Love-Hate Mail
Shill dissent
As a former public school student who survived the mandatory “stock broker” attire that Mr. Barry so dislikes (“Dressed to Shill,” March 15), I wanted to let you know that not only do I fully support and understand that idea, but I’m also for same-sex classrooms in public schools (gasp!). At 22 years old, I find the idea of our kids being so brand-conscious ridiculous. Standard school attire (SSA) encourages students to concentrate on their education as opposed to what their classmates are wearing. As unsafe as our schools feel these days, SSA also helps to separate the student population from visitors so that people who don’t belong are more easily spotted. As far as the claim that SSA would be a financial burden on lower income families, shopping at lower priced stores—Old Navy, Wal-Mart, Target—can easily offset the cost of a Brooks Brother’s polo or collared shirt.
Last
but certainly not least, during my four years of SSA, I was allowed to
be equal to the most and least wealthy kids in my school. It encouraged
me to find individuality in my personality and gifts instead of merely
in my physical being.
BRITTNEY PUGH
healingbabylon@aol.com (Nashville)
Quick fix?
Congratulations
on “Dressed to Shill” (March 15), an attack on the most absurd idea
since “new math”—school uniforms. They are being sold daily,
nationwide, to foolish parents and school administrators who are
looking for crutches and Band-Aids. There is nothing wrong with school
kids wearing jeans and message-logo tees as they have for 100 years,
but now they will be expelled—yes, that happened in Arizona,
Connecticut and elsewhere—if they wear such appropriate but non-uniform
clothes. Stop them!
GARY PETER KLAHR
GaryK57647@aol.com (Phoenix, Ariz.)
Student council
For the past few weeks, Metro has been meeting and discussing the possibility of having standard school attire for all schools within Metro (“Dressed to Shill,” March 15). There have been plenty of efforts made to contact and poll parents and teachers, but somewhere along the line, they forgot about the students.
The students of Metro haven’t been asked about their opinions on the district-wide dress code, which is a shame, because Metro would be surprised at what they would find: the majority of students are completely against it and would do almost anything not to have to wear standard attire and look like everyone else.
I am a senior at Nashville School of the Arts where this heavily affects us, and students have started to take a stand. We have made petitions and have been gaining signatures every day since. We are going to be attending the April 10 school board meeting and have our voices heard. A small group of NSA students will be representing the student body on behalf of individuality and against standard attire.
What
I ask for is this: do anything you can to get the word out. We need
tons of support and people to tell the board how they feel about this.
Go to MNPS.org and leave comments. Please help.
SAMANTHA LONG
ninjas44@bellsouth.net (Nashville)
Give a man a fish...
It is beside the point whether school uniforms raise test scores, etc. (“Dressed to Shill,” March 15). What they do accomplish is getting kids to dress appropriately for the seven or so hours they spend in school, and keeping teachers from having to get mired in dress code issues. If parents want to allow their kids to dress like punks, freaks or hookers, there is plenty of time after school, on weekends and during vacations.
Individuality
is a great thing, but knowing how to dress to the occasion is an
important skill that a lot of kids completely lack. With some very
narrow exceptions, most of the professional working world requires some
form of proper dress attire, so let’s give our kids definite standards
that will help them later in life.
HELEN H. SILK
silk_helen@yahoo.com (Murfreesboro)
Lethal learning
The
sad thing about lethal injection investigations is that the tradition
of “teaching” how to carry out a legally mandated process is just a
matter of learning folklore (“Killing Protocols,” March 15). An
alarming number of prison wardens have only high school educations.
They go to one or more other states “to see how they do it” rather than
examining the problem. Even Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, after
receiving his commission’s report, ordered his head of corrections to
visit the other 37 states using lethal injection to see how they do it.
I speak from some considerable knowledge, having testified in 12 states
about the anesthesia used in lethal injections.
CAROL WEIHRER
AnesAwareness@aol.com (Reston, Va.)
Trust funds
On Jan. 4, 2006, Belmont University president Robert Fisher stood in front of approximately 100 people (including council members and state representatives) and stated several times, “Belmont only wants to pursue this proposal [for E.S. Rose Park] if the [Edgehill] community supports it” (“Field of Screams,” March 8). Three weeks later, at a board meeting for Organized Neighbors of Edgehill (O.N.E.), Belmont’s president repeated the same statement.
Now
that the Edgehill community has come out overwhelmingly against
Belmont’s proposal, Belmont’s president conveniently doesn’t recall
making such a statement (“Field of Screams,” March 8). President Fisher
wants to “earn trust” from the Edgehill community? Trust begins with
honesty. Conveniently forgetting a major pledge when it does not work
on your behalf is not how you “earn trust.” It just adds fuel to the
fire and gives more credibility to the Edgehill community’s claims that
Belmont cannot be trusted.
BRENDA MORROW
Edgehill2@bellsouth.net (Nashville)
Park peers
It never ceases to amaze me when “white privilege” extends a hand in total self-interest and is surprised that folks don’t jump up and down with excitement and trust that it is going to do the right thing (“Field of Screams,” March 8).
If the good Baptists at Belmont had Edgehill’s best interest at heart, they could have found a number of ways to extend a neighborly hand before now. Instead, they waited until “helping” the neighborhood served their interest. Maybe the neighbors would be more trusting if Belmont, which has the resources to keep its own grounds so beautiful, had offered to help fix up the park for the neighborhood before it decided it would make a great sports field. Fisher’s resolve to keep “being who we are” and “spending money on this development as though it is going to happen” sounds like that of the plantation owner who has made up his mind and will do what he wants no matter what the neighbors think.
We
do have some fine parks in Nashville—parks like Centennial and Warner,
in upscale neighborhoods that get tourist traffic. But why are parks
like Shelby and Rose not maintained as beautifully as their upscale
counterparts? Shouldn’t all Metro parks get the same treatment no
matter what part of town they’re in?
PAT HALPER
phalper@comcast.net
(Nashville)