Letters for May 15, 2003

This mother cares

Re “Happy (Good) Mother’s Day” (SN&R Guest Comment, May 8):

Amber Harris really put some funny stuff in her request for less Hallmark on Mom’s Day. I laughed, sadly, because I can appreciate and understand her complaint. But part of the healing process is forgiveness.

I am a far better mom than mine could ever be. And my kids don’t really think to shower me with all that deserved love on Mother’s Day.

In fact, I feel very obligated to do stuff for my mom. Never mind the past and the stuff that goes along with being from a severely dysfunctional family. I have an “interesting” mother and still feel obligated. My kids have me, a damned good specimen, and don’t feel obligated.

I hope Ms. Harris felt better with her Guest Comment, but the only way to fix that kind of thing is to do better. And we are.

Cassi Lyn
Pollock Pines

Real journalists care

Re “Embedded with the Kings” by Jeff Kearns (SN&R Cover, May 1):

Thank you for shedding light on the media incest between the Kings, KXTV and KHTK.

Having studied and worked in journalism for nearly 30 years, I am disgusted that Grant Napear and Jim Kozimor would even think of themselves as journalists. One cannot be a journalist part of the time. You either are or you aren’t. Clearly, they aren’t.

Such ambiguity not only hurts the citizens of Northern California, it also damages the credibility of all media outlets and real journalists. Real journalists care about credibility. They place it above everything else, even their paycheck.

M. Conens
Medford, Ore.

This reader doesn’t care … for the story

Re “Embedded with the Kings” by Jeff Kearns (SN&R Cover, May 1):

I’m not sure which is worse: biased journalism or bad journalism. You went out of your way to point out the biased journalism that you purport to be occurring within the Sacramento Kings’ “strategic partnerships.” However, I found your story to be extremely repetitive, shallow and boring.

While I see, and agree with, your point that the media should be unbiased and not in cahoots with the subject of their reports, I fail to see how this is so newsworthy that you managed to fill so much print space repeating the same point over and over and over.

While I do not necessarily agree with Grant Napear (as a matter of fact, he usually gets on my nerves), I must say that he is dead-on about the Maloofs. They are the best thing that has happened to this town. They have a genuine interest in the community. They have improved, immeasurably, an organization that, for the better part of 15 years, was the laughingstock of the NBA, and they have single-handedly promoted Sacramento in a way that no advertising dollars ever could.

While you sit and write drawn-out articles about the evils of the Sacramento Kings organization, the city swells with a sense of collective community pride that this city has never seen the likes of.

Bill Mullinax
East Sacramento

The devil’s to blame, not Bush

Re “The devil went down to Modesto” by Jackson Griffith (SN&R Essay, May 1):

I read this essay with great interest, and, besides bringing new facts to light (for me, anyway), it summarized some of the known facts. Although I find the case interesting in its sordidness, I have not been an avid follower, so the essay was valuable.

Until I got to Griffith’s theory.

I have no quarrel with most of his “causes” of our discontent, but I think that including the attack against the current administration was silly.

He hit on common ground with his statements concerning loss of jobs, loss of savings, perceived loss of freedoms, etc. I’ll even agree that the us vs. them (rich vs. poor) statement may be shared across the political spectrum to a degree.

But his unfounded allegations about the current administration are not something that the vast majority of Americans include in their daily list of grievances. By including this, he exposed himself as an accomplice to the extreme partisan agenda of SN&R. His credibility fell several degrees.

Except for that, the article would have been excellent and believable.

Bob Fry
via e-mail

Look out Dan Walters

Re “It’s about lawyers’ compensation” by Jill Stewart (SN&R Capitol Punishment, May 1):

Congratulations on this excellent article on workers’ comp and trial lawyers.

Even though I am a political conservative, I have a lot of liberal values. Probably the primary reason I am a conservative is because I so despise establishment liberal hypocrisy that plays to buzz words and tries to manipulate and control people by keeping them emotional and ignorant.

From her article, it seems that Ms. Stewart has discovered something I have long known about the Democratic Party: Just like the Republicans are more notoriously alleged to be, [Democrats] are controlled by special-interest groups. And one of the biggest is the trial lawyers’ special interest. Bless Ms. Stewart for being able to recognize the truth when she sees it instead of just running it through the PC filters that she might ordinarily be accustomed to using.

Dan Walters is usually the guy who comes up with such gems, so it is nice to see that you are giving him some competition with Capitol Punishment.

Frank Wandell
Roseville

Sacramento and Vine

Re “Some Vines, mostly Stars” by Christian Kiefer (SN&R Clubber, May 1):

I just wanted to thank SN&R for Christian Kiefer’s honest and insightful look at my band, Looking Star. He wrote a passionate piece that I felt championed the band while still pointing out where we fell short at this point in our evolution as a musical and spiritual entity. His personal but objective approach is what I look for when reading about our hometown music scene.

Also, Jackson Griffith wrote up a small piece on Looking Star (“Twinkle twinkle,” SN&R Music, April 24). I was surprised, and appreciative of his interest and his professionalism.

I wanted to take a moment to mention Jason Fluhrer, who was left out of both articles. Jason was the bass player for Sweet Vine’s entire journey and an important piece of the psychology and the musical dynamic of Sweet Vine. He is still here in Sacramento and now stays busy with numerous video-production projects. He is an elusive and enigmatic character, but I wanted to make sure my good friend was not left out of Sweet Vine’s history.

Thanks to SN&R and Alive & Kicking for keeping us on the radar as we all strive for the connection of that sublime, chaotic release that is music.

Hans Eberbach
Looking Star

Just what I needed

Re “When the Bombs Hit Home” by Chrisanne Beckner (SN&R Cover, April 24):

I would like to compliment journalist Chrisanne Beckner for a very high-quality article. The family she interviewed and her technique in covering the story was just what I have been looking to see.

People of this country need to see the human faces that belong to Iraq and any other nation set in turmoil due to the U.S. involvement. We as a human race have been evolving and without the help of strong, brave young people like the ones interviewed for this story, we would just be another monopolistic, commercial, consumer society feeling we need to get ours at any cost.

Thank you for supporting humanitarian efforts with free speech and equal rights to all nations.

Crystal Phipps
via e-mail

See how it works in Iraq

Re “Stewart’s educational fascism” (SN&R Letters, April 24):

Letter writer [David] Benavides sounds like another one of the Davis bunch who is ashamed of his country’s language and culture.

Perhaps he could tell us why millions of people each year risk death and worse just to be able to kiss the shore of this terrible WASP country.

Maybe he should move to Mexico, France or Iraq and demand that they teach his child in English about American culture. See how well he fares.

As Grandpa used to say when asked about the old country, “If there was anything worthwhile there, we’d still be there.” Forget the old country; learn the language and culture of your new country, the United States of America.

Lou Meyer
Sacramento