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Letters To The Editor News

Letters to the Editor

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A modest proposal

regarding your coverage of tent City (NOW, September 26-October 2).

The best way to deal with the homeless is to make everything they do illegal (see Rudolf Giuliani).

It’s not like our prison systems are overburdened with mock criminals anyway, right?

I, for one, feel like paying more of my hard-earned money to be protected from a homeless teenager with a penchant for smoking reefer. Or maybe we should just eat them.

Patrick Stewart, Toronto

Where are our values?

I am deeply saddened at the treatment by our city of the poor folk at Tent City. Where are our values?

Could there be a genuinely valid reason for the government not to give responsible ethical notice, or better yet, work out a solution?

We are all inevitably brought down by unconscionable actions like those perpetrated by our city government on the people of Tent City.

Ted Engels, Toronto

Naomi Klein uninspiring

I went to see naomi klein speak last night and was disappointed (NOW, September 26-October 2). “Reading” from her new book, Fences And Windows, she offered lots of anecdotal accounts of uprisings — slides of faraway places that most people in Canada will never visit.

The most challenging part of that hour was staying awake. Klein answered the first couple of questions during the Q&A, but soon resorted to taking notes, or if the inquisitor was really lucky, offering the (non) answer, “I don’t know. I’m not an expert on everything.”

Eventually someone asked if she had any suggestions on how to improve things here in Ontario.

Klein didn’t utter a single word. Klein’s certainly not an unattractive standard-bearer for the left. But she’s hardly provocative.

George Perry, Toronto

Lying awake in mortal fear

I’m interested in the topic of genetically modified food, and its impact has probably not been researched enough, but I have never heard of anyone worrying about it screwing up their DNA (NOW, September 26-October 2).

Altering native flora and fauna balances, yes. Horizontally transferring pesticide resistances to undesirable native plants, yes. But not leaping out of raisin oatmeal cookies and mutating human DNA.

I’m sure none of you would ever be guilty of fear-mongering and spreading wild, unfounded accusations, which naive members of the public will swallow whole, and lie awake at night in mortal fear that their genetic material is being altered by unknown forces.

Renee de Pooter, Toronto

Nobody’s fault but Saddam’s

you ask if the lives of iraqi civilians who would die in a new war on Iraq are not as precious as the victims of 9/11 (NOW, September 26-October 2).

You are undoubtedly aware that such a war, if it occurs, is not about killing civilians nor the relative value of U.S. vs. Iraqi lives, but rather stopping Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator who has persecuted ethnic and religious minorities in his own country and defied UN Security Council resolutions.

The world has learned that the promises of Saddam Hussein are not worth much. If, in the end, precious Iraqi lives are lost in a new war, it will be very tragic, but Saddam Hussein and those who support him in Iraq will be the ones to blame.

David Palter, Toronto

Ignoring U.S.’s pain

having recently stumbled upon your paper’s Web site, I was shocked by the bile spewed toward the United States in some of the recent letters from your “readers.”

Apparently, a good number of them believe that Americans are not only ignorant, but in some warped way, also deserving of the events of September 11.

I’d suggest that the only thing Americans are guilty of is being ignorant of the enormity of the inferiority complex of our Canadian neighbours. Frankly, it’s astounding.

Don’t feel too bad, we know most Canadians aren’t as insipid as some of your readers. I’m sure the president will bear that in mind when he appoints your next prime minister.

Justin Kennedy, Los Angeles

Just desserts

I was so delighted to hear that Zionist Benjamin Netanyahu was silenced as he attempted to spit out his anti-Arab and anti-Muslim garbage at Montreal’s Concordia University (NOW, September 12-18).

Ever since the end of the second world war, it’s been almost impossible to say anything critical of Israel or world Jewry without being smeared with the McCarthyite label of “anti-Semitism.”

Journalists, politicians, human rights activists and ordinary citizens have for too long had their freedom of speech silenced or been forced into self-censorship for fear of being tarred with this ugly label after even the most legitimate and routine criticism.

If these people can be silenced, than Netanyahu (who advocates the expulsion of Arabs from their own land to be replaced by Jews) definitely deserves the same.

G. Ruddin, Toronto

A curious note

A brief note in response to the art review by Sheila Heti, Bland Adams (NOW, September 28-October 2).

If Shelby Lee Adams’s current series is indeed “more subtle” and “compelling in its complexity,” then why the use of the word “bland” in the headline?

The writer also refers to “new photos, like Berthie With Pipe And John” in this exhibition. In point of fact, we have not included it in this exhibition, nor have we had a print of it in inventory for over a year.

We are grateful, as always, for the coverage, but curious to know if the reviewer actually saw this exhibition.

Stephen Bulger, Toronto

No syncing at SFA show

Cheers to Matt Galloway for his review of the Super Furry Animals show (NOW, September 28-October 2). It was pretty accurate from a fan perspective and an absolute rave compared to the unqualified bashing that your resident music Grinch, Tim Perlich (who and what does he like anyway?), gave the band back in April.

Yes, the set was much like the Opera House show in the repeat performances of much of the Rings Around The World album. But to a keen ear and a big fan, the polish that several tours of the album has brought to the songs and the show was clear despite the muddy sound of the Phoenix.

The harmonies were enough to raise goosebumps. My one criticism of the review is that Galloway made the same minor yet misleading mistake as Tim “Mikey” Perlich did.

The band was not syncing their performance “to the visuals from their remarkable DVD” or allowing the flow to be commanded by a soft clicking in their in-ear monitors. Their video man was syncing the visuals to the performance.

Aron Harris, Toronto

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