SO GODDAMN SENSITIVE
DEAR MERCURY—I was shocked when I opened the June [9] issue and saw the headline “Goddamn Kids!” [I Love Television]. I had to look twice because I couldn’t believe it. I am not a religious fanatic, but I am a Christian, and there are plenty of us in this area. In case [Wm. Steven Humphrey] doesn’t know, the Third Commandment is “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.” If he wants to do that on his own time, that’s his business, but I don’t believe it should be used in a publication for all to see.
-Vicky Colbert
YOU ARE WELCOME
DEAR MERCURY—RE: “It Gets Better” [Feature, June 16]. Straight dude in a fairly crowded coffee shop all teary-eyed with the Portland Mercury in my hand. Thanks a fuckin’ lot.
-AK
TRANS PLANS
[Gender reassignment is] a medical issue… medical care should be available [“It Gets Better,” Feature, June 16]. Personally I don’t want my tax dollars going toward a medical plan that would not include treatment for people who need it.
-posted by taxpayer81
BE SPOKEN
Fact: Hundreds of people bike up [N Williams] every day [“Concrete Change,” News, June 16]. I know several people who have had serious injuries along that stretch. The more the city delays, the more likely a fatality happens along that stretch.
-posted by Ruckus
Increased biking infrastructure and gentrification go hand in hand [“Concrete Change,” News, June 16]. Studies have shown that African Americans bike far, far less than their Caucasian counterparts, so it makes perfect sense that leaders in the black community would be against this.
posted by Chuck Garabedian
BURDEN BRIDGES
[The Columbia River Crossing is] a jobs program [“Leap of Faith,” News, June 16]? No, it’s a burden of debt to me, and future generations. The largest amount of money is supposed to come from tolling, over $1 billion. They’re going to charge around $2.25 to cross the bridge. At that price the interest on the bonds is going to grow faster than the money that is collected. It’s $6 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, that’s what this should cost too. I bet if you set up the tolls today, you would see a lot less support for this total waste of money. How about fixing the four-lane choke point at the Rose Quarter before you fix a six-lane bridge that seems to work fine?
-posted by Jeff
DON’T BLAME THE COMICS
I’m 87 percent sure I’ll see [Green Lantern], but will probably do so at a cheap theater where beer can be had [“Dorkiest Knight,” Film, June 16]. What’s frustrating is that silly comic book characters can be done well. Thor is a stupidly bombastic space viking who fights aliens and speaks as if he were a Shakespeare character. Yet, the movie totally embraced the sparkly bombast and really kind of worked. The Green Lanterns are nearly as ridiculous. They’re magical space cops who all dress alike and use jewelry to punch evil in the face with giant fists. Yet, that shouldn’t be an impediment to making a perfectly neat-o, kickass movie. I hope that viewers who see it and don’t like it have presence of mind enough to blame the style and execution, not the source material or source medium.
-posted by The Right Reverend Rocktimus Prime
HERE HERE, TRRRP, you’re speaking our language. And it just so happens we’ve got two tickets to the cheap, beer-need-accommodating Laurelhurst Theater for you, plus lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! which we hear is frequented by bombastic space vikings and magical space cops.
I love this week’s cover picture of Sarah Mirk all blissed out on Hippie Crack.
Hey Vicky,
Thanks for your better than thou reminder of the instructions from that outdated book of myths called the old testament, which has been re-translated so many times from the originals I find it hilarious anyone would bother to quote it in English. Please netflix “the god who wasn’t there” and educate yourself about how silly the Christian religions are.” Thx.
While I would never infringe upon the right of someone to profane the Lord’s name, since nothing says you’re as cool as a third grader than doing so, I must take issue with Vicky’s contention that the OT, aka the Hebrew Scriptures, is an “outdated book of myths”. Ok, which book specifically is? And what verse, chapter, etc.? And does this mean that we also hold all ancient literature, or for that matter, anything not published before a certain date, beyond the pale of discussion? Also, you do realize, since you’re clearly a literary student, that “myth” is not defined solely as “false,” indeed, every culture has its “myths” and poetic truth is at the heart of mystical experience (you’ve read your Joseph Campbell and your Jung, right?) Traditional scriptural interpretation (not 19th century biblical literalism in response to Darwin, which started all this stupidity in the first place) has always held that some of the Bible is allegorical, some of it historical fact, and some a combination of both. In fact, most of the allegedly intelligent naysayers of today are making arguments that were answered, oh, say by Augustine way, way back, which the Hitchens/Dawkins/Brown/Maher crowd could have found out if they actually went to a library instead of spending all their time trying to get in front of a camera.
@ Vicky Colbert,
Um, YOU PEOPLE are responsible for the following atrocities:
african slavery
native american genocide
the inquisition
setting the world back hundreds of years
the holocaust
Jim Crow
the far-right
most forms of domestic terrorism
church sex abuse
pretty-much all hate groups in the U.S.
Aparthied
the nazis
homophobia
the repression of women, etc.
So shut up.
The headline Vicky read was not “used in a publication for all to see,” but in a publication that she chose to pick off a pile or out of a box, open and read voluntarily. It wasn’t put on a billboard or a bumpersticker like so many Christian messages that I find myself invountarily exposed to. The freedom of speach does not guarantee your right to not be offended, Vicky. If you want to censor something, start your own goddamned newspaper.
vicky if you don’t like it change the channel and damosA being african american does not automatically make you oppressed especially if you are shopping at zupans
Correction, my comments were directed at “smllprsn” not Vicky. My apologies.
wow, godisgonnagetu, ever hear of a run on sentence when you were learning those fancy words? there is nothing wrong with myths and stories, lots to be learned from them when treated as such. there is something wrong, however, with people taking translations of ancient myths as literal facts and using those beliefs to determine how our country or portlands alternative newspaper should be run. dick flavor, great point.
Dearest smallprsn.
Yes, I am aware of sentences that run on too long, for example, one pointing out the fact that you didn’t bother to actually read my statement in which I defended the sainted Mercury and free speech rights, by noting such rights are usually invoked by people trying to be as cool as third-graders, and aren’t we glad as July 4 beckons that we beat the Brits to gain that right, but, however, I also never said the country should be run by people who interpret the Bible literally, and certainly not in Portland, so help us God, er, Goddess, er, Impersonal Force, er, the Universe, but I also didn’t say the country should be run by anyone else, for that matter, because I’m not hung up on your bourgeois attachment to parental government figures, man, telling you what to do, no man, I am done with that trip.