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The death of Dick

I hope you will devote a few lines to the media coverage of the death of Nixon.
The mainstream media's latest exercise in revisionist history, namely the attempted martyrization of "Tricky Dick" slipped through sleepy Seattle without much protest. I guess it helped to have friends like William Randolph Hearst. Otherwise, we might be reminded of the events like the shooting of students at Kent State in the early 70s. The media alluded to Nixon's rapport with China, carefully avoiding reference to human rights abuses like Tianamen Square.
Michael D. Johnson
Seattle

Neither landlord nor banker...

The utter collapse of the Soviet economy with the resultant immiseration of millions is as good as money in the bank to countless self-styled "conservatives" who laud the "free market," "free enterprise," and the business of business as visualized by Calvin Coolidge.
To them it seems obvious that American liberals partake of the guilt of whatever has brought disaster to the other hemisphere, and little more need be said. I recently encountered a frustrated businesswoman, articulate in the buzz words of the first paragraph, who sobbed that paying toward the health insurance of employees would impede her chance of starting a business and thereby creating jobs. What she neglected to consider was that the cost of health care is part of the price of labor, and that neither landlord nor banker offers a cut-rate to beginning business.
(P.S. During the Depression, one of my friends says his landlord gave him reduced rent because of the disgrace of Republican Street.)
James Carithers
Seattle

[Editor: Good point. From now on we want reduced rent on our Republican street mailbox!]

Kurt Cobain: 'no object lesson, no role model'

At least Rush Limbaugh, Erik Lacitis and Andy Rooney are honest. They give us the bile straight. Your condescending eulogist (WFP issue 9) tries to win our trust ("hey, I was at the vigil!") before trashing Kurt Cobain. To hear you tell it, Kurt was perfect, except he didn't make the right kind of music, or say the right things, or care about the right issues, or embody the right ideals. Christ, he didn't even kill himself right! Blah, blah back in your day, the rock stars had the decency to stand for something before killing themselves.
All together now: Kurt Cobain didn't want to be the spokesman for some cackamamie demographic something-or-other. He wanted to write music. He didn't want to have to live up to the standards of the respectable taste-makers and write uplifting, activist, community-inspiring fluff. He didn't exist for you, or me, or anyone in between. He wasn't a role model, and he wasn''t an object lesson. Or an advertisement. He was a human being, and he's dead, so let's get off his back. Steven Hill strikes me as one more person trying to wring just a little more use out of Kurt Cobain. Flap away home, little vulture. The bones have been picked clean.
Ben Grossblatt
Seattle

'Posthumous gang rape of Mr. Cobain'

Congratulations on the publication of your April/May issue. It is pleasing to see that a local paper has finally surpassed USA Today to become the dominant repository of hateful, divisive, and crass journalism. It is not often an intelectually and morally bereft lefty youngster like myself can tune into one publication to discover both the how and the why of my failure.
Briefly, to Mark Worth, let me extend my kudos for blowing the top off of the Passive-Aggressive Liberal Conspiracy to destroy the world. I've known about it for years, but since I'm a Pacific Northwest liberal and not a Southern Florida fascist, I couldn't tell anyone. A little more self-hatred is exactly what the left needs to get its ass in gear. Just one question: If you hate everyone, why do you care if the world goes to hell?
Second, let me extend the glad hand to Steven Hill for his eulogy for Kurt Cobain. It's great to see such diversity in the posthumous gang rape of Mr. Cobain.
The "Right Brain" column heading was half right, for as the flags fly at half-mast for another racist war criminal, America is once again safe from tortured artists.
Mr. Hill, could it be people like yourself, with a gospel in one hand and a whip in the other, that tragically convince so many young people to despair? If you do not respect those to whom you preach/teach, you may find that your expectations of failure are quickly met. Your outstretched hand does little to hide your blatant contempt.
In the name of ridiculous generational stereotype clarity: Which generation thought it was 'as easy as orgasms and getting high'? Which generation perfected solipism, turned it into a mantra, and then a business plan? Whose generation made it impossible for an artist to be heard without a major label contract and distribution deal? All I'm getting here is Wilhelm Reich, Timothy Leary, and David Geffen.
Maybe your next piece should read "We need you, thirtysomethings. We're fighting for our lives. Don't pull a Jerry Garcia. Don't get old and lame, don't trade your heart for a new car, a "nice" house, and a "safe" neighborhood.
Not every generation tries to create a platform from the slurred one-liners of its pop stars. Yours did; maaybe that's reason enough not to try again. If you are looking for information about our generation, may I suggest that a classic rock station is not the place to find it. If Newsweek can get over "Slacker" and Douglas Copeland, can I expect the Free Press to follow soon?
Finally Kurt Cobain touched many people, yourself and Andy Rooney notwithstanding. He was profoundly unhappy. He was so unhappy he killed himself. I felt sad, but it seems many people felt opportunity. Am I too young to understand why the media get hungry when someone blows their face off?
Eben H. Carlson

[Editor: Comparing us to "Don't Worry Be Happy" USA Today? Now that hurts.]

Please see A reader response to this letter and the original article.




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Contents on this page were published in the June/July, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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