The Root Problem
To the Editor:
Susan Ellis’ piece on her Ole Miss-addicted brother (Steppin’ Out, November 20th issue) brought a tear to my eye, seriously. I too suffer from the Rebelus-Saintsitus (a disease for which I have found no cure, nor — despite my continual complaining — do I really want one).
The root causes are the same as those of Ellis’ brother: Ole Miss, Archie Manning, New Orleans, Eli. My affliction also has complications. I occasionally bleed Tiger Blue during basketball season, and I am in a mixed-SEC marriage. (My wife is LSU and I am Ole Miss.) We won’t talk or acknowledge one another during the game but should be on speaking terms by Tuesday. This is acceptable, according to the rules set forth in the SEC interconference marital handbook.
This [last] weekend will be difficult on us both. Not to mention I will spend Thanksgiving in Bastrop, Louisiana. (Whether I will be eating turkey or crow remains to be seen.)
Ellis should tell her brother that the prayer chain needs to be set for 10:18 in every quarter. Don’t worry. He will understand.
Thanks for the article.
Ty Hardin
Memphis
Animal Instincts
To the Editor:
Thank you so much for publishing Bianca Phillips’ article about out-of-town rescue people bringing their animals to Memphis (City Reporter, November 20th issue). I have always wondered why they were here when we have so many homeless pets here already. I have seen them at local pet stores on the weekends many times. It would be different if we did not have a huge problem here already.
I think that the animals in Memphis that need homes should get them first. When we don’t have full shelters and local rescue centers, then bring in animals from other places. It just makes common sense.
Thank you for bringing this issue to everyone’s attention. It definitely deserves it!
Anna Kallecter
Memphis
An Abomination
To the Editor:
The oil-and-coal-friendly Bush-Cheney energy bill is indeed an abomination (Editorial, November 20th issue).
It provides token amounts of funding for the technology that can bring us the clean, safe, inexhaustible energy of the sun and wind and provides windfalls, of course, for dangerous, cancerous, and obsolete fossil-fueled technology.
A simple, painless conservation plan could enrich this nation like no other act in our history. It could wipe out our trade deficit, which is mostly a result of importing too much oil. It would conserve our diminishing resources, reduce deadly invisible air pollution, slow the ever-growing amount of mercury contamination in fish, reduce cancer deaths, reduce the megatons of greenhouse gases, and maybe move toward some kind of redemption for this troubled, gluttonous, and misguided corporate nation.
Maybe it’s appropriate that the megatons of extra-cancerous filth that will spew from the obsolete coal- and oil-powered power plants will travel on the prevailing westerly winds toward Washington, D.C. One would think if Congress and the administration can’t protect their constituents, they would at least think about protecting themselves.
Don Johnson
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Crazy Kids
To the Editor:
With all due respect to Jay A. Feinstein (Letters, November 20th issue), who wrote, “All the city needs is a few of those chain stores and restaurants that some of us crazy kids like these days,” I would like to share what I think we really need. It was best expressed by Senator Robert F. Kennedy in April 1968: “What we need … is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer … whether they be white or they be black.”
Have a nice Thanksgiving.
Arthur Prince
Memphis
Correction: The opening night for Disney’s The Lion King at The Orpheum is Friday, Nov. 28. It was incorrectly listed in last week’s paper.
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