Hypocrisy in Print
As an adoptive and biological father of two, your Pregnant Prom Queen article on unmarried, teen mothers deftly avoided the most powerful preventive measure still available to the human family in controlling one's life choices—morals.
Yes, I know, we're supposed to be past all that in an enlightened society, but the ugly consequences just keep popping up all the same. How to explain? Ooooh, I've got it, it's a normal course of events for a certain percentage of the population who are no different than you or me who have made a determined effort to craft our lives into something altogether different. It just happened and no one is to blame. So how's that work in "real life"?
Well, the victimized "supportive" element in these situations have no choice—their youthful (read: immature, irresponsible, impulsive) family member has forced a new dimension of their "love" upon them. Parental love at that point is more a form of punishment for neglecting to teach cause-and-effect principles than garnering for themselves a blue ribbon for "being there" when they needed them.
In general, Metro Pulse subject matter too often reflects the self-indulgent whining of all age groups today who pay for their misery at their own expense. Do people really enjoy being so dim? (You don't really need to answer that...) Looking at your commercial content, there's plenty of dating-services ads that preamble the predictable outcome of such a sad tale, and immoral entertainment venues that respectable folks wish they could look straight in the face, and all that buoyed up with pathetic journalism that celebrates this glorious definition of health and happiness—such a well-rehearsed 3-act play of hypocrisy in print!
It's high time the self-righteous intelligentsia of Knoxville's literary society stand up for what is worth reading about—or own up to one maxim in life that won't be retiring soon—you get what you pay for. How many column-inches will that take to explain?
P.S. Kudos to Jack Neely for retaining my readership with genuinely insightful and entertaining subjects—I admire his ability to routinely deliver 10 minutes of public attention. Give him a raise and put him in the HR department to look for someone to write the other stuff too...
Brian Patterson
Knoxville
On Point
I read the New York Times and USA Today every day they are available, and I have a subscription to Time and Newsweek. I am a major fan of good writing, but I have never been moved to write a fan letter to a newspaper or magazine until I read Stephanie Piper's Midpoint column called "Mother Knows Best" in the May 8 issue of Metro Pulse.
Stephanie's observations were real, accurate, and not overly sentimentalized, which is not an easy proposition with a topic such as motherhood. She reminded me it is OK to be human; she made me feel proud to be a mother still slogging in the trenches; and she made me feel better about my prospects for being myself and "succeeding" in this my most important and personal role.
Thank you for providing a forum for good, thoughtful writing. And thanks for continuing to give Knoxville an alternative paper filled with in-depth articles, information not available elsewhere, and a truly "alternative" voice. Picking up the Pulse is what I look forward to on Thursdays!
Anna Montgomery
Knoxville
Books on Disc
I enjoyed Angie Vicars' comments [May 8, Yikes!] on the Knox County Public Library collection of talking books on compact disc. Lawson McGhee has a small (435 titles) but growing (30 titles/month) collection of fiction and nonfiction. A few branch libraries are also adding compact discs to their talking book collections.
With 70 percent of the collection checked out at any one time, the "one wall" location mentioned in the article has so far managed to hold our growing collection. Fortunately, the computer includes 100 percent of the titles, and it's possible to place holds on any of them and have them delivered to any of the library's 18 circulation locations.
Thank you and your staff for your continued interest in the library's audiovisual collections.
Dale Watermulder, manager
Audiovisual Services Division, Knox County Public Library System
| 
