Meaningless Voting
Your piece on the limits of voting (“Stolen!” by Tara Servatius, Oct. 20) was the best piece I have ever read on local voting realities. The gerrymandering, lack of choices, tendency for extreme candidates to prevail, etc., are all subjects that have been ignored. I have wondered how many others have that strange feeling of meaninglessness when they walk into the voting booth.
I believe the mainstream press is so inclined to celebrate the myths of democracy they will not report the reality. Besides the lack of real choice in our representatives, I also wonder how many people feel about their right to choose judges they know nothing about, as well as commissioners of insurance and soil conservation, secretary of the state treasury, etc. By voting for them we endorse these people even if we do not have a clue as to who they are and in all practicality could not know anything about them.
— Robert FitzPatrick, Charlotte
Not to be Seen or Heard
Amen to “Clueless Breeders at Renfest” (Scene & Herd, by Lindsey H. Grossman, Oct. 20)! There are certain places that parents shouldn’t take their children. I haven’t been to Renfest in years but if I recall correctly it’s not really an event that small children would enjoy. Add to that bars and restaurants late at night. I can’t tell you how many times I have been eating out (not so much lately… being unemployed cuts back on those things) and have been seated near a small child after 10pm. They are cranky because they are tired and on one occasion the child was sick and vomited all over the place. I felt so bad for the kid because his parents obviously didn’t care about how he felt. Anyway, I’m glad to know I am not the only one in Charlotte that believes there are certain places that are inappropriate for children.
— Name withheld by request, Charlotte
The Extra Mile(stone)
Thanks for the article about the Queen City Underground crew taking over The Milestone (“Fulltime Milestone,” by John Schacht, Oct. 20). I want to briefly mention a few important things that the article did not include. Tim Blong and Jeff Lowery kept the club alive from 1986-1989 and Tony Farina followed them from 1989-1991. The article did mention Penny Craver’s stint at The Milestone (1991-1994) and stated that afterward “the club began another fallow period.” New Milestone co-owner Neal Harper then mentions the “four generations of kids that have come through this building” and says that “we were just the last ones to come through.” Let me briefly touch on the Milestone era that shaped both Harper and other co-owner Ryan Westbrook now.
Ryan McGinnis began running sound at The Milestone in 1995, but quickly became the club booker and manager. The crowd that had frequented the club in the Penny Craver era was clearly not coming back, but McGinnis recruited a whole new, mostly younger scene that produced some amazing local bands and shows. It was an inspiring time, and most of the bands flew right under the Charlotte music scene radar, but I remember them fondly: The Accidents, Fat Tortoise Butcher, The Fontaines, The Kommodes, The Mysterions, NME, Pen15, The Sci-fi, Secret 77, 17 Dead, and The Sluggs. Present day Milestone co-owner Harper played in Products of the System, and other co-owner Westbrook played in Ihafwhohas. I recall thinking that the overall vibe was what CBGB’s must have felt like in the mid-70s. Sadly, it ended too soon. McGinnis resigned as club manager in May 1997 while many of those bands were in the process of breaking up. The tight-knit community that had existed began to unravel without the supportive environment he helped cultivate.
Here’s hoping that Harper, Westbrook, and the rest of the Queen City Underground crew receive enough support from the community to carry on this legacy. In other words, their rent isn’t cheap.
— Chris Peigler, Charlotte
Sophisticated Socialist?
Thank goodness David Walters has finally concluded that “my help is not wanted” (“Going, Going, Gone,” Oct. 27). Walters denigrates the “free” market system that has made America the most successful economy in the world. The “sophisticated planning” he refers to, but hesitates to reveal, is Socialism. If David Walters was honest, he would admit he is working to implement Smart (?) Growth policies, which are anti-capitalism. Socialism has always failed, while the Socialists declare it was not implemented correctly. What the government gives, it can also take away!
— Suzanne Stallings, Charlotte
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2004.
