Author: rakemag

“Wigger” is just another stereotype put upon a certain group of people to criticize who they are [“Has Your Shizzle Gone Fazizzle?,” January]. Ethnicity doesn’t greatly affect personality. It is mostly a person’s environment that influences their behavior. One should feel free to be him or herself without worrying if they are acting like everyone else in their own racial category. America categorizes people who act similarly, and makes a smaller category for those who are considered out-of-the-ordinary. As long as your true character shows, race doesn’t matter. I do agree with the article about this: If you’re going to use Ebonics, at least know what they mean. I get tired of whites exaggerating in their attempts to mimic black culture.
Caitlin Rolf, Minneapolis

As both a feminist and a longtime admirer of Robert Bly’s work, I find myself wanting to respond to your excellent, in-depth article [“The Dude Abides,” January]. Not so long ago I ran into one of Bly’s “woodsy drummers,” who expressed amazement that I didn’t find anything wrong with what he was doing. Unless Bly and his drummers are propounding things I haven’t heard of yet (or clandestinely burning women at the stake), I fully support his movement. What’s wrong with men recognizing that there’s something wrong with men in this society, and trying to make themselves more whole? We have—statistically—one of the more violent countries in the world, and more than ninety percent of our violent crimes are committed by men. Something is very wrong here. Like many women I know, I’m tired of trying to teach men how to become human. If they want to do it themselves, I for one am all for it. (Yes, of course I’m speaking in generalities; I know there are also very well-balanced men…on occasion.) When we relegate emotional and cultural work to females, both sexes lose out. Having said that, I would also like to note that many of the early alarmist responses by feminists are also understandable. They were justifiably afraid of the directions this idea might go; groups like the Promise Keepers and the “white men’s rights” bunch bear out their concerns. But that is certainly not the fault of Robert Bly or his movement. As for you, Mr. Bly: Please keep on drumming, dancing, dreaming, writing, and working the clay of those archetypes.
Gail Cerridwen, Anoka

I grew up in Madison, Minnesota. My school bus downshifted on the gravel road right in front of Robert Bly’s familial home every day for nearly twelve years. That area is my home and my people. I know them and I miss them. And far from what you imagine, they have plenty of “intellectual musings.” Far more than any genius found at Harvard or Princeton. Most of those folks don’t need to contemplate anything any further than the end of their own grass and the gravel-covered driveway. They “get” life. They just understand it without having to go to the farthest ends of the Earth looking for some way to explain it all. They just know it because they just do. Just because Bly didn’t fit in isn’t the fault of anyone out there. Those pointy-headed intellectuals who feel they think “differently” delude themselves into thinking they are the bright ones. Every day, farm folks live their lives with just as much generosity, strength, savvy, and grace as you will see anywhere else you’d care to look. Those folks have more horse sense than all the intellectuals on Lowry Hill rolled into an oatstraw bale. Never underestimate the intellect of a farmer.
Sue Connor Mills, Carver

About the book Bly published of Neruda translations in the mid-sixties, author Jon Zurn quotes Bly as saying “I think that was the first time he’d been published in the U.S.” That’s not so. The first Neruda poems in English that were published in a book in the U.S. seem to have been in Three Spanish American poets: Pellicer, Neruda [and] Andrade (Albuquerque, Sage Books 1942). But subsequent editions devoted solely to English translations of Neruda’s writings were issued by the estimable New Directions in 1946, New York-based Masses & Mainstream in 1950, Grove Press in 1961, and City Lights in 1962.
Chris Dodge
Utne magazine librarian
Minneapolis

I will share Clinton Collins’ outrage over the alleged disproportionate amount of coverage given to the Dru Sjodin abduction if he can provide the name of a young female university student of color who was abducted from the parking lot of her part-time employer in Minnesota/North Dakota. Does the fact that I can’t think of a single incident prove Collins’s point, or have there simply not been similar cases? The claim that there is an increase in the uproar over this crime because the suspect has “swarthy” skin color is ridiculous. What concerns many people is that our criminal justice system allowed an untreated convicted violent sexual predator to commit another crime by not providing for indefinite incarceration. Finally, Clarence Thomas was not a competent candidate for the high position to which he was eventually confirmed. His incompetency had nothing to do with his race but rather with his lack of demonstrated experience and intellectual depth. If those who objected to his confirmation had broached these matters, they would certainly have been accused of racism. The allegations of sexual impropriety were made by a black woman who was consequently crucified through unfair and untrue allegations by the right wing proponents of Thomas’s confirmation. Does Collins have a concern about the racist condemnation of Professor Hill?
J.M. Workman, St. Paul

I read with gratitude Joe Pastoor’s recent article “All Shook Down: Is ASCAP kneecapping your corner coffee shop?”[November]. As one of those interviewed for the article, I offer these observations. BMI spokesman Jerry Bailey is not correct when he says that “if a business owner is not playing BMI music, he/she has nothing to worry about.” For fifteen years I have scrupulously avoided singing “cover tunes” (songs written and copyrighted by others) solely because of copyright considerations. And yet I lost a steady job as the only musician at Schemmy’s Restaurant in Rhinebeck, New York, after the owners received a series of threatening letters from BMI. Despite several communications on my part, BMI refused to concede my right to play my own songs copyrighted in my own name, and traditional folk songs in the public domain, anywhere I want to, whether or not the venue has a performance license from BMI. “We’re not going to give you that,” said Craig Stamm, director of general licensing for BMI. Ultimately, the U.S. Copyright Office ruled in my favor on both counts. But, as Pastoor notes, by then I had lost the gig. Schemmy’s Restaurant decided not to have live music or even play CDs, rather than face a protracted battle with an unrepentant BMI. The net result is indeed that there are fewer places for artists to get started. Laurie Hughes of ASCAP denies this by saying,“If a club is playing all original music, they don’t need a license. Copyright holders don’t need permission to play their own works.” This is true, of course—but I had to wage a seven-month battle with BMI to secure this right for all songwriters across the country. BMI had attempted to extort royalties from my employers for my performance of my songs, and of my arrangements of the traditional songs of my ancestors. I believe BMI essentially thought they could obtain royalties for my music, even though I have never joined BMI. They cannot. This is America. We have the right to remain independent.
Richard Hayes Phillips, Canton, NY