On this week's Letters to the Editor page, we mostly looked at the big picture, whether the topic be racial history, homelessness, or imagined LOTR* mash-ups of the future.

—First off: racism! Joe Streckert's piece on Oregon's early African Americans invited others to weigh in on how the past affects Oregon's current racial makeup. Deezus, for instance, questions the accuracy in laying blame for Oregon's relatively low percentage of African American residence solely on the state's shamefully buttheaded early exclusionary policies. Meanwhile, while Lyndsay thinks it makes more sense to focus on the current situation, lest blaming the past might "distance us in the present from culpability."

—Occupy posits that the sheriff might not have such a hard time hewing to his budget if he didn't have officers working overtime in jails full of people who committed victimless crimes like sleeping in parks and smoking doobs.

—Chef has a plan for Right 2 Dream Too, too. It involves city parking structures and "happy rangers."

—MusicfestNW's new format does not seem to be going over so well, at least in its theoretical form. As fargosucks succinctly put it: "Fuck everything about this."

—And finally, Marq made a funny about the new The Hobbit, so we gave him a prize.

Letters: You too can achieve this.

*If there is a difference between Lord of the Rings movies and Hobbit movies, I really don't give a shit.