makes us so uncomfortable with each other. The truth.
If black people are cut off from what makes Charlotte Charlotte, then what you have is what we’ve got — almost total segregation here in our nightlife and nearly the same otherwise. It’s the same type of situation that created the Katrina debacle. White apathy. We don’t know each other and most don’t want to.
The reasons are many why we are so separate in our night lives, but the main two are that blacks cannot afford to spend a lot of money on nightlife, and blacks, contrary to belief, really don’t want to be around a lot of white people. The feelings of resentment are quite mutual and quite a shock to many whites. Charlotte is doing nothing of significance to repair this rift because of continued white apathy and the status quo, so further discussion of it is pointless. It will continue in the same vein or worsen over time.
— George Thompson, Charlotte
Shock it to Him
John Grooms’ article about taser use or abuse this week (“Shocking News,” Boomer with Attitude, Oct. 5) has many valid points that must be considered, but as to the reference to the “idiots” in the Lancaster, SC, situation, I have a question: Have you been stabbed in the eye with a pencil lately? This is exactly the situation that tasers were designed for. This man killed himself because he just wouldn’t quit.
— Thomas Rudisill, Charlotte
Too Much Killing
Tara Servatius’ article about animals brought to Charlotte from areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina (“A Nice Gesture, but . . .,” Oct. 5) highlighted an enormous problem in Charlotte; the number of animals that are killed every month. If other communities can address this problem and slash their kill rates by 70 percent or more by targeting low-income areas, why can’t Charlotte? Hmm, well, for starters, the powers that be decided to build a new arena using an ungodly amount of money, that voters did not want, and refuse to focus on real issues facing the city, such as this one and many others. The people who make these decisions really ought to be ashamed. It’s a disgrace.
— Mary Wilkins, Charlotte
Classical music: Priceless
Thanks for devoting such visible attention to classical music, albeit with the typical, long-running “beat a dead horse” angle (“Play that Classical Music, White Boy,” by Sam Boykin, Sept. 28).
Regarding Sam Boykin’s reference to the Knight Foundation study that two to four percent of adults regularly attend classical music concerts, in Charlotte three percent would represent a little over 12,000 individuals. That’s not bad at all. My educated guess would be that for jazz, the performances would garner a cumulative turnout of around one percent.
The point is mass audiences are not always the goal of all art forms. Jazz is a wondrous gift of American culture to the world, but the audience for it in its native land has always been small. The native lands of classical music — for example, Europe, in which youngsters are exposed to it in homes and schools — find larger audiences, but even there hardly mass audiences.
That said, larger, if not mass, audiences would be terrific. Should the Charlotte Symphony begin staging wet T-shirt contests to beef up the turnout? MMMmmmm. . . Should they cut ticket prices in half? Well, yes, with the community’s help. Are the concert settings and presentations stuffy? Hell, yes.
But. . . the music is no less incredible. CSO Neighborhood Concerts are only $15, and Chamber Music at St. Peter’s First Tuesday Concerts are free. Most importantly, the music is priceless.
— John Clark, Executive Director, Chamber Music at St. Peter’s
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2005.
