LETTERS
LETTERS I, Spy As Spy might have put it, "Well, do you like the magazine or don't you?" What puzzles me is why you and Jason DeParle ["Spy Anxiety," February] think reading Spy "lead[s] to more...
...It is possible and indeed quite probable that if it were not for the ACLU you would not be allowed to editorialize as freely as you do...
...HAL RIEDL Baltimore, Maryland Be civil I find it hard to understand why you would make such a derogatory statement about the ACLU as you did ["Tilting at Windmills," November...
...How much sympathy should we extend...
...As a reader, I believe I can withstand all the glamorizing such ads supposedly do...
...Peters, pull up your socks and get on with the serious business of skewering politicians...
...In light of this fact, here is my simple proposal: Put the newest schools with the best programs and the most motivated teachers working with the finest materials in the center cities...
...Throughout the country, voluntary enrollment plans and magnet schools—most of which were undertaken as part of court-ordered desegregation plans—have provided creative educational solutions that would never have been tried otherwise...
...Joe Nocera pleaded guilty, I believe, to a charge for which all of us would acquit him—loving his children ["The Case Against Joe Nocera," February...
...If three months later your susceptible readers still say they can't control themselves, then and only then may you stop printing cigarette ads...
...However, I am no longer able to think that the people being influenced are "smart" Having spent about 10 pages on Spy and three on "Making America Work," they look more like sheep— just fleeced...
...Then send your kids wherever you want...
...But he ducked the charge which would really stick—undermining the people who really care to solve the problems he describes...
...We seek illumination on the function or dysfunction of our political system...
...To make me give a damn . . . and to make me think (and rethink...
...I'm not sure I want any serious thinking done by brains so easily derailed...
...To muster outrage...
...Many brain-dead banks and S&Ls in the Sunbelt have financed timeshares and other real estate projects that involve selling or leasing the same property to multiple users...
...What puzzles me is why you and Jason DeParle ["Spy Anxiety," February] think reading Spy "lead[s] to more brain cells filling up with styrofoam thoughts on style and fewer left to think about things that matter...
...What's the big deal...
...BILL ELISBURG Pearl River, New York Bank robbery I have little sympathy for Jim DeParle's "Entrepreneur's Lament" ["My Banker Wouldn't Back My Building," January...
...The loan officer in the piece should be commended for turning down the loan...
...Please, Mr...
...But actually the single positive force for change in public education since the Sputnik took off has been desegregation...
...In a hideous and sweeping generalization Nocera claims that the condition of center city schools is due to the lack of even a few eloquent black voices...
...PETER HIRSCH Durham, North Carolina I found it hard to believe that a magazine named Spy, or even a magazine named The Washington Monthly, could so intimidate "smart people" that they would be unable to think about and do "the things that count ." After Jason DeParle's endless hand-wringing, I am prepared to grant Spy's influence—on DeParle, at least...
...TOM BIRD Stanford, California Those who "must" advance their careers by adhering to arbitrary fashion dictates are simply paying a lot for something they want too much...
...Thank you Barry much Thanks to you and the Monthly for your important story, "The Worst City Government in America" [January...
...To float liberal alternatives...
...We should be thankful we have at least this single lever to pry American education off center...
...JOHN W. HAWLEY Duluth, Minnesota Puff on this for a while I'm not impressed with all your bragging about how you won't print certain cigarette ads ["Letters," February...
...In fact, I'm insulted...
...I expect your editors to give full rein to their political hobby horses...
...Until then, stop acting morally superior and censoring what you think your poor, dumb readers can't handle...
...At the very least your story ought to put an end to any nonsense about the District of Columbia as the 51st state...
...in every issue tell all readers who seriously think the ads are making them smoke more than they would otherwise (and not merely switch brands) to write in...
...Unfortunately these multiple users have a tendency to default...
...We do so because we are interested in the political condition of our society...
...Deals that sound too good to be true usually are...
...The obvious solution to "Spy Anxiety" is simply to think for oneself and choose one's company accordingly...
...PAUL ROTHENSTEIN Bellflower, California If Spy picks up the gauntlet Jason DeParle threw down Spy will put you down as "out" But to be "in," New Yorkers will have to buy The Washington Monthly to get the joke—thereby making you "in" MARJORIE ALLISON Denver, Colorado Your subscribers pay a fairly stiff premium in terms of editorial pages per subscription dollar to receive your magazine...
...If you continue building those schools only in the suburbs and small, affluent, white towns, I already know where you will send your kids...
...STEVEN KURTZ Los Angeles, California...
...Perversely, this uniquely black cause with eloquent black leadership has been blamed for the white flight to the suburbs, thus resegregating our urban schools...
...So how about this—you stop nobly turning down the millions the cigarette companies are begging to put in your pocket and print their ads...
...Given the high number of bankrupt banks and thrifts in this country, we should learn to appreciate conservatism from bankers, who are usually lending out federallyinsured deposits...
...KARL I. HENNUM Seattle, Washington Joe's crime I have been a subscriber to The Washington Monthly since you sent out your first flag-draped issue in 1969, but this is my first letter in rebuttal...
...Where, according to Nocera, middle-class white liberals should be somewhat embarrassed, blacks should be ashamed at their failure to raise even a few voices...
...You have documented why the crux of the matter in the District of Columbia is not the character of Marion Barry but the performance of his administration...
...To abrade my own conservative socio-political sensibilities...
...For all those who write, as a public service (financed by all the new ad revenues), send them a large news packet explaining how dangerous smoking is and enclose pictures glamorizing the nonsmoking life...
...To rake muck...
...JOSEPH BLALOCK Washington, D.C...
...You regularly run articles which, if believed, would be much more harmful than any ad...
...I just don't think you can continue to meet my expectations if you are going to waste your editorial space on such trivial pursuits as "Spy Anxiety...
...I expect them to raise questions...
Vol. 21 • April 1989 • No. 3
