WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER HERO

HI MERCURY—Reading your feature, “Baldy the Forgetful
9/11 Eagle” [New Column!, Sept 6] brought up something that has been
bugging me lately in our post-9/11 world. If I remember correctly, at
the time of 9/11 the media amplified the idea that we Americans had
been awful loose with the word “heroes” prior to 9/11. Endless coverage
emphasized that watching the firefighters, police officers, and
citizens of New York had re-schooled us all in how we should use the
word “hero.” Recently I saw two television commercials whose makers
obviously didn’t get the lesson. One was for the upcoming Dale
Earnhardt Jr. TV movie, the other a commercial for the upcoming
football season. So a racecar driver and football players are once
again our heroes? I imagine Baldy is crying again.

Kyle Moss

KEEP WALKING

DEAR MERCURY—Your community has now joined the ranks of
many other BID [Business Improvement District]-inspired private
policing of public space communities [“Premature Evacuation,” News,
Sept 6]. Why, if it works in the business areas maybe we can expand the
concept throughout the whole country. “Keep walking, keep walking, keep
walking”—I know I’ve heard this mantra before, I just can’t
remember where. I seem to recall it was either a documentary on
concentration camps, Jim Crow laws, anti-Okie laws, or the march of the
lemmings. As Martin Luther King Jr. said at his Nobel Peace Prize
speech in 1964, “We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust
practices.” That was during a time when a segment of our society wasn’t
allowed to sit in the front of the bus.

Seems like now in Portland we can sit anywhere we want on the bus,
we just can’t sit anywhere else.

Paul Boden

MISTER MANNERS

DEAR MERCURY—As one of the “cowardly storm troopers”
referenced by Oregonians for Immigration Reform in last week’s letters,
I almost felt like it wasn’t worth responding [“Treatin’ Women Proper,”
Letters, Sept 6]. But it’s completely ridiculous that I should be
taught about respect for women by a bigot like Richard [F.
LaMountain]. What about all the women who were taken from their
families and locked in a detainment camp up in Washington, then shipped
thousands of miles away from their loved ones, because some nationalist
fools like you feel threatened by anyone who looks different than you?
Is that how we should treat women?

Paxana Romantarchy Bumrushthepigs

SO… ANN’S RIGHT

DEAR MERCURY—Give it to Ann Romano, dammit. I adore
sarcasm… when it works. Ann darlin’, you characterize the
participants of Burning Man as “hippies,” obviously
outing yourself as incompetent to address the subject
[One Day at a Time, Sept 6]. Are there hippies out there?? Yup. And
leather boys, pyro junkies, goth clubs, fuck-tents, rangers,
ravers, stiltwalkers, mutant vehicles, drinking bands with
marching problems, boys in hot pants (YES), and spectacular art.
DJs, super-bendy chicks, artists, thinkers, and dreamers of
every possible combination from countries spanning the globe. Read
the back of the ticket: You voluntarily assume the risk of serious
injury or death by attending and release Burning Man from any claim.
Radical self-reliance. Get used to it. Since my camp spent no time
wailing and lamenting the early burn… we rapidly turned our attention
to the camp of “somethings” next to us. They wanted us to
turn our music off so they could finish chanting. For an
hour. To the same crap CD they had been playin’ for DAYS. Err. No.
MUSIC UP. BULLHORN ON. We’d like to join you… but can we smoke in
your dome? And I need a place to lay out all that pure Peruvian coke…
that mandala is PERFECT. I’d like to plant my root chakra in someone’s
sacred space baby! You buncha ramalamadingdongs, this is NOT
the meditation you were looking for! You want an epiphany…
there’s a LOT of desert out there. This shit here is a PARTY. MUSIC
UP.

Tiffany

GOOD GOD, TIFFANY, we didn’t understand even half of your letter,
other than that you seemed to have proved Ann Romano’s point about
Burning Man hippies—thanks! You win the letter of the week, for
which you will receive two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch
at No Fish! Go Fish! (Better leave the pure Peruvian coke at
home.)