Because We Fear Them
Why hast thou forsaken us? We were dismayed to not see The Hellbender Press, East Tennessee's Environmental Journal, included in the media section of the 2003 Annual Manual. We have been included the past couple years, but for some reason, we were nowhere to be seen this year. This oversight does a disservice to the dozens of readers, writers, volunteers, and advertisers who have faithfully supported us over the past four years. We are very much alive, and recently increased our publication frequency, which makes the omission even harder to understand.
We appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight.
Thomas Fraser
Rikki Hall
Mike Knapp
Rick Vaughan
Publishers, The Hellbender Press
Editor's note: There's a lot of stuff in the Annual Manual. That's our lame excuse for the fact that we have also been scolded for not listing literary organizations such as the Knoxville Writers' Guild, the Tennessee Mountain Writers, and the Knoxville Writers Group. Also, our map of downtown Knoxville wrongly called the downtown Marriott Hotel the Hyatt Hotel. As you can tell from this week's cover story, we know it's called the Marriott; we just forgot to update that part of the map.
Practice, Don't Preach
Other than the declaration, "I'll never again look at Metro Pulse," I agree with the letter writers in the Jan. 2 issue that were responding to Attica Scott's Color Conscious column in the Dec. 19 issue.
Racial divisions will never be solved through pontifications from self-absorbed pundits or self-serving politicians. Racial equality can only be achieved on a person-to-person basis. We start with ourselves and we teach our children. We practice, daily and without fanfare, not preach.
Slavery cannot be undone. American Indians will never be fairly compensated for their catastrophic losses. Americans of Oriental descent cannot regain lost freedom from forced labor or World War II camps. This list is endless.
We must not forget the past, yet we must live in the present and work for a better future.
As for Ms. Scott's research, I know of two cross burnings in East Tennessee in the past year, in the yard of the black mayor of Newport and in the yard of a white public defender in Claiborne County who was representing a white person.
Brian Caraway
Maryville
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