Talk about sore losers! Patricia Calhoun needs to get over herself: The Broncos got their new stadium fair and square ("Let Us Pray," November 5). Just because Calhoun is out of step with the majority of Denver-area voters (what a surprise!), she wants to play the spoiler.
Who put her in such a bad mood? I think she wishes Westword was a legitimate media outlet, like the dailies and TV stations that she makes fun of. I'll bet she would have jumped at the chance to interview John and Janet Elway.
The Broncos won. Deal with it.
Harry Garcia
Denver
Workers! Off your knees!
The wealthy capitalist upper class has two goals: to make money and to keep the people under control. The more they control the people, the more money they make. Therefore, they want to control you, your family, your community, schools and churches. They want to control what you read, what you see and hear, who you associate with and how you vote. They want to keep you passive, distracted, marginalized, obedient and sitting quietly in front of the TV while product advertisements are drilled into your mind.
The capitalist elite does not want you to know that they already control the U.S. presidency, the Republican and Democratic parties, the mass media, the military, the courts, the stock market, most private property, all the major corporations and 70 percent of the national wealth. They want you to be educated into the doctrines that will serve the interests of private power, to believe that your life will be a miserable failure if you do not kiss up to power, that you will have no home, no family, no career, no football team.
The rich upper class needs to keep people fragmented and divided. They want whites fighting with blacks, men fighting with women, employed fighting with unemployed. Keep the pot stirred. Keep the tension level up. Keep the people off balance. Divide, conquer, control!
From the standpoint of the capitalist elite, you're just a slave put here to work for them, to be used by them. You do everything and they have everything. Without you, the rich are just another ordinary group of poor people. But with your servitude, they become the industrialists, the patrons of the arts, rulers of the country.
Had enough?
John Cassella
Denver
This morning I heard an excerpt from Pat Bowlen's thank-you speech, which confirmed--for me, anyway--that Bronco fans are brain-dead and do not mind being used, insulted and put down. We've done everything but bend over and grease ourselves for him, and "it has just increased the liveability of Denver." I suppose I should be happy that at least one person in the news isn't singing Denver's praises to the sky.
Something no one has addressed is, when the stadium overruns projected costs, who is going to pay? (As if I didn't know.) So thanks again, Broncos fans--so glad you have extra money that you don't mind or miss the extra penny per $10 for taxes.
P.S.: Regarding Jesus of the Week. Of course God--if there is one--has a sense of humor. Do you know of any other shepherd who would leave his flock unguarded?
Ronda Lietz
via the Internet
Vailed Threats
Eric Dexheimer's November 5 story, "Pour VAIL," illustrated once again how the legal system lets multi-million-dollar corporations run amok putting exclusive rights to words out of the dictionary to the point where they can use them for monetary gain by screwing anyone who may use them even without malicious intent. The Vail legal team probably has a long list of who's next.
Let's see--where might they go looking for their next victims? Where might they go looking for businesses that use any of the words they think they own?
Perhaps: Beaver and Beaver Creek, Alaska; Vail, Arizona; Beaver, Arkansas; Vail, Iowa; Beaver Creek, Kansas; Beaver Dam, Kentucky; Beaver City, Beaver Creek and Beaver Crossing, Nebraska; Beaver Creek Fork, Nevada; Beaver Brook, New Hampshire; Beaver Brook, New Jersey; Beaver River, New York; two Beaver Creeks and a Beaver Lake in North Dakota; Beaverdam, Ohio; Beaver County, Beaver, Beaver Creek and Beaver River, Oklahoma; Beaver, BeaverCreek and Beaverton, Oregon; Beaver County, Beaver, Beaverdale, Beaver Falls, Beaver Meadows and the Beaver River, Pennsylvania; Beaverton, Beaver Island and Beaver Lake, Michigan; Beaver Bay and Beaver Creek, Minnesota; Beaver Creek, South Dakota; Beaver County, Beaver, Beaver Mountains, Beaver River and Beaver Dam Wash, Utah; Beaver, West Virginia; Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; and two Beaver Creeks in Wyoming.
After they finish their hunt for any and all Beaver and Vail permutations in those areas of the U.S., they can then work on the Avons, Keystones and Breckenridges--maybe even try to extend their legal reaches to the 25 countries in which they sought registration of the words they believe they own. Canada has a lot of Beavers, too. Though we're not talking about the fairer sex, there could even be various clubs that may use the nomenclature.
It's pretty sad that the VAIL corporations do not feel that the services they offer have enough merit to support their business ventures financially and that they have to resort to basic legal harassment tactics to finance their operations and make their shareholders happy while seeking sympathy from the populace and the judges. It's more than sad--it's sickening!
Cal Anton
Redondo Beach, CA
I recall a quote: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." C'mon, Vail and Associates, you can preVAIL in Vail without hacking down more trees, scraping more ski runs. And this on top of copyrighting such rare terms as "Beaver" and "Keystone." (You might want to check with the State of Pennsylvania with regard to the latter.)
How big do you want to be? If your stockholders demand it, go buy another existing resort somewhere. I seriously doubt your lifestyles will suffer if you do not invest in creating another "bowl" in the now-aVAILable mountainside ceded to you by the courts. You guys keep doing this stuff and you're really going to piss off a lot of Coloradans--both skiers and non-skiers.
You need to lighten up. Enjoy what you have now. Put on your skis and go up and just look around and observe your surroundings. You are living in such a magnificent environment, one that has been there for so long and is in balance with itself. Don't screw it up anymore. Please.
Bill Richey
via the Internet
Greed Kills
While I found Stuart Steers's October 15 "Dying for Dollars" very interesting, I found the letters in the following week's Westword even more so. There is no issue today that causes more heartbreak than trying to cope with our aging parents. Unfortunately, there is apparently no business that lures as many greedy entrepreneurs.
Why doesn't Leon Black just stick with Vail and leave our parents to someone who cares? Grieving families don't need a Wall Street snow job.
Rachel Robinson
via the Internet
How many of us senior citizens have lost all hope of fulfillment in this life or the next and are just waiting around for the Grim Reaper to throw dirt in our face? I know many of us are physically disabled and are extremely limited as to what we can do, but we still have our intellect and free will. The horrendous shape of the world today desperately needs our input. All of us can at least pray to make this a better place. We can become involved in our society and government in numerous ways. Write letters to the editor, run for elected office, contribute something to those who are worse off than yourself, and stop being leaners in life by becoming lifters. Go out in a blaze of glory, not as a smoldering wick.
Euchlich McKenna
Reisterstown, MD
C'mon, Get Happy
I find something to be happy about in Happiness (Bill Gallo's "Only the Lonely," October 22). Todd Solondz's controversial new film has been shunned by some because of Dylan Baker's character, Bill, who turns out to be a pedophile. I don't think that the film either redeems his character or makes him a heartless monster. Rather, it humanizes his character and gives us the opportunity to look at the many aspects of a sexual predator. When I walked out of Happiness, I did not feel one drop of empathy for Bill the rapist.
Just like Bill's wife in the film, who talks about a criminal who should be locked up and have the key thrown away, the adversaries of this film would like to turn a blind eye to Bill's human aspects. It seems that some people think that by showing the workings of the sexual predator's life, the film is giving a seal of approval to Bill's criminal activities. Happiness is not about Bill the pedophile. It is an honest, sometimes humorous look into one family and the people in their lives.
This film is the most refreshing I have seen in years. Todd Solondz has provided us with a realistic yet entertaining look into the crazy, unpredictable world that we know as the Nineties.
Charles E. Roberts
via the Internet
The Seeds of Evil
In her review of Apt Pupil ("Hearts of Darkness," October 22), Jean Oppenheimer writes, "Unfortunately, the film has one glaring defect: the character of Todd. It is never established whether the boy is corrupted by exposure to Dussander or whether he is just a bad seed innately capable of barbarous acts and, thus, attracted to Dussander."
On the contrary, I find this objection a glaring defect in an otherwise excellent review. The atrocities that roughly an entire nation was inveigled into committing in the '30s and '40s are sad facts. But other than rare chromosomal defects that correlate with criminality, no one knows whether there is such a thing as a bad seed in some, or whether we are born little angels and would remain such but for environmental influences. If we still can't answer definitively one of the most perplexing questions that has ever engaged the human mind, why should it be up to this film to premise itself on one particular theory?
What has been called Christianity's most empirically verifiable doctrine holds that the potential for evil resides in everyone. If there is a "bad seed," it is scattered far and wide in the human heart, and literature such as Lord of the Flies illustrates its growth. I see Apt Pupil in the same vein. Here we have two characters capable of both good and evil who deliberately nurture the evil in each other. The unusual feature of the story is that one of the characters is new to the game, whereas the other is an old hand at it. Minus the unusual feature, we have, alas, something that happens every day in almost every schoolyard in the country. To posit either an unusual "bad seed" or an unusually bad environment to explain Kurt and Todd is a copout, and it is one the film avoids. It is too bad that some critics refuse to do so so unblinkingly.
Paul Emmons
via the Internet
Go to the Devil
The Murder City Crybabies? Brad Jones could not have missed the point more with his October 29 review of the Murder City Devils' new release, Empty Bottles Broken Hearts. Where Brad heard "whining," I heard "a preacher's mouth and a rock-and-roll heart" in Spencer Moody and the MCDs. What Brad missed is that this album covers all aspects of life--going after what you want, doing what you love regardless of cost and dealing with everything, good and bad, that results. And what makes this album brilliant is the MCDs' signature "telling it like it is." The intensity and passion soar throughout, whether the emotion is conquering the world or deciding to "fuck it all," to lie in a dark corner in the fetal position for eternity. Whereas some people escape in the sunshine, lollipops and rainbow type of music (Denver seems to embrace the bowl-smoking, dreaded, neo-hippie, "everything's groooovy" type), there are still some of us who look for a soundtrack of life--and the MCDs provide just that. Not an escape, but a complement to reality.
So turn those Monkees up high, Brad. Put them on repeat, but next time, save the good stuff for someone who gets it.
Traci Hill
via the Internet
Dazed and Confused
I found Kyle Wagner's ultra-negative October 29 review of Heavenly Daze, "Paradise Lost," both disturbing and amusing. Heavenly Daze customers love our extra-large portions, the innovative decor and our very friendly atmosphere. I was surprised Kyle took such a disastrous tone on us. I realize Kyle has to be impartial, but it would have been nice for her to mention that a former meat-packing plant, which sat empty for five years in an area sadly in need of a shot in the arm, was transformed into a thriving establishment.
But Kyle will not get me depressed, because there are far more important matters than her nitpicky reviews. World hunger? What about a million people who would fight to eat a calzone with slightly undercooked onions? Maybe she really loves us, and this is her way to motivate and inspire us to serve perfect food 100 percent of the time. If that's the case, it worked, as we are dedicated to make sure our food is the best it can be, all the time.
No pun intended, but I think Kyle likes to stir up the pot. Our customers found it amusing that the review dedicated a full page to poking fun at our food and decor, despite the fact that we advertise weekly in Westword. A half a page would have sufficed, thank you.
Jerry Miller, marketing director
Heavenly Daze Bar and Restaurant
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