RE: "Taking Control" [News, July 23], regarding Oregon's move toward better gun control.
DEAR MERCURY—As the grant writer and organizer who successfully wrote the grant for PSU's Progressive Student Union's October 2013 Portland Conference on Youth, Guns, and Violence, it is heartening to see specific action in Oregon for gun safety in 2014. PSU-PSU will continue our gun safety campaign, including a follow-up conference. Progressive Student Union's coalition is very much aware that one less-publicized aspect of gun violence here in Estados Unidos is that women in domestic abuse situations are 12 times more likely to die from gunshots than women in other countries. Comprehensive gun safety laws—including background checks, and bans on high-caliber magazines and assault weapons—are needed now.
Lew Church
RE: "Who Got Hoovered?" [I Love Television, June 25], regarding the show The Leftovers, which is based on the Christian concept of the Rapture.
HELLO—I just happened to pick up an old issue of the Portland Mercury that was sitting on my coffee table and came upon "Who Got Hoovered?" This is the first time I've read your column, so I have nothing to compare it to, but from this writing... I take it you're not a fan of Christians. Let it go. I'm sure you've experienced disappointment from people other than Christians. Unfortunately, we live in a world with good and bad, good Christian/bad Christian, good teacher/bad teacher, good driver/bad driver, good cook/bad cook, good friend/bad friend. Any Christian who stands there with fingers pointed ready to condemn is no true Christian. On behalf of followers of Jesus, I apologize for everything that Christians have done to you to make you dislike them so much. Also, the word "rapture" isn't in the Bible, unless you have a Latin translation. In that case, then you have the word "rapturous," from which our word "rapture" is derived. And the word "rapturous" comes from the Greek word "harpazo." The most well-known verse that refers to the event we call the Rapture is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." That term "caught up" is translated from that Greek word "harpazo," which means to take forcibly, to snatch, or to catch up. And that is what the Rapture will be. To say that you would rather stay on earth and "suck it" than be in heaven with pervy youth ministers is absolutely absurd. Do you actually believe that God would allow such people into heaven? Highly doubt it, unless there was some kind of deathbed repentance, which is something that all of us are able to do... if you have a slow death. My final words: They say, "When you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks the loudest is the one that got hit." Thanks for reading my ramblings. If I took your column too seriously, my apologies, but it was quite offensive.
Erika Lutz
RE: An old-timey newspaper, and some unsolicited advice.
WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY—I came across this very real historical newspaper [Attached to this message was a scan of an old publication called the Sedalia Weekly Bazoo.—Eds.] during a search of the Library of Congress database. I must request... nay, DEMAND... that the name of the Portland Mercury be changed, with dispatch, to the Portlandia Weekly Bazoo. That is all.
Todd
WELL, TODD, we kind of like the ring of that other than the "ia" tacked on the end of "Portland." That, friend, is what one calls a "deal breaker." Nonetheless, we thank you for passing on this delightful discovery, and hereby award you this week's Mercury letter of the week, complete with two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, which doesn't have much newspaper reading happening in its bazoo. (Unless maybe "bazoo" means "bathroom"... which it kinda sounds like it does.)
