|
‘Gorilla’ Feels for the Bijou
Jack Neely’s [June 24] assessment of The Bijou’s financial situation is right on the money. Producing theater in Knoxville can be a tough sell, and it seems clear that a financially viable Bijou organization should diversify its offerings to fill the 750-seat house more regularly. As Mr. Neely points out, music events might take precedence, since they are more flexible and monopolize the stage for days instead of weeks.
I suppose it’s natural to look to UT’s Clarence Brown Theatre under the circumstances. As the city’s theatrical “gorilla,” we feel it is our responsibility to reach out into the greater Knoxville community. In fact, CBT productions and personnel go off-campus frequently.�Our educational outreach programs send artists into Knox County schools nearly every week. Touring productions, such as the NEA-funded Appalachian Shakespeare Project, have brought professional performances to smaller communities throughout East Tennessee. And, yes, we have even performed at The Bijou by co-producing Beaumarchais’ The Guilty Mother, with the Actors’ Co-op as part of the 2004 Rossini Festival.
With a little luck and more solid community support, The Bijou will continue to be available for such endeavors—theatrical and otherwise. �
Blake Robison, artistic director
Clarence Brown Theatre
Knoxville
Parking Schmarking!
I take exception to Jack Neely’s unnecessarily lengthy and, frankly, boring argument [June 24] that downtown Knoxville has ample and affordable parking.
Let me illustrate why it has neither for many of us Knoxvillians who frequent the area and, thus, why Neely’s ramblings on the subject of downtown parking are absurd.
Though I was away from Knoxville for 13 years, I was raised in South
Knoxville and often shopped with my family in the downtown businesses during my youth. Upon returning to Knoxville in 2000, I was determined to support the downtown revitalization efforts by patronizing as many businesses in downtown as possible.
For me, this patronage is most easily accomplished by taking my lunch downtown. I work about 10 minutes from downtown, by automobile, and enjoy getting away from my office as often as possible. For me, “as often as possible” means “on a daily basis,” so I eat lunch downtown about five days a week, give or take. I have only an hour for lunch. I have an hour to walk to my car at work, drive to downtown, find a place to park (that I can afford...more on that coming up), walk to my destination, wait to order, wait for my food, eat my food, pay for my food, walk back to my car, drive to work, and walk from my car to my work station.
Neely asserts that accessible, ample, affordable parking is only a five-minute “brisk” walk away from practically any destination downtown.
Yeah, right. And monkeys are about to fly out of my nose. Even if that were true, let’s just do the math, shall we? With driving time round trip being 20 minutes, my walking time from Neely’s wonderful world of parking is only another 10 minutes off my round-trip clock. That leaves me with a soothing, relaxed thirty minutes to get my food and eat it, while I cool down and let the profuse perspiration evaporate after my “brisk” walk to the eatery. That sounds like a great experience. I’m so looking forward to that “brisk” walk after I’ve gulped down my meal!
Then, there is the affordability issue. I bring home about $27,000 a year (and I won’t go into that injustice). Even at one dollar per day (ha!), five days per week, 52 weeks per year, I’d have to shell out $260 just to park and eat downtown for lunch. Sorry, Mr. Neely, but I feel like the city of Knoxville shouldn’t try to make its money off of parking from people trying to patronize businesses downtown. If downtown is to thrive, it needs to be accessible and affordable to all. It’s a capital investment that it is unavoidably necessary. If I patronize businesses downtown, I should not have to pay for my parking or it should be a nominal fee at most, say one quarter for one hour. The bottom line is that paying to park is just not in my budget. So, my stance is that the city can either make a great deal of money off me in sales taxes, or it won’t make any money off me at all, ‘cause I ain’t payin’ to park, dammit! I have a feeling there are plenty of low-income people like me out there who feel the same way.
L.C. Lorraine
Knoxville
Oxymoron on Alcoa Highway
So I’m driving home from the airport the other day, and off to my right, I see what appears to be an oxymoron. There in the front yard of a mega church along Alcoa Highway is a mock aborted baby cemetery. Each little cross represents X number of babies aborted in Knox County in an average week.
Now, I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and there I learned that the word Christian really means “Christ-like.” That’s where WWJD comes from. But I had to wonder, “Would Jesus erect a mock aborted baby cemetery in his front yard in protest of abortion?” I really don’t think so.
In fact, from my days in Vacation Bible School, I don’t recall Jesus ever resorting to smart-ass tactics to lead others to him. I suspect he’d opt to embrace those struggling with such a serious decision about abortion with love...not a smack in the face.
Freddy P James, Jr.
Knoxville
A Challenge to Snarls
Scott McNutt, in his [June 24] article, criticized President Bush’s logic for a preemptive strike in order to protect American citizens. I would like to challenge his position.
Assume, for the moment, that I am a terrorist. My beliefs direct me to follow only one cause. I am to kill Americans. I plot, scheme, coordinate, and execute my plans to achieve this goal. How I kill you doesn’t have to be spectacular, bloody, or even graphic. Just killing Americans is enough for me. The color of your skin, your political leaning, or your religious belief means nothing to me. You are not human to me you are only a target. You have three options in dealing with me and others like me.
1.) You use every resource that you have to stop me. If you do not, people will die.
2.) You do nothing. You try to maintain a status quo. Make an arrest here and there when possible, but essentially you’re gambling when and where I will kill Americans.
3.) You can try to negotiate with me. Convince me that we are not enemies; offer an olive branch to me. Negotiations will involve giving me something to stop my attacks against Americans. This could be money, freeing my friends in your prisons, or that you “look the other way” as I attack your allies.
An ancient military maxim “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” can also be seen as “The friend of my enemy is my enemy.” (I don’t think I have to point out all the attacks on Israel). For some Americans, negotiations are believed to be the best option. It is a civilized solution. However, these people may be ignoring an important fact. I want to kill you.
Any advantage I can gain over you I will accept. If you give me money, I become richer. I can purchase more weapons (from people who also hate you) and maybe even deadlier weapons that can kill in large masses. If you free my friends, they can then continue on with their independent missions. If you “look the other way” as I kill your allies, that will weaken your alliance.
Divide and conquer is another military maxim that comes to mind. I hope by now Scott McNutt sees a pattern. The enemy has the advantage two out of three options. Not very Sun Tzu is it?
You are now questioning, “Why attack Iraq?” Scott McNutt fails to see that Saddam Hussein was a student of Machiavelli, not Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu wrote his text for victory on the battlefield. Hussein was never regarded a military giant on the battlefield. Machiavelli wrote his book as a guide for people to achieve and maintain power. He has the history of attacking other countries. He has attacked his own people, using WMD. Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and make use of it or not according to necessity.”
Did Hussein plot to do wrong? His people did meet with al-Qaeda leaders, President Putin of Russia told us that. Could he have sold WMD to them, he failed to destroy them, ignoring the U.N. resolutions. Have the WMD been found? No. I ask you, how hard is it to hide 20 to 30 million gallons of sarin gas in a liquid form? This is the amount Secretary Powell reported to the U.N.
I’ll help you with this answer. I have been told that the average fuel tanker on our highways carries about 10 million gallons of fuels.
You can fill three or four with sarin gas easily, and then either bury them in the desert or send them to another country. Saddam, in the first Gulf War, had done this with his Mig fighters. He built hangers to hide them, and covered them with sand. His fighter pilots avoided combat, and flew to Iran. I think it would be easier to hide a fuel tanker than a jet fighter airplane. If the WMD are buried in the desert, we will find them. If they are in another country that is hostile to America, we need a leader prepared to defend our citizens.
Is there evil in the world? Yes. We see it in our own people. We see it abroad. I ask you Scott McNutt, is an American life any more or less important than any other life? All are precious to God. Some value life, others seek to destroy it. That is what evil is Mr. McNutt. I ask you another question, would you tolerate any government official in our country to stay in office if he or she committed a murder? No. You would not.
Why then are you so eager to look the other way when a man kills thousands of his own people? President Bush is showing great restraint in waging this war. The enemy we all face does not want our land; they do not want our resources. They only want us dead. After 9/11 he could have destroyed many countries with his anger, and the anger of the American people. He has fought this war to save as many lives as possible, not to take them.
There is a fourth solution to Mr. McNutt. You could surrender, just quit. I know of a table that al-Zarqawi has that you can lay your head on.
Scott Culver
Knoxville
Let ‘em Eat Apples
I appreciate Joe Sullivan’s [July 1] editorial on the laggard teacher pay in Knox County. However, there are other things one should consider before relocating to Atlanta or Charlotte which are not noted. Using a financial cost-of-living comparator on the web (www.homefair.com), I found that to have the same standard of living in Atlanta, one would require a salary of $39,813, so their $40,000 income is comparable to our $31,272. In Charlotte, a comparable salary would be $35,286. Yet their starting pay is the same as ours. Even with a 12 percent raise, you still are not (quite) getting comparable pay. These facts don’t even take into account the costs of moving, such as the cost of utility and other deposits in the new city.
Could it be there are other attractions in Atlanta or Charlotte that draw these new graduates? I certainly hope that it isn’t that our new graduates can’t figure out these things for themselves, which is the only other conclusion one might draw.
The article looks only at starting teacher pay, failing to mention the average salary for a Knox County teacher is, I believe, in excess of $42,000.
Believe me, I’m not against teachers being paid a good salary for their work; I just think it is important to compare apples to apples (no pun intended) when discussing this issue.
Annette Winston
Knoxville�
July 8, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 28
© 2004 Metro Pulse
|
| 
