HIP-HOP TO IT

I appreciate you shining a light on what’s going on (“Despite obstacles, the Monterey County hip-hop scene keeps the faith,” July 22-28). I also really appreciated how you looked at it from different angles and included other artists and history.

I honestly believe that locals think that hip-hop culture is only what they see on TV or hear on the radio. I actually had a young couple tell me that they had no idea that shows like ours even existed. It really saddens me that our own community hasn’t been behind us. We’ve been doing shows for nearly two years in Monterey at this point and it seems like our turnouts are better anywhere but here. I’ve actually had more people from San Jose show up regularly than those that come from our area! I hope enough people read your article, take notice, and it will make a difference. Either way, I really appreciate the effort.

Peace n bless, --Mike De Lay, Jr. (a.k.a. DJ Mike J of Joint Venture) | Marina

SCHOOL STATIC

Your coverage of contemporary school issues such as Bay View elementary charterschool plans and the new open enrollment legislation are the kind of reporting I would expect of your newspaper. However, your story (“Computer consultant’s role at County Office of Education questioned,” July 22-28) about a 2008 consultant used by the current County superintendent of Schools was hashed out ad nauseam in the recent election. It’s timethe reporter and thesuperintendent’s opponentsrecognize the election is over andproceedwith identifying anddealing with the infinitely more critical education issues the county and state facethan old news and the relocation ofan employee bulletin board. --Harvey Kuffner, member, Monterey County School Board| Carmel

MEDIA CRITIC

So what is your rag, a right-wing fascist publication or a left-wing commie publication?

I was recently ear-witness to a heated debate concerning your weekly and one guy was saying you’ve sold out to the right-wing business community while the other guy was saying he won’t read your commie rag.

The way I see politics is akin to a Mobius strip. You take a strip of paper and write all the political positions across it going from one extreme to the other: Right-wing fascist, neo-ultra-conservative, old-fashioned Jeffersonian conservative, Libertarian centrist (the most rational of all, of course), old-fashioned FDR liberal, neo-ultra-liberal, and left-wing fascist. Now you take the two ends to bring them together to form a loop but you give one end a 180-degree twist before taping the ends together. Voila!, le Mobius realized!

You discover the right-wing fascists morph into left-wing fascists: They are one in the same! Just a little twist.

Coming from the Libertarian centrist position I have the benefit of the objective perspective so I don’t get sucked into extremist debates. I see the Monterey County Weekly as having simply succumbed to journalistic senility to keep the advertising dollars flowing in. Your rag was once the real alternative rag on this trust-funder peninsula, but you’ve become banal and that is sad indeed. I understand the need to survive in the publication biz, but the MCW has lost the radical soul it once had.

Those two debaters were both wrong because banality isn’t worth debating! --Jeffrey Van Middlebrook | Pacific Grove