Hope wanted
Re: “Lessons from the Dallet victory” (4/10/2018): Rather than encouraging a proactive mindset in which the citizenry at large engages in politics knowing that politics drives public policy, former Mayor Dave thinks Democrats should just get out of their own way, elect a boring candidate, and let liberal anger win the day as perhaps it did for the Republican side in 2016. Instead of advocating for ideas and optimism, the two things most would agree the 2016 Democratic campaign lacked, Dave would rather perpetuate a political football game in which the most hated loses.
I, for one, would like a candidate who has a full heart and clear mind, not just a bland suit who will win against the “other side.” What’s striking is that Citizen Dave’s strategy appears to be taken right from the failed Clinton campaign, where smug elitist assuredness superseded actual policy discussion or hope for the future.
— Nigel O’Shea, via email
Not cultural appropriation
Re: “Puppy Love” (04/19/2018): Maryann Johanson questions whether filmmaker Wes Anderson has “engaged in unseemly appropriation of Japanese culture,” and makes this argument by...noticing that the dogs’ language is subtitled while the humans’ are not? That there is a...gulp...white character involved in the plot? She warns the viewer not to “mistake it for true appreciation or understanding.”
It seems Ms. Johanson was more eager to shoehorn a cause du jour into her review than to learn exactly what constitutes her alleged offense. Japan is a global superpower — not some colonized, oppressed, minority culture — that routinely copies American staples itself (including whiskey and hamburgers). Cultural appropriation is not a simple “white person flippantly does something non-white person does!” algorithm.
— Matthew Strosnider, via email
Other culprits
Re: “Pain relief” (4/12/2018): It is always easy to go after Big Pharma. Sorry, with the issue of opiates, they are just a cog in the wheel.
While researching a documentary we are filming, there is enough blame to go around. Add to the list: insurance companies, Congress, doctors and ourselves as patients.
With doctor visits mandated by insurance companies to last no more than 11 minutes, there is no way doctors can “see, feel or diagnose” our pain.
Think twice about their lack of knowledge (through no fault of their own) when they prescribe a bottle of 20 opiates for your pain.
Ask your insurance company if they would pay for yoga, or music therapy or a myriad of other alternative pain management avenues that are cheaper than opiates. When they say no, and they will, you will see Big Pharma is not the only one caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
— Marv Turner, via email