WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. MATH IS TOUGH Um, excuse me, but I was just wondering what exactly H.V. Claytor's column is supposed to be about. I would guess that it's supposed to be about hip-hop culture. That would be great--I'd love to have a column available that clues us into the happenings of a musical genre and culture that is relatively under-represented in town. Unfortunately, the column seems to be more of a weekly exercise in narcissism and self-aggrandization for its author. Lots of people keep diaries--some of them even get published as books--but I'm not quite clear as to why Mr. Claytor's is published weekly in Willamette Week. Does anyone, besides the author, actually care what H.V. Claytor did last weekend and with whom? And what relevance to hip-hop culture or the readership of the paper is there? In this week's edition, Mr. Claytor writes about going to San Francisco, going to parties and watching basketball on television at a hotel bar. Wow, that is really exciting. How insightful and illuminating. Previously he has written about conversations he's had with women in bars and his poor choice of vocabulary (something about a chickenhead). Yes, essential information. In another piece he writes about how much he and Chuck D. of Public Enemy have in common. Well, isn't that special. To the editors I ask: What is the point here? In your attempt to reach out to a new demographic by incorporating a column that deals with hip-hop and African-American youth culture you have instead given us a weekly column about one person. A rather annoying one at that. What benefit is there for the reader? We don't learn about new bands, we don't learn about happening clubs, and the only issues raised seem to deal specifically with the writer's personal life. By the way, what has that got to do with Allah and his math? Kevin Friedman Northeast 69th Ave. WE CAN ALL GET ALONG I was disappointed that the Feb.23 article, "Friendly Fire", centered on disputes during a recent Citizens for Police Accountability Campaign meeting, considering such disagreements took less than 10 minutes out of an otherwise calm two-and-a-half-hour discussion. CPAC is using a democratic process to address an important community issue, so it's not remarkable that there would be a variety of opinions and that some of those would be stated heatedly. When civil rights are violated, when driving while black becomes a police issue, when abusive police officers are not held accountable, citizens who are victims or witnesses of such behavior become frustrated. Especially when citizen complaints are often dismissed by the Police Bureau Internal Investigations Division. That's why Portland needs to strengthen PIIAC [Portland Internal Investigations Auditing Committee] into an effective citizen police-review board. Police misconduct is a national issue; cities across the U.S. are forming or strengthening citizen police review boards to enable civilians to oversee law enforcement. Effective boards aren't punitive in nature, although they do hold abusive police officers accountable. Such boards work with the police to make improvements in training, hiring, policies and procedures to prevent misconduct and problems between the police and the community. An effective review board recognizes that policing is a stressful and frustrating job by striving to help officers enforce the law in a humane manner. This is what CPAC is attempting to gain for Portland, hopefully with the help of the chief of police, City Council and Mayor Katz. Diane Lane, CPAC member Southeast 85th Avenue RAG CONTENT Your article "Who's Your Daddy?" [WW, Feb. 16, 2000] was a dead give-away as to your paper's bias. In fact, even I was shocked at how low you would go. To write that Bill Sizemore refuses to disclose his contributors and is tying up in the courts a voter-approved law that would require him to do so is an outrageous perversion of the facts. Here's why. First, Measure 62 is being challenged because of free speech issues, multiple amendments, and several provisions that the courts have already said were unconstitutional. It is not being challenged to avoid campaign-finance disclosure. Second, Measure 62 is also being challenged by the ACLU. You never mentioned that. And finally, why should OTU be expected to disclose anything to you that other organizations are not expected to disclose? Did you request advance disclosure from the public employee unions? Or did you just want to make a snippy little cheap shot at Sizemore? This kind of reporting is why the Willamette Week will never be anything more than a liberal rag. P.S. Don't bother calling. Nobody here will be talking to your paper again. Becky Miller Executive Assistant Oregon Taxpayers United DANSE MACABRE After reading and watching the coverage of the Portland Art Museum's newest exhibit and its associated hoopla in the "mainstream" media, I was thrilled to see WW mention the dark side lurking behind the opulent and glossy exterior of this triumph ["The Buchanans and the Baroness," WW, Feb. 23, 2000]. I know that Portland is not ethnically diverse, but you'd think that somewhere along the line somebody would have the sense to explain to someone in charge that many of us are not entertained by the dance and costume of Cossacks. If a show featured a German artist, would they find it adorable to accessorize dancers with swastikas and have them goosestep around a ballroom? Of course not, since everyone is familiar with that little bit of history. Why not conduct just a little research into Russian history before staging such a spectacle? Among the many stories told to me by my Polish-born grandfather, one stands out most vividly. Keep in mind that Jews lived in a state of constant anxiety; fearing the Cossacks was a fact of life. When my grandfather was 11 years old, five Cossacks pushed their way into his family's humble abode, which consisted of two rooms and a dirt floor. My great-grandmother was raising 10 children alone after her husband died; the family barely survived through the odd job and begging for food. When she tried to explain that there was no room for the Cossacks, they laughed and said they'd start shooting the children to make room. They then ate every last bit of meager food that they could find, got drunk on the vodka that they had stashed on them, and tried to rape my great-grandmother in front of her terrified kids. She was a pretty tough cookie and fought them off, getting a broken arm in the process. My grandfather and his brother Samuel were the only two children in his family to survive those cold, hungry winters in Poland. They left for America with my great-grandmother in tow, shortly after the end of the first World War. That is the only reason that I am around to complain about the lack of sensitivity. Excuse me if I pass on the beef Stroganoff; the entertainment has dampened my appetite. Jeri Feldman Rivendell Road - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published March 8, 2000