Your Turn Letters to the Editor

Thank you for a really well-written, comprehensive article in the Jan. 22 issue on the subject of Timbaland plagiarizing music. There is one error that someone who roams the same areas that Janne Suni does has to point out: Suni didn’t program “Acid Jazzed Evening” to “sound as if it were played on an Amiga,” but he did actually compose it on an Amiga. The same goes for the Commodore 64 and Glenn Rune Gallefoss’ conversion! I know it’s often hard for other people to believe we actually use these old computers to be creative, but that’s exactly what the Demoscene is about!

In case you’re interested: Timbaland did speak up on the subject. Basically he says “I’m the greatest, you’re nobody, yadda yadda yadda” and plays absurd semantics games on what “sampling” and “stealing” means. He also claims it’s from a video game and that he didn’t know who it was from, which – ignoring that both defenses are completely ridiculous- are claims that can be proven wrong.

-Daniel Kottmair

While I congratulate Ms. Motley on her new role as homecoming queen, how can she possibly say with complete honesty that the title “wasn’t a giveaway?” She won the title by default. Heather Safley had almost 200 more votes than she did – no hard feelings intended, only the facts. Ms. Motley also said that “I truly think that the outcome was based on the students’ choice and not on individuals getting disqualified,” and “it is unfortunate, but I believe it still was up to the students.” That is ludicrous, if the voting had been left up to the students, Heather Safley would’ve won hands down.

It was unfortunate that the Homecoming Committee and certain individuals on that committee decided arbitrarily and at the last minute to disqualify the candidates with the most votes. I’d say Ms. Motley obviously has “some friends” on the Homecoming Committee who she knows from her STRUT activities. What a shame.

Tracy Jacobs

Editor’s Note: The Homecoming Committee would not confirm those numbers provided by Safley to The Commonwealth Times

I try and check the CT every time I receive it by e-mail. I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen an obituary for long-time VCU instructor, gallery director and Art History chair, Bruce Koplin. Bruce served as my advisor for three years and as my instructor for a number of classes. He had a unique style of teaching and getting to know his students. Many of us can tell stories about his chain smoking in class while holding up slides to drop in the slide projector. Please make sure you include an obituary in an upcoming issue. Thanks!

Bruce Koplin

“This letter was erroneously attributed to Bruce Koplin. It was written by his former student Dywana Saunders. The Commonwealth Times regrets the error.”

I read your piece in The Commonwealth Times titled “Who Opened the Moron Flood Gates?” and had a few opinions of my own that I would like to share in response. I do not know the genesis of the comments to which you were responding, so I can only make broad generalizations as to what the original argument was about.

First, I would like to respond to the statements made about affirmative action. I completely agree that it in any setting (i.e. hiring practices, college admissions) it is wrong to be discriminated against based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. I believe you would agree with me that the people who oppose affirmative action tend to be white males that feel threatened that their own job opportunities are diminishing because legislation and corporate policies are requiring organizations to preferentially hire minorities.

I for one do not agree with affirmative action, but it is not for the reason that I stated. I think where it fails is giving opportunities to the people in lower socio-economic brackets regardless of race, creed, gender or sexuality. Affirmative action should not solely be based on minority status, but rather it should be focused on giving academic or professional opportunities to individuals that live in impoverished conditions.

I am not one to agree with the notion that affirmative action is “reverse discrimination,” but I think that term needs to be put into context. I understand why affirmative action can be classified as reverse discrimination because white heterosexual males are the only group that is negatively affected by this policy. When a policy negatively affects any group of people (even when it is white men), then it is discrimination. The term reverse discrimination tends to put forth the idea that discrimination in the other direction is acceptable, and that is where I completely disagree.

Someone that opposes affirmative action does not automatically classify them as racist, sexist or homophobic. What I am trying to convey is that discrimination in any direction at all is unacceptable. Discrimination occurs when a less qualified white male is given a job over a more qualified black woman; however, when a less qualified Latino woman is given a job over a more qualified white male than that is also discrimination.

Moving on to the response about hate crimes, I believe that you are uninformed as to the facts about hate crimes. In short, hate crimes are discriminatorily motivated offenses driven by racial, gender, sexual-orientation, nationality or disability hate. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, in 2005 there were approximately 6,800 hate crime offenders. Of this number of offenders 60.5 percent were white, not 99 percent. Yes, the majority of hate crime offenders are white, but this is a far cry from what you represented in your article. Hate crimes are in place to avoid crimes driven by prejudice, and they should be enforceable offenses, but the evil white heterosexual male is not the only type of offender committing these crimes.

Mark Dimenna

Open Love Letter

Dear P., Just so you know, no matter what happens between us – well, it’ll never change how I feel about you, P.

I want nothing but the best for you in this life, because you are the best thing in my life, and I hope that everything I do for you shows you that.

You once told me that you couldn’t imagine me not meaning anything to you. I couldn’t imagine you not meaning everything to me.

Happy Valentine’s Day, P. I hope you’re reading this. I love you.

-Anonymous