Letters for April 17, 2003

Irony can be funny, but this isn’t irony. Juvenile, yes. Vengeful, petty, vindictive or childish, sure. But not irony.

Irony, despite what Alanis Morissette would have you believe, isn’t rain on your wedding day. That’s just a bummer. It isn’t taking someone out to mockingly make them engage in something they won’t enjoy. That’s just dumb.

Irony is, for example, an art critic who is blind. A restaurant critic who is anorexic. Or more to the point, a newspaper correspondent who can’t write.

Todd Mauldin
Reno

Violence in Streetalk
Re “Who would you like to slap?” [RN&R Streetalk, April 3]:

Violence is an epidemic. Domestic assault is widely recognized as a threat to public health and safety, affecting victims and perpetrators across lines of ethnicity/race, age, socioeconomics and gender. Two causal views prevail: 1) a sociologic/feminist-inspired view that patriarchal, societal and personal ethos justifies and perpetuates oppressive attitudes, beliefs and behaviors; and 2) psychological make-up with/without other stressors, including poverty and substance abuse. Domestic violence (DV) arrests in Nevada outpace the United States.

Implicit in your “Streetalk” query, “Who would you like to slap?” is rationale for violence. Respondents to spot-surveys do not provide well-considered answers. Perpetrators of DV also have not responded effectively to urgencies. Consider the aggressive responses reported in this context: “When would it be appropriate to slap my partner, child, mother or sister?” Finally, how would you treat this answer to your irresponsible question: “Off the record, my wife?"Cornelius Sheehan Jr.

Reno

More irony
Re “Viva la causa!” [RN&R, News, April 3]:

After reading your article on the celebration of César Chávez Day, I found myself feeling extremely discouraged. Reno only has two casinos that have contracts with their workers: Reno Hilton and Circus Circus. It is sad that a celebration which recognized the achievements of a man who fought for the collective bargaining rights of farm workers would be held at a business in which the employees do not have collective bargaining rights like the Siena—a non-union workplace.

Labor unions have been at the forefront of many progressive movements in America. From the ending of child labor to an established eight-hour workday to overtime pay—all have been brought forth in our society by the struggles of working people. To honor César Chávez in a non-union business is essentially a dishonor because it supports an unhealthy business practice which he fought and struggled against.

David Bruce
via e-mail

Support the war
Re “Restricting speech, resisting violence” [RN&R, News, March 27]:

Your article was incorrect. My family, which supports our troops, were in fact back out on the steps of the federal courthouse the following Monday and will be there on Mondays in the future. Was there a reason you didn’t say we were there? I didn’t see your reporter there on Monday evening (March 24), was he there at all?

So, you see, we were in fact there, and we were “seen” supporting our country like the other Patriots were on March 22. We were the ones standing in front of the antiwar group with signs that read, “We support the President.”

We were there on March 31, too, and plan to be there on April 7.

God bless our great nation. God bless and protect our troops.

Jim Ballard
Reno

For the record
Re “Will the Show Go On?” [RN&R, Theater, April 3]:

Just to clarify a statement in Miranda Jesch’s article, several years ago when the Theater Coalition started the Lear Theater project, the Reno Little Theater and the Coalition did discuss the possibility of RLT becoming a resident company at the Lear. Both parties decided early on that it was not practical for the Lear to have a resident company. Reno Little Theater does not have any hopes of becoming a resident company at the Lear. We are still planning our own facility, and until we are able to build it we certainly hope and expect to rent the Lear for some of our special events. RLT supports the Coalition in its efforts to create the Lear Theater.

Julie Douglass
Secretary, Reno Little Theater