Love/Hate Mail
Wiley, Those Coyotes
I had to laugh when I read ”God’s Dogs“ by Michael Sims (Feb. 24). I live on a 40-acre farm in West Nashville and see coyotes, alone and in packs, several times a month. When I don’t see them, I hear them every night around 9, when the train that runs across the tracks at McCrory Lane whistles. Despite what the naturalists and folklorists say, my husband (not a friend of a friend with no name) has seen a coyote try to grab the hind leg of a young calf—in broad daylight, right behind our house. The coyote ran only when the calf’s mother charged it. However, late at night (using a high-powered flashlight), I myself have seen coyotes roam harmlessly among the cows and once, among the cows and a deer. If you ever doubt the existence of coyotes in Nashville, come to my house and sit a spell.
—Lisa Kinkel
l.kinkel@adventgroup.org. (Nashville)
Electronic Fencing
I have to take exception with the tone of Liz Murray Garrigan’s article (”Smut in the Stacks,“ Feb. 24). Somehow I doubt that the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County’s Internet policy offers ”unfettered child access to pornography.“ Rather, it would seem that each and every user is offered unfettered access to all of the information available to the library and its users. Ms. Garrigan’s phrasing makes it sound as if the librarians and other staff have placed a shortcut on the public-access computers saying ”Links to Porn for Kids.“ This is irresponsible reporting, to say the least.
The Internet is no more a hazard for children in libraries than the books on the shelves. If a child (or any other library user) wants racy or forbidden material, they have to look for it—the library does not promote harmful materials. Remember, we’re talking about the public library—this means it serves the entire community. In order to do so, it is necessary that library collections contain materials that might offend certain officials or groups. I’ve heard that each and every item available in the public library is capable of offending somebody—that is no reason to deny access to all in deference to the bias of a few.
Nashville Public Library’s policy rightly places responsibility on parents for supervising children. I wouldn’t want a stranger to assume responsibility for a child of mine in any other area—why would we expect librarians to take responsibility for what [our children] can read or view on the Internet? Filtering is no substitute for responsible parenting, either. Filters, in varying degrees, prohibit the viewing of innocent, informational, and helpful material while allowing access to materials deemed inappropriate.
The Internet is not evil, nor are library employees baby-sitters. Responsible parenting is the best solution to this problem. Go to the library with your kids and pay attention to what they view and read.
—Dan Taylor
danandtay@hotmail.com. (Madison)
Careful With That ”L“ Word
Phil Ashford claims he’s discovered that Al Gore is really a liberal (”Reinventing Gore,“ Feb. 17). I suggest Ashford wouldn’t know a real liberal if one bit him. The plain fact is that neither Al Gore nor Bill Clinton have ever espoused any policy or doctrine that was the least bit to the left of anything my own parents believed in, and they were Eisenhower Republicans.
Now, I know lots of folks think that anyone to the left of Newt may now safely be considered a liberal, but it just ain’t so. We’re in fact as short of real liberals as we are of real conservatives; the centrists are running the Democratic Party, while the Republicans are still in the grip of what can only be called right-wing radicals. And if Mr. Ashford remains unconvinced, I point him to the painful (to me) sight of ”liberal“ Al defending the pharmaceutical companies’ profits against the efforts of South Africa to alleviate the region’s AIDS epidemic, or denouncing the WTO protesters in Seattle as ”anti-world trade,“ when their real target was the threat WTO rules pose to democratic governments.
I used to have a lot of respect for our Al, and I’ll probably vote for him after all. Still, he never was a liberal, even when it might have done him some good, and I’m afraid his long tenure in the Capitol Hill meat-case has left him just a bit shopworn and smelly.
—Will Owen
2804 Brightwood Ave, Nashville
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