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LEARNING MORE THAN HOW TO SPELL
Doug Bybee’s satiric description of the National
Spelling Bee was a gem that deftly employed all the nasty caricatures that
emerge in the context of children and parents in school competitions and
the unfortunate class divisions that exist in education [“Spell
T-H-I-S,” June 1]. In the mid-’60s, I was the only fifth-grader
at Indianapolis School No. 50 to have won the school spelling bee;
fortunately, the atmosphere was not nearly as vicious. The eighth-grader I
outspelled graciously commented that she had “never seen a fifth
grader who could spell like that.” I remember my proud father taking
me to the state finals in Indy, how hard my heart pounded as I approached
the microphone, and how disappointed I was when I was flummoxed by some
word I can’t remember now. But I had fun, and the challenge made my
spine a little straighter, I think. Bybee reminds us of how unfortunate it is that we have
turned competition, which should teach character, into a bizarre circus;
our culture conveys the notion that anything worth doing is only worth
doing for money and media attention. Considering all of this, I am
appreciative of my parents’ healthy attitude toward my particular
experience. They didn’t demand that I spend my spare time hunched
over lists of polysyllabic words. I read a lot — they probably
figured that would take me as far as I was able to go. When I told my
mother before attending the state bee that some parents coached their kids
from the dictionary every night after dinner, I think she laughed and
handed me a dishtowel. I never made it to the National Spelling Bee, and by
no means do I mean to denigrate the accomplishment of those hardworking
kids who do. But I suppose my practical parents wanted to teach me some
understanding of the important difference between learning merely how to
show off and excelling by learning responsibility and stuff that helps you
get along in life. Deborah Barnes Tallula
THE REAL STORY ABOUT COAL POWER
Recently I went online to view ads about carbon
dioxide pollution from coal power plants produced by a corporate advocacy
group called the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The CEI sent out a press
release claiming the ads would run in the Springfield area, but no one I
know has seen them on television. One of the most hilariously ridiculous
suggestions made in the slick ads is that carbon dioxide pollution must be
good for the environment because it comes out of our bodies. Feces and
urine come from the body as well, but that doesn’t mean I want them
in my drinking water. Apparently Americans have been wasting billions of
dollars on sewage and waste-treatment systems for years, because, according
to these ads, anything that the body excretes must be good for us. Those who insist that all our energy needs must be met
by carbon dioxide-emitting coal-fired power plants are living in the past.
Efficient and reliable alternatives, such as wind power, are available
today. I’m glad Illinois Times has been telling the real story about the danger coal
power presents to public health and the environment. I hope other local
media outlets will do the same, rather than repeating the kind of outdated
misconceptions found in the CEI advertisements. Will Reynolds Springfield
WHAT ABOUTTHE HAIRY BLUE GUY?
I was greatly disturbed by the rampant misogyny
present in the movie X-Men: The Last Stand [Chuck Koplinski, “To be or not to be,”
May 25]. Jean Grey was a woman with amazing power. She even looked like a
goddess. To think that she would have no control over her power is
ridiculous. She was born with that power and it was hers; of course she
could have controlled her power. Men have always been threatened by the mysteries of
female power, and this movie made me realize that things have not changed
at all. When the audience meets Jean as a child, she is in perfect control
of her powers. Had Charles Xavier not hidden them from her in the first
place, she would have learned to use them properly. In his taking her
powers away from her, one can only assume that he was afraid of her. Also, Logan/Wolverine was attracted to Jean until he
saw her sexual power; then he was threatened. He simply said that it
wasn’t Jean, but it was. The Phoenix was part of Jean; if the two
personalities would have had the chance to meld, she would have been in
control, but Charles didn’t want her to be in control, and neither
did Logan/Wolverine. The message was clear: A “good” woman is
calm and reserved and controllable. A woman with power and sexual desire is
bad and must be destroyed. It is just like when the Christians first took
the image of the pagan goddess and turned her into the docile Virgin Mary.
I was greatly saddened by this movie, and I hope that in the future women
with infinite power can be portrayed as heroines rather than as victims or
villains. Sidney Muncy-DeLeonardo Springfield
BERMUDA TRIANGLE OF THE MIDWEST
Working at a fast-food restaurant is a rite of passage
for every teenager [see Jim Hightower, “Long-distance burger
orders,” June 1]. I should know; I worked at Dairy Queen when I was
16, years ago — that was many years ago. Five of my six kids (all
teens) have worked at Wendy’s, Steak ’n Shake,
McDonald’s, and Sonic. None of them wanted to work fast food, but
fast-food restaurants are always in need of kids. We live in a town that seems to be five years behind
the larger, progressive cities. I am sure that my now-10-year-old son will
get his stint at one of the above restaurants before technology catches up
with Springfield. We lie between St. Louis and Chicago, and sometimes I
think we are in a Bermuda Triangle-like spot in the Midwest. Julie L. Becker Springfield
ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL NONSENSE
As a longtime reader, I was shocked by the latest
offering from Rod Helle [“A double standard,” June 8]. In his
commentary on Ward Churchill and double standards, he seems to support the
“little Eichmanns” thesis that Mr. Churchill has proposed. This
thesis holds that the working-class victims of 9/11 were good people, while
anyone above the rank of janitor or secretary were “a cadre of
faceless bureaucrats and technical experts who had willingly (and
profitably) harnessed themselves to the task of making America’s
genocidal world order hum with maximum efficiency.” What absolute and
total nonsense! I wonder what Mr. Helle thinks when he goes to his local
bank? Are you one of his “faceless bureaucrats”? What kind of
distinction is he really making? It sounds like old communist-speak to me.
He only left out the references to the proletariat. The part of his commentary that really is worth
reviewing came in the final paragraph. This is where Mr. Helle determines
that we must “listen to criticism and change our behavior
accordingly,” his assumption being that Mr. Churchill’s
criticism is completely accurate and must be heeded. That is laughable! The
entire commentary reeked of intellectual superiority, but that sentence
encapsulated it for me. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Helle has been
cashing a government check for many years. Is he part of
“America’s genocidal world order”? The people of Pleasant
Plains must be so proud! Stephen J. Prefountain Greenview
FORGETTING THE LESSONS OF THE PAST
I read with great interest Rod Helle’s
one-sided, narrow-minded commentaries whenever they appear in Illinois Times. He must
have forgotten one of the essentials of studying and understanding history
— that is, not to judge the past by today’s standards. I love
how he attempts to state his opinions as facts and never bothers to look at
or argue any other point of view. If he is such an expert at foreign
policy, military tactics and strategy, and political science, then
I’m sure the State Department or some other government organization
would love to have him. I hope he doesn’t fill his students’
minds with his opinions covered up as facts. That would be a crime worse
than plagiarism. If you every need anyone to refute his nonsense, I’d
be happy to take the job. Chris Callahan Springfield
This article appears in Jun 8-14, 2006.
