Love-Hate Mail
Keeping O’Keeffe
Like Christine Kreyling, I rejoice that Fisk University will not be allowed to water down the wonderful Stieglitz Collection by selling its most notable piece (“Legal Straits,” June 21). I trust that the university’s administration will find better ways to build resources and resolve the school’s financial problems.
In the meantime, something really ought to be done with the Stieglitz Collection, both to make it available to the students for whose benefit it was intended and to allow public access to it. Given the wealth of so many in Nashville and given the willingness of so many to support the arts, what is keeping our city’s art patrons from forming a coalition with Fisk to create a facility that will house and protect the art? There are no doubt some issues that would need to be worked out, but such a facility would not only glorify the art and make it visible to the community, it would bring visitors to the Fisk campus who might then see their way to supporting the university in gratitude for sharing its art.
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is a wonderful venue for visiting exhibits. Museums, collectors and artists are generous in sharing their art with us through the Frist, but they do so for a fee. Why can’t Fisk organize a showing of its collection via a traveling exhibit that would collect revenue and provide a nest egg for the development of the museum it so badly needs? We all know about Fisk’s wonderful Jubilee Singers. Perhaps a Jubilee traveling art exhibit from Fisk is in order.
HOLLY WESTCOTT
hmwestcott@comcast.net
(Nashville)
Troubling transposition
It was with interest that I read the story in the June 28 issue about El Dos de Oros (“Thirsty for Company”). It was with great dismay, though, that I discovered the totally incorrect use of terminology regarding the transgender customers of the club. First, the term “transvestite” is a pejorative term and is considered insulting. If a male-to-female transgender person lives in their birth gender, then the proper term is cross dresser.
Second, regardless of whether a transgender person has transitioned, that person should always be addressed by the gender pronoun appropriate to their gender presentation. The transwomen described in the article should have been referred to as “she” in every single instance.
If Gracia and Ashley—and any other transgender patrons of the club—live full-time as women, then they are women, not boys. And if they do not live full-time as women, then they can be described as cross dressers. Either way, they should still have been described with female pronouns in every single reference.
MARISA RICHMOND
PRESIDENT, TENNESSEE TRANSGENDER POLITICAL COALITION
Ttgpac@aol.com
(Nashville)
Lower your standards
I’m sure that you have your reasons for labeling Bob Clement as you did (“Somebody Needs to Fall on His Sword,” June 28). These are your opinions, no matter how misguided they are. But I can see no way someone who is knowledgeable of what Bob Clement has accomplished could draw such an unfounded conclusion. I cannot grasp how “mediocrity” and Bob Clement were mentioned in the same sentence. Maybe it is the fact that your standards are a bit too high. Show me another candidate who has more government experience than this man—not to mention that he took a struggling two-year college in Cumberland University and turned it into a more than stable four-year university that has a very bright future ahead of it. If that isn’t a picture for inspiring leadership, then I don’t know what it is, and I’m sure you couldn’t tell me.
SAM GARNER
sbgarner@olemiss.edu
(Nashville)
Our own Ann?
Apparently, desperation about the course of the mayor’s race and an inexplicable hatred toward Bob Clement have caused Liz Garrigan to adopt the Ann Coulter style of mean-spirited, ad hominem attack (“Somebody Needs to Fall on His Sword,” June 28).
In three decades of campaign and staff experience—including 16 years with Al Gore and four years with Clement—I worked with and closely observed quite a few candidates and officeholders. Indeed, some would qualify as mediocre, uninspiring or “an embarrassment.” Neither Gore nor Clement—though radically different in style and approach—was among them.
Clement was elected to Congress eight times for good reason—his love for Nashville is infectious, his honesty is not seriously questioned, he works hard for constituents, and he is committed to long-term progress. Far too often, he declines to claim the credit he deserves. If Clement is not as glib, stylish, smooth or trendy as the Scene desires, I assure you that he is as thoughtful and capable as anyone. One of his greatest strengths is an ability to build consensus among otherwise hostile interests. Nashville can use that skill in the years to come.
Endorse whomever you like. Feel free to opine about who should or should not remain in the race. But Bob Clement’s lifetime of public service deserves far better than what he got from you.
BILL MASON
BillEMason@aol.com (Nashville)
A different Bob
Your unkind characterization of Bob Clement certainly doesn’t sound like the man I have known for many years (“Somebody Needs to Fall on His Sword,” June 28). He is no Southern do-nothing candidate.
Clement has shown himself—for no less than eight terms in Congress—to be someone with a record of putting his constituents before himself. He is a popular representative with mature judgment, one with the capacity to take moderate steps where moderate steps are called for and bold action where bold action is called for. He has demonstrated that he is perfectly capable of both. But, considering the current field of candidates, Clement has the experience to get things done for Nashville.
I certainly do not impugn the abilities of the other candidates running for the office of mayor. Some seem to be exceptionally gifted figures. But your characterization of Bob Clement doesn’t square with his record of personal business success, his presidency of Cumberland University or the 16 years he served in the House of Representatives. Your opinion of what constitutes mediocrity is certainly your privilege, but the Bob Clement I know bears no resemblance to the minimal man you describe.
DAVID KIDD
dbkidd@comcast.net
(Nashville)