Author: rakemag

Thanks very much for the wonderful story about Sami Rasouli’s return to Iraq [February]. So much of the media coverage concerns itself with politics, or even with the gruesomeness of war. I find myself increasingly interested in Arab and Muslim culture. It’s as if the news media’s efforts to sanitize the story, or make it a typical geopolitical story, have made me more curious than ever about what real people are doing and saying on the streets of Iraq, what life must really be like there, irrespective of any agenda related to either re-electing or defeating George W. Bush. The fact of the matter is that the world does not revolve around the U.S., and as hard as that lesson seems to be for us to learn, there’s going to be a lot more American blood spilled before it’s all over, I’m afraid. It’s not about us. Your story put a wonderful, human face on this terrible war-torn world.
Ben Levin,
New York

Maybe the reason Dru got so much attention is because her white family and friends were right there to search, hold fund-raisers, and publicize her story. What did you do the last time one of your black sisters were in trouble? Did you pass out posters? Did you go to the media then, when you weren’t the center of attention as in your column? Or do you only write when the article is accompanied with your picture? Did you climb the countryside looking for her? Did you organize fund-raisers to help prolong the search privately when the military ended their commitment? If you answered no to these questions, maybe you should rethink what the problem really is.
Gerri Woodbeck,
Inver Grove Heights

I was heartened to read Mr. Collins’ column on the Dru Sjodin phenomenon [Free the Jackson Five!, January]. I share his concern for the inequitable distribution of compassion by citizens, leaders, and media alike. That is why I spend a whole day in a vigil fast every time someone, no matter what color, is killed in my community. So many lives have been taken in the poor and brown communities of America and so much indifference has followed. It is time for us all to recognize the predictable and conditioned disparity in responses of passion and apathy we express when lives are lost. And it is time for us to pledge to resist those prejudicial urges and respond to the quiet, more humane, pleadings of our ailing consciences and our rational minds. The call is for an evenhanded disbursement of value. It requires a deliberate and willful changing of our behavior. Whether or not we feel like it, we must consider and mourn all equally.
Don Samuels,
Minneapolis City Council Member,
Third Ward

I am writing in regard to Peter Christensen’s letter to the editor regarding whether married men should go to strip clubs [Letters, January]. I agree that the human body is a thing of beauty. But what about male nudity? It seems that it is always about women. Are men not comfortable with baring their bodies? Men have gorgeous bodies, and I personally would like to see more of them. Christensen writes “you don’t see men decrying the ‘exploitation’ of male dancers who strut their goods…” Where are these male strip clubs? I can’t find them anywhere. There are tons of commercials, TV shows, magazines, and movies exposing women’s bodies, but what about the men? I remember a couple of TV commercials advertising men’s underwear, and the male models were dancing seductively. But the commercials were pulled immediately because it was too shocking to show men in revealing clothing. Give me a break. What about the controversy surrounding Abercrombie & Fitch? They have the only catalog I know of that features naked men as well as naked women. But it was pulled because of the backlash. If it was just another catalog with naked women, no one would have blinked. Yes, nudity is a thing of beauty. So let’s drop the puritan attitude about men’s bodies and start showing them as well.
Name withheld by request

Brian Beatty’s review of Mitch Hedberg and his new CD Mitch All Together [Over the Coals, February] is well-informed and credible. I am a big Hedberg fan and also felt that his first CD Strategic Grill Locations captured a too off-the-cuff performance that epitomized the “throw it all against the wall and see what sticks” cliché. I think the material on Mitch All Together is strong (though some of the best bits from the Acme shows I attended did not make it onto the disc), but I agree that the rushed pacing of the material is a disconnect with Hedberg’s historical stage manner and at times diminishes what is overall a solid effort. I still lobby my friends to see his excellent live shows every time he performs locally.
Kevin O’Keefe,
Minneapolis

Hear hear on the fleecing we cross-country skiers are now suffering at Three Rivers [“Getting Fleeced,” February]. It is a pain in the rear, but if it makes skiing better, I guess I can take it. Now we hear that the state DNR is cracking down on skiers as well, but you just have to ask why, when by their own admission the vast majority of skiers have state ski passes, and those who don’t are merely getting warnings? Anyway, I’d like to clarify that this issue is not with the city parks per se but what we used to consider the county parks out in the suburbs. Thanks to Mayor R.T. Rybak, among others, city parks are actually the same price they always were—free—and the quality and quantity of ski-trail grooming has gone way up. The City of Lakes Loppet was a great success, not just as a race but as an organizing and training device for city skiers, who were treated to a world-class course on which to train throughout the season—right here in our front yards. I, for one, am going to stop driving out to Bloomington and Elm Creek, not just in protest of the sky-high fee hikes, but in celebration of city skiing.
Tom Anderson,
Minneapolis