Patience over propaganda

Most thinking people seem to agree that the “irrefutable evidence” that Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council was thin at best. I tend to avoid the American media machine and didn’t realize that they themselves avoided the discovery that much of that evidence was plagiarized from a 10-year-old work by a California grad student [Insect, Feb. 13].

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the USA is slipping into a period of propaganda on par with the Cold War, maybe even with the McCarthy era of the ’50s. If the press doesn’t invite the public to question the tactics of their itchy-trigger-finger government, the U.S. risks a further separation from the pro-UN, pro-patience world community.

All this makes you wonder how much attention Jean Chrétien’s cautionary speech in Chicago got in the mainstream U.S. media. There’s a man who has been around since the early ’60s, has worked alongside pacifists like Pearson and Trudeau, and knows the virtues of patience in making crucial decisions. Yet his reception in Chicago was polite at best. In May, George Bush comes to Ottawa to give his two cents worth on our country’s role in what will probably be a war. It will inevitably be an overtly patriotic pro-partnership speech. And the U.S. press will soak it up. Let’s hope that the Canadian media, and certainly the alternative press, give people the wider perspective that is so important right now.

» Gary Reid

Non-smoker pro-smokes

Great story on cigarettes [“Inside Imperial Tobacco,” Cover, Feb. 6]. Take a company so strangled by government propaganda that they’ve no more PR tricks left except to invite the media for a tour, add a witty writer who partakes while craving a smoke the whole way, and you’ve got an insightful article. And a non-biased one too, which is great as the righteous anti-smokers continue their takeover.

I don’t smoke. It makes me feel sick and it’ll probably kill me. That’s reason enough, as far as I’m concerned. But your story paints a picture of a sterile and clinical-to-the-point-of-boring cigarette factory. There are no signs of tampering with the product to hook and poison victims out of evil corporate greed.

Yes, the fact remains that writer Chris Barry’s aunt died of emphysema at 59 years old - as did many other aunts, no doubt. The government’s solution is to scare kids (yeah right), jack up taxes, and issue tickets to those having a puff in an ever-growing number of Canadian cities - not to mention forcing privately owned bars and restaurants to deny paying patrons the right to blacken their lungs with a drink or after dinner. I find that almost as scary as emphysema. So the debate rages on. Do we ban tobacco out of concern for public health, or do we allow people the freedom to choose their own evils. I vote for the latter.

» Corrine McPherson

John cracked

That was an interesting article on that creepy “hooker connoisseur” guy [“Crack John,” Feb. 13]. Man gets dumped, develops bitterness towards women, finds empowerment in bartering for blowjob deals from tattered, drug-addict prostitutes, further alleviates loneliness by sharing it with the world.

A depressing, yet absorbing look into Montreal’s “seedy underbelly.” I steer clear of the streets at night, meet my dark types through movies. Thanks for keeping me in the know.

» Pat Walker

Drunk fidelity

While I applaud Johnson Cummins for giving Willie Nelson’s new album Crazy: The Demo Sessions a nine out of 10, I beg to differ with Cummins’ notion that the song “I Gotta Get Drunk” is “little heard” [Discs, Feb. 13]. Willie first recorded the song in 1970 on his Both Sides Now album and it quickly became a staple of his live shows. Willie has performed it hundreds of times to hundreds of thousands of people! Has Cummins ever seen Willie?!

It’s true that “I Gotta Get Drunk” is not as well known as some of Wilie’s biggest hits, but it’s hardly an obscurity. There’s also the version Willie did in 1979 with George Jones (on Jones’s My Very Special Friends album), as well as cover versions by Gas Huffer, on the Twisted Willie tribute album, and the Twangbangers on their 26 Days on the Road. Not to mention all the honky tonk bands who play it every night to the delight of drunkards and rednecks throughout the south.

» Bartley Decker

Heavy on classical

I just wanted to add some comments to Johnson Cummins’ review of the latest Anonymus CD [Discs, Feb.6]. Cummins’ review makes it sound as if Anonymus have done something new with metal music. I’m not denying that it’s a good album, but adding elements of classical music has been going on for years in Europe. Bands like Tristania, Trail of Tears, Nightwish, Lacrimosa and others “perfected” - to use one of Cummins’ expressions - the art of metal long before Anonymus did it here in Montreal.

I’m just glad that local bands like Anonymus (along with Moonlyght and Forgotten Tales from Quebec City and Montrealers Howling Syn) are starting to add these new elements to metal music. It really does bring a whole new atmosphere to metal. I’ve even been able to convert friends to metal music because of this. Let’s hope we see and hear more of this kind of music on this side of the Atlantic.

» Marc Genest

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

Send your comments, compliments or criticisms to:

Letters to the Editor,
c/o Montreal Mirror,
465 McGill, 3rd Floor
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 4B4

You may also fax us at (514) 393-3173, or reach us by e-mail:

letters@mtl-mirror.com

All letters should include your name, address and daytime phone number.

If you wish to reach someone in particular, here's a list of people involved with the production of the newspaper and this site.