Scene4 Magazine | letters to the editor

What a great story and it shows so much about what actors go through when they train. One never knows where inspiration comes from. But what a tease. How about telling us who the actor was? Come on, he won't mind.
Winnie S.
read Arthur Meiselman's article.

Congratulations to Karren Alenier and good luck with the new book. I have been an avid reader of your column for all these years and I hope to continue. It has been a great pleasure.
Anee S. Waterson
read Karren Alenier's column

This was one of Sundance's better years. It looks like Redford&Co are finally getting the A-list recognition they deserve. Thanks for the compact and well-written looksee at what when on this year.
Ben in LA
read Arthur Kenegis' and Molly Post's article

Arthur, I remember this happened in the 60s. During that time I was a student at John Point Baptist high school, on 51st and State streets. I lived in the Robert Taylor homes, a low income housing project by Mayor Daley, the current mayor’s father.

There was a lot of racist violence going on about Reverend Martin Luther King’s death, the death of President John Kennedy and about Robert Kennedy being shot too. My community felt the government was behind all of this. The news was full of the war and so many young people dying; mostly men, worried about fighting in another country.

In 1967 I was a Black Panther. I was an anti-war activist, for they were taking many black men out of jail and sending them to the war with no training—just a gun and a uniform. I was fighting for justice, plus stopping the war. The Black Panthers consisted of non-violent activists and some revolutionaries for we had to protect our community center on 49th and State Street. Each morning, before school, I would go there to help feed the poor children and families. I felt proud to be a Panther; a non-violent activist for peace. I saw Bobby Seal at that center at a few meetings with Angela Davis. They would talk to us about the fight against the system and the war. A few times Angela would stop by.

On this one special night many Blacks came to the place we called the Circle. Bobby Seal and Angela Davis informed us that President Johnson had declared war. The Chicago police tried to start problems with Bobby Seal and Black Panthers— his trial with the Chicago 8 was all over the news and people for stopping the war came out in the thousands. We felt justice was wrongly served.

One Sunday morning in Grant Park, there was a rally. The city police came after Bobby Seal and his special followers, but Angela Davis got away. Each time they arrested Bobby Seal the city would show him being gagged. That became a racial problem not only for African Americans, but many other races.

All at once there was open war on Chicago, like we were a country out to destroy the world. There were beatings and shootings of young people and older people too. Many other cultures who were for stopping the war, like the hippies, if you were white; you were beaten like you were black. Robert Taylor homes (people) were all black back then—we were attacked almost everyday.

Then it was the big ”N” word, Arthur, there were so many bloody rages, I can’t begin to tell you, The Big Ten were arrested a lot, but that didn’t stop the movement—many were hurt, cut, beat, you name it. That was when Chicago began a black hippie culture. Every walk of life was brother to brother, family to family. That one city would not be defeated.

At night the Chicago police would encircle the Robert Taylor homes arresting people for no reason. Their famous words “What this you say, boy? or “Negro?” If you showed anger they would arrest you, Arthur, the outrage against the movement was unbelievable. On the Southside, they raided the Black Panthers Community Center saying that is was a revolutionary place and they were looking for weapons. They said Bobby Seal and Angela Davis had weapons to fight the system and that was a lie. At my school young people were raided by the police, beaten and taken off to jail for wearing a red hat! That meant they were Panthers and yes, they did raid the Eugene M. McCarthy offices, and that was news too.

Plus, during the Chicago Democratic Convention everyone was talking about the police blocking off the Southside and Westside where most blacks were living - to stop us from coming to the Convention to see or hear Robert Kennedy speak. As Blacks we felt Robert Kennedy would help us to have rights. The voices of the people got weaker after Robert Kennedy died. What were we going to do?

Many of the Black leaders came together to talk to Bobby Seal to refrain from the violence and threats that would make it harder for us low Blacks on the pole of freedom. The louder the Big Ten got the more the redneck system would bring us and them down. There is much hurt and death to promote a non-violent movement, to exercise freedom of speech.—to voice your concern about the future of our country.

We can tell the story, if we must relive the pain; let it be for the good of mankind. There are some in our government who have hearts…let not your job be your only focus. Step out of the comfort zone and get involved with reality that we are fighting a losing war like the one back in the 60s. Our sons and daughters are coming home, shot up and broke up in their minds from the scenes of death. Many of my friends have been lost there in Iraq, a country that did not invite us. Your brother, Bobby Thomas loves you and misses you. I wish I was there just for a day to walk with you and talk of freedom and how we can continue to fight violence here at home in the good old USA.
Bob Thomas

read Arthur Kanegis' and Rob Cochran's article

An opinion article should be based on established facts and those facts must be stated in order for the opinion to have any meaning. “Paleface to the Rescue” by Carole Levine, fails to establish such facts and is nothing more than an unfocused, pointless rant.
Joe Qeenan’s recent article entitled, “Tarzan's children: Why movies about Africa require white saviors”, complains of films that portray white characters as the “saviors” of black characters and discusses at least ten examples of such films.
In “Paleface...” Ms. Levine attempts to apply Mr. Qeenan’s complaint to Indian films. She does not offer us one example that is actually on point, but maybe this is because she didn’t have a point to begin with. After opening with the “white savior” complaint, Ms. Levine digresses to reveal her contempt for films that show white characters that care about Indian characters, to make sardonic comments about the attitudes of filmmakers in general, even to make a bizarre comment about whether people think Canada has “real Indians”. The tirade has no apparent purpose. Perhaps she just wanted her readers to know she has a lot of rage. Mission accomplished! Finally, Ms. Levine returns to her original complaint and gives us a present day example of a “white savior” Indian film. She directs our attention to the upcoming miniseries entitled “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. Noting that a white actor has top billing, Ms. Levine concludes the miniseries will be a “paleface to the rescue” film. Two weeks ago, I contacted Ms. Levine via email and asked if she had specific knowledge about the role the white lead actor will play in the miniseries. I have not received a reply to my inquiry.
I haven’t seen the script for “Bury My Heart...” but the book of the same name is a meticulously documented account of the systematic plunder of the American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century. It is the Indian’s side of the story.
Top billing in the series goes to white actor Aiden Quinn, who plays the real life Henry Dawes. Mr. Dawes was the first chairman of The American Dawes Commission. The Commission’s goal was to persuade the Five Civilized Tribes to give up control of their national land, in exchange for each individual Indian recieving an allotment of land for himself. The result of the Dawes Commission was that Indian nations lost most of their national land. I highly doubt Mr. Dawes will be portrayed as a hero or savior in the miniseries. Scene4 strikes me as a class act. I am surprised that you published an article of such low caliber. The fact that Ms. Levine jumped to a conclusion about a film and presented that conclusion as fact, is disturbing. More disturbing, is the fact that I contacted her about the mistake and she has done nothing to correct it.
Even if you didn’t recognize the error about the miniseries, you should have noticed the inappropriate tirade in the middle of the article! I see Ms. Levine mostly does interviews for Scene4 and they appear to be well written. Hopefully, that means she takes greater care with the facts she reports in those interviews as well.

Talking Dreams
read Carole Quattro Levine's article

There’s a revolution happening, and you and I are right in the middle of it. It’s a struggle between freedom to listen to what we want and money. Right now, money is winning.

You see, earlier this month the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)—an arm of the Library of Congress—made a ruling. This august body of faceless bureaucrats decided that enough was enough; public radio webcasters who stream music on the internet must pay. And pay. And pay, more than an average of $100,000 a year to record companies and artists for the honor to play music we probably would never hear otherwise.

In plain English, what this means is that thousands of webcasters across the country simply will cease to exist; silencing our access to hear music, chat, news and information from stations like KSVR which sponsor’s Robin Carneen’s NAMAPAHH First People’s Radio. Because, quite simply, money talks; and in this case, carries a very big stick.

Web radio, whether it’s playing traditional Native music, classical, jazz, pop, or emerging musicians, has earned a loyal following of 50 million listeners. That’s right. FIFTY MILLION of us who’ve decided that the guffawing nimrods of rush hour radio ain’t giving us what we want. So, we’ve gone back to our roots of a free and open media. Open to the little guy who broadcasts from his basement to the Tulalip tribe in Washington; reaching you and me whether we’re sitting in our office in Ann Arbor, Albuquerque or Amsterdam. This is what freedom of expression is all about, folks.

But it is all about to end. Nearly all of the webcasters we now enjoy will not be able to afford these new extravagant fees. They will simply go away and we, their loyal listeners, will be the losers.

Ironically, this blather how it is only to make sure recording artists get their deserved piece of the money pie is a lot of bull-hockey. Traditional AM and FM broadcasters—the BIG GUYS—well, they don’t have to pay anything to the record companies and artists.

You read that right…nada, nothing, zippo.

It’s called a “quirk” in the law. Yep, that’s what it is, alright. Huge conglomerates like Viacom and Clear Channel—they don’t pay a freakin’ dime to performers and labels, but your favorite radio site will be charged outrageous fees for the privilege to play our favorite songs.
Example? Whereas a typical National Public Radio station is currently is charged $20,000 annually for broadcasting rights, it will now be charged $120,000 for the same right over the internet.

That’s quite a “quirk,” ain’t it? Funny how it favors the media empires at the expense of the mom-and-pop radio stations; and by the way—what about those poor o’ record companies? Where’s their outrage over this “quirk?”

I’ll tell you where it is. It’s firmly in their bank accounts. Because the issue here isn’t about making sure struggling recording artists get their due; the issue is about David knocking Goliath out of the ring. Revenues are being squeezed at traditional radio stations and cable music networks as more of us are opting out and moving over to the wild and woolly world of web media.

This is not good news for the big record companies who’ve forged tight deals with their cable and radio brethren. Viacom-owned MTV has seen the proverbial writing on the wall—they are scrambling to win back their teen market; just this past week they announced they taking on MySpace and YouTube. Times are a’changing and they want to make sure they a’change in their favor.

They are in bed together, folks. And, surprise, surprise…their weighty lobbying efforts in Washington are paying off. Big time.

The flickering bright spot in all this is National Public Radio (NPR), which on March 16th filed a petition for reconsideration with the Copyright Royalty Board panel. In a statement last week, NPR Vice President of Communications Andi Sporkin said, in part… “We are being required to pay an internet royalty fee that is vastly more expensive that what we pay for over-the-air use of music…This decision penalizes public radio stations for fulfilling their mandate, it penalizes emerging and non-mainstream musical artists who have always relied on public radio for visibility and ultimately, it penalizes the American public.”

It is a revolution.

And we are stuck right in the middle of the battle. A revolution of our right—as users of the web and airwaves—to listen to who and what we want to. It’s about to be silenced, as it likewise silences the thousands of little known performers who never get their songs played on mainstream radio.

So tell me, who is winning here? It’s time to get behind our keyboards and act.

Find out more about the ruling and what this means for listeners like us. Sign the petition and send an email to your Congressperson. www.savethestreams.org

Carole Levine

Brilliant, glad you didn't take the job, keep on drawing!
Sharon Jones
view Elliot Feldman's comic