Author: rakemag

If you had any clue at all about Aron Ralston, you would know that you are the dope for writing such a rude article [Motley Krüse, June]. Aron is a nature lover. Whoever told you he quit his job because of a movie is full of it. He quit his job because he was tired of the corporate world. He wanted to make a career of being a guide. He studied hard, he climbed hard, and luckily he lived to tell about it. If you knew anything about climbing, you would know that what he did, with the exception of not leaving an itinerary, was the norm. By the way, he did have a rope. This climb was kindergarten stuff to him. Fate stepped in, and, as they say, shit happens. Aron is one of the brightest and most responsible people I know, and I really resent the crap you wrote about him.
Sandy Sciota
Rio Rancho, NM

Your article was worth no more than drunken smack talk coming from a table with four empty pitchers at the C.C. Club on a Friday night. You compared Aron to Evel Knievel and the guys from Jackass. Tell me how hiking a trail in the mountains is like jumping the Snake River Canyon on a dirt bike, or standing in an outhouse that is being turned upside down? How do you know he is a thrill seeker? Your ideas on insurance premiums are also a bit inflated. If you had actually done any research at all, you would have found it’s the people who don’t get enough physical activity that have all the health problems. Heart disease and diabetes are at alarming rates because of this. It is inactivity that causes people to be overweight and unhealthy, and to drive up health insurance premiums. I’m a climber, hiker, and cyclist. In my entire life of 35 years, I’ve been to the doctor about seven times for things outside of regular checkups. In the last seven years, I’ve been there twice. Tell me how I am driving up your insurance premiums. How many times have you been to the doctor in the last seven years? Here are the facts: Aron could have left an itinerary. Aron is an experienced hiker and climber on familiar terrain. Aron was pinned down by an 800-pound boulder when he was hiking on a designated trail and found himself in the unfortunate position of having to make a decision that you and I simply cannot comprehend.
Shawn Jeppesen
Robbinsdale

“Dirty Dancing” by Sarah Luck Pearson [June] presents a very one-sided view of the people who are impacted by strip clubs. For the past ten years, through my work at an organization called Adults Saving Kids, I have learned a side of stripping that most people never hear about and is seldom expressed in the mainstream media. I carry with me the stories of many different kinds of people: There are the women who have survived the drug abuse, harassment, and prostitution and who are sad for the women they know who are still trapped in stripping. There are the women whose pimps shipped them around the country to various strip clubs and consigned them, like some tradable commodity, to club owners and their customers. There are the men who are recovering from sexual addiction who have spent thousands of dollars on their strip-club fantasies, only to lose those they really loved. There is the former strip-club manager who clearly articulates the manipulation and deceit that goes on at the strip clubs, and lives and struggles with the fact that he helped destroy lives. There are the devastated parents and siblings of young women whose lives and careers got derailed because of being manipulated into stripping and from there into prostitution. There are the women who work downtown who feel the harassment from their male co-workers who have just returned from a business lunch at a strip club. There is the child who was left in the car in the parking lot for several hours while daddy was inside the strip club living out his fantasy. Fortunately, all of their stories are also protected by the First Amendment. Unfortunately, most folks do not hear these stories because strip clubs and other sexually oriented businesses dominate the media with claims of their First Amendment rights being attacked. It seems that if we are really concerned about protecting First Amendment rights, we first need to give a voice to those people who have been silenced, damaged, and destroyed by “harmless” activities at strip clubs. Once we have a complete and balanced picture of what’s really going on, each of us can judge for ourselves whose rights are being violated.
Amy Hartman
St. Paul

Regarding “Dirty Dancing” [June], Richard Jacobsen is a savvy and genius businessman. People dislike him because “whining” is out; creating a science and business out of a morally controversial profession is in. His businesses are tightly run in comparison to other clubs in the industry. Correction: Gentlemen’s clubs DO NOT sell sex, they “sell” fantasies. Bottom line: Exotic dance clubs are legal. It’s about supply and demand. It’s about people supporting themselves and their children. After reading this article, I feel compelled to run into the nearest strip joint and yell, “Quit your job and go on welfare!” I’ll take you inside the mind of an exotic dancer: The number one most popular comment made by patron of the clubs, “If I were a woman, I’d do it.” The number two most frequently heard comment, “If you are as intelligent as you say, why are you here [at the club]?” I don’t struggle with this question anymore. I want to know, “Why DOES a talented, educated, good-looking and intelligent woman need to dance to survive?”
Name Withheld By Request

Thank you, O Rake, for daring to treat the current disassembling piece-by-piece of the place where I used to live with just a dash of humor. Why not? I used to live in a state whose schools were considered second only to California’s (but that’s another story), whose voters participated in elections at a higher rate than the national average and chose leaders respected far and wide for their depth, humanity, courage, and intelligence. Bars closed a tad earlier and we paid a bit more in taxes than many other places, but we enjoyed a quality of life others envied. Progressive political and social ideals were realized by an energetic partnership among enlightened business, non-profit groups, and educational entities both public and private. Without moving, I now live in a state where poor children have been newly denied health insurance; the government wedges itself more and more into one of the most private and painful areas of people’s lives, the decision whether to have an abortion; discrimination on some bases is newly protected; class sizes in the schools are forced up while teachers are forced out; programs for youth are defunded, police and social services are cut back; and on and on. My governor smugly crows that my taxes have not been raised. Not only would I gladly pay more for a better state of affairs; his claim isn’t even true. I’ll be paying plenty more in local taxes and fees, as regions, cities, districts, and counties struggle to cope with the mess we have been handed. And the guns… oh, God. So why not add a little levity to this ugly situation? As the governor has said, the sky is not falling — only people, hope, and our standard of living are falling. Thanks for the poster.
Jo Devlin
Minneapolis

In his little piece [“Bullet Points,” June], Oliver Tuanis closes by saying, “Presumably, the state will be around sometime later to sign you up for the ‘well regulated’ militia.” Mr. Tuanis may be surprised to know that he’s probably already “signed up,” as are a lot of your readers. According to the United States Code, 10USC311(a), “The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.” Recent laws and court decisions would probably mean that membership actually extends to all women, not just National Guard members. So, there’s no need to wait for anybody to come around to sign you up. Pretty neat, don’t you think?
Robert Hyman
St. Paul

What if a violent criminal, heavily armed, came into a place of business with one of those posters on the door [Centerfold, June]? Knowing that there was no one else armed, he/she would have full authority to rob, rape, or murder any/all in the place. What is the harm in letting responsible citizens trying to legally protect themselves? As a Minnesotan transplanted to Florida, I was uncomfortable with Florida’s carry laws when I first moved down. After living here for the first year I realized that self-protection is a right, not a privilege. Florida has very strict laws against the misuse of firearms. This instills the huge responsibility of carrying a weapon on you, in your car, or having one in your home, and it is not taken lightly. There are guns everywhere here, and you never see or hear them. Every one knows this, including the criminals. The crime rate has been so drastically reduced by Florida’s carry law that other states have patterned their own laws after it, now including Minnesota. Finally, the picture of an AK-47 held by a “traditional looking housewife” (which alludes to some nostalgic sexism) pointed at the viewer is a purposeful scare tactic by its author, and reeks of anti-gun liberalism. You take that same liberal, have him beaten, robbed, raped, or worse by some violent criminal and I bet he/she joins the NRA the day they are released from the hospital if he/she lives.
E.V. Sandberg
Naples, Florida

Your poster for banning concealed carry guns is a little confusing. The cute, dramatic picture has nothing to do with the MPPA law that was recently passed. There is no way that the firearm in the picture could be concealed. The main thing that upsets me is the anti-gun groups’ apparent need to appeal to the masses on an emotional level, rather than a factual, logical level. I firmly believe that your emotional sensationalism will soon be realized by the majority of the citizens of Minnesota, and eventually they search for the truth on their own, rather than blindly believe what the high-profile media feeds us.
Jeff Hanson
Eagan

I feel the need to speak out for those of us who do not feel threatened by the prospect of law abiding citizens carrying weapons. I am not afraid of being blasted out of my seat in church by another permit-carrying parishoner because I know that in the 34 other states that have similar laws on the books, not one incident has ever been recorded of a lawfully permitted carrier shooting another citizen. On the contrary, there are several incidents on record of permitted carriers actually helping out police in high risk situations. These incidents prove that we can trust which side of the law permitted carriers are on. The right side!
Carol Ann Ince
Minneapolis

Oliver Tuanis responds: Your claim that “not one incident has ever been recorded of a lawfully permitted carrier shooting another citizen” is so easily rebutted that it seems a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. A one-minute Internet search reveals that The Texas Department of Public Safety documented more than 5,300 arrests of permit holders between 1996 and 2001, including 41 for murder or attempted murder, 79 for rape or sexual assault, and 279 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

I’m sorry, but I have to strongly disagree with the Rev. Rahelio Soleil’s point of view on the result of last November’s election [Letters, June]. Minnesota did not get it done to us. We did not get mugged. Yes, the Republican party spent lots of money and hauled in the heavy artillery to shill for their candidates, but the state has a Republican governor and a senator who could match Bill Clinton in indiscretions because people who wanted different government didn’t vote and didn’t get out the vote. As Clinton Collins Jr. says in the same issue, “You gain nothing by blaming… whoever, for giving you crap… you have no one to blame but yourself if you take it.”
Ellen Blakeley
Minneapolis