LETTERS

She-Mail
As a regular reader of Denver’s other daily newspaper, I was unaware that the Rocky Mountain News was socially and sexually insensitive. Unaware, that is, until I read Patricia Calhoun’s June 15 column, “Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room,” on the paper’s efforts to clean up its act.

I don’t believe that I have ever seen that much time and effort devoted to criticizing someone who admits they have a problem and makes a concerted effort to change. Give these folks a break. It takes time to alter those pre-existing attitudes, systems, experiences and cultural influences.

For business and social reasons, publisher Larry Strutton’s comments were well spoken. He recognized a problem and developed a plan to fix it. It’s unlikely any solution would be 100 percent successful given the size and scope of the issue. The News should be praised for making the effort.

Jeffrey C. Carleton
Englewood

In response to the letters about Patricia Calhoun’s column: What is it about women wielding congressional or editorial power that sets off Good Ol’ Boys faster than a kitty cat walking past a bored pack of dogs behind a suburban fence? After nearly 300 years of a male journalistic agenda in Anglo America, women are finally becoming gatekeepers in the U.S. media. According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 70 percent of all reporters, editors and photographers in this country are white males.

Can’t a gal rightly tell the truth just once without offending the delicate sensibilities of the ruling class?

D.A. Quintana
Boulder

X Marks the Spat
As a “victim” of the Seventies, I can’t help but respond to (whine about?) Michael Roberts’s condescending, albeit noncommittal, written evidence that he actually attended the Eagles and Pink Floyd concerts (“Sucking in the Seventies,” June 22).

Spare me the deadpan! What are you saying–without actually having to say it? Own up to it, Michael: You didn’t like the concerts. Just say it.

Your attempt at cynical put-down could not cover up the facts. For some reason you found it necessary to try to discredit these performances. Why? The fact that over the years these groups have made music that has inspired many people must have been lost on you. Also, the fact that to this day their music remains inspirational to many seems to bother you.

Maybe to you music is only what is happening at the moment, but to others of us, good music has enduring qualities. I won’t look for any insight from you as to what those qualities are, however. Several million people seem to understand–but you’re not one of them. Stick with reviewing the flash-in-a-pan groups. Maximize your talent.

Mark Nodine
Denver

I’m getting really tired of all this generation bashing in Westword. You boomers say over and over that Generation X is irresponsible and undisciplined and that we have no direction. We “whine too much, and have no morals, no values.”

Well, then, I say to you: You are what you’ve learned, and Generation X has learned all they could from their parents (yes, this means you, boomer). And if you’re not a parent of an X, this letter still applies to you. You’re just as responsible; they were your peers. You still bash Generation X every chance you get. I find this whole thing very amusing.

Boomers complain about violence, gangs, vandalism, etc. Well, you lit the fire, and now you’re bitching because it’s burning you. Quit your bitching; you seem to be good at that (you sure as hell weren’t good at raising a child). Too busy with your own life, too selfish to care for a child’s future, you solved the inconvenience of having to raise a child by setting him in front of a TV.

Just keep this in mind: Someday we’ll be the ones left to “take care” of you, and then you’ll see how important raising your children should have been (if you don’t already). Yes, when you’re sitting in “the home” watching TV alone, we’ll be too busy raising our children to be functional, positive, happy adults.

Somebody from nowhere