ON THE MARCH

This article clearly shows that most black people don’t actively support this movement (“What White Marchers Mean for Black Lives Matter,” Dec. 27, 2017). If you dig a little deeper you will find that the few black people in leadership roles are in many cases paid and directed by white led organizations. Funders like Ben & Jerry’s, the Ford Foundation and small donors may be well intentioned but are not accountable to black citizens.

White allies can do a lot of good by volunteering their time and donating to authentic independent black organizations.

Start with black churches that have led the struggle for justice from the beginning. Many are helping people rebuild their lives after prison. Black neighborhoods have clubs and organizations that are in dire need of help organizing and gaining a voice. Groups like the Boys & Girls Club and Block Watch are actually preventing crime, making life better for the poor and saving black lives. Labor unions are helping black workers gain fair treatment, respect and a living wage. Neighborhood Democratic precinct committees register voters to build political power and hold elected officials accountable, but only when they are active.

These groups need talented volunteers who are willing to listen and be an advocate.

Tom Tito, via email

OK, let’s start from the beginning. Politics is a game where you try to gather the most people to your cause. That’s just a number. The one with the bigger number wins. It doesn’t matter if they’re fat or ugly. One person, one number. You don’t check people’s underpants. You don’t give them a quiz. You don’t try to make them feel stupid for being on your side. You just open your gates and welcome them in. Got it? Super. So let’s try that again.

pmcgann via seattleweekly.com

I’m going to make this short and sweet. The list of reasons why this article is not only offensive but stupid, it is too long, and I don’t have the time today.

One big reason why white males continue to rule—and it is white males that have historically set the rules, the tone, the cultural norms—is because non-white males (women, people of color, LGBT) CANNOT come together in solidarity. We work at cross purposes, the movements are splintered when there should be a single goal for all, non-white males in proportional numbers in business. finance and government.

This article is a perfect example. White people are showing up in solidarity with you and yet you somehow find that to be sinister. Hey, if you would prefer I don’t support your goals…you got it.

mercedes1947 via seattleweekly.com

POST-BURGESS

Nice column. Mr. Burgess will be missed (“How to Make a Real Difference in Seattle,” Jan. 3, 2018). It seemed he was the only “adult in the room.” Now, the ideologically animated City Council will effectively throw pragmatism out the window. Shiny virtue signals without regard to demonstrable effectiveness are so much more satisfying. So they get to claim they’re at the vanguard of something—resistance to Donald Trump, resistance to Capitalism—tangentially related to their job, while they implement half-baked ideas on a broad range of local issues. Narrative uber alles.

Svejk via seattleweekly.com

I also appreciated Burgess’ pragmatism and believe you will come to find that our current council is much more pragmatic than you have been lead to believe.

I feel we are on the precipice of a new type of leadership model that’s been spoken about for decades but has been difficult to achieve on the ground. One that focuses on weighing the needs of the most vulnerable over the immediacy, greed, and influence of capitalism.

anonymous via seattleweekly.com

PROBLEMATIC PIECE

I had to call-out the silly review (“A Pizza With a Pedigree, Potential, and Plenty of Hiccups,” Jan 3, 2018). The author and her hubby must attract really bad service. According to her their waiter delivered 2 pizzas to the table in cardboard delivery boxes. He dropped them on their table, apologized for the mistake and asked if they minded eating from the boxes. Ha! That’s not bad service, it’s ridiculous and a hard to believe account. According to the reviewer the restaurant managed to botch everything except the bill.

My favorite part of the review however is the line, “this dark simulacrum of a dive joint felt refreshingly low-brow.” She’s saying, I guess, that the restaurant is trying to look like a dive, but isn’t really a dive. But its “refreshingly low-brow.” Huh? I sense the author was so eager to use one of her fav high-brow words (simulacrum) she managed to mangle the sentence.

It cracks me up when an author tries a little too hard work in a word nobody ever uses in common speech and blows the sentence in the process.

Thanks for the entertaining review, Simulacrum Reviewer!

SWreaderRob via email