Again, great article; probably the best I've seen on him (seen the one in the New Yorker?)
Phil Ellenbecker
Joplin, Missouri
Let's suppose Mr. Wright had never operated there, providing the area with a supply of used car parts (Broadway Ford is not cheap). Let's suppose that the junk man was never there and that the price of the Hooper and the Boley residences had not been cheap. Would these people have even been able to move into the area? The very thing they are fighting is the thing that enabled them to buy in the area. Gentrification is the thing: older areas being bought up by the gentry, then the running out of the poorer people.
We are all in it for the money. Buy low, sell high, to hell with the poorer people. They can go somewhere else. And the city will help the gentry run them out.
We could just leave these things alone. The days of this type of junkyard are numbered. It's called corporate America. In a few years, we won't own cars. The Big Three will lease us a car. Same with property. And up goes the price, just like gas.
Animal Farm and 1984 are here. Bureaucracies abound. These people have to have something to do.
Charlie Williard
Kansas City, Missouri
Also, thank you so very much for the return of Free Will Astrology. Furthermore, the art reviews by Theresa Bembnister continue to be cutting-edge and concise. She is tops!
Renée Robertson
Kansas City, Missouri
He writes that Chen's story was poorly written and would be something that the National Enquirer would write. Has this man not read his own columns? Just a few weeks ago, he wrote an article full of half-truths and innuendo about Heartland Pride (Kansas City's Gay Pride Festival). Does he think it makes him legitimate to say things like "rumor has it" or "the rumor mill is at it again," to make his points? That is EXACTLY what the National Enquirer does each week.
As far as saying the Pitch article was poorly written, again I ask, has this man not read his own articles? His articles are routinely written with bad grammar, bad punctuation and just bad material. I realize Mr. Martin is not a real journalist, but if you are going to point a finger, maybe you should turn that finger around and point to yourself.
As far as being one-sided, or a double-standard, again I say, does this man not read his own columns? C'mon, Mr. Martin -- I have been going out to gay bars and clubs in this city for almost twenty years, and to say that what happened at the DB Warehouse is isolated is most certainly not the truth, and you know it. I am sure that the DB management "technically" does not condone this type of behavior, but they have been "turning the other cheek," so to speak, for years.
I personally enjoy the DB and every gay bar and gay club in this city. And I say, to each his own. Now, what is fun and what is considered legal are sometimes two different things. I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course.
George Martin, I say to you, and to quote you, "Be careful where you stick your nose -- you could get a rude awakening!" Or better yet, take a journalism class; your column regularly offends me and many others!
Jeffery Hickman
aka Loreal (local female impersonator)
Kansas City, Missouri
Being gay is one thing, and being a Flaming Sick Know-it-all Fag is another. Dan, no one gives a shit about your personal life.
Name Withheld Upon Request
