"Foul Play" [Soundbites, January 3] really caught my eye. I love music, but I'm not a radio fan. My source for music comes from magazines and record stores. I spend hours talking to record store owners and customers. It's how I learned about Transition, Insane Clown Posse, and Papa Reu. Radio in this market would never play these artists. Why? Because they're not mainstream.
Don't you realize that the chumps on the radio play what females want to hear and not what thugs love? You're not going to hear Li'l D, Esham, Pandemonium, or Chine Nino on the radio. Unplug that deviant box and hang out at a record store. Jahi, don't worry about radio. As an artist, your sales should be more important than radio anyway.
Terry Graham
Warrensville Heights
Frustration mounts in Middlefield:
We want to thank you for your article "Thin Skin Alert!" [Kotz, January 24], which talked about the ineptness of the Ohio EPA. We have been dealing with this dysfunctional agency for over eight years about the contamination in Middlefield and now realize we are not alone. Last year we asked for a meeting with Chris Jones, the director of the Ohio EPA, and were refused, until a letter from Congressman Sherrod Brown's office suggested he meet with us.
The staff at the Ohio EPA's public interest center have hung up on us. We have been called the "Infamous Duncans" by Ohio EPA staff. In a meeting with Middlefield's mayor yesterday, we told him that if he continues to speak out against the Ohio EPA, he may be the next to be banned. Where will this all end?
To this day, the EPA does not share with the public the extent of underground water contamination in Middlefield. We have no publicly identified source(s) and no ongoing remediation of the contamination. Is it because they honestly don't know, or do they choose not to share this information with truth-seekers? The Ohio EPA is establishing a pattern: People who ask questions and attempt to find out the truth about Middlefield may find themselves banned, isolated, and out of the loop.
We thank the Scene, Pete Kotz, and Sarah Fenske ["While the EPA Slept," November 15, 2001] for their efforts, all of which illustrate the Ohio EPA's ineptness in dealing with concerns in Middlefield and their inability to protect citizens' health and safety.
Ron and Laura Duncan
Middlefield
A spurned invitation:
Bravo! Good to see that the tradition of speaking the truth to and about power is alive and well at Cleveland Scene ["Thin Skin Alert!"]. Local clergy and laity held a public hearing on the toxic pollution in Middlefield on Martin Luther King Day. About 30 residents showed up. The Ohio EPA did not, though invited. Typical. What do they have to hide? Take comfort in the fact that no lie lives forever. Thanks for helping to expose a publicly funded depository of them. This is what 31 years of Earth Day has wrought? Keep up the good fighting and writing.
Rev. Werner Lange
Auburn Community Church
Auburn
Shot down over a bungled expression:
Note to Gregory Weinkauf, regarding his review of the Nicole Kidman film Birthday Girl ["Red Snare," January 31]: If you're going to be oh-so-clever and use a foreign phrase like "das vidania," look up the correct spelling, rather than sounding it out phonetically. Although there are different ways to spell the Russian phrase, a common way would be "do svidaniya." That's all for now. Oh rivwahr and ah dee ohs.
Michael Seese
Chagrin Falls
When in doubt, blame White:
I have been reading your newspaper since 1992, and sometimes I agree with your articles and sometimes I don't. I have never been moved to send you a letter before, but the comments in letters from Brian McAllister and Scott Dotson ["If White Were White," February 7] about "Why Mike White Shouldn't Be Forgiven" [January 10] have finally motivated me to write.
As a former Cleveland resident and a longtime follower of Cleveland politics, I must ask you both: What kind of crap were you two smoking when you read the article? Don't you understand that if Cleveland goes into default, it will be squarely the fault of your "hero" Mike White?
Dennis Majka
Strongsville
Sorting out the evolutionary debate:
Author Pete Kotz would have us believe he supports the right of teachers to educate as they see fit ["God, Man of Science," January 31]. Denying the valid core of religious myth is contrary to a spirit of free inquiry. Teaching the "theory" of evolution as the single rational explanation is also contrary to the spirit of science.
Patrick O'Brien
Cleveland
