-Drew Tipson| Dear Hermes, livia gershon’s "Klekolo Coffee World: A Sampler" (March 1997) was interesting in a kind of, like, you know, rilly condescending way. though it’s about time Wesleyan gave some credit to court street’s Den of Sociology, especially since so many of you spend so much time there, i did not appreciate ms. gershon’s superior undertone. it is clear that her intentions were the opposite in this middletown exposé of sorts, but it sounded an awful lot like she was saying, "hey, guys, look! these people aren’t rich or formally educated, but like, they’re just like us, almost!" oh, how liberal; what controversial material this is! it’s sickening to consider the possibility that members of the wesleyan community think that having a well-to-do Mommy and Daddy who will pay for a college as outrageously expensive as wesleyan is, and subsequently procuring a degree from a university such as wesleyan is a prerequisite for being you know, like SMART and socially conscious. along this vein, ms. gershon could have done a much better job in presenting a diverse cross-section of klekolo clientele. because there are actually middletown residents who, oh, have careers, college degrees, interesting personalities, and social consciences. there are even people who go to klekolo to buy coffee. in any case, this letter is not to imply that i don’t read and enjoy hermes. i especially enjoyed john kamp’s post-1990 debbie gibson in the march issue, and i just can’t get over that whole hermes slaying argus thing, that’s so cool. i suggest that in the future you continue to distribute copies of hermes at klekolo, because, you know, like maybe some of the kids who hang out there will learn to read and pick up a copy. xoxoxoxoxoxo medusa |
A correction: In my March article on media abuses I unfortunately committed one myself. In the section on anti-rape activist Karen Palmer, my wording made it sound as if NBC had created the composite sketch of her rapist which the Santa Monica Police used to wrongfully arrest young black men. In reality, the composite sketch was drawn and abused by Santa Monica Police just after Ms. Palmer’s rape occurred. NBC then used the sketch for their December 4 broadcast, making no mention of the police abuses or the viability of the sketch despite repeated protest from Mrs. Palmer.
Also, just as an update on my piece, the FCC has just turned over new broadcasting space (estimated value ranging from $40 to 70 billion) to established TV networks almost for free. Television bandwidth, legally the sole property of the public, will thus remain instead solely in the hands of the large networks without even the possibility of it being publicly auctioned or forming special channels reserved for non-commercial organizations. The new bandwidth is being made available to prepare for the onset of digital TV (which is set to completely phase out analog TV by 2006). Upside: wider and higher definition TV. Downside: $2000 new TV sets (or a $150 to $300 converter) and, as usual, no public control over any television content.-Drew Tipson