Dept. of Truth Hurts
Please, for God’s sake, pull the plug on Kandia Crazy Horse’s music reviewer career (“No Sympathy for the Devils,” Oct. 19). Instead of an honest assessment of The World’s Greatest Rock Band’s career and contribution to popular music, we get sour grapes from a writer who seems intent on making rock music’s popularity and contributions to the musical landscape a “black-white” issue. C’mon Ms. Crazy Horse, do you honestly think that, without the Stones, black artists from the past who helped create rock would be honored or even discovered if not for the Stones and other rock artists? The Stones do owe a huge debt of gratitude to blues and soul artists, but so do those black artists whose music would have gone unheard by white audiences had it not been for Jagger and company giving them their due on record and in the press.
I hate to break it to Ms. Crazy Horse, but like rock music is not the sole proprietorship of white musicians, neither is soul and hip-hop of black artists. Ever heard of Eminem? Good music knows no color.
As far as hip-hop replacing rock, let’s see who has more longevity in 40 years. I doubt you will still hear 50 Cent’s profanity-laced manufactured beats set to nursery rhyme structure on any radio station. However, bet the house on “Satisfaction” still blaring from some radio in 2045.
— Michael Hicks, Charlotte
Dept. of Truth Hurts II
I enjoyed reading your fictional piece titled “Gouged” (John Grooms, Oct. 12). Your unimaginative “do something/tax somebody/regulate anything” squeal ignores one obvious and highlights another. We didn’t simply allow our passenger train system to deteriorate. We didn’t copy the European model because we didn’t want to. Our government responded to our desires to live where we want and travel when we want, which we expressed by building houses in the suburbs and buying automobiles.
We paid taxes and demanded roads. Having citizens tell government what to do may be a difficult concept for you to grasp. (I’m certain the reciprocal of the same is more in your comfort zone.) You may understand the model better if I compare it to the ‘customer-service provider’ relationship, where customer demands product and provider delivers.
Secondly, your subtitle “Common sense…” is telling. One man’s common sense is another’s opinion. Just try not to mix them up with “news.” Alas, all is not lost. You can always print a correction.
— Richard W. Spellman, MBA, CFBE, SPHR, Program Chair-Hotel Restaurant Management, Central Piedmont Community College
Dept. of Tasers hurt
Mr. Grooms, you obviously know nothing about conducting street-level police work (“Shocking News,” John Grooms, Oct. 5). I have worked for CMPD for 11 years and have been a member of the CMPD SWAT team for over six years. During that time I have answered thousands of 911 calls and been on approximately 100 SWAT deployments. I have worked 2nd shift almost my entire time on the department, which is by far the busiest time of the day for us. You use the terms “idiots” referring to the incident where the sheriff’s deputies had to use the taser on the individual who was violently resisting and had stabbed one or more of the deputies with a pencil. My question to you — and speaking with, I believe, some degree of credibility — is what would you have done in that situation, or what would you propose they do?
I cannot understand why people of your viewpoint and obvious leftist views fail to realize that sometimes street level police work involves using force and that not everyone is happy to go to jail and will do anything to avoid doing so. Our society would be a better place if people would do as they were told by police officers, but that is not always the case. I would encourage you to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem, as so many left-wing members of the print media. Perhaps you could provide me with a phone number so you can come with me the next time I get a SWAT page at 3am while I am home asleep, to go serve a high-risk warrant on a violent felon in a neighborhood that you wouldn’t think of driving through even in the daytime. The taser is a good weapon and can end a situation so that no one gets hurt.
— Norris B. Plott, CMPD
Doughnut King
The recent doughnut article (“Chew on This,” by Linda Vespa, Oct. 19) incorrectly states “only Krispy Kreme has the yeast-raised type.” I’m not sure where the Dunkin Donuts were obtained, but the stores carry numerous yeast-raised donuts. I know — I eat them every day, and don’t like the cake type!
Bottom Line: For the best HOT doughnut — go to Krispy Kreme. For the best variety of doughnuts, bagels, muffins — and THE best coffee — go to Dunkin Donuts.
— Paul Baker, Charlotte
What Is Soul?
Sunny George’s speculation on the cause of Charlotte’s lack of soul is whack (“Letters,” Oct. 12). Soul comes from a thriving concentration of gritty cultural weirdness, from authentic homemade creative expression, and from diversity, not just from “dem po’ suffrin’ black folks.”
— Little Shiva, Charlotte
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2005.
