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. I Am Everyday People I am writing this letter in response to comments made about Everyday Music in the Summer Guide issue, in which one of your writers, Matt Schwartz, called us "an evil, greedy chain" ["Wax This Way," June 9, 1999]. Gosh! Perhaps I should be honored to have attained a status equal to the likes of Bill Gates and Phil Knight, but nonetheless, I feel that my company may have been misrepresented. And while this letter might be perceived by some simply as sour grapes or whining, still I am obligated. I am reminded of dialogue from the movie Austin Powers, which I paraphrase: Son: I like music. Dr. Evil: E-e-evil music? Son: No. Maybe I'd like to open a record store. Dr. Evil: An e-e-evil record store? I try to make light of this situation, but I am still miffed and a bit hurt by your writer's depiction, which I think may honestly have been intended as a compliment, albeit a backhanded one. I, along with my wife, Sarah Hefte, own Everyday Music--a three-store "chain"--and you can find us both working in the stores nearly every day. She's the nice one, so that must make me "the rigid, corporate hierarchy." As to why Mr. Schwartz used the wording he did, I cannot say; humor, false assumptions, a bad experience in one of the stores? Regardless, his descriptions were, I feel, unnecessarily hostile and demeaned our entire staff of 30 people who take the utmost pride in doing their jobs. I ask that the editorial staff of WW try to be a bit more sensitive toward other businesses they choose to "promote" in future issues. Operating a small business is no easy task. The last thing we all need is help of the type proffered by the likes of Mr. Schwartz. Scott Kuzma Owner, Everyday Music Tabloid Rhetoric Chris Lydgate's story about Marcia Hood-Brown [WW, May 26, 1999] is sad, vaguely pathetic and in need of an objective edit. First, Ms. Hood-Brown's death did not "reverberate" through Portland like a thunderbolt. Ms. Hood-Brown obviously was intelligent, well liked and respected. But she apparently toiled in the relative obscurity suffered by many academics, most of whom do not succumb to base, foolish and destructive temptation. Moreover, she seemingly slid into irretrievable addiction rather slowly and somewhat willfully. Why else did she avoid professional help? Second, I am not sure her death can be categorized as "an extraordinary tragedy." Death from prolonged heroin use is quite predictable, not extraordinary. In addition, "tragedy" ordinarily implies death by unauthorized violence, not willful self-harm. Thus, while her death could be called an extraordinary waste or extraordinarily foolish, inexplicable, sad or frustrating, calling it an extraordinary tragedy is unnecessarily self-important and dramatic. I don't intend to demean Ms. Hood-Brown's accomplishments or the love of her friends and family. Instead, I question the story's overheated rhetoric. Ms. Hood-Brown's actions were extremely foolish and cannot be justified by the ordinary pressures of life. And I am willing to pontificate that many people in my age group (30-45) seem unprepared to handle the restrictions of an adult existence. I can't help but wonder whether Ms. Hood-Brown simply didn't want to accept her adulthood, willingly risking her life to preserve the fantasy of continued, responsibility-free youth. Stephen J. Brooks Northeast 25th Avenue Off the Track I must take exception to one of the comments made in Bob Young's "Politics" article titled "Atlas Shrugs" [WW, May 26, 1999], about the proposed south-north light-rail line. The article states that "In 1995, rail advocates were pushing for a 21-mile line from Clackamas County in Oregon to Clark County in Washington." This proposed line was being promoted by area land developers, not by area rail transit advocates. In fact, you will find that the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates has issued statements in the Voters' Pamphlet against pretty much all of the proposed bond measures for these lines. The proposed line to Clackamas would have increased transit times from Portland to Clackamas to 20 minutes longer than it takes today by bus. It would have been built on a 1Ž4-mile long cloverleaf construction that would have encircled the northern end of downtown Milwaukie for no particular reason and passed through a number of light residential areas where land buying costs and impact to surrounding areas were extremely high and potential traffic very low. When a light-rail line is placed, ridership on existing bus services can be used to predict how much (or little) ridership a line will have. Successful bus routes can be turned into successful light-rail routes, but it is difficult to make successful transit where there isn't any demand for even a bus service. This light-rail line was to be built along the route of Tri-Met's "Milwaukie Industrial Shuttle," a bus route that didn't even have a number on it until 1993. Before then the route only operated on an "as needed" basis, and passengers had to call one hour beforehand to inform Tri-Met that they needed to operate the bus. They are now starting to build a little more traffic for the route, and demand has increased somewhat, but nothing along the levels that would demonstrate a necessity for a light-rail line. It is therefore difficult for me to imagine any "light-rail advocate," even someone who would normally support even the most marginal of light-rail projects, such as myself, to support the light-rail proposal that was made. Glenn Laubaugh Jenning's Lodge Apology In Order As a card-carrying liberal who believes that freedom of the press trumps the right to be free of tasteless media drivel, I have ignored a steady stream of easy opinion, shallow editorializing and proto-populist pandering, such as is evidenced in your paper. Now, however, I must protest. In a recent Winners and Losers column [June 2, 1999] you pilloried a man who has been a progressive force in our country and our culture, stringing him up for an easy laugh and comparing him to an incompetent clown. I refer, of course, to your comparison of Bill Gates to Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee Herman--the Safe-Sex Poster Child of 1991; the man who introduced Laurence Fishburne to popular media; the man who brought claymation back from the slag heap of the filmed arts. How you could mention his name in the same sentence as that zillionaire zit of the evil empire is completely beyond me. Honestly. Do you have nothing more worthwhile to print than scabrous slime defaming the innocent and good, all for the entertainment of the dull-witted? I shall see to it that even my parakeet will be spared having to suffer your paper's ignominies if you do not print a retraction instantly. Timo Forsberg Northeast 76th Avenue Portland Loses Big Time Your Scoreboard on June 9 implied Portland was a winner over AT&T in Judge Panner's decision on open cable access. In fact, Portland residents are the big losers in this case. If the ruling stands, AT&T has indicated that it will not invest in upgrading Portland cable lines, routers, amplifiers and switching stations to support broadband Internet access. This essentially shuts out all ISPs from access, not just AT&T's @HOME service, and condemns Portland residents to the World-Wide-Wait as we watch our neighbors in Washington County, Seattle and every city in this nation surf the Internet at speeds up to 100 times faster. In their political desire to appear as our Davids fighting Goliath, Erik Sten and other local officials' unprecedented insistence on an open cable policy has prevented Portland from participating in this technological revolution. Their misguided decisions have cost Portland hundreds of jobs for local developers, technicians, installers and suppliers for this technology and millions of dollars in infrastructural development. Federal regulators and other municipalities realize the benefits of these new technologies and have opted not to restrict their deployment. Multnomah County stands alone with this excessive regulatory action, and its residents have become the losers. Mr. Sten stated that his decision to support open cable access was a "no-brainer." I couldn't have said it better myself. Vince Coghlan Southwest Periander Street No Choice Do you really believe that you can compare the choice of unmarried heteros to the denial of rights to homo couples ["Same-Sex Marriage," WW, June 9, 1999]? Are you concerned that there will be a massive line of straight boys trying to marry their straight buddies just for the benefits bogging down our judicial system? The whole point and monumental importance of the Tanner decision is that homo couples are not even given the option of providing basic medical care for their partners, and hetero couples have this right. They can even apply for common-law marriage if they do not want to officially marry. Homo couples do not even have the option to choose whether to marry or not marry, so the only way to get benefits for our partners is to register as a domestic partnership. As a queer and an OPEU member, I deem this right granted to me of utmost importance. OPEU voted recently to include domestic partnership language in all future negotiated contracts. So the upcoming ballot measure is a direct attack not only on queer rights, but union rights as well. I ask you this: Why do you find domestic-partner benefits so threatening? What the fuck difference does it make if marriage is meaningless? Marriage is in fact a misogynist, outdated property deed granted to men to show ownership over women. It is a step in the right direction if domestic-partner benefits do render your outdated concept of "marriage" obsolete. It would be about time. Eve Lyons Northwest Everett Street - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published June 23, 1999