Vagina-inspired
I totally agree with John Pritchard’s letter (February 16th issue) regarding The Vagina Monologues. I’m producing a book right now as one in a series of self-help books. This one is entitled Vaginas for Dummies. I hope it becomes a best-seller. Thanks, John.
Bill Butler
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet
Chris Davis asks, “Will Million Dollar Quartet make Memphians cringe?” (February 16th issue). Are you kidding me? I went last night, and it made Memphians holler, scream, and dance in the aisles. MDQ totally blows away Memphis, mainly because it has real rock-and-roll music, played onstage by real rockers, with no orchestra.
And so what if Chuck Mead, music arranger for MDQ, can’t read music? I’m certain most of the characters depicted in MDQ couldn’t read music, and they made some of the greatest rock-and-roll of all time.
Mead made MDQ a great show not by converting rock-and-roll into lame show tunes but by letting the music “rock on.”
Michael Crocker
Memphis
Small Government is Best
I loved Bruce VanWyngarden’s column in the February 9th Flyer. It should be handed to every Memphis City Council member. Can you imagine if Whitehaven were its own city? Would the mess in front of Elvis’ house exist? I think not. If Raleigh had its own government, would it be in the shape it is in now? Would they tolerate failing schools? The smaller the government the more efficiently it operates and the more people “buy into it.” They feel like their voice can be heard.
Bill Summons
Memphis
Exasperated
I’m exasperated with both local and national politics. I sincerely believe it is time to bring back the draft! No, not the military draft. I think we as a country should institute a Selective Service program for political service. Since America supposedly is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people, why not let all the people have an equal chance to serve politically?
Men and women would be subject to serve. There would be expansion of required civics classes in our schools, along with the establishment of the Government Service Training Corps, along the same lines of the existing ROTC program.
Limit how long an individual can serve in a political position and do away with career politicians, who, sooner or later, become more obsessed with being reelected than performing service for their fellow citizens. No more Republicans or Democrats — just Americans!
Don Teague
Memphis
Santorum
Rick Santorum is now the big story in the GOP nomination sweepstakes. He has the momentum and is seen as the next “anybody-but-Romney.” What do you know about him?
Santorum is unapologetically Catholic fundamentalist, hardcore anti-abortionist, anti-gay rights, anti-immigration, even anti-birth control, and he wants prayer back in school — as long as it’s to his version of the deity. Welcome to the new Republican Party.
Santorum opposed the bailouts and stimulus plans that have obviously worked. He questions President Obama’s faith. And on December 15, 2011, Santorum said, “We should be planning a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.” Another Republican warmonger in the making. If this guy gets the GOP nomination, it will set the Republican Party back 40 years — which sounds about right.
L. Webster
Memphis
Empty Rhetoric
When the Obama administration’s health-care financing plan was signed into law, President Obama and Congress promised that funds under the new law would not cover abortions. This has now been proven to be empty rhetoric.
The Department of Health and Human Services has mandated that private insurance plans must cover the “full range of FDA-approved contraception,” in which category HHS explicitly included the abortion-inducing drug Ella.
This is an unprecedented attack on the freedom of conscience of millions of Americans, eviscerating their freedom of choice to purchase private insurance that does not violate their ethical, moral, or religious objections. I hope all readers will contact their elected representatives and voice their outrage over this anti-life mandate.
John E. Sullivan
Memphis
