I'm writing regarding this year's Valley Advocate Grand Band Slam. In his "A Slammin' Time" article (Aug. 27, 2009), James Heflin writes about what a wealth of music and musicians there are in this Valley, and about how hard it was for the Advocate staff to choose the acts to put on this year's ballot. He also asks for suggestions on how to improve the process. Here's an obvious one: add a "write-in" option for each category, as you have in years past. None of my favorite local bands are in any of the categories on the ballot—to give a few examples, in rock (The Ambiguities), punk (Thrillpillow), pop (Span of Sunshine), folk (The Fall Town String Band), country (Green River String Band), singer-songwriter (Carrie Ferguson), experimental/noise (Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth), or new band (Daniel Hales and The Frost Heaves). (How about a Super Group category? I'd vote National Convention).
Without the write-in option, your ballot is a farce. Another thing this Valley has is a wealth of smart, opinionated music lovers. By not allowing us the option to write in our own choices, I feel you are actually doing a disservice to the true musical wealth and diversity of the Pioneer Valley by presenting an unnecessarily narrow picture of the local music scene.
Shira Hillel
Greenfield
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Stephanie Kraft's obviously well-intentioned article "Climate and National Security" (Imperium Watch, Sept. 10, 2009) was rife with false abstractions and downright falsehoods. Kraft's piece is, apparently, based upon a conversation with U.S. Senator John Kerry, a man who is hardly a model of moral rectitude.
Famine is the result of political, not natural, causes. In many of the so-called Third World countries, U.S. multinational businesses along with their (especially European) counterparts pressure, bribe, and otherwise manipulate the greedy rulers of those countries to export huge amounts of food to the U.S. and Europe while their citizens starve. Famine is due to unfair distribution. I am amazed that decades after we first recognized the aforementioned cause of famine as a simple truism, Kraft would make such a faux pas by parroting John Kerry's usual ineptitude and foolishness.
Kerry's scare tactics about "global warming" are as irresponsible as are those of Al Gore and his cronies who were awarded the Nobel Prize. Not a single one of those just mentioned has attacked either the automotive/aerospace/oil complex or the huge advertising corporations employed by this group that trick everyday citizens of our market-driven, possession-oriented society into confusing their insecurities with confidence. These ad companies have people chasing after their illusions by patronizing the abovementioned complex instead of realizing that accomplishing goals with their intellectual and physical capabilities will bring them far more joy than the cheap pleasure of spending money on commodities and activities that are merely forms of vice.
G. Djata Bumpus
Northampton
Kraft responds: Unfair distribution and climate change as causes of famine are not mutually exclusive.
