SMOKE CHAMBER

The real question is why does anyone file a complaint in the first place [“Smoke Out,” News, Sept 23]? Let’s face it, a lot of anti-smokers won’t be happy until all smokers are either dead, imprisoned in camps, or frog-marched through smoke-free Pioneer Square into a secret dungeon beneath Starbucks, where they’ll be subjected to a continuous audio loop of Dan Saltzman talking about how family friendly Portland is until they swear they’ll stop buying American Spirits.

-Posted by Big Tobacco on portlandmercury.com

THE SAD FACTS OF DATING

It probably is you [“It’s Not Me, It’s You,” I, Anonymous, Sept 23]. It is a sad fact of dating that you, as the man, have to make all the first moves. This means you’re going to get rejected a lot, and you will have to learn to be more resilient if you want to find a great woman. Oh, and all you beautiful Portland women. I’ll probably be asking you out soon. If you are not interested, do me a favor and just say “no, but thanks.”

-Posted by Haku on portlandmercury.com

PRICKING A NERVE

Since when is cutting in line not a prick move [“Bike Law 101,” News, Sept 23]? It turns my stomach when some selfish prick squeezes past all the cars to cut in front and then slows all of us polite cyclists down while all the cars wait for a gap in the left lane to go around.

-Posted by Thyce on portlandmercury.com

ON THE BOULEVARD

Basically it boils down to a bad book: It can’t make up its mind what it wants to be [“Sunset Boulevard: The Musical,” Arts, Sept 23]. I think Linda does the best she can with Norma, but the Joe is just awful. He cues others by sounding exactly like he’s giving cues. He’s supposed to be a lovable heel, not an asshole who also has no discernible personality. It’s not impossible to write a musical that is both an exploration of aging and delusion while also being bitterly funny, but this ain’t it.

-Posted by rich bachelor on portlandmercury.com

COWBOYS & INDIANS

Hello from a Cayuse and Walla Walla/Dutch(?) half-breed, year-round Pendleton resident [“Let ‘er Buck!” Feature, Sept 23]. I know that reading about Round-Up Week in the Merc or the NY Times, a well intended yet self-righteous liberal white person may get the impression that the Cowboys and Indians out here are separated. But let me assure you, the second week in September—as with the rest of the year—we live together, we work together, we eat and drink together. We get pissed at each other sometimes, but then who doesn’t? I do thank Sarah [Mirk], Patrick [Alan Coleman] and Ian [Goodrich] for coming out and spending this celebration with us and to anyone reading, please feel welcome to come for next year’s. Let ‘er Buck!

-Posted by PRWalters on portlandmercury.com

YEE-HAW

PATRICK [ALAN COLEMAN] AND SARAH [MIRK]—THAT is how to write a summary of what it was like to be at the Round-Up [“Let ‘er Buck!” Feature, Sept 23]. You effing nailed it. Thanks for a great read.

-Dean Rodgers

THANKS DEAN! We now return to our regularly scheduled urban PC-liberal hand wringing vegan/nose-to-tail eating cycling indie rocker crybaby business as usual. And you get two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where you’ll get more culinary bang for the buck.

7 replies on “Letters to the Editor”

  1. Actually PRWalters, it’s not “indians” as slave-owner Christopher Columbus would have you call them. It’s NATIVE/ABORIGINAL AMERICANS.

    And i’d love to know whether your little round-up (in addition to other trite things) does anything to EUCATE visitors in the history of Native Americans in the Northwest & their engagement with the White settlers/illegals.

    “We get pissed at each other sometimes, but then who doesn’t?”

    You know what? If i were forced to live, eat, drink, & work with people who had wiped out 90% of MY people, & were made to perform degrading -quasi-racist acts at some methed-up mud-caked hickfest, i’d be alittle sore to.

  2. Hey everyone: Want to piss the “Troll” DamosAhole off, just don’t respond…..obviously he wants attention. Hopefully he will dress up as a fire hydrant for Halloween and actually do his civic duty to help the local dogs find a place to relieve themselves. It is only fair, he lives to pee people off, better that he gets pee’d on.

  3. “Hey everyone: Want to piss the “Troll” DamosAhole off, just don’t respond…”

    Yeah, you can start by taking some of your own advice Dufus22. And no photo to go along with your avatar, how brave of you!

  4. The Round Up isn’t about education.
    No one cares! There’s some white people, and some red people, and some other colors of people, and they DON’T. FREAKING. CARE. They’re there to get drunk, and watch someone (regardless of color) get thrown off of an angry animal and stomped around in some mud, and then get more drunk. If you’re the one seeing color boundaries, then you’re the one who’s a racist. The Indians aren’t there for some sort of apology, or for anyone to feel sorry for them. Their ancestors are dead, and so are ours; if you’re still dwelling on what dead people did to other dead people, it’s your problem. We have some differences in culture, which can occasionally cause some friction, but we still respect each other.

    And no one forces them to do shit. They’ve got more opportunities for success than any given white man anymore. They can live anywhere they want, they choose to live where they live.

    I’m not much of a rodeo person, but I am from Eastern Oregon (yes, hickville), and I do know cowboys, and Indians. Any one of them would think that you’re a complete retard, and an absolute stereotype of an urban liberal.
    If you want education, go read a book. Don’t go to a rodeo.

  6. Heheheh – sounds like damosa just got finished with his bachelors in cultural studies degree – ohhh so angry and righteous! Sure the real world is full of bad history and mistakes of the past. But the only thing that matters is what you do NOW with the situation you were dealt with. Sitting around pissing about how bad things are today because of past wrongs won’t change a thing or do anything productive. Get out and DO something to make lives better today for the short period of history you do have control over.
    I find the whole “gotta educate people” thing to be a total cop-out of our generation. We all too often go out and rail about injustices then go back to our happy little homes feeling like we made a stand. That’s hogwash and we all know it. Action is the only thing that makes a difference – and that’s muddy, ugly, involves working with fragile and flawed people, involves heart-breaking compromise, and often takes a long time. It’s no where near as sexy as a 2 hour weekend fundraiser jog in your $200 nike outfits or passing a plate around at waterfront park while drinking $10 pbr hits.

    And damosa – yeah criticizing dufus22 for no pic while yours looks as if it was probably pulcked from an ‘angry goth’ search on google images is a real classy move.

  7. Well that’s very sad & unfortunate, because maybe someone SHOULD care about the systemic debasing of Native/Aboriginal American culture. I guess you folks out thar in “hickville” don’t give much of a damn about the despair of Native Aboriginals. But i can certainly tell you, sir, that out HERE in the civilized world, we DO give a damn. And we also find it rather distressing – not to mention down-right morbid & ghoulish – that this drunken redneck freakshow would commence annually upon [essentially] the un-marked mass graves of Native Americans. Btw, the rampid animal abuse is something that I hope federal officials are keeping an eye on as well.
    And as if all that weren’t god-awful enough, it’s apparently an open-secret that this round-up is also a magnet for all sorts of criminal activity… drug dealing being only a part of it. And it’s also well known that YOU PEOPLE happen to be involved in the meth trade, waaay out yonder. Even with all the Mexican import, alotta meth labs are still cooking in Eastern OR. You all make that shit, & you distribute it through-out the rest of the state. So i really wish the Merc would’ve have done some serious investigation into all THAT, instead of gettin’ all whiskey-pissed with abunch of weekend cowboys. Infact, i’m pretty sure that this Pendleton round-up is largely – if not mostly – funded by meth profits. Which would certainly explain why this thing is such a hoot every year.
    But at WHAT cost?

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