Erosia

LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to [email protected]. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity.

Own Two Feet
Regarding the story “A trying life: Section 8 sustains Brooke Dickey and her children” (LEO, Aug. 23):
So let me understand this. Ms. Dickey has two children for which she can’t identify the father. She is married to a man convicted of a drug offense. She has worked at a job for 13 years that is not meeting her financial needs. She has been getting multiple types of public assistance for seven-plus years: Section 8, 4-Cs, food stamps, etc. She has the option of using her Section 8 vouchers to buy a home (something I am not able to consider despite working full time all of my adult life). And I am supposed to feel what? Proud of her for keeping a clean home? That my taxes are mostly paying for. Sorry. I am sick of women who make horrible life choices ... having babies with men with which they have no business doing so, being content to take public assistance while working jobs that don’t meet their needs, etc. It’s one thing to do so at age 15, but to continue the pattern for the next 15 years? Call me unsympathetic. This woman needs to take responsibility for her life, her kids and her choices. If she is not working full time and her kids are in state-sponsored daycare, why can she not take on a second job? Or vocational training? Do SOMETHING to improve your own situation and stop waiting for a handout. The hand UP has been extended thanks to the taxpayers for more than seven years. Now it’s her turn.
Michele Moore

Widespread Teasing
LEO is my favorite newspaper, and Widespread Panic is one of my favorite bands. Thus it was extremely disappointing to read LEO’s recent negative comments about Panic and their fans (Aug. 9 LEO).
First we were subjected to Jay Ditzer’s mean-spirited, unfunny and unoriginal tirade against “jam bands” in the “Genres we’d like to see dead” article from the Music Issue. I mean, come on, the old “hippies stink” cliché?! Not to mention the other “genres” that the authors decided to bash — hair metal and New Age? Way to go out on a limb there, guys! I expect more from LEO than such trite banality.
Then we were subjected to a bizarre and uncalled-for blurb entitled “Widespread stupidity” about dog-abusing Panic fans. I saw maybe five dogs at the shows, and I can’t say for certain if they were being treated well or not. However, you forgot to mention the other 2,700-plus fans who rocked the Palace with more energy, enthusiasm and passion than this city ever sees, who didn’t bring their dogs.
Oh, and Laura Shine’s cute little generalization about what Panic fans are “about” was just plain silly. Maybe she should have made her feelings about the fans known when she was hamming it up and taking pictures with the band at the studio performance before the show on Tuesday, instead of waiting until they had already left town.
Andrew Oost