Letters for September 5, 2002

I just wanted to comment on your article on beater cars. I drive a 1988 Mazda 626 with 309,000 miles. It still has most of the original parts and is still going reasonably strong. I can’t imagine why anybody would choose to have a car payment when they can keep driving a car that is practically part of the family. Thanks for the enjoyable article.

Sharon Young
Reno

Grimm is great
It’s time for pro-Grimm re-rant! I have a delightfully outlandish idea for those few who gripe incessantly about Bob Grimm and his movie reviews: DOn’t READ THEM! You may not be equipped for them.

Grimm is a Reno fixture who reviews movies and states his opinions of those movies. If an “anti-Grimm” has substance beyond that of a loaded colostomy bag, they usually decide they don’t like his movie reviews, then turn to another place to absorb opinions on movies. Then again, ranting IS fun, right? Right!

The next time that you editorial gripers would like to stand up and crow your discontent about anyone in the News & Review, not just Bob Grimm, you should also ask for a full refund of what you most likely invested in the periodical in the first place. If it’s a positive forum for crap movies like Glitter or Crossroads you want, do it yourself, or go pick up an issue of the friggin’ USA Today. News & Review is an alternative press in which Bob Grimm does his job with poise and proper form, regardless how a few narcissists take it.

Snivelers like John Breck, go rent Queen of the Damned again, gather some depth in the local Gazette-Urinal and choke on a popcorn kernel.

Kyle Weiss
Ranter extraordinaire of Reno

Question 2 is hateful
Re “Protecting Marriage” [RN&R, Aug. 15]:

It is four in the morning, and I am awake much as I was the morning after 9-11. I am disturbed by a mixture of sadness and anger and seem unable to find comfort in sleep.

Lately, I have noticed a few signs in support of Ballot Question Number 2, a redundant ballot question that would make sure the state laws in Nevada prevent any same-sex couples from ever having their union legally recognized. As a gay American and Nevadan, I am at first angered by these signs and by this movement, and then hurt by the callous and vicious statement they make. This group would have Nevadans believe that this question seeks to “protect marriage.” Exactly what are they protecting marriage from? So far, I have heard only generalities and half-truths with misinformation and prejudice. The truth is that marriage isn’t even the issue. The issue is hate. This group is rampant with homophobia. It appears the only thing they wish to protect marriage from, is from its becoming an exercisable fundamental right afforded to all free people.

Before you vote at the polls, get to know those people you are selecting as your collective moral conscience. Ask yourself if they should cast the first stone. This question sends a more powerful message to children than my partner and I being legally wed ever could. It shows them that prejudice and homophobia are OK. It’s a message that was taught to two boys who violently killed Matthew Shepard in a field one night as though he weren’t even a valid member of the human race. It’s a dangerous message, and this small group of people supports it.

This amendment may be able to stop same-sex marriage from being legal for the time being, but it can’t stop us from having public union ceremonies with friends and family, nor from loving each other, which are the truly important parts of marriage. I’m not expecting any more rights than what the heterosexual community enjoys. I want only equal treatment, my right to those privileges given to every other adult American. I’m not asking anyone to abandon beliefs. I support freedom of speech, but I believe it is dangerous to mandate hatred and put into our state constitution. How many will have to be hurt, wounded and killed by ignorance and fear before we stand united against it?

I am a gay man, and I live and work in this community. I say vote no on Question 2! Yes, we are gay and we are proud, but we are so much more. We are your sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, doctors and lawyers, mechanics and waiters, real estate agents and bankers, entertainers and teachers, mothers and fathers, uncles and grandmothers, and we are Americans.

But, above all, we are human. We love passionately in the same way you do, and we bleed when wounded. It appears to me that the difference between us is that, unlike some of you, we don’t hate in the same way.

Steven Hockenberry
via e-mail