Stay out of Syria – Memphis Flyer

Just Say No

Kudos to the Flyer for its record of opposing the United States’ disastrous 21st-century military adventures (Editorial, September 19th issue).

The evening that George W. Bush told America that we were invading Iraq, my two sons, my brother, and I were attending a Grizzlies game at the Pyramid. The term “Orwellian” is frequently and superficially applied, but that night it chillingly fit. The game was abruptly stopped, and we were treated to the image of NBA commissioner David Stern on a giant screen telling us to stay tuned for an address from President Bush. Our leader’s face then appeared, and I recall Bush, with what seemed to me a feeble attempt to ape Churchill, announcing the impending attack.

The crowd reacted with a standing ovation. My brother and I refused to stand and offered no applause. My sons, then 15 and 13, followed our example. Thousands of otherwise sober citizens were cheering on a war with an enthusiasm properly suited for a Grizzlies NBA title victory.

I am proud of the example that we set for my sons. War, for any reason, should never be cause for celebration. In this case, the decision to invade revealed an arrogance and incompetence still shaping much of U.S. foreign policy.

Steven Howard Smith

Germantown

James Harvey

I kept staring at the Flyer cover photo of James Harvey (“Meet the New Boss,” September 19th issue). He certainly dresses well, has a lot of bling, and seems to have a flexible brain, but I couldn’t tell if he was looking heavenward for guidance or just rolling his eyes. I’m leaning toward the latter.

Roger Smallwood

Memphis

Newspaper Negotiations

Alexandra Pusateri’s story on the ongoing labor negotiations between The Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Newspaper Guild union was like reading about a fight between Chuck Norris and a baby seal (“Mass Appeal,” September 19th issue). I especially love that the MNG has agreed to keep the names of any member who is laid off “confidential.” Holy crap. Really? That is just sad and embarrassing for all parties but especially for those laboring under the delusion that they are still journalists.

In their defense, I guess it’s just not “news” when you lose your job at a daily paper these days.

J.K. McPhee

Memphis

Time for Tea

Just look at what House speaker John Boehner, the Tea Party, and the rest of the tagalong Republicans have in store for America this fall. It’s a repeat of the same old movie — Let’s Shut It Down! — we’ve seen too many times before.

‘Tis the season for the loud minority of Republicans to threaten to shut down the government if they don’t get their way and get the majority in Congress to give in and defund the Affordable Care Act, or as they love to call it, Obamacare.

Boehner has fallen into a deep rabbit hole by pandering to the Tea Party hatemongers. They will do anything in their power (or not in their power, in this case) to crucify the president. They’re willing to shut down the U.S. government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. They’d rather the world think we’ll default on our debts than give in to majority rule. They’d rather put the economy of the country in jeopardy than face the fact that they don’t have the numbers in Congress to do what they want.

The country has seen it all before, and until the Republican majority (I’m talking to you, Boehner) gets the cojones to stand up to its whack-job fringe, the whole party will continue sliding into the abyss of history.

W.B. Ford

Memphis

Literature

You’ll have to look a very long time to find anything in The Commercial Appeal like Bruce VanWyngarden’s column in the September 12th issue. It was very refreshing to read something that reminds us that literature is still available to all of us.

Steve Haley

Memphis

Correction: The Music Feature on Gonerfest contains an incorrect date. It should read Saturday, September 28th.

Gay Marriage

I was confused by Tommy Volinchak’s response (Letters, September 5th issue) to Bianca Phillips’ wonderful and thoughtful article on gay marriage (“Nice Day for a Gay Wedding,” August 29th issue).

Volinchak sees the Flyer as a “beacon of moral decay”? So why is he reading it? Then he rambles on to say he has “plenty of friends who are gay” and is “not offended in any way by the gay lifestyle.”

So why did he waste his time writing and sending a letter bubbling with such venom and small-mindedness? He needs more gay friends, I believe, for there are many things about life and love he must learn about.

The only “off-the-scale goofy” concept I noticed was his lame attempts at justifying his juvenile attitude. I hope that it, too, wasn’t “pre-engineered by God.”

Philip Scott

Memphis

Twerked

I was absolutely appalled that the Flyer ran that disgusting, slut-shaming, victim-blaming, rape apologist “Twerk It” viewpoint from Richard Cohen (September 5th issue). Beyond the fact that it was terribly written, it was also dangerously factually inaccurate regarding the details of the Steubenville rape case. The victim was not just “manhandled” and videotaped naked. She was digitally and orally penetrated while unconscious and without her consent, not that the specific method by which she was raped should even matter in how heinous a crime it was. If you want to send a message to teenagers about how their culture has “run amok,” don’t further blur the lines on what is criminally considered sexual assault by implying it’s just bad manners or blaming it on Miley Cyrus and pop culture.

Furthermore, Cohen, who was himself guilty of creating a “hostile work environment” for a young female co-worker at The Washington Post, is about as qualified to comment on the women’s movement as Rick Perry or Todd Akin or any other crotchety old white guy who opens his mouth and lets rape culture commentary like this come out of it.

If you were looking for well-written opinion pieces about rape culture or the women’s movement, perhaps you should consider following the lead of other news sources, which are publishing local and national female writers such as Zerlina Maxwell or Shelby County Schools new chief communications officer Emily Yellin.

I have lost all respect for the Flyer for publishing this crap, and you have lost a loyal reader.

Chloe O’Hearn

Memphis

Yeehaw!

Yeehaw! The good ol’ boys and girls of the U.S. military are about to unleash a fresh wave of shock, awe, destruction, murder, and mayhem against another Arab state, with the same old excuse as last time: They used “weapons of mass destruction.”

The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of weapons of mass destruction. And there are dozens of recalcitrant countries that need a hail of our missiles flung at them, keeping our munitions factories and supply lines churning.

I say let’s throw our weight around a little more, and after enough bombs and missiles have been fired, we can leave Syria like we did Iraq — in a state of constant civil war. While we’re at it, we should go ahead and bomb the crap out of Iran. They’re next, anyway.

Edward Norman

Memphis

Yeehaw!!

Yeehaw, the government has finally done something really cool. The Justice Department has decided not to go after the states that legalize pot.

This doesn’t go far enough. I think Congress needs to pass the bong prior to all voting procedures. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, everybody I knew, except my parents and people at my church, smoked pot. If you had negative feelings for someone or just didn’t like them, you could smoke pot with said unpleasant person and before long, you’d be fast friends. I do not know why this worked, but I promise it did.

I bet that if all the Republicans and Democrats could adjust their attitudes before voting on bills, this would be a much more congenial country.

Dagmar Bergan

Helena, Arkansas