Right Before Your Eyes

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Right Before Your Eyes

I am so tired of the mainstream media complaining about the lack of a peace and social justice movement in our country ["Where Have All the Protests Gone?" Style, Sept. 24]. There is a movement -- a strong and vibrant one.

And people would know about it if outlets such as The Post covered it. Time and time again, the media have belittled and ignored protests. We had an estimated quarter-million people in the street in Washington in 2007 (just like the '60s!), and the media wondered, "Why not more?" and "Do marches do anything anyway?" We had hundreds risking arrest despite little fanfare in Minneapolis at the Republican National Convention and in Washington on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

One of the major problems of the peace and justice movement is the media's refusal to cover it. Instead, you choose to make a story of how my generation is apathetic and disconnected. Isn't it time you got bored of that story and started covering the amazing work being done? I'd bet that folks would love to hear about it.

-- Sonia Silbert

Washington

The writer is co-coordinator of the Washington Peace Center.

Constitutional Equals

Dana Milbank's cogent, amusing and otherwise excellent column ["Kumbaya, Distinguished Gentlemen, Kumbaya," Oct. 2] was marred by a surprising contention. He wrote that in the battle over the financial bailout the Senate "clearly had the upper hand in the sibling rivalry as it asserted its status as the upper chamber."

There is no upper chamber, and there is no lower chamber. The Constitution provides for two equal chambers -- the House of Representatives and the Senate -- in our bicameral legislature.

I recall my father, former White House correspondent and AP news editor Raymond J. Crowley, telling me back in the '40s or '50s that he had to correct reporters when they incorrectly wrote copy including the "upper chamber" or the "lower chamber."

-- Brian Crowley

Bethesda

Defining Columnists (Cont'd)

Ann McC. Scott took me to task [Free for All, Sept. 27] for my Free for All letter of Sept. 20. Her letter deserves a response.

I was not suggesting that all columnists take an impartial view of the presidential candidates; many of them earn a living off their political leanings.

What I did suggest is that it would be welcome to also have a few columns periodically by writers who are impartial and objective.

Even though I am a university graduate and have read a newspaper for more than 70 years, that does not make me smarter than anyone else. But I have learned to be tolerant of other people's views and not criticize them.

-- Karl Bergsvik

Springfield

No Dancing Allowed

I can't believe that film critic Stephen Hunter was allowed to use the word "brung" in his appreciation of actor Paul Newman ["Forget Cool: Paul Newman Knew How to Play It Smart," front page, Sept. 27].

"Handsome, powerful, beloved, he probably could have had any woman in the world; he stayed with the one who brung him . . . that is, who was with him on the rough climb up," Hunter wrote.

I guess there is no oversight at The Post. I believe I stopped using "brung" in kindergarten.

-- Carey S. Riordan

Germantown