WHAT THA?

Hey Flagpole, I have a delivery type job and recently while riding all over town I came to the depressing realization that global warming is no lie - it must be here upon us. Trees are literally dying all over town. Has anyone else noticed this? I've lived here all my life and I can't remember seeing so many patches of brown trees. This drought is far more serious than anyone I'm surrounded by seems to realize.

And I'm not trying to reemphasize how shitty we all think the downtown construction is, but the new trees are looking rough also - they need water. Perhaps the infrastructure truly needed rebuilding and maybe the big old trees downtown were old and dying. But what I can't understand is how no one seems to care that so many are bothered by the construction.

I mean, can't we get a couple of "Pardon our Progress" signs, or a real finish date? And why not start earlier in spring so we can truly be done in the fall as always promised? Our summer, and now fall, too, is full of orange tape and barrels as well as gaping holes in the sidewalk.

Summer used to be my favorite time to be in downtown Athens. Now its like once we get all the damn kids out of here we hurry in the noise and bulldozers. I understand it can be frustrating to hear citizens bitch about construction that has to be done, and perhaps when this is all over we will be actually grateful, but the city needs to understand how frustrated we are, also. I take pride in the town and love to show visitors the downtown scene, but not when they might fall into an open gravel pit. Perhaps I'll take my visiting friends out to the new Super Wal-Mart. It's really impressive.

It would just be nice to know that the people tearing up downtown think the construction is as ugly as I do. Remember how shaded all the restaurants along Broad Street once were? I remember looking out the second story window in Harry Bissett's out into the branches of a big old tree. And down in the branches, if you looked real close, you could see old Mardi Gras beads and sometimes women's underwear from Fat Tuesdays gone by. The trees planted now will never provide uniform shade all the way down our main street again. Know why? Because now the trees are two different species! That's right, right in front of Bissett's the trees now change into less-shade-giving Gingkoes. I understand the Ginkgo is our "town tree" and it can be a beautiful tree, but I think we should have gone with one or the other. The main downtown strip of trees across from North Campus should all be the same kind of tree, shouldn't they? I know it was the same species of tree my entire childhood.

I don't know, things might look awesome next year. I hate to complain to my favorite magazine when it seems you get unfair amounts of that; rarely positive rantings grace your Letters page. But hell, while I've perhaps got your attention - some of you people really fucked up letting the train trestles go. I mean I'm glad we've still got half of the partly demolished Murmur trestle, but the beautiful one was the one over the Oconee river right near Nuçi's. My dog and I walked over it many times. We could be riding over it today on a bike. It is an unfortunate, silly loss that should have been avoided. The greenway might one day be cool, but I would have rather spent that money on the rails-to-trails path. I've seen more people in Dudley Park looking at where the trestle used to stand than I have walking/riding on that Greenway. I might go down there if I'd ever seen one person riding or running, or something. Is it open yet?

Anyway, Ballard and Flagpole keep up the good work. I now play every Sunday night at Gumby's...

Jack Crevelle
Athens

YOU BOOBS!

I would like to correct the many glaring errors in Roger Naylor's attack on "The Anna Nicole Show," [Meet My Tits, Aug. 28] so that the public will have a realistic view of the show, untainted by his sloppy journalistic techniques. I will address each error in the order in which they occurred.

1. You did not capitalize the "S" in the word "Skittles"TM.

2. You did not put the TM after the word "Skittles"TM, signifying that it is a registered trade mark.

In the future, I hope you won't play so fast and loose with the facts.

Philip Weinrich
Bogart

LOVE 'EM, LEASH 'EM

After a couple of recent incidents with unleashed dogs downtown, I felt it was time to give the newbies a notice (and if you're NOT a newbie and you're guilty of this, extra-special shame on you): Athens does indeed have a leash law, and it's only negotiable if you are, in fact, inside a sanctioned DOG PARK. No, the outside of your favorite downtown eatery is NOT an exception. The law exists in order to protect your pet, you and everyone else. I don't care how well-behaved you think Sparky is; it only takes one behavioral transgression to turn him into a dead dog. So please, if you love 'em, leash 'em. If you don't want to take that much responsibility, do everyone a favor and find your pet a better home.

Amy Cason
Athens

GIVE IT A CHANCE

As most students know, the parking fees at UGA just got even more expensive. Luckily, there were several shopping centers who volunteered their parking spaces to commuters who do not live on the bus line to do a park-and-ride.

These forward thinking business people are the Kroger west, Super Wal-Mart, and until Tuesday, August 27 the Shops of South Athens (Bi-Lo, etc. on Milledge). It seems that after seven days the Shops of South Athens decided to call it quits because they felt people were "parking in front of the stores at the shopping center instead of the designated spaces at the end of the lot..." (excerpt from a flyer placed on car windows).

Well, that may be true. If it is, I am sure the offending parties would have parked where they were supposed to if anyone had bothered to warn them. It isn't like that many people took advantage of the park-and-ride anyway, and those who did certainly would not have wanted to lose the privilege. Hell, there must be a thousand spaces in that lot, and on a good day there wouldn't be enough cars in it to fill a Sonic Restaurant. The park-and-ride could only INCREASE business for the shopping center. My patronage of Bi-Lo Milledge had increased 1000 percent over the last week out of convenience and gratitude. I can guarantee you it will decrease by the same this week.

S. Pettis
Athens

WINGS & CHUMBA

Hiya. To Les Hendricks: Our forefathers were rebels. They went against the grain. They were not patriotic. If they were patriotic they would have been called Tories and not rebels.

To Marcus Owens: Lou sings in Chumba, not Jude. Jude plays the trumpet.

Just FYI. Cheers!

Beth
Athens

MORE WINGS

I was amused to see that the Wild Wing Café will protest against the Flagpole's politics by significantly reducing the amount of its advertising and support of the Flagpole. Hey, Wild Wing, isn't that like dumping half the tea in Boston Harbor and buying the rest from the British to take home? I was also interested in Wild Wing's using the sacrifices of the Revolutionary War generation to justify its semi-boycott of the Flagpole. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were willing to commit treason against the British crown, because they were convinced that George III was violating their rights as subjects of the Empire. Of course, that was then, and this is now. Anyone who has the audacity to suggest that George W. Bush's administration, in its zeal to stamp out terrorism, is willing to infringe on our rights of due process, privacy and free association, is a crazed, left-wing radical at best, and an Al Qaeda operative, at worst. As for me, despite Wild Wing's compelling arguments, I will avoid their café from now on. I am afraid that I might drink one too many adult beverages and say something subversive, such as, "George W. is an overgrown frat boy who has always depended on the kindness of his daddy's friends," or "George W. is president, only because he was appointed by a handful of political hacks posing as Supreme Court justices." If any of the Wild Wing joyboys heard such unpatriotic statements, they would lose all their naive, coltish enthusiasm, and the lighthearted, jovial ambiance of their establishment would be compromised.

John Mize
Athens

MORE WINGS

West Wing Café, Mr. Les Hendricks: Thanks for the history lesson in last week's Flagpole [Aug. 21] concerning the final fates of some our founding fathers, but I think you left...ooops, bad word, I mean omitted Mel Gibson from your account of the American Revolution, which is to say you might want to do a little broader reading into something like say Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States..." for another take on how and at whose expense some of those brave and honorable Declaration signers built their "fortunes" and "large plantations" they so tragically lost in your account of the birthing of America, because among them were also slave holders, Indian-haters, drug users, (musicians!) and some very unfaithful husbands.

There are two main points here: one, we, our government primarily, are not viewed by most of the world's population as the champions of freedom and peace that our current administration and the media make us out to be; but rather, we are perceived by a great many as a source of global instability and unrest as well a greedy and relentless consumer of cheap natural resources provided by poor and developing nations at bargain basement prices and at enormous environmental costs. Yes, there is much to be proud of as a citizen of this country, but there is much turmoil and discontent which we must stand accountable for from a global perspective.

Second, and more to the point of your letter, is that outside the United States and EU, you will not find much in the way of what can honestly be called "free press," nor will find if you travel abroad an actively embraced right to the freedom of speech. Most of the rest of the world lives in silence and fear of the governments and armies that control them. One of the most tragic pieces of collateral damage from 9-11 was that amidst all the uniting and flag bearing and patriotic displays was an enormous reluctance on the part of our elected officials, media organizations and individual journalists to engage in any serious discussion and debate as to the root causes of the disaster, including the critical aspect of our political and economic role in the Middle East and the creation of the Israeli State. Commentary that even hinted at being at odds with the militarist stance of the Presidency, and the unquestioned New and Never-Ending (we are to assume) War on Terror was tantamount to insurrection. Speaking out against the governing body was to be, and perhaps still is, branded a traitor.

The American people, press and government were - to this traveler anyway - coming rapidly to resemble an Orwellian nightmare Juggernaut hell-bent on rolling back all the domestic freedoms and liberties that, well, make us free, and to the Flagpole's credit (although it did not go so far as to print my article sent from Morocco on the meaning and experience of Ramadan last December - which you guys didn't even mention receiving!!!) should be applauded, for continuing to "freely" discuss, satirize and debate the policies enacted by our legislators (local, state and federal) and to express discontent about social and economic issues that concern us all.

I for one am grateful to live in a town with a "free," that is non-corporate controlled weekly that will print Jim Hightower, Tom Tomorrow, and whatever other local or syndicated writers that so offend your sense of what it means to be an American, which I assume does include the right to criticize and air discontent on the state of a nation and its institutions that are clearly in dire need of close scrutiny by the electorate and consumer public, but to instead, be "positive, upbeat and fun," and maybe you are right Mr. Hendricks, maybe The Flagpole doesn't fit the same "light-hearted and jovial feeling" of your "targeted demographic." But, hey, on the other hand, Maybe YOU don't fit the diverse, tolerant, open-minded, free-thinking, free-speaking, art-inspiring, iconoclastic culture of Athens.

You see, we are not a demographic here, but a community. And if you decide to no longer financially support the idea of a truly free press by cutting back your advertising (and why not just stop altogether if you are really going to make a statement) because it doesn't represent "your concept" of what your restaurant is about (and here I was thinking it was just a place to eat and drink!) then in my book, you're not really "into" what Athens is all about. Into the pockets of the student's maybe, but not into the collective spirit here that struggles against status-quo, good-old boy, big-money, politics-and-sprawl-as-usual. FP is part of a community trying to make this a truly progressive town and better place to live for us, our neighbors, our kids and the students who come and go year after year.

And yes, as you intended, your letter was insightful; I get the picture: no shoes, no shirt, no flag - No Service. No downbeat, leftist, un-fun political debate and social discourse at the tables please. Or do you have separate sections for "leftists" to sit in? Where do you put the libertarians and anarchists? In the very back row? Do you ban any publications from being read at the tables and bar? Can I bring in my copy of Chomsky's The Rogue State while I have a beer, or, say, leaf through a copy of The Guardian, Mother Jones or The Progressive? Certainly won't bring in the FP for a pitcher and some wings. In your closing line you say you want to offer the "insight" that it is "cool to be proud to be an American." Well, it seems you have confused pride of nationality with freedom of political diversity (the heart of democracy), i.e., if you are critical of your government you are not proud to be American. My advice: go back to your readings on the Declaration signers you seem so well versed in. They were some very critical, discontented, un-fun, left-leaning dudes. Think it through before you put it to press.

Finally, if you are a businessman with political ambitions, they have just been realized. If not, I think your letter was a mistake. I for one will be telling all my downbeat, serious friends and political malcontents to cut back completely on their Wild "West" Wing eating and drinking habits. Besides, we're not people to you; we're a "targeted demographic." Who wants to be a target anyway? Bon appetit!

Joe Kuhl
Athens