Letters


• Racism in Venice? - Camille Jacks
• Response from the writer - Jim Smith
• Beat Bush - Moe Stavnezer

Racism in Venice?

Dear Beachhead,

I look forward to Venice Beachhead. Its growing and as a local and writer I am excited about it.

Venice has a long history. Venice has been an attractive location for law breakers ( since prohibition) as well as wealthy mogul types looking to capitalize on this great location.

Racism in America often included the promotion of racial segregation.

To be a true Venetian is to be a life loving, playful, and creative thinking individual who's a little more invested in the community as a home than as a profitiable real estate venture.

Using racial slurrs does not in and of itself define a racist.

If the writer of the article is a racist then let him announce this personal sentiment for himself about himself.
But to make such negative broad stroke generalizations about a community in that community, in addition to communicating only have a half hearted knowledge of its history is well, disturbing.

Freedom of speech is a beautiful thing, but what makes indy newspapers so worthwhile is the very ability to get closer to people and to promote positive things that larger medias often overlook for a thousand reasons that frustrate more often than not. I did not see one article about the peaceful family filled events at the community center during the memorial day weekend.

I seriously suggest rethinking the negative / covertly hostile articles in the beachhead. No body needs that. Its not what being a Venetian is about. If you want to live here and objectify your experience try and come up with something inspirational to say.

After all we are still neighbors.

Camille Jacks
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Response from the writer:

Camille,

I'm sorry you didn’t like my Beachhead article, Racism in Venice? I've gotten a lot of supporting comments about it. However, I didn't write it for popularity, but to shine a spotlight on a problem in our city. I believe the first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it exists.

I think I speak for the Beachhead Collective when I say that we would like more uplifting and inspirational articles in the paper. As you probably know, it is an all-volunteer staff so many good things in the community don't get reported on simply because no one was there to write about them.

We would appreciate any submissions that you'd care to make! You can email them to <beachhead@freevenice.org> and they will probably wind up in print, although it's up to the Collective.
I do believe we have been trying to accentuate the positive, while exposing the negative. In the June issue we had two beautiful kids on the front page, a review about an uplifting book by Vincent Coppola, a number of photos about positive activities around Venice, the always inspiring poetry of Hillary Kaye, and a full page devoted to that Venice tradition, the Independence Day Parade.

Yes, we could use more. Please help us.

Jim Smith

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Beat Bush

Dear Beachhead:

Thank goodness for Carol’s thoughtful and provoking question in last month’s beachhead. My answer to “Are we there yet?” is not yet, but we are definitely getting there. I believe, especially after watching The Jesus Factor on TV, that George W. Bush is engaged in a modern version of the Crusades. It’s the true believer Christians against them, no matter who they are. In this case they happen to be Muslim, no matter what version, not very different from the wars of hundreds of years ago.

Bush’s government has lied to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and then conducted a rat-hole of a war that continues unabated, taken civil liberties away in the name of national security, held hundreds of people in prison without cause or legal representation, taken housing benefits from the most needy, gutted environmental protections, put us in the most incredible national debt imaginable; and has opposed worker, women, abortion and civil rights at every opportunity. Have I forgotten anything?

But make no mistake about it, no matter that he can’t put a coherent sentence together, is the butt of countless intellectual’s jokes; George W. Bush knows exactly what he’s doing. And he has gathered people around him to implement his philosophy. And they have done just that.

How should we respond to this, to this government that is acting contrary to the humane ideals that most of us believe in?

First and foremost, to my mind, I believe we must do everything possible to defeat dubbaya in November. And we must work to defeat like-minded Congress members who are up for election. I wear a move.on T-shirt that says democracy is not a spectator sport. Get involved!! I recently had a birthday party where I asked people to make checks out to John Kerry in lieu of a present. We raised more than $700! Do something like that.

While I am not am impassioned supporter of John Kerry, I am an impassioned hater of George W. Bush and all he stands for! And, I believe there is a difference between them. I am not naïve, I am perfectly aware that our 2-party system is often called the “RepubliCrats” and not without good reason. But, and it’s a big but, look at Bush’s court appointments which shape policy far longer than the president, look at the Bush government’s position before the Supreme Court on abortion, civil rights, worker’s rights and the environment.

So, I implore that you NOT vote for Ralph Nader but instead work and vote for Kerry. It may sound crass but, in this circumstance, I don’t believe that we have the luxury of voting our ideals. Instead, I think we must vote our survival and I firmly believe that means defeating George Bush. You can get involved in many ways and giving money is only one of them. Volunteer in your neighborhood, go to phone banks, walk precincts, write letters. Whatever it takes, do it! Visit w online if you’d like to know other ways.
Whatever you do, work to BEAT BUSH!!!

Moe Stavnezer

Posted: Thu - July 1, 2004 at 07:45 PM          

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