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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v12n1 (01/03/2013) » Section: Letters to Artvoice


A Resolution: Keep an Open Mind

by Matthew Crehan Higgins


Scary

by Joe Gerken
On Christmas Eve, a 62-year-old man in Webster, New York, started a fire. Then, when firefighters arrived, he shot four of them, killing two.

Doing What's Right

by Joseph Ciarlo
It becomes sadly and increasingly apparent that lawmakers on Capitol Hill have just one concern in mind that has priority over what is best for our society, that being their own job security and chances for re-election. Any sensible politician must know in their heart that banning high-powered automatic weapons is a logical beginning to curbing catastrophic violence, such as we experienced in Newtown, Connecticut last month. Yet, the voting power wielded by lobbyists is effective enough to end a politician’s career, despite what common sense may dictate.

Don't Demonize Video Games

by Steve Breslin
Artvoice has a great reputation for being a forward-thinking supporter of the arts, so I was surprised to find a slur against my medium of choice: video games. The phrase “a 20-year-old video-gamer killed 27 innocents” (“Our Whig Moment,” Artvoice, December 20) refers to the art not in passing, as a humanizing bit of trivia (as for example “dog-lover” or “movie buff”), but in order to further denigrate the murderer (along the lines of “porn addict”), and even to imply a causal connection (as would the phrase “mentally deranged”) between video games and mass murder.

Defending the Right to Bear Arms

by Dan Hoffman
It’s very common to hear the defense of the right to one’s own arms as a hedge against authoritarianism dismissed. “It can’t happen here” is usually the sentiment. An American president once had over a thousand citizens jailed in opposition to what became known as the First World World War. Another, a veteran of the other’s administration, had large numbers of citizens interned and deprived of property on ethnic grounds. Both were known as “progressives.”



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