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BUSH/BIN LADEN
While I thought the movie
V for Vendetta
[Screener, March 22:
] was brilliant in its own way, I cringed at the line, "sometimes blowing up a building can change the world." I doubt if I was alone in thinking that was a bit uncalled for. There is nothing heroic or visionary about the deeds of Osama Bin Laden. If the Bush administration is full of chickenhawks who pose for photo-ops with military gear while others die, Bin Laden would be quite happy among them. Like Bush, Bin Laden sent 3,000 people to their deaths, and seems to think very little of shedding other people's blood. Like Bush, Bin Laden is a man of narrow goals who thrives on the ignorance of his followers, and, also like Bush, must start each day amazed that, after years of death and dying, people still line up for the cause. But you know how it goes. There's always plenty of innocent lives to throw at the fence.
So, please, no words of praise for terrorists on either side of it.
Bill Carlisle
Santa Fe
LOWE DOWN
You've hit a new LOWE! My criticism of Jennifer Lowe's review of
V for Vendetta
has nothing to do with the fact that I think "V" is my favorite movie of all time and she doesn't like it. My criticism of her review has nothing to do with the fact that she didn't mention the growth, initiation and empowerment of the lead female character (Natalie Portman) nor that Jennifer didn't relate the story to the political climate of today.
My criticism lies in the fact that she broke the number one rule of movie reviewing which is: Never give away the ending. This spoiled the suspense for those who have as yet to see the movie. Her lack of movie reviewing maturity should be enough to remove her from her position. I talked with local fellow movie lover, Lisa Harris, owner of the Video Library, and she agrees wholeheartedly. For we lovers of movies, this cardinal sin is unconscionable.
Movies are mirrors for movie goers and critics alike. Perhaps the title of Jennifer's review "V is for...Vacant" is a reflection of her relationship with her inner rebel. Everyone is entitled to his opinion, and in my opinion, revealing the ending of this movie, any movie, is wrong!
Terran Lovewave
Santa Fe
BLUE HAIR
Cry me a river. The best thing that could happen to Blue Monkey Salon is a wrecking ball [Outtakes, March 22:
]. Save women everywhere from bad, under-talented stylists and colorists in a stinky, filthy atmosphere of faux hipsters. That place is the most overrated pile up of rock-a-billy outcasts-I've recently been treated to what I call the Caesar Mullet in dark ash gray and was told I was getting the über mod Nordic blond high lift long in front kitten 'do. Oops! We don't know how to do that. Where's that bowl we like to prop on the head? And they have a school! Biggest sham going, folks. Maybe the courthouse will have someone with a Flobee. Where's my sledgehammer and back hoe-I wanna help!
Michele Niesen
Santa Fe
RIGHT FATE
A sign in my counseling office reads, "We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses." Silas Jasper's letter [Letters, March 15:
] reveals that condemning his "liberal" and "leftist" neighbors as "socially worthless" and miserably "self loathing" is a CHOICE to oppress; to remain unconscious and irresponsible. To project inner judgments and act out one's rage, to stoke hatred, spread derision and publicly masturbate one's contempt, is to choose violence and terrorism, no matter what our flag.
Perhaps the best political, social and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow unto others. How futile to arm ourselves with weapons against catastrophe when the threats we face are fed by our own denial. It is a truth that torturers were tortured and abusers once abused. Evil thrives because, like Jasper, it feeds on denial and revenge while camouflaging itself as "decent and intelligent." Like an epidemic, it emerges deadly from feelings and judgments we disown, externalize and then dump into the collective psychic cesspool. There is no "getting rid of" what is ours. Whatever we deny inside remains unconscious and alive. It
must
return to us then, outside, as fate.
Richard Welker
Santa Fe
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