Digging Deep
Thank you for your continuing coverage of “Spread Your Wings, the Breast Cancer Benefit (“Being for the Benefit Of,” Scene & Herd, Sept. 15, by Timothy C. Davis).
I don’t speak for the event here, and am pleased at their coverage, so I agonized about mentioning this small little issue. I think it hit home, not because it was said, but because I think many have thought the same thing and not verbalized it.
Timothy Davis in covering the event wrote: “As the son of a cancer survivor, I usually dig deep for this one even as I wonder about the maddening lack of progress in finding a cure.” I may have even thought this myself, but I dig deep too, as I need a stem cell transplant my insurance won’t cover, and my mother, a survivor of 20 years, taught me the value of being involved in this cause.
What concerns me is that people might think twice when seeing that statement, and question donating to a cause because they fear giving money to something fruitless. Should the questioning cause us to stop digging deep? There is no cure, but if it weren’t for the progress made by such events, I wouldn’t be here writing this letter.
I also wonder how many times we’ve “dug deep” in our pockets when it serves our purposes, and maybe given money to a product or company that may be causing the cancer in the first place.
Timothy Davis, I mean you no ill will. You are right, and I am so glad it didn’t stop you. Perhaps this year we will make even greater progress.
— Lauren Brower, three-time survivor, Charlotte
Gun Show Photos
To Timothy C. Davis: Your first amendment rights don’t trump private property rights. If you are doing something that the property owner doesn’t like, they (sic) can ask you to stop or ask you to leave (“Scene & Herd,” Aug. 4). If you decline, they can have you arrested for trespassing. I’m not surprised you were asked to stop taking pictures at the gun show. Taking pictures of strangers without their permission is rude. I’ll wager that you would get a similar reaction if you tried to take pictures of customers, merchandise and sales clerks inside any store. Try taking unauthorized pictures of people in a Walgreen, Lowes, Exxon or Wal Mart and see what happens. Folks are touchy about strangers with cameras. Businesses don’t take kindly to people who annoy their customers.
— John Murr Rhame, Jr., Charlotte
Support Troops, Not The War
I’m a former Charlotte resident who still reads your paper online since I left. I’m writing in regards to several recent articles on the presidential election. I’m sick and tired of Republicans repeatedly implying that they’re the only ones who “support our troops.” The idea that if you don’t support the war you don’t support the troops is ridiculous! Everyone supports our troops. They are putting their lives on the line for all of us and the war isn’t their fault. After quite a bit of searching online I finally found the perfect answer to the yellow “support our troops” ribbons being distributed by the Bushies. A Blue (the international color of peace) ribbon that says “bring our troops home” at www.troopsribbon.com. Now we all understand that we can’t just walk away from the mess we’ve made in Iraq but our goal should be to finish it up as soon as possible, because what better way is there to support our troops than to bring them home to their families?
— Colin Ernst, Pittsburgh, PA
Flowing up
I enjoyed John Sugg’s article, “Are you better off today?” (Sept. 8). Despite ignoring all of GW’s other blunders, I had hoped that the public would see the increasing rate of wealth disparity under the Bush administration. Nothing trickles down anymore. It is flowing up faster than ever.
— Patrick Cotter, Clearwater, FL.
“Are you better off today?”
In response to John Sugg’s article: To answer your question: NO. I’ve gone from in-between jobs, to taking a break, to freelance journalist, to self-employed to, well … self-unemployed. John Sugg, you are a howling man in a world filled with deaf (and in this case, dumb) people. And among other things, you are pissing against the wind. Who cares about the poor? They do not vote. Thirty-eight million of them. Forty-five million uninsured. Over 10 million children go to bed hungry every night. Those are just abstract numbers to the majority of Americans who are just too darn busy polishing their SUVs and guzzling their lattes.
Not one single politician addresses those issues. What happened to the opposition and where is it today? Liberals (now euphemistically called “progressives”) have gone the way of the Yugo. They have been and continue to be mauled by the right, which sees itself as the self-righteous and self-appointed barons of this country.
And if everything goes their way this November, we will get another four more years in their burning hell. Let us all bow our collective heads and pray to God to save us from this calamity. Amen.
— Monique Dadon Williams, Alpharetta, GA
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.
