Dennis Jordan's "Gamecocks" Was Terrific; Jordan's Cock Should Be...; MUGGER's Sports Fans and Patriots Weigh In; New Yorkers: Take Back Your Nightlife; Ahoy, Taki!; More
Well, They Are, Actually
Your pro-cockfight cover story was awesome! What next? Pro-child pornography, perhaps? C'mon, pedophiles are human beings too!
Kalervo Ervasti, Manhattan
Island of Dr. Moreau
It is one thing to know that despicable acts of violence and brutality take place every day. It is quite another when a media source such as New York Press publishes an article that endorses and promotes such acts. Dennis Jordan's piece, "Gamecocks of New York" (8/29), seeks to "explain" his sick fascination with the bloodsport of cockfighting in New York City. He should see a shrink in order to determine where his love for blood and guts comes from.
Mr. Jordan justifies this mindless carnage with the totally inane statement, "We break the Ten Commandments whenever it's convenient or we can't help ourselves." Let him speak for himself, this obvious mental and spiritual midget. Perhaps Mr. Jordan enjoys living in a world where theft, adultery, rape and murder are the order of the day. But not everyone is so morally bereft and unable to follow the laws of God, country and civilization. What a pity we cannot simply deport those who cannot respect the laws of human decency to some sort of private island where they can pillage, brutalize and murder each other.
Patty Adjamine, Manhattan
Pro-Scribe
Dennis Jordan can write. I've never been to a cockfight, but I've known plenty who have. I've never written an article but I've read many who can. Jordan can.
Jerry Fraley, Oklahoma City
Sports Reporting Til You Drop
MUGGER: I missed the Aug. 27 issue of Sports Illustrated, but then I have missed the last decade for the most part (8/29). The problem with SI is similar to that in other portions of the media, the only difference is that sports reporting has declined a little slower when compared to the general decline. When I think of SI, I think of Rick Reilly on ESPN radio telling everyone who could hear that anyone who opposed Casey Martin's playing on the PGA tour was a racist and a plain old idiot. So much for thoughtful research on a court case that has more significance than the ability of one man to play golf.
Then there was Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, who decided that China should get the Olympics. Since we in America have the death penalty, how could we criticize China on the human rights issue? And what about Skip Bayless, who on another talk show last year decided that Sammy Sosa was overrated and never performed in the clutch. A man who hits 50 or more homers four years in a row and averages almost 140 RBIs over the past five years will make some clutch hits just by accident. When you average nearly one RBI per game, you are an everyday performer.
Writers like Shirley Povich and Red Smith were masters of the English language and they could turn sports figures into legends by the stroke of the pen. Who can forget Grantland Rice's description of the four horsemen nearly eight decades ago? With the decline of journalism in general, why should sports be any different?
As for the Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet was a classic affair. "Stray Cat Blues" was the ultimate tribute to groupies and every parent's nightmare. "Sympathy for the Devil," with its guitar riff combined with Nicky Hopkins' piano playing, is one of the top-five rock tunes. The only real loser is "Street Fighting Man," which is dated. Considering that all of the Stones are now millionaires several times over, this song is pure crap. However, I'd have to say the Stones' best overall album is Exile on Main Street. After that album, they merely became parodies of themselves. Rock 'n' roll was never designed for the very old, only the young. My college-age daughters cannot believe my attachment to the Stones. As one told me, "Mick Jagger can't sing." This is my only revenge on my kids?they put on NSYNC and I will counter with the Stones.
Tom Donelson, Marion, IA
Cranky Aryan Granpa
Regarding Eva Neuberg's article on cabaret laws ("New York City," 8/22), it seems your definition of the city that never sleeps is mistaken. "Fun City" is not a Swiss canton, nor is it a hippie commune or some kibbutz. Your overconcern for the hopped-up crowd to dance and carry on where and whenever they please is possibly a form of kiddie porn in itself, if not a social disease. As for the blame placed on our puritanical American roots, surely you can see the similarities in the Jewish ethic, especially here in Jew York. When the city was civilized you could go dancing during the lunch hour.
Rich Cerbo, Hackensack, NJ
A Call to Hips
Thank you for your coverage of the most excellent forum provided by the concerned citizens at No Dancing Allowed. For the last three years we at the Dance Liberation Front have been advocating the seemingly radical notion that moving your own body to music should not be illegal in this city. It's a very sad state of affairs in the self-proclaimed "Cultural Capital of the World" when our citizens' spontaneous expressions of joy are illegal.
Government has many useful functions including the regulation of commercial activity and the enforcement of fire, safety, noise and public nuisance laws. We are at a loss to find a reasonable government interest on the dance floor. It is the city's failure to enforce all the perfectly applicable ordinances to the very real concerns and complaints that residents have that has resulted in today's Kafkaesque status-quo. Your tax dollars are paying the wages of undercover dance police. Honest businessmen are being treated like criminals and yet the streets are as noisy as ever. Banning dancing hasn't stopped one street brawl, prevented a single drunken serenade or muffled one out-of-control taxi horn. All the ban has done is make us all look ridiculous.
New York nightlife contributes to both the economy and our reputation as a tourist mecca. That hard-won reputation?remember Mayor Lindsay's "Fun City"?is in serious danger. Clubgoers are routinely subjected to onerous searches while legal establishments are constantly harassed during their prime operating hours by the "Nightlife Task Force" demanding licenses and conducting inspections. These visits are designed to be as unpleasant as possible for both the club and its patrons. The city's message is clear: if you run a successful venue, club or restaurant, then you are not welcome here. Wake up, New Yorkers, and take back your city.
Rob Prichard, Manhattan
Lone Stars & Stripes
MUGGER: Your comments on "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem are right on target. People of all nations believe in the beauty and majesty of their own countries. America is beautiful but that's not what is important. The thing that sets America above all the rest is freedom and that song is about fighting to preserve it.
The song may be hard to sing, but that's because most people do not practice singing it often enough. Except for an occasional sporting event, when do you ever hear it played? And there're those moron entertainers who forget the words. Can you imagine them forgetting the words to a song at the Academy Awards or the Grammys? They rehearse for those gigs.
I take the last line in the first stanza to be a challenge. The answer to the question, "O, say, does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" must always be yes, or our precious freedom will evaporate.
John Manguso, San Antonio
A.I.?The Lost Episodes
I wanted to add a few brief brief words regarding the half-year film assessment by Armond White (8/22). Defending Jurassic Park III, well, that ain't criticism, it's boosterism. Armond seems to defend movies by pointing out the alternatives. But no matter how lame X-Men, Lara Croft and Pearl Harbor are, it doesn't make A.I. good. Pearl Harbor (and Speed and Swordfish) and A.I. can all suck. Really.
Maybe comparing A.I. with Blade Runner, Small Soldiers, Aliens or Star Trek: the Next Generation (every third episode was about Data's emerging humanity) might be more relevant, in terms of subject matter and quality. At the same time, if the autumn and winter don't offer better films, this will be Memento's year. Yuck! My own favorite films thus far are The Gleaners and I, Nowhere to Hide and The River.
Virgil Chong, Manhattan
Ahoy!
Taki: "Victory at Sea" ("Top Drawer," 8/29) was such a lovely piece. Congratulations.
Gregory Dole, Ottawa, Ontario
Possibly
Scott McConnell: The "conventional wisdom" is that the Palestinians won't be satisfied with anything short of the destruction of Israel and the ridding of that land of every last Jew ("Taki's Top Drawer," 8/29). Is the "conventional wisdom" wrong? Have not all of the adversaries of Israel, save Egypt, vociferously expressed, in their silence, that Israel has no right to exist? Am I missing something in your thinking?
Mike Smith, Greendale, WI
NATO's Lies
Thanks to George Szamuely for his expose of the false claims of mass murder of Kosovo Albanians in Serbia in 1999 ("Taki's Top Drawer," 8/22). As an ordinary reader following the news, I thought at first that surely the mass dead were Serbs, killed by NATO bombs. The newspapers, however, claimed that they were all Muslim Albanians, giving rise to the gruesome thought that the bodies had been examined for circumcision, thus proving that they were Muslims.
On the contrary, Szamuely exposes the entire claim as a hoax, while stating that in fact one truckload of victims had been noted. Many of the victims were women who had been forced into prostitution by the gangsters who infest that part of the world. Why does NATO lie to us, and why has the U.S. government been its patsy?
Clara Avis, Brooklyn
Helms vs. Weld
MUGGER: You got it all wrong in your Jesse Helms column (8/29). His best moment was when he stopped William Weld from attaining the ambassador to Mexico position. I lived in the People's Republic of Massachusetts during the Weld years. Weld muffed a golden opportunity to restore a two-party system to that state. He took the typical moderate Republican's tactic (see Richard Riordan and former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson) of wheeling and dealing with the Dems, placating them by deliberately refusing to strengthen the GOP organization and providing better management for their welfare state.
The GOP, after attaining a substantial minority in both houses of the legislature on Weld's coattails in 1990, slipped steadily down to their present meager numbers. Weld gave patronage jobs in state government to defeated legislators in order to silence any criticism of his refusal to campaign for them during the previous fall. After Jane Swift's probable defeat next year, Tom Birmingham, the Boston Globe's favorite gubernatorial candidate, will take the state right back to Dukakis policies, and that will be Weld's true legacy.
Anthony Waller, Hamilton, NJ
Hey Sailor
"...[Helms is] a protectionist, homophobe, at least marginally a racist..." But MUGGER, you liked him (8/29)! Also, Taki's piece about Cowes ("Top Drawer," 8/29) shows what a jerk he is and how little he knows about sailing. He reminisces about the many races his father won with Nefertiti. Well, Nefertiti could barely get out of her own wake when Ted Hood sailed her. How she would go with those simpletons boggles the mind. Tell him to stick to chasing overage Sloane Rangers.
By the way, did you take your kids to the new ballpark in Coney Island? Talk about corporate socialism.
Mort Weintraub, Larchmont, NY
Bonzo Journalism
MUGGER: One thing I must say for you: your sometimes macabre interpretations of events open up new horizons for the study of history. For example, your retroactive vindication of Jesse Helms because his support in North Carolina assured Reagan of ultimate victory in 1976 (8/29) must offer some consolation to Holocaust revisionists. After all, by similar reasoning, if there had been no Hitler, we would never have had The Producers. I can already see the lightbulbs going on in the fertile mind of Mel Brooks. (Perhaps "Spring and Fall for Jesse"?) What about your selective myopia in which you term Helms an unequivocal "homophobe," but only "at least marginally racist"? Try running that by North Carolina's African-American community?but I would advise you not to wait for an answer.
Henry Foner, via Internet
Russ Smith replies: Foner is indeed a very attentive reader. As I stated in "MUGGER," Helms' support of Reagan in the '76 GOP primaries was indeed crucial, but President Ford won the nomination that year. The point is that because of Reagan's string of victories after North Carolina in '76 he was well set up for 1980 and became the most important president of the latter half of the 20th century.
Yay-Rod
Loved the exclamation point after the "O" in the "Star Spangled Banner" lyrics ("MUGGER," 8/29). Brought back memories of Wild Bill Hagy. By the way, I'm a relative of Rod Beck (by marriage?his) and I mourn for his younger, hard slider days, but age has a way of slowing you down. It's a real shame since he appeared to me, when I saw him here in Houston for their preseason game with the Astros, to be in his best shape in quite some time. Let me also add that he's one of the nicest professional athletes I've ever known?courteous to everyone, but especially kids. I still vividly remember him chastising an usher who was trying to close up the Astrodome a few years back when Rod played for the Cubs and was still signing for some youngsters long after everyone else had gotten on the team bus. Not too many of those kind are still around it would appear.
Ron Kurtz, Spring, TX
Dining Late with Ron Ketner
MUGGER: You missed a winner in Savannah (8/22). The Shrimp Factory on the river walk is wonderful.
Ron Ketner, Silvis, IL
A Man You Don't Meet Every Day
Gentlemen: I had truly hoped that you would not be taking a collective late-summer vacation, like another unmentioned and unworthy site with "Premium" content. Yet here I am, locked in a studio apartment for a tediously long weekend with nothing but absurdly bad news from across the country and a conspicuously quiet Press. Who knows what to make of Bush's blindfolded Social Security handlings, but the decision of the administration to encourage China to amass nuclear weapons so that they will possibly accept watching us waste billions of otherwise useful dollars, perpetuate advanced weaponry races and generally lose face suggests an ineptitude or contempt for the public that defies comment. And maybe that's why you've got nothing to say about it, MUGGER.
Look, I couldn't care less about professional baseball, but I have lived in Boston and I do understand despondency. With the domestic political news as it is, Bush's waning persuasiveness and little consolation from you guys, I've had to retire to my room accompanied only by Fugazi's In on the Kill Taker. Cockburn came closest ("Wild Justice," 8/29), but the fact is that Bush is always absent. If I don't get the usual variety of wry commentary, casual dissent and Bush apologetics soon, it's going to be the Pogues' Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash next weekend.
Daric Desautel, El Paso
Usually MUGGER is both annoying and entertaining, given his wild hyperbole, but in complaining about the liberal media's treatment of the tax-cut-and-dwindling-surplus issue ("Daily Billboard," 8/27), he was more disingenuous than usual. He seemed to argue that liberals are claiming Bush's tax cuts contributed to the recession. Maybe some are (I don't pretend to speak for Newsweek), but most understand that the real issue is the surplus. When Bush first announced the size of the surplus, most economists disagreed with his estimates and many pointed out the tricks that had been used to inflate the figure. Bush used those numbers (which he or someone in his circle had to know were false) to justify the tax rebates and tax cuts. The real issue is that Bush's administration pushed through a tax cut knowing that there was no way to pay for it. That's the scandal.
MUGGER's attitude toward Jesse Helms' resignation is horrifying. Bear in mind, one can admire a politician who totally ignored public opinion and gleefully remained obstinate throughout his entire career. But MUGGER claims that Helms was "at least marginally racist." Marginally? Helms' entire career was devoted to fighting against civil rights for African-Americans. Just about every single piece of legislation that came his way that promised even marginally to better the life of most (or even any) African-Americans, he fought against. I won't even go into his well-known homophobia. But this man, who actively campaigned to make minorities' lives miserable, is championed by MUGGER simply because he pissed off The New York Times. So go to it, racists, bigots, homophobes, KKKers, White Power groups, anti-Semites, etc., etc.?you have MUGGER's blessing as long as you piss off the Times. By the way, when people refer to the "new" North Carolina, they're not talking about John Edwards' personality per se, they're referring to the fact that fewer residents of the state are reactionary, homophobic, ancient bigots.
Dagny Roark, Manhattan
Buffalo Soldier
MUGGER: I was tempted to joust with you about the overrated vs. underrated comments (8/29), but I have learned to avoid subjective black holes. I did, however, enjoy the comments on Coney Island and it made me wax nostalgic about my young days in Houston. There was a great old amusement park in Houston near the site of the Astrodome, that was the Coney Island of my mind (forgive me, Mr. Ferlinghetti). It was a great place and although I have never been to Coney Island I believe they were distant cousins.
Long before the Colt 45's, aka the Astros, came into existence, Houston was home to a AAA ball club called the Houston Buffaloes, or as we fondly called them, the Houston Buffs. They played in an old Minor League park, known as Buff Stadium. It was a great place to spend a day or an evening, and I will never forget the sounds and smells that greeted me when I passed through the turnstiles there. The smells of cigars, mustard, grilled onions, hotdogs, hamburgers, popcorn and roasted peanuts filled my nostrils while my ears were treated to the sounds of the organ on the mezzanine level playing all the familiar favorites?too many to mention here. The great expanse of green that was the field, and the red clay that was the mound and the base paths, the smack of the ball striking the heart of the glove as the players warmed up and played "pepper," the sights and sounds that accompanied baseball played in such intimate surroundings?this has never been equaled in my experience.
I know my recollections are those of a young boy, and my contemporary experiences are those of a callous adult, but I miss those days. Both of my sons far surpassed my expectations as ballplayers and are now enjoying baseball in college. The oldest, after having completed his playing days, is embarking upon a college baseball coaching career. The youngest is beginning his college playing days this school year. I have often talked to them about my youthful awe and early recollections. They understand, and I hope they have those kinds of memories, that I consider magical, to take into the rest of their lives. I hope your boys can share those same magical memories with you. You are a good writer, and in all probability a good dad. I enjoy how you make your family relevant and how you aren't afraid to show your emotional attachment to your beloved Red Sox. Keep pitching and we'll keep catching.
Tracy Meadows, Brenham, TX
"Horrifying Nightmare" Is an Understatement
I was very glad to see MUGGER's high praise for the Rolling Stones' "Salt of the Earth" (8/29), which I've come to think of as one of the group's four or five best songs. It's worth hearing the version that concludes The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus, the CD from their legendary 1968 tv show that finally got a public release in 1996. Maybe it's because he was conscious of the tv audience, but Jagger enunciates like he never had before. The version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" should end all debates about what words Mick was actually singing.
Since MUGGER calls attention to John Strausbaugh's anti-rock geezer book, Rock Til You Drop, let's just say this. Yeah, David Crosby is an obvious target and "Almost Cut My Hair" was an insipid song even back in 1970. I am sure that at least 80 percent of the 60s and 70s bands still playing put on shows that are as flabby as their bellies. But recent shows I saw by Dave Davies and Roxy Music were exciting and memorable. They are in fine form. Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera had particularly lean and hungry looks. If your goal is not nostalgia, but actually hearing good music, no age limit need be imposed. Besides, a geezer plugging in and playing guitar is far from the biggest problem with popular music today. And it's not the reason why young rock bands are not finding their audiences. MTV has a target audience of nine-to-15-year-olds, and that's what dictates what the public sees and hears.
Total Request Live has a playlist of about 10 songs. All of them are dreadful. The work of people like Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey is so generic that it is hard to recall the name of a single one of their songs. The incessant airing on local news outlets of clips from Madonna's recent concert tour only points out what a horrifying nightmare it must have been to be at those shows, and how, almost singlehandedly, that woman has managed to destroy popular music. Do MUGGER or Strausbaugh actually believe old coots like David Crosby are the reason why someone like Aimee Mann, who's made three extraordinary CDs in a row, is barely a blip on the public consciousness? It's not Crosby who's keeping her off the airwaves.
Jean Benoit, Ossining
MUGGER: The Pause that Refreshes
MUGGER: Thanks for the article (8/29). It was nice and refreshing to find someone willing to express some pride and sentiment in something worthwhile.
Gregory Taft, Edgewood, WA
That's a Little Harsh
MUGGER: Another beauty today (8/29). Thanks for slamming Jeff MacGregor. He is obviously a frontrunner and if not a Yankee fan, is certainly undiscriminating enough to become one. Keep up the good work and, by the way, I won't get a good night's sleep until someone breaks both of Jose Offerman's legs.
Larry Dempsey, Modesto, CA
Bush, Ball & Beggars
MUGGER: Your "Daily Billboard"s give me a few additional shots a week. Nice sideways hit at Terry McAuliffe (8/27), if a bit reflexive, but I doubt you'll be able to tar the Dems as the party of soft money. Both teams are knee-deep in it, and why not? As for the budget debate debacle, God knows I don't understand a word of it, but my own theory has always been that voters vote based on their understanding of political headlines, among other things, and rarely on anything beyond the first paragraph. Which is to say, this week's headline is: Bush Makes Like Houdini and the Surplus Disappears. This may not be fair, but it's a well-honed political weapon we can all thank Ross Perot for, and at the moment it's advantage Dems by a considerable margin.
Picking on delusional readers from Texas is like taking a sledgehammer to a gnat, and while Bubba couldn't care less about campaign finance reform, he knew a good wedge issue when he saw one. He might well have been willing to kneel and swallow to get the desired political result. As always, the Yankees stumble, the Red Sox stumble and ESPN is already pimping the 11-game holy war. For me, having attended the nightmare at Edison Field last night, it comes down to a fairly simple calculation. Who takes the worst hit? Lowe and Beck, or Stanton and Witasick/Wohlers? That is anybody's guess. Nice to see Pedro back, though. Now if we can just pick up Ventura for the weekend.
On the Stones: I got Beggars Banquet off the shelf and have been listening to it all morning. Also worthwhile are a couple bootlegs I picked up at a Bleecker St. record store that offer a kind of alternative universe, one where Mick sings "You Got the Silver" and the Banquet tunes are rehearsed and sometimes turned inside out. Mick also prefaces a 1969 Hyde Park show by reading a Shelley elegy?"peace, he is not dead, he doth not sleep, he hath awakened from the dream of life, tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife"?for Brian Jones. Sure, it's a little pompous, and Mick's strife was never anything less than profitable, but then he shouts out an Awlright and they dive into "I'm Yours, She's Mine," followed by "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and I still get some goosebumps of my own.
I bought a photograph last year of the Stones in New York, young and just off the boat. They're in Times Square and there's a Canadian Club sign behind them, and an Admiral Television sign just below it, with a movie marquee declaiming The Pink Panther "a funny romp." The picture speaks volumes. Watts looks bored. Wyman has a thumb rakishly inserted into his belt. Keith looks younger than the rest and has an unfortunate pimple on his cheek. Mick looks like he's thinking of something else, probably the day when he'll be in charge of this enterprise. And Brian stands at the front, clearly the leader of the group, more confident, more poised than the rest, and a long way, well, not long enough, from the bottom of the swimming pool.
Harley Peyton, Santa Monica
He Prefers to Listen to Cheap Trick
MUGGER: I'm a bit concerned about your vacation (8/22). Outside of the crabcakes and the black snakes (and humming Skynyrd tunes), it doesn't sound like you're having a heckuva lot of fun. After finishing up the Mencken collection, perhaps you could borrow Jr.'s book on The Simpsons.
Melissa Rossi, Madrid
You Go, Patriot!
MUGGER: Great column, as usual (8/29). And here's the fourth (and final) verse of "The Star Spangled Banner": "Oh, thus be it ever when Free Men shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation. Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a Nation. Then conquer we must, for our clause it is just. And this be our motto, 'in God is our trust.' And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." If I'm ever called to sing at a ballgame, that's the verse I'd like to sing.
Eric M. Bram, Poughkeepsie
Never Mess with a Skynyrd Fan...
MUGGER: Shame on you. Lynyrd Skynyrd had many great songs. Not all, but many. Sometimes you must look beyond what AM radio plays. Try "The Needle and the Spoon," "Working for MCA," "Roll Gypsy Roll."
Bill Craig, Detroit
...or a Nolan Ryan Fan
MUGGER: I agree that Whitey Ford was a superb pitcher, but to say that Nolan Ryan is absurdly overrated is itself absurd (8/29). Ford won 236 games in 16 seasons with Yankee teams that won the World Series six times and the AL pennant four other times. The teams Ford was on won more than 95 in 10 of the seasons he pitched. Ryan played on only one team that won more than 100 games. The 1969 "Miracle" Mets (they won 100) were only his third season in the majors. Only three times in his 27-year career did the team he played on win more than 90 games. Most of the teams he was on were below .500 and he still won 324 games. He threw seven no-hitters and 12 one-hitters and is one of few pitchers with 300 wins and 3000 strikeouts (he actually had, of course, more than 5714 strikeouts, which is more than 1500 more than the next guy, Steve Carlton).
To call Nolan Ryan absurdly overrated is just plain wrong. I can only imagine how many wins he would have had if he had played 16 of his 27 years for the powerhouse Yankee teams that Ford was on.
Steve Hume, Canton, MI
Not a Scientist
I am disgusted by the article by Dennis Jordan titled "Gamecocks of New York" (8/29). This article drones on and on about how "the people will do what the people will do" and how that's "nature's way." Enjoyment of subjecting another creature to pain is the way of man, not any other species, including women. Arguing that cockfighting should be allowed by comparing it to other evils is ridiculous. Jordan refers to Mississippi and Louisiana as being "enlightened"?maybe it's just me, but enlightened is not how I envision Louisiana.
Particularly disturbing was the graphic description of a cockfight in which one of the cocks' face is ripped open and bleeding, but his instinct won't allow him to stop fighting. I'm not sure if Jordan is developmentally challenged, but those instincts are in place for survival in the wild, not in a ring with a bunch of drunk, idiotic men cheering at the pain it's enduring. Once again, that's men, not any other species, including women.
Jessica Glass, Manhattan
Natura o Cultura?
"Gamecocks of New York" was a terrific piece of writing. I think that Dennis Jordan should have added a few items to his list at the article's end of things people will do because it's "nature's way": How about robbing body parts from living or dead prisoners in other countries, or aborting fetuses who turn out to be the wrong gender or whose cells can be used in transplants or research.
I really think that this piece glared some much-needed light on the negative stereotypes in the Hispanic community, who behave violently and wildly and whose natures have them buying into the something-for-nothing promises of illegal gambling. They are attracted to uncivilized endeavors that individuals such as "Hector" proudly wear on their sleeves as proof of being true to their traditions. They even label those who do not take an interest in these activities as "anglicized."
I really think that Dennis Jordan, however inadvertently, gave us all a much-needed wake-up call to, if nothing else, observe what culture can do to people if they allow it to.
Lucy Martinez, Manhattan
A Sensitive Soul
I'm opposed to capital punishment in the abstract, but I long to be the judge, jury and executioner for every animal abuser who has ever defiled the planet with his presence. I have a fantasy: after I die, I will have my own reality show, Killed by an Angel, in which I will be a cross between Charles Bronson and the archangel Michael?an avenging angel for the animals. My fantasy was again awakened after reading "Gamecocks of New York." Jordan's philosophy is that "people will do what the people will do." That is certainly true of lazy, selfish people who do not have the brains or heart to make conscious choices in life, and who scratch every itch, no matter the consequences to others. Some of us are actually pleased to have evolved past our cavemen and Roman arena past.
Jordan succeeded in his goal of "explaining" his fervor for bloodsports. He and his friends are amoral, immature, irresponsible, thugs who lack the most basic marks of civilized behavior?and they are proud of it. Let these cowards, who live vicariously through the animals they force to fight, offer up their own bodies instead.
Susan Gordon, N. Plainfield, NJ
God on the AM Dial
Scott Pellegrino intends to shock us by writing that Phil Boyce answered, "Why should I?" to the question of why he doesn't hire liberal and leftist black hosts (i.e., the kind who agree with Mr. Pellegrino) at WABC radio ("New York City," 8/15). But indeed?and I ask this as someone of Tolstoy-like politics, not the Republican kind?why should he? The media pays attention to Democrat, liberal, left-wing "nationalist" and even black-supremacist blacks on a regular basis (Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, Louis Farrakhan and so on). The same media virtually ignores conservative and actively Christian blacks. Ever heard a single black preacher covered by the media as he does what thousands of black Christians do every week: tell people that the most important thing in human life is to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him spend eternity with God?
No, the mainstream media would rather cover the "Reverend" Sharpton (a supporter of the megalomaniacal "Reverend" Moon, who blasphemously claims to be the Second Coming) and the "Reverend" Jackson (the last time he preached Christ as Savior instead of the policies of the Democratic Party may have been the first time). So why should the program director of a generally conservative radio station give more attention to such individuals, especially when his stati