RE: One Day at a Time [Aug 28], regarding the president's plans for military intervention in Syria.
DEAR MERCURY—One couldn't help but react with shock and disappointment at the August 28 segment of One Day at a Time, which addressed the Syria conflict. An impressionable reader would be unfortunately persuaded to believe that Obama's claim that the Syrian government "gassed its own people" was backed by actual evidence. The readers of the Mercury deserve far better than a regurgitation of right-wing punditry trying to sell yet another war based on lies.
Shamus Cooke
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RE: One of our many Mercury side businesses. Have you tried our mutton tallow? It's actually pretty bomb.
DEAR CEO—We need large amount of beef tallow and mutton tallow to produce soap/translucent soap, how many can you provide us per month? Please give the quotation as soon as possible.
Stefan
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RE: An advertisement for Stumptown Coffee Roasters that ran in the August 28 issue. See pg. 35 for their new one and tell us: Does it offend ye?
Last night I saw Stumptown's ad on pg. 35 of the Portland Mercury. I was shocked and a little nauseated by the use of jailhouse sexual abuse in a cartoon as an attempt at humor and marketing. And on a more commercial note, I don't find the image of jail rape a nice one to pop into my mind as I prepare my morning coffee in my home.
Dresden Skees-Gregory
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RE: "Still Dreaming" [News, Sept 4], on the deal brokered to move the Right 2 Dream Too homeless rest area. Read more about the plan in News, here.
I live near the proposed relocation site and, like my neighbors, believe it's an ill-advised arrangement. The Lovejoy cul-de-sac is a main pedestrian travel corridor that has always attracted trouble associated with drinking, drug use, and camping. The streetcar passing above is amplified into an earth-shaking, high-decibel rumbling below that will disturb the peace and rest that homeless people need. If the city can't find a more suitable site to relocate Right 2 Dream Too, they're either not looking or they are looking for sites that are more punitive than protective.
posted by Art Lewellan
To respond to your concerns, you may find that the area surrounding this cul-de-sac becomes much more safe and comfortable if R2DToo relocates there. Housed and un-housed people in the neighborhood have come to know R2DToo as a safe place, and I believe you will, too. The Dreamers have heard the streetcar rumble above the bridge. That noise stops long before the mayhem at the bars surrounding the current location. The proposed site is also wheelchair accessible. If you actually talk with people at R2DToo, you will learn more about their vision for providing a safe place, and the realities that they deal with each and every day.
posted by florecita roguera
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Re: "Back Off, Playa" [Art, Sept 4], in defense of the annual Burning Man art festival.
DEAR MERCURY—I think it's great that you love Burning Man. I'm glad you playa-obsessed freaks have something magnificent to look forward to every year. While I support your desire to spend a week in the desert with like-minded imaginative people, my eyes are still going to roll whenever we're speaking and you mention the Burn. I've spoken to hundreds of Burners and all of them try to sell me Burning Man like it's some kind of fucking religion. You people spazz the fuck out when you hear I've never been and start trying to convince me that the Burn will be my salvation. That I will fucking love it. Your pushiness only intensifies my lack of interest. So until you Burner zealots stop trying to baptize me in the name of the Playa, I'm gonna keep right on making fun of you.
Ajé
DEAR MERCURY—I might never go, but I liked A.L. Adams' defense of Burning Man. The desert art event may be dirty, but as Woody Allen said, so is sex if you do it right.
Steven
CONGRATULATIONS to Steven for reminding us of these sage words and winning this week's Mercury letter of the week! He gets two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, where you can see a wide variety of examples of people doing it right.
