The BEAST - Buffalo's Best Fiend........www.buffalobeast.com.............Issue 58 9/15/04--9/30/04
[sic] - your letters
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HILL-SILLY
Dear Surz,
Id like to intraduce maself first befour I git started here. My name is Jacob
Crankshaw and I'm from upstate Pennsilvania, an the pleashurs all mind. The
intenshun of this here peas of commintary is to rightly inform you that I'll
be in the Bufflo area sometime next week with ma little famly. a shotgun and
a beat up but dern sterdy Ford pick up truk.. Im looking fers a righting posishun,
nothun fancy mindyou, but somethun to git me and ma famly on our feet agin.
I stopt drinking neerly 5 weeks ago give er take a day or too and Ma is dam
prod of me. I havnt slapt litle Johnny in over a week and his brokun arm is
doin jus fine. I thoght maybe I can write, ya know, fer yer classfied sekshun.
I cum from a famly of well edgukated peeple an Ma saz that ma righting skils
can git me far in the big city. I rekkon yoil need somethun what they calls
CV. I nebver met the man, but as soon as I find him I'll bring him along too.
Pleese escuse the windniss of this here corrispondints but undrstand that Im
a bit eksited sins this is ma ferst trip eest of the Potomuck. Ma und I figgur
that weal all be in New Yerk real soon if the motor dont freez up agin. Pleez
keep the lites on and the bed werm. We'll find hour own food jus fine,
Mighty thanks,
Mr. J.T. Crankshaw
Bethlem, Pennsilvania
Dear
J.T.,
Yeah, whatever.
Dear
Beast,
I saw your Kunz piece courtesy of the Buffalo Report. I might be able to flesh
some things out. When Mary Kunz was first doing classical music reviews for
the paper, she did do a good job on a rather esoteric subject. I contacted her
to compliment her, and, over a period of time, my wife and I made friends with
her.
Therefore I know some things about her background and her world view. She is
a devout Roman Catholic, proud of her German heritage (including its myths)
and loves German culture in general. She has written about her father, George
Kunz. From what I knew about him, he felt the same way and would periodically
subject his family to table pounding lectures about the greatness of German
culture - the old "bulwark of culture against the bolsheviks" argument
from the WW II years. I don't feel he was pro - Nazi, just incredibly pro -
Teuton, and probably a social arch conservative and a religious pre Vatican
II Catholic. When we knew Mary, he was still alive. Mary told us once that her
relationship with him was so acrimonious that her mother suggested she get an
apartment and move out...which she did. Later, when she got her job at the paper
that was publishing his fluffy nostalgia pieces, they started to reconcile.
Then as you may remember, he was killed in a snow plow accident. I think now,
according to a familiar psychological quirk, he has achieved sainthood in her
mind and a great deal of unexpressed love and guilt is making her channel his
views.
In person, Mary is hard to dislike, let alone hate, and she does live in the city. Her naivete and childlike way make her warm, open and very charming. Maybe this is why I can't think of an individual within recent memory who has disappointed me more. I chided her via e mail a few times for things she wrote, but found out later, from her, that if she sees or hears anything that might be critical or upsetting, she simply trashes ignores it.
When she got around to Stephen Kurtz, I saw all the colors of the rainbow, sent a sharp note and cc'd it Margaret Sullivan. I had had a slight acquaintence with Sullivan, off and on for years. I thought she was one of the paper's most graceful writers and one of its better minds. Well, Margaret sent me a brass knuckle punch in the mouth via e mail and told me not to write to her again. For your possible interest, here is the correspondence:
Dear Mary,
You would have made an excellent journalist in Vienna. Even their best critics have been philistines - always wrong about the present in life, the future in art and in love with a non - existent past.
Cutting edge art is not a cancer on American society. Our current governance by religious belief is, as is our bloated military.
I wish you'd stop evoking your father. I remember his writing and it was the devastation of the Great Depression and the slaughter of WW II that provided his "good old days." I once knew slightly the former News librarian Harvey Elsaesser. He was also a history junkie who described Mr. Kunz to me as someone who never encountered a fact that he liked.
As for protest in general, I prefer Molly Ivin's motto: "Raise more Hell!"
David (cc to Margaret Sullivan)
(reply from Margaret Sullivan)
Mr. Snyder:
It's fine to voice disagreement but your criticism of Mary Kunz's column is a gratuitous personal attack and your harsh reference to her deceased father is offensive.
There is no need to respond. I do not intend to further this correspondence.
Margaret Sullivan, editor(I sent the following by regular mail to the News.)
June 25, 2004
Dear Ms. Sullivan,
Your e mail to hand.
Not so fast!!
Perhaps my note to Mary Kunz is a gratuitous personal attack. However, Stephen Kurtz has had his home invaded, his life upended and, I have little doubt, many more problems and expenses, some of them legal, in his future. He also has not been charged or indicted for anything, as far as I know...yet.
What I wrote to Mary was contained within a semi - personal e mail and is no more of a personal attack than a signed column prominently displayed in the paper telling him in effect to shut up while at the same time sophomorically mocking his abilities and his work. I may have bad manners, but they're not published in the News.
As for my reference to her late father, Kurtz has just lost his wife - the tragedy that has created his current situation.
Maybe the slap I sent her and cc'd to you will help her to think about how it feels for someone to receive one like that in the public prints.
There are many kinds of journalism, but I don't see how printing the type that afflicts the afflicted is a credit to the Buffalo News, or anyone connected with it.
Sincerely,
David Snyder
PS: By the way, I don't know Stephen Kurtz personally and I've never seen any of his work.
There was no reply.
In retrospect, I can do without Mary...she's lost as any kind of a thinker.
I imagine that she would have done ok some 60 years ago as a society writer.
Possibly today, she could be a writer for the Western New York Catholic.
But it pained me to alienate Margaret Sullivan...someone I respected. I don't have a clue what her thinking is anymore, but I may have gotten her back up about all the layoffs in the press room. I did write to ask what was to become of the remaindered humanity. She ignored the inquiry. A staffer at the paper, who likes her very much once warned me to never cross her...went on to say she has "warrior blood on both sides; Irish and Lebanese."
Anway, thanks for the piece you did, harsh as it is. It was a comfort to me.
Sorry this is so long.
Sincerely,
David Snyder
Dear
David,
Your first mistake was respecting Margaret Sullivan.
dear sirs,
while reading matt higgins recent story on the protests at the rnc, i was shocked
to read his tale of a "pale, meek, kid from Utica" who was bullied
by his college roommate and eventually driven to alcoholism. first of all, anyone
from utica is already predispositioned towards alcoholism or drug abuse so it
is sloppy journalism to report that his deteriation was a result of the bully
roommate. secondly, i find the whole notion of a pale, meek kid from utica slightly
absurd. the brutal streets of utica tend to make the meekest and most cowardly
specimens hardened thugs before the age where one tends to ship off to institutions
of higher learning. perhaps this kid was from a suburb of utica like clinton
or new hartford and just said he was from utica to impress people. in utica,
we dont really raise them "pale and meek" - we exclusively export
barrel-chested punks with attitude problems. i would like to see a follow up
story on this kid from utica. a full page interview would be nice. if he is
truly what higgins claims him to be, perhaps i will take him under my wing.
i shaved my head over the summer and have a sort of montel williams "MOUNTAIN
OUT OF MY WAY" mentality about things nowadays. i will feed this kid eggs
and cheese until the word meek is simply a sound people will make while he pummels
them with his big, meaty paws. if this was the old west, i would be an outlaw
with a shiney silver gun and higgins would be the cowardly barber who dives
through the swinging saloon doors when the shooting starts. i would follow him
in and then shoot at the floorboards beneath his feet while yelling, "DANCE!
DANCE HIGGINS! DANCE!"
sincerly, chris riordan
Dear
Chris,
Congratulations. Your name is in the paper.
DO
THE BLACK THING!!!!
Once again, over exaggeration or should I say sheer ignorance has reared it's
head in our African American community. First let's be frank, I am African American
and very proud to be one. Why not? I am made in God's image just like my Caucasian,
Latino Hispanics, Native American brothers and sisters. However to demand an
apology for a humorous not racist ad in that was published in the Beast newspaper
V 01.#54 is sheer stupidity. I for one would never stand for a depiction of
any race in a racist manner.
We do know that racism not only encompasses an attitude based on skin color but that it can also be political and economic. I am truly embarrassed that our African American leaders in good old boy network Buffalo, New York would make a fussy messy stink about a humorous picture instead of asking the Beast editorial staff to enlighten the community about the more important issues that are prevailing in the community. Let's talk about it-- the dismantling of our public schools by the creation of charter schools, only the "creme de la creme" of our African American population will attend these so called new schools. Too many shootings, why do you only see the African American leaders when death occurs? Why not post up and form an outline for our alleged "gang bangers". Create jobs, start your own businesses, encourage voter registration. Why are jobs leaving Buffalo, New York and not being replaced. Give me a break. I could go on and on about the real issues that need immediate attention.
Let's get real. That humorous outrageously funny ad for Spot Coffee was not racist. Do your homework. The publisher Paul Fallon has done more for the cause of civil rights in this area than some our our African American leaders. Give me a break. Work with the Beast publication and not against it. You will find an ally. Let's face it. Everybody wants to be a superstar and savior of the community. But let's do the right thing. Instead of complaining about a picture for an ad in an alternative publication, GO VOTE. DO THE BLACK THING, correct ills that are wrong for people.
I understand that this action of boycotting, demanding apologies, accusations of racism is so typical when one doesn't have a voice in the political process, is not heard by anyone, underrepresentation, and poverty is so prevalent. So it is predictable to let a picture upset your world. As Marvin Gaye sang, "makes me wanna holler" But let's holla about something really worth hollering about. DO THE BLACK THING!!!!!
Oh yeah, I really wish that I could sign my name, but I'm afraid that I will be accused of being a racist and biased.
Dear
Anonymous,
We can see it now: "Despite the shameful history of destructiive racist
oppression, Anonymous has chosen to join the slave-masters by refusing to agree
with us." Guess you'll have to buy space in their papers to apologize.
++++++++++++++
p. 29. The starving emaciated child in an ad is so offensive. it is a heartbreaking
situation and they are using it to appeal to the sick, american consumer society.
i will be so happy to be part of a boycott of their advertisers till they stop
exploitative, racist appeals.
dianne
Dianne,
Oh, man. Do you actually think that's a real ad? Or is it just that you don't
get that the ad is a commentary on our "sick American consumer society,"
and our indifference to the plight of others? This is just what we're talking
about; it's not our responsibility to ensure that our work is dumbed down to
a state where no misinterpretation is possible. Of course the picture is offensive-what's
happening in the Sudan is an offense to human decency. We don't see enough of
these pictures; maybe if we did we'd do something about it. Try thinking harder
before you launch into attack mode next time. It's not our fault if you don't
have a sense of humor and can't understand irony.
© 2004 The Beast
e-mail: sic@buffalobeast.com