S.C. bites back
Just wanted to send out a short note to express to you that South Carolina can easily handle herself as a state and as a lovely asset to the country ("Notice of Annexation," by John Grooms, Sept 7).
We would like to thank all of you fine North Carolina residents for visiting with us, shopping with us and basically being a desired vacation venue for you all. Thanks also for forgetting that our state was home to many of the country's leaders and first families, and if it can be physically discovered, San Miguel de Guadalupe, possibly the first settlement of the Americas.
We have beautiful homes, towns, beaches, mountains and yes, even beautiful trailer parks. We have good iced tea, magnificent trees and more war stories -- you know, the one about Northern aggression -- than you can shake a stick at.
I hope at some point you will visit with us and let us share with you. I do live in Charlotte now but I still call home Georgetown, SC. And I do so enjoy seeing all you North Carolina folks down there vacationing when I go home.
-- Kevin Jayroe, Charlotte
Stop the Politics
For years I have been able to pick up your paper and look for the many different cultural experiences taking place in the Charlotte area. I have been able to leaf past the eccentric illogical tirades from some of your writers and read the reviews of restaurants, plays, films and more. As time has passed, this has become less and less a truth as your paper's political side has begun to dominate the nature of your publication. The ill-educated viewpoints of some poor writers now overcrowds your paper -- making it harder to find information about the arts, etc. It is not that you have abandoned publishing information concerning the arts, nor is it that you lack the quantity of events compared to other publications. It is the fact that your quality in finding and publishing information concerning these events has fallen severely behind. I have yet to see any information about the Peruvian restaurant on Tryon in Creative Loafing -- if it was there, it was overcrowded by political rantings. I have found little information on the massive amounts of plays now in Charlotte. These are things that many of us would like to see.
As a conservative Republican who loves and cherishes the arts, cultural events and the like, I have always accepted the political viewpoints of your writers. I and those of like mind simply overlooked those articles to gain information about events that we could go to. I do not make the case that you should cease your political articles, but I do make the case that they should be kept to the side. Your publication has identified itself as focusing on recreational events. If your mission statement has changed, I advise you to make it public and cease to call yourself "Creative Loafing." The name would be misguiding and would lead those who saw it to believe they could find a complete listing of all or most of the recreational events taking place in the metropolitan area.
--K.W. Kosko, Charlotte
Thanks for your letter, K.W. While entertainment and the arts are hugely important areas of coverage at CL, this paper -- like most other alternative weeklies -- has always covered politics and culture in a sassy, opinionated way. Just sit back, relax and take it all with a grain of oatmeal.